What do users say about Headscale?

We have not collected reviews of Headscale yet. Its score is built from published facts only, so it does not depend on reviews.

Headscale review: score, privacy and prices

In 10 seconds

Strongest against its segment

Security and protocols2.1 vs 1.8
Censorship bypass0.5 vs 0.5
Platforms and support2.9 vs 3.9

Weakest against its segment

Network and streaming0.0 vs 2.8
Privacy and jurisdiction1.0 vs 2.3
Price and fair terms2.1 vs 3.4

Compare Headscale side by side with other VPNs

How the score adds up

Six sub-scores, each against the median of Mesh / self-hosted services in the main ranking (None services). Open a line to see which published facts earned points and which were missing or not disclosed.

Headscalesegment median

Privacy and jurisdiction30% of the score · segment median 2.31.0
What earned points
- No-logs policy +2
- Independent no-logs audit +3
- No-logs confirmed in court +1
- Warrant canary +1
- Transparency report +1
- Sign-up without email +1.5
- Account number sign-up +0.5
- Stores connection IP (penalty) −3
- Public incident (penalty) −2
Security and protocols20% of the score · segment median 1.82.1
What earned points
- Kill switch +2
- DNS leak protection +1.5
- RAM-only servers +1
- Post-quantum encryption +1
- Perfect forward secrecy +0.5
- Security audit +2
- Open-source clients +1.5
- 2FA +1
- Multi-hop +1
- Bug bounty +1
- Only PPTP / L2TP (penalty) −2
Price and fair terms15% of the score · segment median 3.42.1
What earned points
- Free plan +1.5
- Free trial +1
- Trial without a card +1
- Crypto payments +1
- Cash payments +0.5
Censorship bypass15% of the score · segment median 0.50.5
What earned points
- Stealth / obfuscation +2
- VLESS / Reality +1.5
- Trojan +1
- Hysteria2 +1
- Shadowsocks +1
- AmneziaWG +1
- obfs4 +0.5
- TUIC +0.5
- NaiveProxy +0.5
- Mirrors or Telegram channel +0.5
- VoIP in the UAE (claimed) +0.5
- Manual configs +0.5
Network and streaming10% of the score · segment median 2.80.0
What earned points
- 10 Gbps servers +1
- Dedicated IP +0.5
- Port forwarding +0.5
- MENA locations +0.5
- Torrenting allowed +1
Platforms and support10% of the score · segment median 3.92.9
What earned points
- Routers +1
- Browser extensions +0.5
- Split tunneling +1
- Ad / tracker blocker +1
- 24/7 live chat +2
- live chat +0.5
- Support on Telegram +0.5
- Status page +0.5

Headscale pricing

Headscale does not publish a paid price we could read. Free plan: Yes open source, self-hosted. Market median across the main ranking: €3.13 a month.

All plans as published

Plan	Term	Renewal term
Free (self-hosted)	Lifetime	0

Refunds, trial and payment

Refund window: Not stated
Free trial: Not stated
Auto-renewal: Not stated
Payment methods: Not stated

Everything Headscale publishes

Every fact we collected about Headscale, as the provider and reviewers state it. Empty fields are left out; key fields we could not find say “Not stated”. “Partial”: only on some platforms, servers or plans.

Company

Legal entity: Not stated
Registered in: Not stated
Parent company: none
Related brands: Tailscale (compatible clients)
Surveillance alliance (5/9/14 Eyes): Not stated
Website languages: EN
Right-to-left languages: No

Plans, prices and add-ons

Plans: Free OSS
Billing terms: free
Cheapest price a month: 0
Monthly plan: Not stated
Lifetime plan: Not stated
Family plan: Not stated

Discounts and programmes

Student discount: Not stated

Limits and restrictions

Devices at once: unlimited (self-hosted)
Data limit: none
Features locked to higher plans: No

Free plan

Free plan: Yes open source, self-hosted
Free data: Yes unlimited (own server)
Free speed: own server
Free devices: unlimited
Ads in the free plan: No
Other free plan terms: requires own server

Payment and subscription

PayPal: Not stated
Cryptocurrency: Not stated
Cash: Not stated
Gift cards: Not stated
Auto-renewal by default: Not stated
Email needed to sign up: No
Phone needed to sign up: No
Account-number login: Not stated
Identity check (KYC): No
Money-back guarantee, days: Not stated

Free trial terms

Trial length: Not stated
Instead of a trial: free open source
Card needed for the trial: Not stated

Server locations

Countries: Not stated
Servers: Not stated

Server countries: Not stated

Middle East and North Africa: Not stated
Virtual locations: Not stated
Own servers: Yes user's own
P2P servers: Not stated
Obfuscated servers: Not stated

Protocols and encryption

WireGuardTailscale/WireGuard mesh✓ Yes
OpenVPN✕ No
IKEv2✕ No
L2TP/IPsecNo
SSTPNo
SoftEther✕ No
Own protocolTailscale control protocol (open impl.)✓ Yes
VLESS / Reality✕ No
VMess✕ No
Trojan✕ No
Shadowsocks✕ No
Hysteria2✕ No
TUIC✕ No
NaiveProxy✕ No
obfs4✕ No
AmneziaWG✕ No
PPTP✓ No

Other protocols: DERP relays; NAT traversal
Encryption: WireGuard (ChaCha20-Poly1305)
Perfect forward secrecy: Not stated
Post-quantum encryption: Not stated
Manual configuration files: Yes server config.yaml; Tailscale clients
Open-source apps: Yes https://github.com/juanfont/headscale (server; uses Tailscale clients)

Censorship and blocking

Obfuscation (stealth mode): No
Countries it claims to work in: Not stated
Mirror sites or Telegram channel: No
Calls in the UAE: Not stated

Security

Kill switch: Not stated
DNS leak protection: Not stated
Split tunnelling: Not stated
Ad and malware blocker: Not stated
Two-factor sign-in: Not stated
Security audits: Not stated
Bug bounty: Not stated

Privacy

No-logs policy: Not stated
Independent no-logs audit: Not stated
Transparency report: Not stated
Warrant canary: Not stated
Anonymous sign-up: Yes no account

What the privacy policy says is collected

Yes: collected. No: not collected. Partial: kept briefly or only in part. Not stated: the policy does not say.

Connection IPNot stated
Session timesNot stated

Apps and devices

WindowsTailscale client✓ Yes
macOSTailscale client✓ Yes
Linux✓ Yes
iOSTailscale client✓ Yes
AndroidTailscale client✓ Yes
Android TVNot stated
Fire TVNot stated
Apple TVNot stated
ChromebookNot stated
Smart TVNot stated
RoutersNot stated
NASNot stated
Raspberry PiNot stated
Game consolesNot stated

Browser extensions: Not stated

Speed, streaming and gaming

10 Gbps servers: Not stated
Netflix: Not stated
BBC iPlayer: Not stated
Disney+: Not stated
Prime Video: Not stated
Gaming features: Not stated
Torrenting: Not stated

Support

Live chat: No
Live chat 24/7: No
Email / tickets: No GitHub issues
Phone: No
Telegram: No
WhatsApp: No
Discord or forum: Yes Discord; GitHub
Support languages: EN
Help articles: Yes headscale.net docs
Server status page: No
Uptime guarantee (SLA): No

For teams and business

SSO / SAML: Yes OIDC supported
SCIM provisioning: No
Admin panel: No CLI/API (no official GUI)
API: Yes
Dedicated gateway: Yes self-hosted
Zero-trust access (ZTNA): Yes mesh overlay with ACL policies
Identity providers: OIDC

What users say

Reviews never change our score. Ratings are smoothed: a source’s average across all VPNs counts as 50 extra reviews, so a few five-star reviews cannot outrank thousands.

No reviews collected for this service.

43 Reddit and forum threads mention Headscale (titles and search snippets only).

Latest reviews and related rankings

In our rankings

Headscale appears on 3 topic pages. Its place on each:

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Sources and changes

Collected 2026-10-15. No changes recorded since the first import.

Website: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale
Pages checked: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale; https://headscale.net/stable/

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