Tailscale

Tailscale makes networking between machines embarrassingly easy. It builds a WireGuard mesh VPN where every device gets a stable IP, NAT traversal just works, and you're connected in minutes instead of days of VPN configuration. It's what VPNs should have been from the start.

If you need to connect servers, dev machines, or home devices into a private network, Tailscale is the fastest path. Headscale is the self-hosted open-source implementation of Tailscale's control plane. Netmaker offers similar WireGuard mesh networking with more configuration options. NetBird is the fully open-source alternative with peer-to-peer focus. Commercially, traditional VPNs (OpenVPN, Cisco AnyConnect) are what Tailscale replaces.

MagicDNS gives every device a hostname. SSH over Tailscale eliminates key management. ACLs control who reaches what. The UX is "install, sign in, done."

The catch: the client is open source (BSD-3) but the control server is proprietary — you're trusting Tailscale Inc. with your network coordination. Headscale is the escape hatch but lacks feature parity. The free tier limits to 3 users. And if you're routing all traffic through Tailscale as an exit node, you're adding a hop that increases latency.