NetFoundry vs Tailscale
NetFoundry
netfoundry.io
Tailscale
tailscale.comSide by side
| Figure | NetFoundry | Tailscale |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $1/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 8 |
| Spec score · Business VPN Software | 8.8 (#16) | 9.4 (#5) |
| Company legal name | The Google Play listing identifies the developer as NetFoundry Inc. | The maker identifies itself as Tailscale Inc. |
| Compliance | The documentation page lists SOC 2 Type II reports and describes HIPAA eligibility, GDPR and CCPA data processing agreements, and framework guidance. | Tailscale says it has completed SOC 2 Type II certification covering security, availability, and confidentiality. |
| Documentation depth | The documentation includes API guides and references, integration instructions, identity and policy guides, deployment planning, upgrades and troubleshooting. | The documentation includes technical references for ACL policy syntax, CLI, API, OAuth clients and tsnet plus production, security and integration guides. |
| Encryption | The platform authenticates both endpoints with mutual X.509 identity before a connection is established. | Tailscale says its WireGuard-based connections are end-to-end encrypted and that it cannot read users’ traffic. |
| Founded | G2 lists NetFoundry's founding year as 2019. | 2019 |
| Identity integrations | The console supports SCIM provisioning integrations with Okta, Microsoft Entra ID and Google Workspace. | SSO and MFA can use existing providers including Google, Microsoft AD, GitHub, Okta and OneLogin. |
| Integrations | The platform supports connections to external identity providers and documents SCIM for automated identity management. | Official integration documentation covers cloud servers, containers and virtual machines, serverless apps, databases, code environments, firewalls, web servers, NAS devices and MDM. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.0 out of 5 from 8 reviews | 4.6 out of 5 from 31 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.6 out of 5 from 7 reviews | 5.0 out of 5 from 1 review |
| Rating on Google Play | 5.0 out of 5 from 23 reviews | 4.4 out of 5 from 4.58K reviews |
| Self-hosting | NetFoundry Self-Hosted can run on infrastructure the customer owns, including on-premises and air-gapped environments. | Users can run the independent Headscale open-source coordination server or self-host DERP relays, but Headscale is community-maintained and outside Tailscale support. |
| Support | The commercial self-hosted offer includes 24×7 enterprise support, while OpenZiti lists community support through Discourse, GitHub and documentation. | Tailscale provides documentation, a support request form, community channels, and plan-dependent support levels; Premium lists priority support. |
| System requirements | The self-hosted quickstart calls for 4 CPUs, 16 GB RAM and 50 GB storage, with Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 listed for air-gapped deployments. | The iOS app requires iOS 16.6 or later, iPadOS 16.6 or later, visionOS 1.0 or later, and tvOS 17.0 or later. |
| What it does | NetFoundry provides identity-based zero-trust connectivity for workloads, APIs, applications, devices and sites, designed to work without VPNs or open inbound ports. | Tailscale is an identity-based secure-connectivity platform built on WireGuard that links teams, clouds, CI/CD, IoT, Kubernetes, AI workloads and personal devices. |
Plans
NetFoundry
- OpenZitiFree
- NetFoundry CloudPriced on request
- NetFoundry-HostedPriced on request
- NetFoundry Self-HostedPriced on request
- NetFoundry Self-HostedPriced on request
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
In their own words
NetFoundry
NetFoundry provides identity-first zero-trust connectivity for AI, API, and machine-to-machine workloads. Workloads connect outbound without open or listening ports, with access governed by identity and least-privilege policy. Before a connection is established, both endpoints authenticate using mutual X.509 identity. The platform records authentication, authorization, and policy changes, can stream audit events, and exports connection, throughput, and health metrics. It supports external identity providers and documents SCIM for automated identity management; listed SDKs cover Go, C, .NET, Java, Node, and Swift. NetFoundry Cloud offers dedicated controllers and routers deployable on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. Self-Hosted can run on customer-owned infrastructure, including on-premises and air-gapped environments. The company describes use cases including governing AI agent, model, and tool access, microsegmenting workloads, and connecting IT, OT, IoT, and APIs. Both listed deployment plans include 24×7 support. Select and Premium support list platform availability SLAs of 99.5% and 99.95%, respectively. Pricing is on request. The documentation lists SOC 2 Type II reports and describes HIPAA eligibility, GDPR and CCPA data processing agreements, and framework guidance.
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.