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Cisco Catalyst Center vs Tailscale

Cisco Catalyst Center

cisco.com

Tailscale

tailscale.com

Side by side

FigureCisco Catalyst CenterTailscale
Price from—$1/mo
Free plan—Yes
Free trial—Yes
Open source—Yes
WebYesYes
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
iOS—Yes
Android—Yes
APIYesYes
Self-hostedYesYes
Plans published28
Spec score · Cloud Network Management Software7.7 (#6)8.7 (#1)
Spec score · Connectivity Solutions7.8 (#17)8.8 (#8)
Spec score · Business VPN Software7.1 (#83)9.4 (#5)
Access controlsIt supports predefined and custom fine-grained user roles, including administrator, network administrator, and observer roles.ACLs use users, groups, IPs, CIDRs, hosts and tags in directional default-deny policies to control which identities can connect.
Founded19842019
IntegrationsCisco documents integrations with ISE, ThousandEyes, Webex, Microsoft Teams, ServiceNow, Infoblox, and BlueCat, plus generic APIs for other ITSM and IPAM systems.Official integration documentation covers cloud servers, containers and virtual machines, serverless apps, databases, code environments, firewalls, web servers, NAS devices and MDM.
SupportCisco says Catalyst and Cisco DNA software subscriptions include embedded software support and downloads; opening a support case requires a Cisco Service Contract.Tailscale provides documentation, a support request form, community channels, and plan-dependent support levels; Premium lists priority support.

Plans

Cisco Catalyst Center

  • Cisco DNA AdvantagePriced on request
  • Cisco DNA EssentialsPriced on request

Cisco Catalyst Center pricing →

Tailscale

  • PersonalFree
  • Standard$8 a month
  • Premium$18 a month
  • Additional tagged resources$1 a month
  • Add more tagged resources$1 a month
  • Mullvad$5 a month
  • Mullvad add-on$5 a month
  • EnterprisePriced on request

Tailscale pricing →

In their own words

Cisco Catalyst Center

Cisco Catalyst Center has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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Tailscale

Tailscale is a zero-config VPN for connecting users and devices across a network. It uses WireGuard to form low-latency peer-to-peer connections, which Tailscale says are end-to-end encrypted so it cannot read users’ traffic. Administrators can use access control lists to specify which users may connect to which devices. Supported identity providers handle authentication, and SCIM supports user and group provisioning. Monitoring features include configuration audit logs, network flow logs, webhooks, and log streaming to SIEM partners. Device posture information can be used in connectivity rules. Taildrop transfers files between devices, while node sharing lets users share a node without exposing it to the public internet. The service runs on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows. Personal is free forever for non-commercial use and supports up to six users; Standard costs $8 per user per month. Premium costs $18 per user per month and includes priority support.

Visit tailscale.com