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netbirdio/netbird

📈 Trending★ 25,319GoAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 4/5ActiveLicenseSetup · hard

TLDR

NetBird creates a secure private network across all your devices worldwide using automatic peer-to-peer encryption, replacing traditional VPN complexity.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((NetBird))
    What it does
      Mesh network
      Auto discovery
      Encrypted tunnels
      Relay fallback
    Key features
      WireGuard protocol
      Web admin panel
      SSO and MFA
      Access rules
    Deployment
      Cloud hosted
      Self-hosted
      Multi-platform
    Use cases
      Remote access
      IoT networks
      Home lab
      Corporate VPN

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Set up secure remote access for employees to company servers without opening firewall ports or managing VPN gateways.

USE CASE 2

Connect IoT devices and home lab machines across the internet without static IPs or complex network configuration.

USE CASE 3

Replace a traditional corporate VPN with a simpler, peer-to-peer encrypted network that works across mobile carriers.

USE CASE 4

Manage access control and authentication across distributed infrastructure using SSO and fine-grained permission rules.

Tech stack

GoWireGuardDockerLinuxmacOSWindows

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1day+

Requires management server setup, agent deployment across multiple OS platforms, and WireGuard kernel module configuration.

NetBird is open source under a permissive license allowing free use for any purpose, including commercial deployment.

In plain English

NetBird is a tool for creating a secure private network across all your machines, servers, laptops, phones, regardless of where they are in the world. The problem it solves is that connecting devices across the internet normally requires opening firewall ports, configuring VPN gateways, and wrestling with network rules. NetBird handles all of that automatically using WireGuard (a modern, lightweight encryption protocol) as the foundation. When you install NetBird on your machines, they automatically discover each other and form a peer-to-peer encrypted mesh network (meaning each device talks directly to the others, not through a central server). If a direct connection isn't possible due to strict network restrictions (common on mobile carriers), it falls back to a relay server to keep things connected. You manage who can talk to whom through an admin web interface, with support for SSO (single sign-on, like logging in with Google or Microsoft), MFA (multi-factor authentication), and fine-grained access rules per group. You'd use NetBird when you need employees to securely access internal company servers from home, want a simple replacement for a traditional corporate VPN, or need to connect IoT devices or home lab machines without a static IP. It runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, OpenWRT, Docker, and serverless environments. You can use their hosted cloud service or self-host the whole thing on your own VM. Written in Go.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up NetBird to connect my home lab servers so I can access them securely from anywhere?
Prompt 2
Show me how to configure NetBird access rules to let only certain team members reach specific internal services.
Prompt 3
What's the difference between using NetBird's cloud service versus self-hosting it, and how do I migrate between them?
Prompt 4
How do I integrate NetBird with my company's SSO provider so employees can authenticate automatically?
Prompt 5
Walk me through deploying NetBird on Docker and connecting mobile devices to the mesh network.
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.