Tailscale vs Wirehole
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?
Tailscale
Zero-config mesh VPN built on WireGuard
VS
Wirehole
WireGuard, Pi-hole, and Unbound in one compose stack
| Feature | Tailscale | Wirehole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Go | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 34,934 | ★ 4,967 |
| First released | 2019 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ZeroTier | NordVPN |
Why pick each one
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
Choose Wirehole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (5k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Tailscale or Wirehole better?
Neither is universally better. Tailscale has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Tailscale and Wirehole free and open-source?
Yes. Tailscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Wirehole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tailscale and Wirehole with Docker?
Tailscale: check the project docs for container support. Wirehole: yes.