Choosing a VPN or network-security tool means balancing remote access needs, deployment preferences, and project health rather than relying on popularity alone. This September 2026 snapshot uses ToolVitals scores with separate health and shipping signals to compare the supplied open/source-visible tools.
The ranking orders open/source-visible tools by ToolVitals score first, then health and shipping for equal scores. GitHub stars are context only and do not determine placement. Openness and license labels are shown exactly as supplied.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firewalla | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 97 | 97 | 631 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Pangolin | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 97 | 97 | 22925 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | NetBird | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 97 | 96 | 29516 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | Tailscale | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 97 | 96 | 36849 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Firezone | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 95 | 96 | 9106 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | i2pd | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 95 | 94 | 4206 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 7 | Headscale | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 95 | 93 | 44136 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 8 | Zentinel | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 92 | 93 | 111 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 9 | Gravitl | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 90 | 90 | 11803 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 10 | Octelium | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 87 | 92 | 4070 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 11 | fail2ban | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 88 | 86 | 18672 | 87 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 12 | OnionShare | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 80 | 65 | 7099 | 74 | 🟢 Good |
| 13 | TrustTunnel | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 76 | 63 | 3477 | 71 | 🟢 Good |
| 14 | Rustunnel | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 73 | 69 | 656 | 71 | 🟢 Good |
| 15 | Algo VPN | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 62 | 47 | 30393 | 56 | 🟡 Fair |
| 16 | Cylonix | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 58 | 37 | 42 | 50 | 🟡 Fair |
| 17 | zrok | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 57 | 38 | 4721 | 49 | 🟡 Fair |
| 18 | Tunnelmole | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 10 | 0 | 1894 | 6 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 19 | OmniEdge | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 9 | 2 | 892 | 6 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 20 | FounderBooster | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 6 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 21 | Ockam | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 6 | 0 | 4636 | 3 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 22 | OpenCloudflareCDN | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 5 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Firewalla ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 97, plus 97 for both health and shipping. Its supplied record labels it OSI-approved OSS and AGPL-3.0. The combination of the top score and strongest supporting scores makes it the leading tool in this snapshot; its GitHub star count is context only.
Pangolin ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 97, 97 health, and 97 shipping. Its supplied description identifies it as an identity-aware VPN and tunneled reverse proxy for remote access, giving the project a specific focus beyond a general VPN label. It is labeled OSI-approved OSS and AGPL-3.0.
NetBird ranks third with a ToolVitals score of 97, 97 health, and 96 shipping. The supplied description calls it a zero-configuration mesh VPN for business, making its focus clear for business-oriented mesh networking. It is labeled OSI-approved OSS and AGPL-3.0; its GitHub star count is context only.
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