netbird

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.