VPN and network security buyers are usually choosing between mesh VPNs, zero-trust access platforms, tunnels, reverse proxies, and self-hosted control-plane options.
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.
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.
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.
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