13 ranked picks · Updated daily

Self-hosted VPN: WireGuard, OpenVPN, and Tailscale alternatives

Commercial VPNs charge $5-15/mo per device and you trust them with all your traffic. Self-hosted WireGuard, OpenVPN, and Headscale (Tailscale alternative) give you a private mesh on a $4/mo VPS. The open-source VPN options ranked by maintainer health.

Cheapest path: pangolin on hetzner for $4.13/mo.

The 13 picks, ranked by health

Health score is a 6-dimension composite. See methodology.

pangolin
by fosrl
79/100

Identity-aware VPN and tunneled reverse proxy for remote access based on WireGuard®.

TypeScript NOASSERTION
21k
$4.13/mo
2/5
pomerium
by pomerium
78/100

Pomerium is an identity and context-aware access proxy.

Go Apache-2.0
4.8k
$4.13/mo
2/5
firezone
by firezone
77/100

Enterprise-ready zero-trust access platform built on WireGuard®.

Elixir Apache-2.0
8.6k
$4.13/mo
3/5
mullvadvpn-app
by mullvad
77/100

The Mullvad VPN client app for desktop and mobile

Rust GPL-3.0
7.0k
$4.13/mo
2/5
ziti
by openziti
76/100

The parent project for OpenZiti. Here you will find the executables for a fully zero-trust, programmable network @OpenZiti

Go Apache-2.0
4.1k
$4.13/mo
2/5
rethink-app
by celzero
73/100

DNS over HTTPS / DNS over Tor / DNSCrypt client, WireGuard proxifier, firewall, and connection tracker for Android.

Kotlin Apache-2.0
4.8k
$4.13/mo
2/5
EasyTier
by EasyTier
71/100

A simple, decentralized mesh VPN with WireGuard support.

Rust LGPL-3.0
11k
$4.13/mo
2/5
defguard
by defguard
71/100

Zero-Trust access management with true WireGuard® 2FA/MFA

Rust NOASSERTION
2.7k
$4.13/mo
3/5
tun2socks
by xjasonlyu
69/100

tun2socks - powered by gVisor TCP/IP stack

Go MIT
5.2k
$4.13/mo
2/5
boringtun
by cloudflare
67/100

Userspace WireGuard® Implementation in Rust

Rust BSD-3-Clause
7.0k
$4.13/mo
2/5
iodine
by yarrick
58/100

Official git repo for iodine dns tunnel

C ISC
7.8k
$4.13/mo
2/5
shoes
by cfal
56/100

A multi-protocol proxy server written in Rust (HTTP, SOCKS5, Vmess, Vless, Shadowsocks, Trojan, Snell, Hysteria2, TUIC v5, AnyTLS, Naiveproxy, XTLS)

Rust MIT
1.1k
$4.13/mo
2/5
nodepass
by NodePassProject
45/100

A secure, efficient TCP/UDP tunneling solution that delivers fast, reliable access across network restrictions using pre-established TCP/QUIC/WebSocket or HTTP/2 connections.

Go BSD-3-Clause
2.1k
$4.13/mo
2/5

Specifically replacing

These categories on ossreplace cover the SaaS in this space.

Ready to self-host?

Most operators land on pangolin (top health) and run it on hetzner for around $4.13/mo.

Last verified . Data refreshes every 30 minutes.