NetBird vs wstunnel
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
wstunnel
Tunnel TCP and UDP traffic over WebSocket or HTTP2
| Feature | NetBird | wstunnel |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,139 | ★ 6,948 |
| First released | 2021 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Tailscale, ZeroTier | Chisel |
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 wstunnel if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.9k GitHub stars
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is NetBird or wstunnel 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 wstunnel free and open-source?
Yes. NetBird is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and wstunnel under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NetBird and wstunnel with Docker?
NetBird: yes. wstunnel: yes.