One master Linux client —
cloned to the entire fleet.
ThinForge brings the proven VDI golden-image principle directly to your thin-client hardware. You install Linux exactly the way you need it — ThinForge rolls it out to every machine and keeps it current with signed delta updates. The entire software is open source.
What you'll notice on day one.
Three things that make the difference in daily work.
Full freedom of operating system
Distribution, software, configuration — all your call. No locked-in vendor stack, no artificial limits. And because ThinForge is open source, you can always read exactly what the software does.
Maintain once, roll out everywhere
One well-maintained golden image is enough. ThinForge ships it to every thin client and keeps it current with signed, incremental delta updates.
Local execution, not streaming
Applications run natively on the hardware — without the latency of a streaming solution and without a server farm behind it. Printers, USB and local devices simply work.
The VDI golden-image principle — running directly on the hardware.
You pick the distribution — Debian is the proven choice, though in principle any distribution works — and install exactly the programs your users need, setting up the desktop, printers, browser profiles, VDI clients, line-of-business software or specific drivers to suit your environment. The finished state is saved as a golden image in ThinForge.
There is no mandated software catalog, no locked system image, no vendor cloud you have to depend on. The full breadth of the Linux ecosystem is open to you.
The idea from the VDI world: a single administrator maintains one master image, every user gets the same clean state. ThinForge brings this principle out of the data center and directly to the endpoints — without render servers, without session brokers, and without a data center that has to keep running.
How it sits on your network.
ThinForge runs as a Docker stack on a server inside your LAN — with two separate network interfaces: one for management from the browser, one for your thin clients. Home offices are connected via the ThinVPN service in the cloud; the VPN technology underneath is NetBird, the open-source platform by the German company of the same name. Your server builds that connection itself, outbound from the LAN. You do not have to open anything inbound.
Left: your LAN with admin browser, ThinForge server (management & client interface) and thin clients · Middle: your firewall · Right: the ThinVPN relay service (NetBird-based) in the cloud with attached home-office users. The green line shows the outbound tunnel.
Complete management. From the browser.
Inventory, rollout and remote access — everything in one interface. No vendor cloud, no third-party accounts, no telemetry. And since the source code is open, you don't have to take our word for it — you can check.
Rollout in minutes
PXE boot, multicast and an integrated BitTorrent seeder with its own tracker push the golden image in parallel to dozens of devices at once.
Incremental delta technology
Instead of re-cloning every device, ThinForge ships only the changes against the master. The previous state is kept as a snapshot — rollback is right there in the boot menu.
Clients & groups
Live inventory with status, online check, hardware detection and CSV import / export. Group and filter devices — the way you need it.
Built-in remote desktop & remote terminal
Direct remote access to every client from the browser — desktop and terminal, no plugins and no separate software on the admin PC.
Home office via ZTNA VPN — no internet-facing ports
Secure connection of home-office workstations via the ThinForge VPN service, without having to expose a single inbound port. The VPN technology is NetBird, made by the German company of the same name; configuration and keys are distributed centrally by the ThinForge server.
Golden-image workshop in the browser
Build, version and roll out images directly on the ThinForge server — with a version tree and snapshot history. Packages, drivers and line-of-business software stay under your control.
Open standards. Open source code.
ThinForge consistently builds on established open protocols and formats — and is itself fully open source. The entire source code is publicly available; nothing about it ties you to a vendor.
The software is open source.
Maintenance € 4.50 per client — VPN € 6 on top.
ThinForge itself costs nothing: the source code is open, and up to 50 clients the software runs without any license file at all. If you want ongoing support, book maintenance at € 4.50 per thin client per month. If a client should also be connected over VPN/ZTNA (home office, remote site), € 6.00 per VPN client per month is added for the hosted ThinVPN service — so a connected client costs € 10.50 per month. Bandwidth and traffic per site are handled by the VPN profiles below.
All prices per device / month · billed annually · final prices.
Care for your ThinForge installation: updates of the server components, security patches and our help when a golden-image rollout gets stuck. Applies to every connected thin client.
- Updates & security patches for the ThinForge server
- Email support for rollout and update questions
- Prioritised handling of bug reports
Secure ZTNA access built on NetBird (WireGuard, open source by the German company NetBird) — without any open ports. Added on top of maintenance (€ 4.50) — per client with VPN. Bandwidth and traffic per site are handled by the VPN profiles (A through D, larger sizes on request).
- WireGuard tunnel per site, no open ports
- Central key generation and distribution
- Included traffic per profile, additional traffic billed transparently
- New devices can be connected without on-site IT staff
A profile for every site.
Pick a profile per remote site or home-office bundle — client capacity, monthly base fee and included traffic are fixed. Additional traffic is billed transparently.
| Profile | Up to clients | One-time setup | Base fee / month | Included traffic | Additional traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A · Small Office | 25 | € 180 | € 150 | 30 GB | € 0.80 / GB |
| B · Standard Branch | 50 | € 180 | € 300 | 55 GB | € 0.70 / GB |
| C · Business | 150 | € 300 | € 900 | 165 GB | € 0.70 / GB |
| D · Mid-Range | 350 | € 420 | € 2,100 | 385 GB | € 0.60 / GB |
| E · Enterprise | > 350 | on request — dedicated VPN endpoints, individual SLA | |||
Roughly 5 GB of traffic is accounted for per 50 clients. Bandwidth demand e.g. for Citrix / Horizon ≈ 5 Mbit/s per active client. The profiles are independent of thin-client maintenance — maintenance still applies per device (€ 4.50 / month).
What will it cost for your fleet?
Number of thin clients on a maintenance contract.
Share of devices connected via ZTNA VPN (max. = total devices).
Final prices · billed annually. VPN is booked per site as a profile (base fee = profile capacity × € 6) — the calculator assumes € 6 per active VPN client and ignores setup fees and additional traffic. Setup workshop and image service come on top, one-time.
Large fleets · from 500 devices or multiple sites
Multiple sites, higher bandwidths, dedicated VPN endpoints, individual SLA. We tailor the profile to your infrastructure — beyond the standard profiles.
Six hours of joint work: install ThinForge on your server, set up the network and PXE, build the first golden image together.
You provide the requirements, we build the golden image. Optionally ongoing care for a base image as part of the maintenance contract.
Annual renewal. Devices can be added at any time — billing is pro-rated.
The entire ThinForge source code is public — at git.thinforge.org. You never depend on us: the software stays open and usable, even if one day we are no longer around.