# Free alternatives to Tailscale

> Tailscale (Standard) costs $96 a year. Free alternatives: Headscale and NetBird. Data checked 2026-10-17.

- Page: https://stoprenting.dev/apps/tailscale/
- Category: Networking (https://stoprenting.dev/categories/networking/)
- Vendor: Tailscale
- Plan: Standard
- Price: $8/month, $96/year
- Billing: per user/month (Personal plan is $0 for up to 6 users)
- Price quote from the vendor's page: "Users $0 for up to 6 users $8 per user, per month"
- Price source: https://tailscale.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-17)

## Alternatives

### Headscale

- Website: https://headscale.net
- Repository: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale (44,405 stars, last push 2026-10-07)
- License: BSD-3-Clause
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: server app
- Linux: self-hosted server; web UI
- Self-hostable: yes
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/headscale/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

### NetBird

- Website: https://netbird.io
- Repository: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird (29,894 stars, last push 2026-10-12)
- License: BSD-3-Clause + AGPL-3.0 server dirs
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: server app
- Linux: self-hosted server; web UI
- Self-hostable: yes
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/netbird/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

## FAQ

### Is there a free alternative to Tailscale?

Yes. The 2 free alternatives are Headscale (open source, BSD-3-Clause) and NetBird (open source, BSD-3-Clause + AGPL-3.0 server dirs).

### How much does Tailscale cost?

Tailscale's Standard plan costs $8 a month, which is $96 a year (per user/month (Personal plan is $0 for up to 6 users)). Source: the official pricing page at tailscale.com, checked Oct 17, 2026.

### Which Tailscale alternatives run on Linux?

Headscale (self-hosted server; web UI) and NetBird (self-hosted server; web UI).

### Can you self-host a Tailscale alternative?

Yes. Headscale and NetBird run on your own server.

### Are these Tailscale alternatives open source?

Yes. All 2 use OSI-approved open-source licenses: Headscale (BSD-3-Clause) and NetBird (BSD-3-Clause + AGPL-3.0 server dirs).

---
Source: Stop Renting (https://stoprenting.dev). Methodology: https://stoprenting.dev/methodology/