Compare software

Tailcat vs socat: catalog facts
Tailcat	socat
Free Free and open source under the BSD-3-Clause licence.	Free Free and open source under the GPL.
Windows, Command line	macOS, Linux, Command line
No account, login or network setup needed Direct connections with relay fallback	Connects almost any pair of endpoints, including TLS and serial devices Handles forking servers and complex options netcat cannot
No access policy or identity controls like a full tailnet Command line only	The address syntax is dense and unforgiving The project site is served over plain HTTP only, so the repository is linked here instead
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License: GPL-2.0
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Needs internet	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

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