# headscale vs open-compute

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | headscale | open-compute |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 ✓ | 55/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 31 in Networking | #3 of 7 in Serverless |
| GitHub stars | 45 143 ✓ | 2 380 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +1 073 | — |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 7 | 9 ✓ |
| Latest release | v0.29.6 · 24 Oct 2026 ✓ | v0.3.0 · 10 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate ✓ |
| Official Docker image | Yes ✓ | No |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Go | Rust |

## Which one should you pick?

headscale scores 82/100 against 55/100 for open-compute, so it is the safer default.

open-compute ships more often: 9 stable releases in the past year, against 7 for headscale.

headscale is growing faster right now (+1 073 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [headscale](https://selfhost.directory/project/headscale) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/headscale.md)
- [open-compute](https://selfhost.directory/project/open-compute) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/open-compute.md)

---
Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/headscale-vs-open-compute