Open-source alternatives to Wireguard Docs

EasyTier is a decentralized peer-to-peer virtual private network and mesh networking tool. It functions as a layer 3 network overlay that establishes secure tunnels between devices without requiring a centralized server or coordinator. It also serves as a WireGuard-compatible VPN, capable of acting as a server for standard WireGuard clients. The project distinguishes itself through multipath latency-based routing and the use of KCP or QUIC proxies to mitigate packet loss and stabilize connections in high-loss environments. It provides a virtual networking manager featuring a web management co

libp2p is a modular peer-to-peer networking stack designed for building decentralized applications. It provides the core infrastructure necessary for nodes to discover and connect with other participants across a network without relying on central servers. The project distinguishes itself through a flexible transport layer that abstracts multiple protocols, including TCP, QUIC, WebSockets, and WebTransport, into a single interface. It features specialized tools for NAT and firewall traversal, such as hole punching and relay nodes, to establish direct connections between peers and web browsers

Toxcore is a peer-to-peer networking library that implements a decentralized communication protocol for secure messaging and media calls without the use of central servers. It provides a core engine for establishing direct encrypted connections between devices using a public-key identity system where unique identifiers serve as both addresses and authentication keys. The project features a decentralized network architecture that utilizes a distributed hash table for peer discovery and Kademlia-based routing to locate participants. To maintain connectivity across restrictive network environmen

Pangolin is a zero-trust remote access platform designed to provide secure, identity-aware connectivity to private network resources. It functions as a cloud-native network controller that orchestrates encrypted tunnels, traffic routing, and access policies across distributed environments. By leveraging WireGuard for secure data transport, the platform enables authenticated access to internal web applications, terminal sessions, and remote desktops without exposing services to the public internet. The platform distinguishes itself through a declarative infrastructure model that synchronizes n

WireGuard Manager is a system orchestration tool designed to automate the deployment, configuration, and lifecycle management of virtual private network infrastructure. It functions by translating high-level user intent into precise, declarative system configurations, managing kernel-level network interfaces, and enforcing firewall-based traffic control to ensure secure, isolated network routing. The project distinguishes itself by providing a centralized web-based management interface that abstracts the complexity of manual configuration files. It includes comprehensive administrative tools

Iroh is a peer-to-peer networking stack and distributed system designed for secure direct connections, content-addressed storage, and synchronized data sharing. It provides a foundation for decentralized applications by combining a QUIC-based networking layer with primitives for distributed state and data transfer. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive suite of decentralized capabilities, including a distributed data store using conflict-free replicated data types for collaborative synchronization and a content-addressed storage system for verifiable, resumable transfers of

Firezone is a zero trust network access platform that uses WireGuard to provide identity-based connectivity to internal network resources. It functions as a virtual private network that synchronizes authentication and user groups via OpenID Connect providers. The system implements a group-based access control engine to enforce least privilege by restricting network resources to specific user groups. It utilizes holepunching and relay protocols for NAT traversal to establish encrypted tunnels through firewalls without requiring inbound ports. The platform includes a control plane for managing

rustdesk-server is a self-hosted remote desktop server infrastructure designed to manage ID signaling and relay traffic for remote connections between peers. It provides the necessary backend environment to coordinate remote access sessions through rendezvous-based signaling and relay-based traffic forwarding. The system distinguishes itself with a remote access management console for organizing devices and enforcing security policies, as well as an identity integrator for OIDC-based federation and LDAP directory synchronization. It utilizes geolocation-aware routing to distribute traffic acr

This project is a curated collection of deployment files and configurations for hosting a wide variety of open-source services on a home server. It primarily utilizes Docker and Docker Compose to automate the orchestration, lifecycle management, and deployment of containerized applications. The repository provides a comprehensive suite for self-hosted infrastructure, covering network management tools, media streaming, and home automation. It includes specialized configurations for securing internal services via reverse proxies, WireGuard VPN tunnels, and automated SSL/TLS certificate manageme

wireproxy is a user-space WireGuard client and network gateway that establishes secure tunnels without requiring root privileges or system-wide interface changes. It functions as a VPN proxy that can expose WireGuard connections as SOCKS5 or HTTP proxies. The project provides specialized routing capabilities, including a TLS SNI proxy that directs encrypted traffic based on Server Name Indication and a gateway for mapping local TCP and UDP ports to remote destinations. It supports multi-peer management to route traffic between several endpoints using defined IP ranges. Additional capabilitie

This project provides a containerized DNS sinkhole and network-wide traffic filtering solution. It functions as a central network resolver that intercepts domain queries, allowing users to block advertisements, trackers, and malicious domains by returning null responses to connected devices. The platform distinguishes itself through its integrated DHCP server and comprehensive management capabilities, which allow for automated IP address allocation and granular control over network traffic. It supports complex filtering through regular expression matching, hierarchical rule prioritization, an

udp2raw is a network tunneling tool designed to bypass firewalls and obfuscate UDP traffic. It wraps UDP packets in alternative headers and utilizes raw socket networking to move data through networks that otherwise block or throttle UDP traffic. The project distinguishes itself by simulating TCP connections, mimicking the three-way handshake and sequence numbering to trick firewalls into treating UDP streams as TCP traffic. It further stabilizes these connections through heartbeat-driven port rotation, which automatically switches ports to recover sessions after detected failures. The tool

v2ray-core is a network proxy framework and custom proxy engine designed for censorship circumvention. It functions as a traffic routing platform that directs network data between inbound and outbound connections to access blocked content and services. The system employs a modular architecture using pluggable protocol handlers and a chain-based connection pipeline to transform and forward network traffic. It provides secure tunneling infrastructure to establish encrypted connections and uses a rule-based routing system to direct data between protocols and destinations. The framework includes

Shadowsocks-android is a secure tunneling application and SOCKS5 proxy client for Android. It routes device network traffic through a Shadowsocks proxy server to encrypt data, mask the user's internet origin, and bypass network restrictions. The client functions as an Android VPN service, creating a virtual network interface to intercept and redirect all outgoing device traffic. It supports the integration of external binary plugins to extend tunnel capabilities with custom transport protocols and traffic obfuscation methods. The project manages network routing through a local SOCKS5 server

Shadowsocks-iOS is a proxy client for iOS devices that implements the Shadowsocks protocol to tunnel network traffic through a secure, encrypted relay. Its primary purpose is to route device traffic through a proxy server to bypass network censorship and regional restrictions. The project establishes secure proxy tunneling to protect data from local monitoring and hide internet activity. It manages iOS network traffic routing using custom encryption protocols to avoid network interference. The implementation utilizes a system-level network extension framework and a local virtual network inte

ShadowsocksX-NG is a macOS application that functions as a Shadowsocks proxy client to establish encrypted tunnels for bypassing network censorship. It operates as an encrypted tunnel manager that allows for the configuration of secure ciphers and the import of proxy server profiles. The client includes a proxy converter that transforms SOCKS5 traffic into HTTP proxy traffic to provide compatibility for applications that do not support SOCKS. It also integrates a traffic steering system using Proxy Auto-Configuration files to automatically determine which network requests bypass the proxy. T

Gluetun is a containerized network utility designed to route traffic from multiple Docker containers through a secure virtual private network tunnel. It functions as a network gateway that encapsulates outgoing internet traffic to provide privacy and security for isolated application services. The project distinguishes itself by utilizing Linux network namespaces to isolate container traffic, ensuring that all outgoing packets are forced through a dedicated tunnel interface. It supports both OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, managing the connection lifecycle and routing logic as a sidecar cont

Netmaker is a platform for automating and managing virtual mesh networks built on WireGuard. It functions as a centralized control plane that orchestrates encrypted, peer-to-peer tunnels across distributed infrastructure, including cloud environments, on-premise data centers, and containerized clusters. By automating the configuration of routing tables and access policies, the system enables secure, private connectivity between diverse devices and services without requiring manual network administration. The platform distinguishes itself through its focus on zero-trust network access and soft

go-libp2p is a Go implementation of the libp2p modular networking stack, providing a library for building peer-to-peer applications. It functions as a decentralized application framework that separates transport, security, and discovery layers into pluggable modules for cross-platform interoperability. The library establishes peer-to-peer connections through a modular transport abstraction that supports multiple protocols, while using public key cryptography for peer identity and protocol-agnostic security transports for encrypting and authenticating all traffic. It enables distributed peer d

Chisel is a network tunneling tool that facilitates secure communication by encapsulating TCP and UDP traffic within HTTP requests. It functions as a connection multiplexer, consolidating multiple logical network streams into a single persistent connection to improve throughput and reduce overhead. By leveraging standard web protocols, the system enables firewall traversal and provides a mechanism for remote port forwarding and proxying. The project distinguishes itself through its focus on resilient connectivity and granular access control. It maintains persistent network sessions across uns

Oblivion is an encrypted tunneling service and internet privacy tool designed to route network traffic through private encrypted tunnels. It functions as a network privacy gateway that masks user identity and encrypts web traffic to prevent tracking and unauthorized surveillance. The project acts as a secure network proxy that combines end-to-end encryption with latency-optimized routing to increase data throughput and reduce network lag. This infrastructure allows for the masking of a device's public identity by relaying connections through a private network. The system provides capabilitie

Surge is a network traffic routing and configuration system designed to categorize and steer network requests using curated rule sets, domain lists, and IP databases. It provides the data structures and filtering logic necessary to manage how application traffic is directed across proxies, direct connections, or regional gateways. The project distinguishes itself through granular traffic identification and steering. It identifies network requests by matching them against system process names, user-agent strings, and geographic IP ranges to apply specific routing policies. This allows for the

Open vSwitch is a software-defined network switch and high-performance data plane engine. It functions as a virtual layer 2 switch and network orchestrator, implementing the OpenFlow protocol to decouple the control plane from the data plane for programmable network forwarding. The project distinguishes itself through a userspace-kernel datapath split and the use of poll-mode drivers for kernel-bypass acceleration. It provides a network tunneling gateway to extend virtual networks across physical hosts and utilizes a transactional, schema-based configuration database with state replication fo

pwnat is a set of software utilities designed for TCP hole punching, network tunneling, and proxy-based port forwarding to bypass network address translation restrictions. It functions as a tool for establishing direct TCP connections between hosts located behind separate network address translators without requiring manual port forwarding, DMZ configurations, or third-party servers. The project enables peer-to-peer TCP tunnels by exploiting network address translation table properties to bypass firewalls. It provides a proxy that routes local port traffic to remote hosts and ports through pe

A Rust port of shadowsocks

Ricochet is a decentralized, peer-to-peer anonymous chat client and messaging protocol. It enables the exchange of encrypted text messages and files without relying on central servers, using Tor hidden services to mask the network addresses and identities of all participants. The project eliminates communication metadata by removing central coordinating authorities, preventing the discovery of contact lists or timing patterns. It utilizes a peer-to-peer connection model where every client acts as both a server and a client, employing public key signatures and cryptographically signed invitati

alt-sendme is an accountless peer-to-peer file transfer tool designed for sending files and folders directly between devices. It operates as a decentralized sharing service that utilizes portable access tickets for identity exchange instead of centralized user accounts. The project distinguishes itself through NAT and firewall traversal capabilities, using UDP hole punching and relay-based fallback routing to establish direct connections between remote devices. It supports multi-device data broadcasting, allowing a single file or folder to be shared with multiple recipients simultaneously thr