# Tailscale Peer Relays 15 Hacker News commenters recommended Tailscale Peer Relays and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Lets Tailscale devices relay traffic for peers behind difficult NAT, improving speed and reliability without running separate DERP servers. ## Why people recommend it - Improves speed and performance (5 comments): "By distributing relay infrastructure to the edges, Tailscale is reducing its own operational cost per user while improving performance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47064181)) "something like Peer Relays is essential for Tailscale to perform the way larger deployments expect" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47066805)) "deploying one is always a performance and reliability improvement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47064974)) - Avoids running separate DERP servers (4 comments): "you can easily enable this feature on an existing subnet router without the need to set up and manage a separate DERP instance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47067447)) "they seem like they'd be better suited than dedicated derp nodes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856428)) "without the complexity of running your own DERP servers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47070292)) - Easy to deploy and manage (3 comments): "you can easily enable this feature on an existing subnet router without the need to set up and manage a separate DERP instance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47067447)) "You should be able to stand up a peer relay on an existing tailscale device" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47065591)) "they're super lightweight and much easier to deploy + manage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47064432)) - Improves availability and reliability (4 comments): "Ok sure using these new peer nodes will greatly reduce this from even a chance of happening anymore." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47069391)) "We've setup and used peer-relays since it was first announced and they've been great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47084812)) "seems like it would solve that race condition entirely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47078582)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Tailscale](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tailscale.md): 809 recommend - [Headscale](https://hackerapproved.com/p/headscale.md): 79 recommend - [ZeroTier](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zerotier.md): 19 recommend - [OpenZiti](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openziti.md): 10 recommend - [Tela](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tela.md): 10 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://tailscale.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Tailscale Peer Relays", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tailscale-peer-relays/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).