headscalevspolar
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| headscale | polar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 | 71/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 31 in Networking | #1 of 13 in Billing |
| GitHub stars | 45 165 | 10 436 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +1 058 | +157 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 7 | 1 |
| Latest release | v0.29.6 · 24 Oct 2026 | @polar-sh/cli@3.0.0 · 16 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Advanced |
| Official Docker image | Yes | No |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Go | Python |
Which one should you pick?
headscale scores 82/100 against 71/100 for polar, so it is the safer default.
headscale ships more often: 7 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for polar.
If you want the quickest setup, headscale is easier to run; polar needs more configuration.
headscale is growing faster right now (+1 058 stars in 30 days).
headscale details →polar details →