Soft.xyz is an independent, data-driven platform that compares 232+ developer tools across 69 categories by real metrics — GitHub activity, npm downloads, actual pricing, DX scores, and community sentiment. Unlike pay-to-play review sites, every ranking on Soft.xyz is based on publicly verifiable data pulled from GitHub, npm, and official pricing pages.

How does Soft.xyz collect data?

Soft.xyz pulls data from public APIs including GitHub (stars, forks, commits, open issues, last commit date), npm (weekly download counts), and official pricing pages. Community sentiment data comes from Reddit and Hacker News mention tracking. All metrics are refreshed weekly and timestamped so you can see exactly when data was last updated.

Is Soft.xyz free to use?

Yes, Soft.xyz is completely free to use. All tool pages, comparisons, benchmarks, DX scores, pricing analysis, and category rankings are available at no cost. For teams that need a deeper analysis, we offer a paid Stack Audit report ($199) that evaluates your entire tech stack with personalized recommendations. An API is also available for programmatic access to our dataset.

How many tools does Soft.xyz track?

Soft.xyz tracks 232 developer tools across 69 categories including databases, hosting, authentication, payments, analytics, CI/CD, monitoring, search, CMS, and more. Each tool page includes real-time GitHub metrics, npm download counts, pricing breakdowns, and side-by-side comparisons with alternatives in the same category.

Networking & VPN

Mesh networks, tunnels, zero-trust connectivity

Reviewed byRoman K· 2026-05-06

Soft.xyz tracks 4 networking & vpn tools, 4 with a free plan. Paid entries start at $0/mo (Cloudflare Tunnel) and go up to $8/mo (ngrok). Most GitHub traction: Tailscale with 33,000 stars. Rankings below use real metrics, not vendor claims.

4 networking & vpn tools currently tracked: 1 open source, 3 with a managed free tier, 0 paid-only.

By GitHub activity the most popular is Tailscale (33.0k stars). The leading pure open-source option is ZeroTier.

Cheapest paid plan in the list starts at $5/mo (ZeroTier).