←back to thread

An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server

(github.com)
345 points quyleanh | 10 comments | 03 Apr 25 00:23 UTC | HN request time: 1.125s | source | bottom
1. 3abiton ◴[03 Apr 25 02:16 UTC] No.43563986[source]▶
This looks interesting! What's the added value over wireguard + openwrt setup?
replies(5): >>43564090 #>>43564133 #>>43564205 #>>43565755 #>>43569621 #
2. watusername ◴[03 Apr 25 02:36 UTC] No.43564090[source]▶
Your devices will connect to each other peer-to-peer (even behind complex NATs) with no manual configuration, subject to ACLs you centrally manage. It just works.

People sometimes dismiss Tailscale as "just" a WireGuard orchestrator, but it's actually much more than that - From a product perspective, WireGuard is just an implementation detail.

replies(1): >>43564121 #
3. compootr ◴[03 Apr 25 02:41 UTC] No.43564121[source]▶
it's wireguard that doesn't make me hate myself :)
4. usagisushi ◴[03 Apr 25 02:43 UTC] No.43564133[source]▶
It's a mesh VPN, so peers communicate directly without additional delay.

I opted for Netbird myself because Headscale's UI felt too basic for me back then. Has that improved over the years probably?

replies(1): >>43565123 #
5. ◴[03 Apr 25 02:59 UTC] No.43564205[source]▶
6. udev4096 ◴[03 Apr 25 05:30 UTC] No.43565123[source]▶
How is netbird? Is it more stable than tailscale/headscale? How is your performance while streaming a video?
replies(2): >>43567943 #>>43576253 #
7. sunshine-o ◴[03 Apr 25 06:52 UTC] No.43565755[source]▶
Some do not want/have a fixed IP address or anything listening on their home network.

Tailscale or having Headscale hosted somewhere else allows you to do that.

8. usagisushi ◴[03 Apr 25 11:15 UTC] No.43567943{3}[source]▶
They are both based on WireGuard (kernel-space and user-space `wireguard-go`), so I guess there's no significant difference in performance for typical usage.

In terms of stability, Netbird has been pretty good for me. I've been using Netbird as the backhaul network for my laptop, phone and inter-site k3s cluster for several years without major issues.

One major downside of Netbird is that its Android client can be quite a battery drainer [1]. (It keeps your fingers warm during winter, though!) As for Tailscale, it offers some neat features like Funnel, which is missing in Netbird, but in my case, covered by DNS and k8s Ingress.

[1]: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/pull/3379

9. alabastervlog ◴[03 Apr 25 13:49 UTC] No.43569621[source]▶
Tailscale's value prop is "Wireguard that the merely somewhat-technically-inclined can set up and manage unassisted". Across tons and tons of clients (my AppleTVs connect to my Tailscale network, this took maybe a minute to configure—and they can act as gateways)
10. avtar ◴[03 Apr 25 22:30 UTC] No.43576253{3}[source]▶
Netbird seems (or perhaps is?) newer. It didn't have some basic features baked in when I last looked into it, e.g. you couldn't switch accounts on the client https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/3273 and if I had an account associated with a single team, then that account couldn't be invited to or be associated with additional teams.