VPN and network security buyers are usually choosing between mesh VPNs, zero-trust access platforms, tunnels, reverse proxies, and self-hosted control-plane options. This May 2026 snapshot uses the supplied ToolVitals data for open/source-visible VPN & Network Security Tools, including ToolVitals score, health score, shipping score, GitHub stars, openness_label, license_label, pricing_scope, and status.
The ranking includes open/source-visible tools only and is ordered by ToolVitals score first, with GitHub stars used as the secondary popularity signal for tie-breaks. License and openness are treated conservatively: the labels shown here use openness_label and license_label exactly, and tools are not described as OSI open source unless their openness_label says OSI-approved OSS.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tailscale | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 98 | 95 | 31541 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Firezone | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 95 | 88 | 8612 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | Rustunnel | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 94 | 100 | 627 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | zrok | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 95 | 88 | 4418 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Octelium | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 89 | 88 | 3816 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | Zentinel | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 78 | 88 | 68 | 86 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 7 | TrustTunnel | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 81 | 78 | 2857 | 80 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 8 | Headscale | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 72 | 65 | 38359 | 73 | 🟢 Good |
| 9 | Firewalla | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 72 | 69 | 605 | 73 | 🟢 Good |
| 10 | OmniEdge | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 62 | 69 | 887 | 70 | 🟢 Good |
| 11 | Cylonix | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 65 | 46 | 37 | 64 | 🟢 Good |
| 12 | Algo VPN | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 54 | 35 | 30230 | 53 | 🟡 Fair |
| 13 | Tunnelmole | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 52 | 0 | 1855 | 43 | 🟡 Fair |
| 14 | Ockam | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 39 | 0 | 4624 | 37 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Tailscale ranks first with a 97 ToolVitals score, backed by a 98 health score and 95 shipping score. It also has the largest score among the set and 31,541 GitHub stars, giving it both strong measured health and broad visibility. Its openness_label is OSI-approved OSS and its license_label is BSD-3-Clause; pricing_scope is hosted_cloud, so readers should treat it as an open-source project with a hosted cloud offering rather than a purely self-hosted entry.
Firezone ranks second with a 93 ToolVitals score, a 95 health score, and an 88 shipping score. It has 8,612 GitHub stars, which puts it well behind Tailscale on popularity but still clearly established in this group. Its openness_label is OSI-approved OSS and its license_label is Apache-2.0, with pricing_scope listed as none.
Rustunnel also scores 93, but ranks third behind Firezone because GitHub stars are the secondary tie-breaker and Rustunnel has 627 stars versus Firezone’s 8,612. Its standout metric is shipping score: 100, the highest in the ranking. Its openness_label is OSI-approved OSS and its license_label is AGPL-3.0, with pricing_scope listed as none.
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