Discoursevsheadscale
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Discourse | headscale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 | 82/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #1 of 31 in Networking |
| GitHub stars | 48 027 | 45 150 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +131 | +1 043 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 7 |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | v0.29.6 · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Main language | Ruby | Go |
Which one should you pick?
Discourse scores 83/100 against 82/100 for headscale, so it is the safer default.
headscale ships more often: 7 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for Discourse.
headscale is growing faster right now (+1 043 stars in 30 days).
Discourse details →headscale details →