PulsevsTailscale
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Pulse | Tailscale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71/100 | 84/100 |
| Rank in category | #2 of 19 in Infrastructure Monitoring | #1 of 56 in VPN |
| GitHub stars | 6 973 | 38 249 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +232 | +1 444 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 43 | 14 |
| Latest release | helm-chart-6.6.0 · 25 Oct 2026 | v1.104.4 · 27 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Easy | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | No |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Main language | Go | Go |
Which one should you pick?
Tailscale scores 84/100 against 71/100 for Pulse, so it is the safer default.
Pulse ships more often: 43 stable releases in the past year, against 14 for Tailscale.
If you want the quickest setup, Pulse is easier to run; Tailscale needs more configuration.
Tailscale is growing faster right now (+1 444 stars in 30 days).
Pulse details →Tailscale details →
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