alt Hacker NewsThere is a well documented opensource alternative to Tailscale - Headscale. The tailscale client is already opensource, Headscale is opensource drop in replacement for the control server which isn't, and fully compatible with Tailscale clients:
https://github.com/juanfont/headscale
If you can be bothered running the headscale container, you generally don't need to pay for tailscale. It's been pretty well supported and widely used for a number of years at this point. Tailscale even permit their own engineers to contribute to headscale, as the company sees it as complimentary to the commercial offering.
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The headscale API is very different than the Tailscale API so if you're automating setting up clients it's not quite drop in. Once a client is up, though, from what I've heard it's seamless.
> Headscale is ... drop in replacement
I've been really happy with headscale, but I wouldn't call it a complete drop in replacement as I would with vaultwarden. Some features (e.g. Mullvad integration, ACL tests, etc) are missing.
Upgrading also requires upgrading every minor version or you run into db migration issues, but that comes with the territory of running your own instance.
I would recommend folks look up if headscale suits their needs (like it did for me for many years) before switching over.