NetBird vs Tailscale
NetBird vs Tailscale compared on pricing, self-hosting, licences, SSO, posture checks, SSH, public exposure and relays, using NetBird v0.81.4 and Tailscale v1.104.2 with each vendor's October 2026 pricing.
Quick Answer
Pick NetBird if you want to run the whole mesh VPN yourself: its management, signal and relay servers are open source (AGPLv3) and the official quickstart puts them on a 2 GB VM with Docker Compose. Pick Tailscale if you want a managed tailnet with the most polish: unlimited user devices on every plan, Funnel and peer relays on all plans, and a free Personal plan for up to 6 users (non-commercial). Tailscale's control server is closed; self-hosting it means the third-party Headscale project.
Last updated October 26, 2026. Covers NetBird v0.81.4 (24 Oct 2026) and Tailscale v1.104.2 (21 Oct 2026) with both vendors' pricing pages as of 26 Oct 2026, NetBird's self-hosting and Commercial License docs, and Headscale v0.29.6.
| Feature | NetBird | Tailscale |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Agent BSD-3-Clause; management/signal/relay AGPLv3 | Client BSD-3-Clause; control server proprietary (hosted) |
| Latest Release (Oct 2026) | v0.81.4 (24 Oct 2026) | v1.104.2 (21 Oct 2026) |
| Self-Hosted Control Plane | Official: Docker Compose quickstart, Community Edition free; Commercial License for enterprise features | Not offered; third-party Headscale (v0.29.6) re-implements the control server |
| Free Plan | Up to 5 users, 100 machines (cloud) | Personal: up to 6 users, unlimited devices, non-commercial |
| Entry Paid Plan | Team €6/user/month | Standard $8/user/month |
| How Devices Are Billed | 100 machines + 10 per user, then €0.50/machine/month | User devices unlimited; 50 tagged resources included, then $1 each/month |
| SSO / IdP | Social SSO on Free; enterprise IdP from Team; any OIDC IdP self-hosted | Any IdP on all plans |
| SCIM Provisioning | Team and up (cloud); Commercial License (self-hosted) | Standard and up |
| Device Posture Checks | Business plan and up (cloud) | Basic OS/version on all plans; MDM/EDR integrations from Standard |
| Built-in SSH | NetBird SSH on all plans, plus browser SSH/RDP | Tailscale SSH (pricing table: up to 5 hosts on Standard; advanced SSH on Premium) |
| Expose Services Publicly | Reverse proxy with auto-TLS and SSO/password/PIN (beta) | Funnel on all plans (beta; ports 443/8443/10000) |
| Relay Fallback | Relay service fallback; self-hosted relay included | Global DERP servers plus peer relays on all plans |
| Subnet Routes / Exit Nodes | Network routes, exit nodes, DNS routes | Subnet routers, exit nodes, app connectors as tagged resources |
| Traffic / Flow Logs | Traffic events on Business (cloud) or Commercial License | Network flow logs and log streaming on Premium |
| API / IaC | Public API, Terraform provider, Ansible collection | API and user management APIs; webhooks on all plans |
NetBird
WireGuard-based mesh VPN and zero-trust access platform from NetBird GmbH, with an open-source agent (BSD-3-Clause) and open-source management, signal and relay servers (AGPLv3) that you can run yourself or use as NetBird Cloud.
Pros
- The full control plane is open source: management, signal and relay are AGPLv3, and the Community Edition is free to self-host with no licence key or time limit
- Self-hosted quickstart is one script on a 1 CPU / 2 GB VM with ports 80, 443 and UDP 3478, with an embedded Dex IdP for local users
- Cloud pricing is cheaper per seat: Team is €6 per user per month and only active users and machines are billed
- Free cloud plan includes access controls, private DNS, network routes and NetBird SSH for up to 5 users and 100 machines
- Browser-based SSH and RDP, Rosenpass post-quantum option and a Terraform provider listed in the README
- Built-in reverse proxy (beta) publishes internal HTTP services with automatic TLS and SSO, password or PIN protection
Cons
- Self-hosted SCIM, EDR/MDM integrations, traffic-flow logging, peer approval and active-active HA need the paid Commercial License
- Cloud machines are capped: 100 + 10 per user on Team and Business, then €0.50 per extra machine per month
- Posture checks, device approvals and traffic event logs start at the €12 Business plan in the cloud
- Self-hosting means you own relay placement and high availability; the docs say the cloud relays are geo-distributed and yours are one instance unless you build more
- The reverse proxy is beta, and self-hosted deployments must use Traefik in front of it
Best For
Teams and homelabbers who want the whole mesh VPN, control plane included, on their own server, and cloud users who want lower per-seat pricing.
Tailscale
Managed WireGuard-based mesh VPN from Tailscale Inc. The client code is open source under BSD-3-Clause; the coordination server is a hosted service, and Headscale is an independent open-source re-implementation of it.
Pros
- Unlimited user devices on every plan, so laptops and phones never add cost
- Free Personal plan for up to 6 users with subnet routers, exit nodes, MagicDNS, ACLs, Funnel and peer relays
- SSO with any IdP is available on every plan, including Personal
- Funnel exposes a local service to the internet over TLS, and the docs say Funnel relays cannot decrypt the traffic
- Peer relays let your own devices relay traffic before falling back to Tailscale's global DERP servers
- 14-day Enterprise trial with no limits when you sign up with a custom domain
Cons
- No official self-hosted control server; Headscale is third-party and scoped to a single tailnet for personal or small-organisation use
- Personal is limited to non-commercial use, so any business needs Standard at $8 per user per month
- Network flow logs, log streaming, regional routing and advanced Tailscale SSH need Premium at $18 per user per month
- Only 50 tagged resources (servers, exit nodes and similar) are included; more cost $1 each per month
- Funnel is beta, listens only on ports 443, 8443 and 10000, and has non-configurable bandwidth limits
Best For
Teams that want a managed mesh VPN with nothing to host, many user devices per person, and a free plan for personal homelabs.
Self-hosting: an official server versus a third-party clone
This is the clearest difference. NetBird's repository splits its licence: the agent and most code are BSD-3-Clause, while the management, signal, relay and combined server directories are AGPLv3. NetBird publishes a quickstart that installs those servers with Docker Compose on a Linux VM with at least 1 CPU and 2 GB of memory, a public domain and ports TCP 80, TCP 443 and UDP 3478. The script generates one config for management, signal, relay and STUN, puts Traefik in front for Let's Encrypt certificates and creates the first admin at /setup, with local users handled by an embedded Dex server. External IdPs such as Google, Microsoft or Okta can be added later. NetBird's licensing docs say the Community Edition is free to self-host with no time limit. A paid Commercial License adds active-active HA for management and signal, SCIM provisioning, EDR and MDM integrations, traffic-flow logging and streaming, peer approval, audit event streaming and standard support. Tailscale has no self-hosted control server. Its clients are BSD-3-Clause, but coordination is a hosted service. Headscale, an independent project at v0.29.6, re-implements the control server, and its README describes a narrow scope: a single tailnet suitable for personal use or a small open-source organisation. Headscale is not associated with Tailscale, although one active maintainer is employed by Tailscale.
Pricing at 20 users and 300 devices
Both bill per user, but they count devices differently. NetBird Cloud's Free plan covers up to 5 users and 100 machines. Team is €6 per user per month and Business is €12, and both include 100 machines plus 10 per user, with extra machines at €0.50 per month. NetBird bills only users and machines that connected or logged in during the billing period. Tailscale's Personal plan is free for up to 6 users but limited to non-commercial use. Standard is $8 per user per month and Premium $18. User devices are unlimited on every plan; what is metered is tagged resources (servers, exit nodes and similar), with 50 included and $1 per month for each extra one on Standard and Premium. Take a 20-person team with 300 devices, 80 of them servers. On NetBird Team the allowance is 100 + 200 = 300 machines, so the bill is 20 × €6 = €120 per month. On Tailscale Standard, seats cost 20 × $8 = $160, and if the 80 servers are tagged, 30 tagged resources over the allowance add $30, for $190 per month. Note the currencies: NetBird prices in euros, Tailscale in dollars. If the same team needed flow logs, the comparison moves to NetBird Business at €240 versus Tailscale Premium at $360 plus tagged resources.
Identity, posture and audit features by plan
Tailscale puts more on its lower tiers. Its pricing table shows SSO with any IdP, user and device approval, custom authentication periods, user management APIs, webhooks and configuration audit logs on every plan, including Personal. Standard adds SCIM user and group provisioning, MDM configuration, device posture integrations with MDM, EDR and XDR tools, and advanced user roles. Premium adds just-in-time access, custom posture attributes, advanced Tailscale SSH, network flow logs, log streaming and regional routing. NetBird's Free cloud plan supports social SSO with MFA. Team adds enterprise IdP SSO, SCIM provisioning and audit event logging. Business adds device approvals, MDM and EDR device controls, device posture checks, connection traffic event logging and streaming of audit and traffic events. Enterprise adds custom invoicing, MSAs, SLAs and DORA compliance. In practice, a small company that needs Okta or Entra SSO pays from the first seat on both: €6 on NetBird Team and $8 on Tailscale Standard (Personal's free SSO is for non-commercial use). Posture checks tied to an EDR are $8 on Tailscale and €12 on NetBird. Self-hosted NetBird users get access policies, routes, DNS and SSH for nothing, but SCIM, EDR integrations and traffic logs need the Commercial License.
Relays, SSH and exposing services to the internet
Both build WireGuard tunnels and try direct peer-to-peer connections first. NetBird agents use ICE through pion/ice with STUN to find candidates, exchange them through the signal service, and fall back to a relay service when NAT traversal fails. If you self-host, the relay runs on your VM, so its location sets latency for relayed peers; NetBird's docs note the cloud relays are geo-distributed while a self-hosted setup is a single instance unless you build more. Tailscale falls back to its globally distributed DERP servers. Peer relays, available on all plans and requiring client 1.86 or later, let a device in your tailnet relay traffic first, which Tailscale's docs say can give lower latency and higher throughput than DERP. DERP still helps negotiate connections. For SSH, NetBird includes NetBird SSH with central access policies on all plans and lists browser-based SSH and RDP. Tailscale SSH is on every plan, though the pricing table caps basic SSH at 5 hosts on Standard and keeps advanced SSH options for Premium. To publish a service, Tailscale Funnel works on all plans over TLS on ports 443, 8443 and 10000, with fixed bandwidth limits, and is in beta. NetBird's reverse proxy, also beta, gives each service a public domain with automatic TLS and SSO, password, PIN or IP and country restrictions; self-hosted, it needs Traefik in front.
Verdict
Choose NetBird if the control plane must run on infrastructure you own: it is the only one of the two whose vendor ships and supports a self-hosted server, and the open-source Community Edition covers peer-to-peer networking, access policies, routes, DNS and SSH for free. It is also the cheaper cloud option for teams, at €6 per user per month on Team versus $8 on Tailscale Standard, as long as you stay within 100 machines plus 10 per user. Choose Tailscale if you want nothing to operate and the smoothest client experience: user devices are unlimited, SSO with any IdP, Funnel and peer relays are on every plan, and Personal is free for up to 6 users at home. If your team has many servers per person, compare NetBird's machine allowance with Tailscale's 50 included tagged resources before deciding. If you need flow logs, Tailscale requires Premium at $18 and NetBird requires Business at €12.