Open Source Zerotier Alternatives
A curated collection of the 2 best open source alternatives to Zerotier.
The best open source alternative to Zerotier is Tailscale. If that doesn't suit you, we've compiled a ranked list of other open source Zerotier alternatives to help you find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternative to Zerotier is Netbird.
Zerotier alternatives are mainly Network Security but may also be Networking & Connectivity. Browse these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Zerotier.
Private WireGuard networks made easy, with a daemon and CLI that connect machines across Linux, Windows, macOS and BSD.
Tailscale states its purpose in one line: private WireGuard networks made easy. This repository holds the majority of that open source code, principally the tailscaled daemon and the tailscale command line tool, which together form a node on the network.
Coverage differs by platform. The daemon runs on Linux, Windows and macOS, and to varying degrees on FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The iOS and Android apps are built from this code too, though the mobile interface code lives elsewhere, and the GUI wrappers shipped for closed platforms are not themselves open source.
Distribution is spread across several places.
- Packages: prebuilt packages for a range of distributions and platforms, served by the project.
- Separate repositories: the Android app, the Synology package, the QNAP package and Chocolatey packaging each live on their own.
- Source builds: a go install of the two commands is enough for personal use.
- Distribution builds: packagers are asked to use the supplied script so commit IDs and version information end up inside the binaries, which keeps bug reports useful.
Building always requires the most recent Go release, and while the project maintains its own Go fork for releases, using that fork is not a requirement. Contributions are welcome with a filed bug and a Developer Certificate of Origin sign off on every commit. WireGuard is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.
WireGuard-based overlay network with centralized access control, connecting machines peer to peer without open ports or VPN gateways.
NetBird pairs a configuration-free peer-to-peer private network with a central access control system in one platform. Machines join an encrypted WireGuard overlay and reach each other directly, which removes the familiar work of opening ports, writing firewall rules and standing up VPN gateways for every site.
Every machine runs an agent that manages WireGuard locally and connects to a Management Service holding network state, peer addresses and configuration updates. Agents use ICE to discover candidates for direct connections, with a relay as fallback when no peer-to-peer path can be established.
Around that core sits the management surface an organization actually needs.
- Access control: Groups and rules, device posture checks and periodic re-authentication.
- Identity: SSO and MFA support, identity provider integrations and group sync through JWT.
- Routing: Routes into external networks, domain-based DNS routes, exit nodes and private DNS zones.
- Automation: A public API, setup keys for bulk provisioning, a Terraform provider and an Ansible collection.
- Visibility: Activity logging and traffic events, plus browser-based SSH and RDP to peers.
Clients cover Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, FreeBSD and appliance platforms including pfSense, OPNsense, OpenWRT, Synology and Raspberry Pi. Self-hosting needs a Linux VM with one CPU and two gigabytes of memory, public reachability on TCP 80 and 443 and UDP 3478, a public domain pointing at it, and Docker with the Compose plugin.
