NetBird is an open-source WireGuard network between your devices, with access policies and a management server you can run yourself. Paperboat also connects your machines privately and focuses on working on them: terminals, SSH, files, secrets, previews and tunnels.
Checked against NetBird's own documentation and pricing, November 2026. Sources are listed under the table.
NetBird builds a private WireGuard network with policies and leaves the work to your usual tools; its dashboard can open an SSH session in the browser.
Paperboat is one install per machine and a sign-in. There is no network, gateway or proxy to plan, and nothing to keep running besides the machines themselves.
NetBird SSH sessions end when the connection drops, like any SSH session.
Paperboat terminals run on the machine and keep running when your laptop sleeps or the network drops. When you come back, from the same computer, another one or a browser, you see what happened while you were away, and you can let someone watch or type along.
$ netbird ssh devbox$ pb devboxNetBird keeps everything private; it doesn't publish a port to the internet.
pb preview gives a port a public HTTPS link in one command, and pb tunnel keeps a permanent address with your own domain, on every plan.
$ pb preview 3000NetBird is open source and you can run the whole service on your own servers.
With Paperboat you can run your own relays and tunnel servers, but the control plane is hosted. If self-hosting everything matters most, NetBird fits better.
Every answer in the NetBird column carries a number that links to the page of theirs that says it. Put a second tool beside it
A shell on your machine that you can leave and come back to.
Run one command on another machine and get its output and exit code.
Use ssh and the tools built on it, without managing keys or opening ports.
Send a file to a machine without setting anything up.
The secrets your programs need, delivered to the machine that runs them.
The same settings on every machine, from a repository you control.
A public link to a port on your machine, for as long as you need it.
A public address for a service that stays the same.
Your machines reach each other's ports without exposing them.
Who could read your traffic on the way.
Working with other people, and deciding who may do what.
Which parts you can run on your own servers.
Where it runs.
How you pay, and what is free.
What each product does, from its own documentation, as of November 2026. “No” means its documentation describes no such feature. Found something out of date? The other product's page wins; tell us and we fix ours.
netbird.io/pricing, November 2026
Paperboat's code is public on GitHub; the hosted control plane is run by Paperboat, and relays and tunnel servers can be self-hosted.
Install Paperboat here, then on a second machine. Free for personal use, no card needed.
$ curl -fsSL https://get.pprbt.dev/install | bash > irm https://get.pprbt.dev/install.ps1 | iex