headscalevsSimpleX Chat
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| headscale | SimpleX Chat | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 | 74/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 31 in Networking | #4 of 110 in Chat |
| GitHub stars | 45 143 | 19 612 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +1 073 | +142 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 7 | 12 |
| Latest release | v0.29.6 · 24 Oct 2026 | v7.0.4 · 3 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Go | Haskell |
Which one should you pick?
headscale scores 82/100 against 74/100 for SimpleX Chat, so it is the safer default.
SimpleX Chat ships more often: 12 stable releases in the past year, against 7 for headscale.
headscale is growing faster right now (+1 073 stars in 30 days).
headscale details →SimpleX Chat details →