{"data":{"slug":"headscale","name":"Headscale","tagline":"BSD-3 self-hosted Tailscale control server","category":"devops","categoryName":"DevOps","url":"https://headscale.net","github":"https://github.com/juanfont/headscale","pricing":"open-source","hook":"Headscale is the control plane you run when Tailscale clients are fine but Tailscale Inc coordination is not.","whatsGood":"BSD-3-Clause. Implements Tailscale control-server API. Official Tailscale clients talk to your coordination server. ACLs, tags, ephemeral nodes for CI. Small Go binary ops footprint.","theCatch":"Control server only — not a userspace WireGuard client replacement. Not associated with Tailscale Inc as a product. You operate DERP/coordination yourself; MagicDNS/feature parity lags Tailscale SaaS at the edges.","verdict":"BSD-3 Tailscale-compatible control plane. Self-host; clients stay Tailscale.","addedAt":"2026-09-04","featured":false,"domain":"DevOps","subSpecialty":"Networking","capabilities":["vpn","wireguard","self-host"],"surfaces":["Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Go","Multi-platform"],"licenseModel":"OSS/MIT","githubStars":43541},"related":[{"slug":"github-actions","name":"GitHub Actions","tagline":"CI/CD that lives where your code does"},{"slug":"docker","name":"Docker","tagline":"Container runtime that changed deployment"},{"slug":"kubernetes","name":"Kubernetes","tagline":"Container orchestration at scale"},{"slug":"terraform","name":"Terraform","tagline":"Infrastructure as code that actually works"},{"slug":"pulumi","name":"Pulumi","tagline":"Infrastructure as code in real languages"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/headscale","html":"/gems/headscale","markdown":"/gems/headscale.md","category":"/api/gems?category=devops","categoryPage":"/stacks/devops"}}