Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Netmaker

wg-easy is an all-in-one WireGuard VPN solution that bundles a WireGuard server with a web-based admin interface. It simplifies provisioning and managing VPN clients while providing visibility into connected peers and traffic.

Key Features

• All-in-one deployment: WireGuard plus web admin UI
• Create, edit, enable/disable, and delete VPN clients
• Generate and display client QR codes and download configuration files
• Connection status and per-client traffic statistics with Tx/Rx charts
• One-time links and client expiration support
• Prometheus metrics support
• IPv6 and CIDR support
• Optional 2FA support
• Light/dark mode and multilingual UI

Use Cases

• Managing a home lab or small team VPN without manual config editing
• Quickly onboarding devices via QR code configuration
• Monitoring VPN usage and traffic per client with basic metrics

wg-easy is well-suited for users who want a straightforward way to deploy WireGuard and handle day-to-day client administration through a browser. It combines simple operations with useful visibility features while keeping WireGuard management approachable.

iodine is a tunnel application that transports IPv4 traffic through DNS, using a client and server to create a virtual network interface and route IP packets over DNS queries and replies. It is commonly used in constrained networks where direct internet access is blocked but DNS is still permitted.

Key Features

• Client/server IP-over-DNS tunnel using a TUN/TAP virtual interface
• Works across multiple platforms (Linux, BSDs, macOS, and Windows)
• Supports multiple DNS record types for transport, with autodetection for best throughput
• Automatic probing of fragment/packet sizes to optimize performance
• Challenge-response login and basic peer filtering to reduce unauthorized injection
• Can fall back to raw UDP tunneling when direct UDP to port 53 is possible

Use Cases

• Remote connectivity from restricted networks that only allow DNS traffic
• Creating a temporary backchannel for administration and troubleshooting
• Running a second-layer VPN or SSH-over-tunnel for more secure transport

Limitations and Considerations

• Carries IPv4 payload only; tunneled traffic is not encrypted by default
• Throughput is constrained and often asymmetric, depending on DNS relays and policies
• Client and server typically need matching versions due to protocol compatibility

iodine is a pragmatic tool for establishing connectivity over DNS when other protocols are blocked, offering portability and performance-focused DNS transport choices. For security-sensitive scenarios, it is best used as a transport for an encrypted layer such as VPN or SSH.