headscale

An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server (by juanfont)

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NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a better headscale alternative or higher similarity.

headscale discussion

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headscale reviews and mentions

Posts with mentions or reviews of headscale. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-06-01.
  • A new generation of Tailscale access controls
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Jun 2025
    Headscale creator here.

    > Fun fact: Tailscale have an almost-assuredly-accurate count of Headscale users due to how few people disable the Tailscale client's telemetry which by default sends them real-time events about everything you do on a Headscale network. See KB1011: https://tailscale.com/kb/1011/log-mesh-traffic

    That is not true. We actually instruct all the clients to send no logs - since at least three years:

    https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/blame/main/hscontrol/t....

    And also in the config example:

    https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/blob/main/config-examp...

    That said, I would have loved to know how many nodes use Headscale... :)

  • Ditching Obsidian and building my own
    29 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 18 May 2025
  • Tailscale has raised $160M
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 8 Apr 2025
    I've always been on the outside looking in, so I've never used Tailscale or its open-source brethren.

    Would this service be comparable to Headscale[0]?

    [0] https://github.com/juanfont/headscale

  • An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server
    12 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 2 Apr 2025
    I think it would be neat if headscale allowed peering / federating between instances. (Maybe after the ACL rework.) One of the main problems is address collisions.

    So here's my proposal: commit to ipv6-only overlay network in the unique local address (ULA) range, then split up the remaining 121 bits into 20 low bits for device addresses (~1M) and 101 high bits that are the hash of the server's public key. Federate by adding the public key of the other instance and use policy and ACLs to manage comms between nodes.

    I think it's a nice idea, but the maintainer kradalby said it's out of scope when I brought it up in 2023: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/issues/1370

  • Ask HN: How did you replace Teleport?
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 17 Oct 2024
    I think it does:

    https://sourcegraph.com/search?q=context:global+repo:github....

    https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/pull/847

    I’m not sure how well does it support it though, and I can’t open the docs for some reason right now.

  • Set up: VPN - Part 1
    1 project | dev.to | 28 Sep 2024
    root@hz-headscale-tmp-1:~# export HEADSCALE_VERSION="0.23.0" \ && export HEADSCALE_ARCH="arm64" \ && wget --output-document=headscale.deb "https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/releases/download/v${HEADSCALE_VERSION}/headscale_${HEADSCALE_VERSION}_linux_${HEADSCALE_ARCH}.deb" <...redacted for brevity..> 2024-09-28 12:24:54 (189 MB/s) - ‘headscale.deb’ saved [17022910/17022910]
  • The New Internet
    15 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 26 Jul 2024
    > I still have to rely on a landlord.

    This is a very good point. Counterpoint is self-hosting Headscale which I mentioned in another comment here: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale

    Works with native Tailscale clients with a few config changes. I use it myself.

  • List of ngrok/Cloudflare Tunnel alternatives and other tunneling software and services. Focus on self-hosting.
    61 projects | dev.to | 30 Apr 2024
    headscale - Open source implementation of Tailscale control server. Can be used with Tailscale's official open source client. Written in Go.
  • Building a Managed Service Provider Business With Open Source
    14 projects | dev.to | 4 Apr 2024
    Headscale
  • Russia has started indiscriminately blocking all OpenVPN/WireGuard connections
    12 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 20 Jan 2024
    You can always use headscale. https://github.com/juanfont/headscale
  • A note from our sponsor - InfluxDB
    www.influxdata.com | 24 Jun 2025
    InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now. Learn more →

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