NetBird vs Upterm
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
NetBird
Connect devices into a secure WireGuard-based overlay network
VS
Upterm
Secure terminal sharing for pair programming and support
| Feature | NetBird | Upterm |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,139 | ★ 1,273 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Tailscale, ZeroTier | tmate |
Why pick each one
Choose NetBird if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 28.1k GitHub stars
Choose Upterm if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is NetBird or Upterm better?
Neither is universally better. NetBird has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are NetBird and Upterm free and open-source?
Yes. NetBird is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Upterm under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NetBird and Upterm with Docker?
NetBird: yes. Upterm: check the project docs for container support.