What is Rabtly?
Rabtly is a private network tool that connects your devices securely over the internet. It’s built on top of WireGuard — one of the fastest and most secure networking technologies available — but you don’t need to know anything about WireGuard to use Rabtly.
The problem Rabtly solves
Imagine you have a home server, a work laptop, and a cloud VM. Normally:
- Reaching your home server from outside requires port-forwarding on your router (complex and risky).
- Cloud VMs have public IPs — you must harden them against attacks.
- Sharing internal tools with a teammate means either giving them credentials or setting up a traditional VPN.
Rabtly removes all of that complexity. Every device gets a private IP address, and Rabtly handles the connection automatically — even through firewalls.
Key concepts
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Node | Any device running Rabtly (laptop, server, VM) |
| Network | A group of nodes that can see each other |
| Dashboard | The web app where you manage your network |
| Daemon | The small background program running on each device |
Two ways to use Rabtly
Self-hosted — You run the control plane on your own server. Free, fully under your control. Great for developers and home labs.
Rabtly Cloud (coming soon) — Rabtly hosts everything for you. No server needed.
These guides focus on the self-hosted setup. If you’re waiting for Rabtly Cloud, sign up for early access at rabtly.io .
What you’ll need
- A server or VPS to run the control plane (a $5/month VPS works perfectly)
- The devices you want to connect (any Linux, macOS, or Windows machine)
- About 10 minutes
Ready? Let’s go.