Headscale
An open source Tailscale control server you run yourself
Alternative toTailscale
Headscale is an independent implementation of the Tailscale coordination server, so the official Tailscale clients can join a network that you control instead of Tailscale's hosted service. It is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause.
Best for when
- you want a Tailscale style mesh with the control server on your own hardware
- you are comfortable running a small public HTTPS service
- you want to grow your network without a subscription
Watch out for
- it must be reachable from the internet, so it adds a public service to secure
- there is no official web console, and some hosted features are missing or lag behind
- it supports one network per server, which is fine for a home, less so for many teams
The mesh VPN, without the hosted control plane
Tailscale builds a WireGuard mesh between your devices, and its hosted coordination server decides which devices exist and who can reach whom. Headscale replaces that server. Your devices still use the normal Tailscale apps, pointed at your own login server address, and traffic still flows directly between them when possible.
It suits people who like the Tailscale model but want the device list, keys and access rules on their own machine, or who need more than a free plan allows. It covers the core features, including access control lists, MagicDNS, exit nodes and subnet routers, for a single network.
What running it involves
The server is a single binary with SQLite or PostgreSQL, and it uses little memory. The catch is reachability: every client must reach it over HTTPS, so it needs a public address, usually behind a reverse proxy with a certificate. If it goes down, existing connections keep working for a while, but new devices and key changes stop.
You become the operator of your own network control plane. Back up the database and the private keys, follow releases, and expect some features of the hosted service, such as its admin console, to be missing or provided by separate community projects.
