Simple and Secure Remote Access
NetBird combines a WireGuard®-based overlay network with Zero Trust Network Access, providing a unified open source platform for reliable and secure connectivity
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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so this is a tailscale alternative, right?
Yeah they overlap quite a bit.
Oh, I've been using Headscale so this combination interests me. I just took a brief look at their READMEs, but don't understand how they work together, and maybe the combination isn't popular enough for a guide for the integration. Can you explain a bit on how they work together?
What made you switch to it over tailscale+headscale? Currently that's been doing everything I need without issue.
I could never get the self hosted stun server to connect so I was always using tailscales derp servers. Netbird is also fully opensource so that was the main reason I wanted to switch. I was also able to easily setup SSO with authentic and netbird which gives me 2FA as well.
If you were using derp servers with Tailscale/Headscale, that would explain why it was slow.
Oh yeah I know. I'm mostly only able to use deep servers and that's why I switched because j wanted to be able to use my own deep server and not have to rely on tailscales.
FWIW, you can use Headscale's embedded DERP server, or host your own. They need a STUN port and an HTTPS port
Hey, first I'm hearing about Netbird. Sounds amazing. How complicated was it to migrate from taliscale to netbird? I might need to do the same
It was relatively easy once I figured out that netbird doesn't support a wildcard certificate. They just released and update that fixed that and they now support subdomains. I also do still have headscale as a backup if I need it.
Currently ditching netbird because the Android implementation kills the battery and it makes it unusable.
I wish they would fix it, it's been an issue for quite some time
I actually had the opposite and the tailscale app would drain my battery when using one of my exit nodes. I will say the netbird app needs some love. My biggest issue is that it doesn't stay connected or is able to reconnect when I change WiFi networks or go from WiFi to cellular.
Try Jetbird, it solved the connection issues for me, but drained the battery similarly for me
I tried moving from tailscale to netbird, and while I did get access to my home assistant instance, I got unauthorized errors when trying to load mini graph cards on my dashboard. Instead of tinkering I went back to tailscale - at least for now.
Whats wrong with running both and tinkering on netbird till you fix it?
Ip addresses. Netbird uses the same ip when external, while tailscale has a different internal one. So I need to reconfigure the home assistant client differently for each.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web |
| HTTPS | HTTP over SSL |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption |
| SSO | Single Sign-On |
[Thread #194 for this comm, first seen 27th Mar 2026, 13:40] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]