polarvsTailscale
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| polar | Tailscale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71/100 | 84/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 13 in Billing | #1 of 56 in VPN |
| GitHub stars | 10 436 | 38 275 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +157 | +1 433 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 14 |
| Latest release | @polar-sh/cli@3.0.0 · 16 Oct 2026 | v1.104.4 · 27 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | No |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Main language | Python | Go |
Which one should you pick?
Tailscale scores 84/100 against 71/100 for polar, so it is the safer default.
Tailscale ships more often: 14 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for polar.
If you want the quickest setup, Tailscale is easier to run; polar needs more configuration.
Tailscale is growing faster right now (+1 433 stars in 30 days).
polar details →Tailscale details →
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