Security & Compliance
VPN & Network Security
VPNs, tunnels, zero-trust networking, and secure access tools.
Best VPN & Network Security tools by public signals
These picks are computed from scored public evidence. Use the openness column in the ranking to separate OSI-approved, source-available, open-core, proprietary, and unverified-license tools.
Use Case Rankings
Ordered by ToolVitals score, then health, shipping, confidence, GitHub stars, and name.
| # | Tool | Health | Shipping | Openness | Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Firewalla http://firewalla.com | 97 | 97 | OSI-approved OSS | 636 | 97 | Active |
| 02 | NetBird Zero-configuration mesh VPN for business. | 97 | 96 | OSI-approved OSS | 30.3k | 97 | Active |
| 03 | Pangolin Identity-aware VPN and tunneled reverse proxy for remote access. | 97 | 96 | OSI-approved OSS | 23.3k | 97 | Active |
| 04 | Tailscale Zero-config VPN built on WireGuard | 97 | 95 | OSI-approved OSS | 38.3k | 96 | Active |
| 05 | Firezone Enterprise-ready zero-trust access platform built on WireGuard®. | 95 | 96 | OSI-approved OSS | 9.1k | 96 | Active |
| 06 | Headscale An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server | 95 | 92 | OSI-approved OSS | 45.2k | 94 | Active |
| 07 | i2pd 🛡 I2P: End-to-End encrypted and anonymous Internet | 94 | 93 | OSI-approved OSS | 4.2k | 94 | Active |
| 08 | Zentinel Security-first reverse proxy built to guard the free web. | 92 | 94 | OSI-approved OSS | 120 | 93 | Active |
| 09 | OnionShare Securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network | 94 | 90 | OSI-approved OSS | 7.2k | 92 | Active |
| 10 | Gravitl WireGuard virtual networking platform. | 91 | 89 | OSI-approved OSS | 11.8k | 90 | Active |
| 11 | Octelium A next-gen FOSS self-hosted unified zero trust secure access platform that can operate as a remote access VPN, a ZTNA platform, API/AI/MCP gateway, a PaaS, an ngrok-alternative and a homelab infrastructure. | 86 | 92 | OSI-approved OSS | 4.1k | 89 | Active |
| 12 | zrok Secure internet sharing made simple. | 84 | 83 | OSI-approved OSS | 4.8k | 83 | Active |
| 13 | fail2ban Daemon to ban hosts that cause multiple authentication errors | 84 | 75 | OSI-approved OSS | 18.9k | 81 | Active |
| 14 | TrustTunnel Obfuscated VPN protocol and client/server tooling. | 82 | 70 | OSI-approved OSS | 3.5k | 77 | Active |
| 15 | Cylonix Client app alternative to Tailscale. | 70 | 72 | OSI-approved OSS | 44 | 71 | Warning |
| 16 | Algo VPN Set up a personal VPN in the cloud | 62 | 47 | OSI-approved OSS | 30.4k | 56 | Warning |
| 17 | Rustunnel Open-source tunnel that scales with you. | 46 | 30 | OSI-approved OSS | 659 | 39 | Critical |
Not Scored
Tracked for context, but excluded from rankings because comparable open/source-visible evidence is unavailable.
BrowserBox
💚 Secure remote browsing anywhere, any way you like it.
ToolVitals does not score proprietary or unknown-license tools because their public source evidence is not comparable to open/source-visible projects.DockFlare
Automates Cloudflare tunnels with Docker labels.
ToolVitals does not score proprietary or unknown-license tools because their public source evidence is not comparable to open/source-visible projects.