expose vs Tailscale
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?
expose
Beautiful, fully open-source tunnel to localhost
VS
Tailscale
Zero-config mesh VPN built on WireGuard
| Feature | expose | Tailscale |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,567 | ★ 34,934 |
| First released | 2020 | 2019 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ZeroTier |
Why pick each one
Choose expose if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Choose Tailscale if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 34.9k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is expose or Tailscale better?
Tailscale is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider expose if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are expose and Tailscale free and open-source?
Yes. expose is licensed under MIT and Tailscale under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run expose and Tailscale with Docker?
expose: yes. Tailscale: check the project docs for container support.