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DNClient vs headscale: catalog facts
DNClient	headscale
Freemium Up to 100 devices free with no credit card; larger networks are paid.	Free Free and open source under a BSD 3-clause licence. The Tailscale clients it works with are…
macOS	macOS, Linux, Self-hosted
Built on the widely used open-source Nebula overlay Peer-to-peer tunnels that pick the fastest route	Removes the dependency on Tailscale's hosted control server Works with the standard Tailscale clients on every platform
Requires a Defined Networking account The managed service is not self-hosted; use plain Nebula for that	Aimed at a single tailnet for self-hosters, not a multi-tenant deployment No graphical administration interface in the core project
Downloadable app, Hosted service	Self-hosted
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: BSD-3-Clause
Account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.