Tailscalevstessera
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Tailscale | tessera | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84/100 | 47/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 56 in VPN | #98 of 166 in Developer Tools |
| GitHub stars | 38 308 | 314 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +1 466 | +0 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 14 | 15 |
| Latest release | v1.104.4 · 27 Oct 2026 | v0.2.4 · 25 Sept 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | No |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Go | Typescript |
Which one should you pick?
Tailscale scores 84/100 against 47/100 for tessera, so it is the safer default.
tessera ships more often: 15 stable releases in the past year, against 14 for Tailscale.
Tailscale is growing faster right now (+1 466 stars in 30 days).
Tailscale details →tessera details →
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