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Tailscale vs headscale: catalog facts
Tailscale	headscale
Freemium The Personal plan is free forever with unlimited devices for up to 6 users. Paid plans…	Free Free and open source under a BSD 3-clause licence. The Tailscale clients it works with are…
Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Command line	macOS, Linux, Self-hosted
Devices reach each other through NAT and firewalls without port forwarding or a public IP Free Personal plan with unlimited user devices for up to 6 users	Removes the dependency on Tailscale's hosted control server Works with the standard Tailscale clients on every platform
Sign-in goes through an identity provider, so an account is required The coordination server is a hosted service; running your own means using a separate project such as Headscale	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
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License: BSD-3-Clause
Account needed	No account needed
Needs internet	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 20, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

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