Tailscale vs tinc
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Tailscale
Zero-config mesh VPN built on WireGuard
VS
tinc
VPN daemon that builds an encrypted mesh network
| Feature | Tailscale | tinc |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 76 · Good |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,807 | ★ 2,248 |
| First released | 2019 | 2003 |
| Replaces | ZeroTier | Hamachi, ZeroTier |
What are Tailscale and tinc?
Tailscale
Tailscale is a mesh VPN that connects your devices into a secure private network using WireGuard. The client is open source and can be paired with a self-hosted control server.
- Zero-config mesh networking
- WireGuard-based encryption
- NAT traversal
- MagicDNS
tinc
tinc is an open-source VPN daemon that uses tunneling and encryption to create a secure private mesh network between hosts. It is fully self-hosted and automatically routes traffic between peers.
- Mesh VPN routing
- Automatic full-mesh peering
- Encrypted tunnels
- Self-hosted daemon
Tailscale vs tinc: key differences
Tailscale is written in Go, while tinc is built with C. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Tailscale versus GPL-2.0 for tinc. Tinc is the more established project (first released 2003), while Tailscale arrived in 2019. Tailscale has the considerably larger community, at 36,807 GitHub stars versus 2,248.
Why pick each one
Choose Tailscale if…
- Effortless zero-config setup
- NAT traversal just works
- Free personal tier
Watch out for
- Hosted coordination server
- Full self-host needs Headscale
Choose tinc if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Tailscale or tinc better?
Tailscale is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider tinc if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Tailscale and tinc free and open-source?
Yes. Tailscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and tinc under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tailscale and tinc with Docker?
Tailscale: check the project docs for container support. tinc: check the project docs for container support.