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NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN

netmaker.io

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Re: NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN

#2

Post by jeroenhd »

The feature list reminded me of Tailscale so I went looking and found this on their website: https://www.netmaker.io/resources/tailscale-vs-zerotier

Their comparison graph at the bottom seems to indicate that the differentiating features between their product and Tailscale is that you can't self-host (ignoring the existence of headscale) and that WireGuard support is limited. I believe the latter point refers to the default Tailscale configuration that connects every node with every other node, whereas NetMaker allows different network configurations.

However, Tailscale ACLs should allow you to reconfigure the network into shape you want, so I'm not sure if that criticism still applies. Their claim that "data will pass through their relay (DERP) servers fairly regularly" also seems suspect, as that's only the case for networks where UDP traffic doesn't flow between clients despite STUN/TURN, which is very rare in practice.

The only advantage I can find is that NetMaker has a richer free plan and that they use the WireGuard kernel module where possible. I'm not sure why they didn't lead with that.

Re: NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN

#4

Post by webstrand »

jeroenhd wrote: post #2

The feature list reminded me of Tailscale so I went looking and found this on their website: https://www.netmaker.io/resources/tailscale-vs-zerotier Their comparison graph at the bottom seems to indicate that the differentiating features between their product and Tailscale is that you can't self-host (ignoring the existence of headscale) and that WireGuard support is limited. I believe the latter point refers to the…

Tailscale doesn't offer an official self-hosted control server, right? That seems to be an advantage of NetMaker.

It has no equivalent to tailnet lock, though, as far as I can tell.

Re: NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN

#6

Post by zupzupper »

hackermeows wrote: post #5

Why is this better than running wireguard directly on a cheap instance .

These over the top services handle node discovery and meshing for you, instead of you having to feed configurations manually down to each device you want to hook up to wireguard.

Convenience features etc

Re: NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN

#7

Post by minimalist »

Related, from earlier this year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35584533

Wherein the author compares Yggdrasil, tinc, Tailscale, Zerotier, Netmaker, Nebula, and ends up prefering Yggdrasil. Actually, it was this comparison that made me look into Netmaker and prefer it and I've been running it without issue for experimentation. I hope the author revisits NM.

I agree that the project is moving quickly, which results in having to stay on top of changes to your configuration with releases, but they're still on 0.xx releases so it's to be expected.

Since Netmaker is just vanilla wireguard with some route coordination and STUN/TURN, it's reasonable for me to wrap my head around system. Docs are written for self-hosters. These are all good signs.

Re: NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN

#9

Post by shrubble »

jeroenhd wrote: post #2

The feature list reminded me of Tailscale so I went looking and found this on their website: https://www.netmaker.io/resources/tailscale-vs-zerotier Their comparison graph at the bottom seems to indicate that the differentiating features between their product and Tailscale is that you can't self-host (ignoring the existence of headscale) and that WireGuard support is limited. I believe the latter point refers to the…

You seem very familiar with this topic... have you ever evaluated 'tinc'?
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