Smallstep ZTNA vs Tailscale
Smallstep ZTNA
smallstep.com
Tailscale
tailscale.comSide by side
| Figure | Smallstep ZTNA | Tailscale |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $1/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 8 |
| Spec score · Business VPN Software | 7.8 (#58) | 9.4 (#5) |
| Company | Smallstep’s about page describes a globally distributed team; its 2024 company blog says its founder started Smallstep about six years earlier. | Tailscale identifies itself as Tailscale Inc.; the company page describes connecting coworkers, company databases, and family members as use cases. |
| Compliance | Smallstep’s support article says its SaaS platform has SOC 2 Type II certification and that customers can request the audit report by emailing support. | Tailscale says it has completed SOC 2 Type II certification covering security, availability, and confidentiality. |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Integrations | Smallstep’s featured integrations include AWS, Stripe, Google Cloud Platform, Slack, Intune, Salesforce, GitHub, Okta, Jamf, and ServiceNow. | Official integration documentation covers cloud servers, containers and virtual machines, serverless apps, databases, code environments, firewalls, web servers, NAS devices and MDM. |
| What it does | Smallstep Enterprise Relay is a transparent VPN that uses standards-based private MASQUE relays, mutual TLS, and hardware-bound device certificates to control access to SaaS apps, internal networks, and AI initiated workflows. | 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
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
Smallstep ZTNA
Smallstep ZTNA has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
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.