headscalevsNATS
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| headscale | NATS | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 | 80/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 31 in Networking | #2 of 12 in Message Broker |
| GitHub stars | 45 150 | 20 954 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +1 043 | +189 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 7 | 18 |
| Latest release | v0.29.6 · 24 Oct 2026 | v2.14.9 · 26 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Go | Go |
Which one should you pick?
headscale scores 82/100 against 80/100 for NATS, so it is the safer default.
NATS ships more often: 18 stable releases in the past year, against 7 for headscale.
headscale is growing faster right now (+1 043 stars in 30 days).
headscale details →NATS details →