Readers comparing VPN and network security tools need a way to distinguish current project signals from popularity. This October 2026 snapshot uses the supplied ToolVitals records for scores, health, shipping, openness, licensing, and GitHub-star context.
The ranking covers open/source-visible tools and orders them by ToolVitals score descending, then uses health and shipping for equal composite scores. GitHub stars are context only and do not determine placement.
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 | NetBird | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 97 | 96 | 30075 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | Tailscale | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 97 | 95 | 37754 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | Pangolin | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 96 | 96 | 23123 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Firezone | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 95 | 96 | 9123 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | Headscale | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 95 | 93 | 44742 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 7 | i2pd | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 95 | 93 | 4232 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 8 | OnionShare | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 91 | 86 | 7176 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 9 | Gravitl | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 90 | 88 | 11831 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 10 | Zentinel | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 90 | 88 | 118 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 11 | Octelium | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 86 | 92 | 4101 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 12 | fail2ban | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 84 | 76 | 18824 | 81 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 13 | TrustTunnel | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 81 | 72 | 3521 | 77 | 🟢 Good |
| 14 | Cylonix | OSI-approved OSS | BSD-3-Clause | 76 | 77 | 44 | 76 | 🟢 Good |
| 15 | zrok | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 67 | 57 | 4777 | 63 | 🟢 Good |
| 16 | Algo VPN | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 62 | 47 | 30430 | 56 | 🟡 Fair |
| 17 | Rustunnel | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 52 | 37 | 658 | 46 | 🟡 Fair |
| 18 | OmniEdge | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 8 | 2 | 889 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 19 | Tunnelmole | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 8 | 0 | 1898 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 20 | FounderBooster | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 5 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 21 | Ockam | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 5 | 0 | 4640 | 3 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 22 | OpenCloudflareCDN | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 4 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Firewalla ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 97, a health score of 97, and a shipping score of 97. The record labels it OSI-approved OSS and lists AGPL-3.0. Its 631 GitHub stars provide context only and are not a reason for the rank.
NetBird ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 97 and a health score of 97. Its shipping score is 96, placing it behind Firewalla’s 97 under the supplied tie-breaking approach. The supplied description calls it a “Zero-configuration mesh VPN for business.” ToolVitals labels it OSI-approved OSS under AGPL-3.0; its 30,075 GitHub stars are context only.
Tailscale ranks third with a ToolVitals score of 96, a health score of 97, and a shipping score of 95. The supplied description calls it a “Zero-config VPN built on WireGuard.” It is labeled OSI-approved OSS and BSD-3-Clause. Its 37,754 GitHub stars add context, but stars are not used to set the rank.
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