Friendly reminder that Tailscale is VC-funded and driving towards IPO

a long runway that allows us to become profitable when needed
Switch to self-hosting headscale when they enshittify in an attempt to become profitable, duh
- Been meaning to do this. Tailscale was just there and easy to implement when I set my stuff up. Is it relatively simple to transition?
- I mainly use Tailscale (and Zerotier) to access my CGNATED LAN, headscale will require me to pay a subscription for a VPS wouldn't it?
  I really envy the guys who say only use them because they're lazy to open ports or want a more secure approach, I use them because I NEED them lol.
  If (when?) Tailscale enshitify I'll stick with ZT a bit until it goes the same way lol, I started using it 1st, I don't know if ZT came before Tailscale though.
  
  Same. I mean, I was already looking to rent a VPS, but at least there's some time so I can save money until things get weird.
  
  Vps can be really inexpensive, I pay $3 a month for mine
- Bookmarking "headscale"!
  I only recently started using Tailscale because it makes connecting to my local network through a Windows VM running in Boxes on Linux a hell of a lot easier than figuring out how to set up a networked bridge.
  This sounds like a great alternative, and it looks like it can even work on a Synology NAS.
- I can't unfortunately. They only feature I use is that fact I can access my ipv6 only server via an ipv4 only network.

Tailscale never sat right with me. The convenience was nice, but - like other VC-funded projects - it followed that ever-familiar pattern of an "easy" service popping up out of nowhere and gaining massive popularity seemingly overnight. 🚩🚩🚩
I can't say I'm surprised by any of this.
- Would you rather a difficult and hard to use program?
  Easy to use means people will want to adopt it, and that's what VC companies want. Nobody wants to pay millions of dollars to make a program that nobody wants to use.
  
  My problem isn't directly with the programs - my problem lies with VC funding in general. Because they will come back for their money, and the project will inevitably enshittify and shove out enthusiasts in the never-ending search for infinite money.
  The solution is getting rid of VC bullshit entirely. But we all know that will never happen.
- Maybe this is a pet peeve but it's a vpn tool that forces you to log in with an "identity provider". Yeah, no thanks.
  
  That's a basic requirement for almost any company. If you're into hard coding credentials just use wireguard directly.
- I think there's room in the world for a selfhosted, foss version of their software, even if a little simplified.

I'm unsure if it has been mentioned, but a similar tool which is open source (you can run the backend unlike tailscale), netbird
https://netbird.io/
- Headscale is the tailscale backend server
  
  Well not "the" backend server but "a" different backend server. As far as I know Headscale is a separate implementation from what Tailscale run themselves.
- We've implemented netbird at my company, we're pretty happy with it overall.
  The main drawback is that it has no way of handling multiple different accounts on the same machine, and they don't seem to have any plans for ever really solving that. As long as you can live with that, it's a good solution.
  Support is a mixed bag. Mostly just a slack server, kind of lacking in what I'd call enterprise level support. But development seems to be moving at a rapid pace, and they're definitely in that "Small but eager" stage where everything happens quickly. I've reported bugs and had them fixed the same day.
  Everything is open source. Backend, clients, the whole bag. So if they ever try to enshittify, you can just take your ball and leave.
  Also, the security tools are really cool. Instead of writing out firewall rules by hand like Tailscale, they have a really nice, really simple GUI for setting up all your ACLs. I found it very intuitive.
  
  Thank you for your insight, I'm assuming the only public part is the UI and coturn (the bit that enables two clients between firewalls to hole-punch)?
- Is there an issue with Netbird's servers at the moment? In my testing devices are connected and reach eachother, but the web admin is missing a lot of functionality compared to what's in the docs. The peer devices section is there, but everything else, user settings, rules etc, isn't showing/says I don't have admin permission (of my own account.. Lol?)

Join our Discord server for a chat and community support.
Sigh...
And even worse:
Everything in Tailscale is Open Source, except the GUI clients for proprietary OS (Windows and macOS/iOS), and the control server.
- everything is open source except half of all things.
  Lol
- To be fair, anything the GUI clients do can be done with the CLI which is still open source and on all desktop platforms and headscale is literally their open source control server.
  
  Yea, but in iOS?
- Huh, I actually didn't know this because I don't use Windows/macOS/iOS. Somehow completely missed this.
  
  Granted this is not Headscale's fault, they're just using Tailscale clients. Either way I'm glad I use a roll-your-own Wireguard.
  I and my partner also don't use those OSs, but it's more the point of using FOSS when we can.

Are there better alternatives? I was planning on using tailscale until now. :P
- For me personally, the next step is using Headscale - a FOSS replacement of the Tailscale control server. The Tailscale clients are already open source and can be used with Headscale.
  Someone else could give other suggestions.
  
  I've been meaning to switch from Tailscale to Headscale but I have been to busy. Do you have any instructions, write-ups/walk-thrus you could recommend to set this up? I have three sites with 1GB internet I can use. One has a whole house UPS but dynamic IP, another has a static IP but no UPS, and the third is Google fiber with no UPS, but I can use the app to get the current IP anytime. I also own a number of domain names I could use.
- Wireguard if you're just using it yourself. Many various ways to manage it, and it's built in to most routers already.
  Otherwise Headscale with one of the webUIs would be the closest replacement.
  
  Pivpn is really easy, and since pivpn is just scripts, it always installs current wireguard even if they lax on updating pivpn that often.
  
  I decided to experiment a bit with Headscale when the wg-easy v15 update broke my chained VPN setup. Got it all set up with Headplane for a UI, worked amazingly, until I learned I was supposed to set it all up on a VPS instead and couldn't actually access it if I wasn't initially on my home network, oops.
  I might play around with it again down the road with a cheap VPS, didn't take long to get it going, but realistically my setup's access is 95% me and 5% my wife so Wireguard works fine (reverted back to wg-easy v14 until v15 allows disabling ipv6 though, since that seemed to be what was causing the issues I've been seeing).
- A bunch really, Headscale with Tailscale client, Nebula VPN, Netmaker, Zerotier.
  
  @exu @Wahots Yggdrasil, too.
- I use the built in wireguard VPN in my router. If you just need local network access elsewhere it's usually really easy to setup if your router provides it. I would look into it!
- ive been eyeing up netbird but havnt got around to trying it yet. its fully open source at least, and theyre based in germany is anyone cares about that
  
  Just looked at NetBird, it looks suspiciously similar to Tailscale in what it does except they also got an open-source control server. They have self-hosting doc right in their web site. Looks interesting. Can't find much about the company other than it's based in Berlin and it's currently private - Wiretrustee UG.
  
  i used netbird heavily at my last job and i use it for a few things at home. it works pretty well.
- I use Nebula. It's lightweight, well-engineered and fully under your control. But you do need a computer with a fixed IP and accessible port. (E.g. a cheap VPS)
  You can also use "managed nebula" if you want to enjoy the same risk of the control point of your network depending on a new business ;-)
- Depends on your use case. If you're just looking to expose services and are ok having them publicly accessible, there's Cloudflare Tunnel, or you can run WireGuard on a cheap VPS

I think I'll just keep using tailscale until they start enshittifying, and then set up a Headscale instance on a VPS - no need to take this step ahead of time, right?
I mean, all the people saying they can avoid any issues by doing the above - what's to stop Tailscale dropping support for Headscale in future if they're serious about enshitification? Their Linux & Android clients are open source, but not IOS or Windows so they could easily block access for them.
My point being - I'll worry when there is something substantial to worry about, til then they can know I'm using like 3 devices and a github account to authenticate. MagicDNS and the reliability of the clients is just too good for me to switch over mild funding concerns.
- Yeah, as I said, it's a friendly reminder. I'm personally probably doing it this year. It's entirely possible that enshittification could come even years from now. It all depends on how their enterprise adoption goes I think. The more money they make there, the longer the individual users are gonna be left unsqueezed.

Tailscale is great. The principle concern to me is that your super easy mesh network depends on Tailscale so if they want it they have control, and if they change their pricing or options you depend on them, and though they can't see the data you send they can see the topology of your network and where all your computers/devices are.
I use Nebula, which is more work to set up and doesn't have some of the features, not But if you slap the 'lighthouse' (administrating node) on a cheap VPS it works great. And it has some advantages. But Nebula also troubles me: though it's fully open source and fully in your control, the documentation isn't great. Instead, you can now get "managed nebula", which puts you in the same problem as Tailscale: the company sees and controls your network topology. I fear the company (Defined Networking) is trying to push things that way. Even their android app you can't fully configure unless you use their 'managed' service.
For now, Nebula is great, and my preferred mesh network (I looked into all the main ones). And for Tailscale you can run the administration server yourself with Headscale and be fully in your control.
Actually I wish Tailscale the best as a profitable business. They've created a fantastic service and system. But for me, I'd rather my network be in my own hands and for my own eyes. And, as is OP's main point, once they have enough dependent users, the service might turn much worse.
- Netbird seemed to go in a similar way, though still good. I want to try zrok next, looks interesting
  
  Netbird you can still run unlike tailscale with headscale right?
  At least hope the backend can be fully ran ?
  
  What do you mean by going in a similar way? Towards an IPO?
- Nice to hear your experience with Nebula. I considered it when I went with Tailscale years ago. Now you gotta migrate off of lemm.ee as it's shutting down soon. :D
  
  Yep. It's on the TODO list...

I just replaced my entire setup with base wireguard as a challenge, easier than I expected it to be, and not hard to mimic tailscale.
- If you just have to talk from many devices to the one server sure, but Tailscale sure makes it easy for many to many. Also if a direct connection is impossible (e.g. firewall of china, CGNAT etc) tailscale puts a relay server in the middle for you.
  
  My entire setup might not be your entire setup, I have the basic functionality of connecting multiple systems into one mesh network. That's all I needed so it's all I did.
- I did this was well awhile ago. Felt nice to completely control everything.
- Any helpful guids or links you feel like sharing for interested parties?
- Can you elaborate how?
  
  Pihole and pivpn get along like peas and carrots.
  Make the "available ips" your pivpn subnet and ta-da, the mesh functionality of tailscale without the entire connection.
  Want to exit node from the server? Just change the value back to 0.0.0.0/0.

Friendly reminder that Tailscale is VC-funded and driving towards IPO
You know what's to come.
The answer to the question is immediately. Or switch to OpenZiti or Pangolin even.
- I spent an afternoon doing precisely that. Bought a domain, a vps, and setup pangolin. Can't believe how smooth it went.
- @cooopsspace pangolin is not a replacement for tailscale/headscale. different usecase imho. @avidamoeba
  
  Ziti isn't though.
  Point is, you know Tailscale will turn to shit the same way all VC stuff does.
  Make no mistakes VC aren't giving money out of the goodness of their heart, they expect a profit.

What's the benefit over just WG?
- You dont need to manually handle the WG config files. This isn't really an issue when it's just you and your two devices, but once you start supporting more people, like non-technical family members, this gets really annoying really quickly.
  Tailscale (and headscale) just require you to log in, which even those family members can manage and then does the rest for you. They also support SSO in which case you wouldn't even have to create new accounts.
- No need to port forward, almost 0 config.
  https://tailscale.com/blog/how-tailscale-works
- Easier/zero configuration compared to manual WG setup. Takes care of ports and providing transparent relay when no direct connection works.
- Your tech illiterate grandma can set it up. It’s that easy.
- Personally, my IP (T-Mobile 5G) has CGNAT and blocks all incoming traffic. I can't simply Wireguard into my network. Tailscale has been my intermediary to get remote access.
  I guess it's time to figure how how to host an alternative on a VPS (I see Headscale mentioned in these comments).
  
  Tailscale uses WG though, so it's fundamentally the same thing. Like you said - just do Headscale on a VPS.
- WG is worthless in a CGNAT environment... And as we are in 2025 and time doesn't stop it will be irrelevant for everyone someday, unless they fully support IPv6 (which I don't know if they do, if you can use WG in a CGNATED network with IPv6 I'd like to know though, I am very rusty setting it up, but it might worth checking it out).
  
  CGNAT is for IPv4, the IPv6 network is separate. But if you have IPv6 connectivity on both ends setting up WG is the same as with IPv4.

If I host headscale on a VPS, is that as seamless of an experience as Tailscale? And would I miss out on features, like the Tailscale dashboard? How does the experience change for me (an admin type) and my users (non-technical types)?
- There are some community webUIs for Headscale, headplane in particular looks pretty good: https://headscale.net/stable/ref/integration/web-ui/
  I'm not sure otherwise how different the experience would be.

Crap, I really need to switch of Tailscale but currently it is an easy way for me to access my stuff outside of home as a temporary solution while I am on a 5G modem.
- I can recommend to take a look at netbird.io
  
  I can't. I tried it first and installed it on my phone from f-droid. After opening it up, it connected to an already existing network with other people's old machines from years ago on it. I was horrified.
  So then I tried to delete my whole account and couldn't due to an error. I sent them an email about it and they took like two weeks to respond.
  
  Much more user friendly
  Json is awful for config
- Do you pay for a domain? They likely provide dynamic DNS (DNS). If you're lucky, they have an API for it, instead of an app, and you can configure a cronjob on your home server to run every 1-5 minutes (or more often, if your IP is super unstable!).
  
  Yeah I can always do that, but putting stuff behind something like Tailscale is (or atleast feels) more secure than making my IP known to the public. I have a DMZ setup though so it should be fine.

Nerds stop recommending corporate crap: challenge: impossible

Am I totally off-base in thinking that MagicDNS and pluggable DNS nameserver overrides are a huge feature of tailscale?
I love that I can refer to my tailnet devices just via their machine name. I use it everywhere. And also that I can just slot in my NextDNS ID so that any device running tailscale now automatically uses that, and I don’t have to mess with my shared router settings or per device settings. Is all that actually really easy to set up outside of tailscale? Cuz if it is and I just somehow missed that when doing all my research, I’ll happily give plain wireguard or other mesh orchestrators like NetBird a go.
And I already know that mDNS is not the answer. That protocol is simply not reliable enough.
- I use wireguard and have public DNS refer to private IPs.
  For example if my server is accessible at 10.0.0.1 via wireguard then I point *.myserver.mydomain.com to that IP.
  Sorry if I've misunderstood your question.
- Nah, DNS is separate and these features are indeed pretty great. I think Headscale can also do them. I think I tested MagicDNS if I recall correctly.

I'm not that worried as there are alternatives like Netbird. The underlying tech really isn't hard to replicate since Wireguard is pretty standard.
I think it would be cool if Tailscale made it into the enterprise arena.
- I think it would be cool if Tailscale made it into the enterprise arena.
  I think they already have started. Telus is on their list of clients.

pre-emptive pikachu face strike

I think a lot of companies view their free plan as recruiting/advertising --- if you use TailScale personally and have a great experience then you'll bring in business by advocating for it at work.
Of course it could go either way, and I don't rely on TailScale (it's my "backup" VPN to my home network)... we'll see, I guess.
- It also doesn't cost them much of anything
  Positive PR and little draw backs means that everyone is generally pretty happy

I've realized how easy it is to just actually run a network rather than half ass it with tailscale. I recommend this, it's fun.

They also had a major ass security issue that a security company should not be able to get away with the other day: assuming everyone with access to an email domain trusts each other unless it's a known-to-them freemail address. And it was by design "to reduce friction".
I don't think a security company where an intentional decision like that can pass through design, development and review can make security products that are fit for purpose. This extends to their published client tooling as used by Headscale, and to some extent the Headscale maintainer hours contributed by Tailscale (which are significant and probably also the first thing to go if the company falls down the usual IPO enshittification).
- Isn’t that the entire design philosophy of tailscale?: reduce friction, at the cost of some security.
  If security is your main priority, you should be using more secure options, even if they are less convenient or tougher to maintain.
- Headscale maintainer hours contributed by Tailscale
  Could you expand on this?
  
  There's a disclaimer in the readme: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/?tab=readme-ov-file#disclaimer
  The maintainer Tailscale contributes happens to be the lead developer by commit count at the moment.

And here I am, still using OpenVPN in 2025 lol
- Used to run OpenVPN. Tried Wireguard and the performance was much better, although lacking some of the features some might need/want fit credential-based logins etc
  
  Yeah, OpenVPN definitely doesn't have light spec requirements 😅 thankfully hardware is unfathomably powerful these days.

So glad my router supports WireGuard/OVPN server hosting, doing it this way also relieves resources off your homelab and for whatever reason your homelab shuts off or loses network access you can at least rely on your router to re-establish the VPN server without further intervention.

I always knew it was too nice to stay non-shitty forever.
Guess it's time for me to pester my ISP to let me open some ports

Headscale is great if you like networking fun, but that aside I'm not understanding why VC funding is such a black mark to the poster. Tailscale doesn't generate meaningful revenue streams as its early-stage, so it has to secure funding to continue operations until they achieve high enough revenue to go public. That's pretty standard in a business life-cycle, though. It seems like the main complaint is that Tailscale is a business. And what about the Linux Foundation? They are funded through private equity. Should you consider switching away because of that?
- The problem, though, is that VC-funded projects bite off way more than they can chew from the start and have to enshittify to keep shareholders happy at that level.
  Growth for the sake of growth is a fundamentally broken concept. Tailscale provides a free service that many use. They already offer a paid support tier for companies, like other certain FOSS projects do, so why not call it good there? Grow based on actual customer needs, instead of shareholder bullshit "needs" (line must go up 🙄).
- Not that it is a business but is a specific kind of business. VC funded startups eyeing an IPO more often than not start doing things users are not happy with. Maybe tailscale won't, but might as well be aware what kind of company they are acknowledge there is a decent chance of rugpulls
- It seems like the main complaint is that Tailscale is a business. And what about the Linux Foundation?
  The Linux Foundation is not a business.
  
  The businesses that fund the Linux Foundation through private equity are though, aren't they?
- Yup, I don't know if that is OP's intention, but I would agree myself with the complaint that "Tailscale is a business"
  The way I see it, if it's a business it must generate revenue (either now or down the road), and that is enough to have me worried. I do have a Tailscale registration, and the way they approach email communication is already a yellow flag to me (too many ad emails)
  
  yellow flag to me (too many ad emails)
  Weird. I'm not saying you're lying, but besides the registration email, and onboarding welcome email, I can't think of any others I've received from Tailscale. In fact, I just did a search of my email client, and those were the only ones I've received.
  
  That's not really a justifiable reason, though. The Linux Foundation provides grants and scholarships to the open source community, but they do that through private equity business. So transitively, many open source projects are funded by businesses looking to capitalize on that innovation. Do you consider that when pulling from a git repository? No, that's overbearing. Additionally Headscale is in part maintained by a Tailscale employee. That would surely create a conflict of interest given Tailscale is solely interested in generating revenue.
- That's pretty standard in a business life-cycle, though
  I don't know where people ever got the idea that normal = acceptable. I hear this used to justify all sorts of awful crap. It was only ever normalized because users were apathetic.
  And what about the Linux Foundation? They are funded through private equity. Should you consider switching away because of that?
  Does The Linux Foundation have complete control over Linux?
  
  So, companies should not be allowed to invest in other companies? Who is allowed to invest in companies then? Only private individuals? But those individuals are apathetic, so they have to be made to? Or if they don't want to, then since other companies aren't allowed, wealthy private individuals would need to? Its not normal because its acceptable, its normal because the alternative is fantastical and unrealistic.
  To the other point, does Tailscale have complete control over Wireguard? They don't control the technology behind that. They do for their control server tech and to some extent Headscale, but that's not what its built on anymore then what's built on Linux.
  
  Linus is fairly vocal over what is and is not allowed into the Linux Kernel. Pretty sure he has the final say on every commit.

Just use normal wireguard, why do you need tails or heads at all?
- Tailscale offers way more then just wireguard. ACLs, NAT traversal etc. etc.
  While some use cases can be replaced with traditional wireguard, others not.
  
  I'm curious what kind of a use case you can think of that "traditional wireguard" can't replace tailscale for.
  Tailscale has a maximum of 3 users on their free tier, so it seems like a super limited use case of people who DIY their own servers for Jellyfin or HomAssistant or whatever, but just a tad too lazy to setup their own Wireguard service in addition to whatever it is they'd be using it for... I think the vast majority of free tailscale users have simply never actually tried wg-easy , because if they did they wouldnt need to use a third party service.
- Accessing your home network that is kept inside a NAT by your ISP, without you having to acquire an online server somewhere.
  
  Except you do need to acquire an online server somewhere, its just one that tailscale owns and controls instead of you, and when tailscale decides to enshittify and kill of their free tier you'll be left wondering why you didn't just rent a cheap VPS sooner.
  Ask yourself, what is tailscale getting out of those "free" users that makes it worth providing services to them that they'd otherwsie need to rent a VPS for? What do you think their response would be if for example they got pressured about maybe too many users on their network are running a certain video streaming app?
  
  You really don't though. I use wireguard myself under the same scenario without issue. You just need to use some form of dynamic DNS to mitigate the potentially changing IP. Even if you're using Tailscale you'll still need to have something running a service all the time anyways, so may as well skip the proxy.
- Or be like me stuck in the 2000s using OpenVPN still in 2025 lol

Ok and?

Didnt even work for me, i use mullvad so if i wanted to use tailscale on my android to connect to my desktop, it wants me to disable mullvad unlike on my desktop..
- I think that's because both work on Android by being a VPN, and the system can't handle doing two vpns simultaneously
  
  Well not really but most people don’t like manually editing routing tables
- Tailscale offers a paid Mullvad integration, where you can select most Mullvad servers as exit nodes. Works quite well.
  
  Yes, I'm using it as well. It works very well on android and Linux.
- Hmmm. I run PIA and Tailscale simultaneously on my devices. I did have to tinker around with the settings in PIA such as the VPN & Advanced Kill Switch. So, now Tailscale is for administrating remote servers, and PIA for everything else. DNS leak checks, etc all check out.
- Yeah this was a deal-breaker for me too.

become profitable when needed
By what, laying off all QA and support staff and half your developers the moment a single quarterly earnings report isn't spotlessly gilded?

Question: if I setup Headscale on my network, I would have to open a port on my router to connect to it right? And also if I setup Headscale with some cloud provider, could they theoretically go and use the setup to get to my home network? I know its unlikely, I just mean if the technology is like e2e from clients to my home network, or if the cloud headscale 'centre' would be also an unguarded entry point (from the perspective of cloud admins). I hope I am clear 😀 Thanks (btw you probably guess why I currently use Tailscale 😀)
- if I setup Headscale on my network, I would have to open a port on my router to connect to it right?
  The way I understand it is:
  I would have to open a port on my router to connect to it right?
  Yes
  if I setup Headscale with some cloud provider, could they theoretically go and use the setup to get to my home network?
  If they are able to authorize their own node to your Headscale server, then their node gets on your network. If they take over the Headscale node, they might also be able to access your network, either by changing Headscale's config to auth another node or perhaps if the Headscale node is part of the network, which it might be, I don't recall. But I think that's immaterial. If someone takes over the Headscale machine, they can get on your network either way.
  
  So there has to be some trust between you and the cloud provider then. Thank you

Meh. I will keep using it

What is even the point of tailscale? What can it do that other VPN solutions don't? I feel like this is a problem that was solved like 20 years ago and still we're coming up with novel solutions for some reason. At my company they want to start using tailscale and I don't see why we don't just set up wireguard on a node in our k8s cluster instead
- Because I can have 3 phones, 2 tablets, 3 computers and 4 server on the same Tailnet in 15 minutes when starting from scratch
  
  I guess that's neat but I don't think I've ever needed more than one connection to a corpo VPN at a time
- If you are capable of setting up your own personal VPN, you don't need Tailscale. You still may want to use it though, depending on how much of a novelty Network Fun is for you in your spare time.
  For me, the main advantage to Tailscale et al is that it is on a per device basis. So I can access my SMB shares or Frigate setup remotely while still keeping the rest of my internal network isolated( to the degree I trust the software and network setup). You CAN accomplish that with some fancy firewall rules and vlanning but... yeah.
- Because it offers much more than just VPN even though that's what most users use it for. Read their documentation and you'll see

Was listening to some computer podcast a while ago and the co-host and ex- hacker was saying that more and more VPNs are getting targeted and it’s just a matter of time we see quite a bit of them owned. (I think he was talking about implementation of VPNs for remote workers, rather than actual VPN providers. Sorry, it was some time ago)
Anyway, the host asked „What about wireguard?“
And the co-host: „Oh yeah, wireguard is solid! But all the services building up on wireguard? … They’ll get popped.“
Doesn’t have to be true, but something to keep in mind.

I never really understood the point of using Tailscale over plain ol' WireGuard. I mean I guess if youve got a dozen+ nodes but I feel like most laymens topologies won't be complex beyond a regular old wireguard config
- Wireguard doesn't do NAT/Firewall traversal nor does it have SSO
  Tailscale manages the underlying Wireguard for you. I would be great if Wireguard had native NAT traversal but that isn't the case.
- Simplicity?
  
  I mean sure, but I don't think it's simpler than setting up a wireguard config IMO. For tailscale you gotta make an account, register devices, connect them. Feel like wireguard is about the same except you don't have to make an account.
- NAT punching and proxying when a p2p connection between any 2 nodes cannot be achieved. It’s a world of difference with mobile devices when they always see each other, all the time. However, headscale does all that.

Yeah and steam is closed source DRM platform. Great software sometimes is worth the trade off.
- Steam is a private company, not publicly traded and has no VC funding.
  VC funding and potential IPO normally means enshittification is inevitable, as they will eventually need to make insane profits by turning the screws on its users, as their business model wasn't self sustaining.
  
  Enshittification is inevitable for all free services (services as in with a server component). Thankfully the functions of tailscale are open source so until enshittification actually happens I will be happy with using a a useful but VC funded project. When I am not willing to make the trade off anymore I will use headscale or some other drop in replacement.

I didn't really get the allure of it TBH. For most home-based nerds a simple Wireguard host (or OpnSense, OpenWRT etc running such) should be fine, and there are better options for commercial from better-known vendors in the network security space
- The "well known vendors" tend to be crap especially on a security level

Headscale requires tailscale client so it’s a no-go for me. I’m still trying to block cloudflare from my network.
- Tailscale needs Tailscale to work
  That seems obvious

Tailscale is a business seeking profit? (clutches pearls gasp)
- It’s one of the key reasons why everyone here hates plex too so I don’t get why you’re acting like this isn’t a valid concern
  
  ....and what are current Plex users, that don't like the direction Plex has taken, doing ? Riding the next horse. When Tailscale gets unbearable with their business practices, there are a lot of other options. Tailscale is just easy and it flippin' works.
  
  Plex actively removes features though that hasn't happened and like other comments says it's easy to move away in this case

is this some kind of furry porn CDN

- AI SLOPPPPPPPPPPPPP delete this nephew
  
  Fine I deleted it. But it worked so whatever don't need opinions now anyway. I was just asking for advice, it's not like I was trying to pass it off as my own comment or something.