Enclave Networks vs Pritunl
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Enclave Networks and Pritunl.
Quick Verdict
3.5/5
Enclave Networks
0 reviews
4.0/5
Pritunl
0 reviews
Pritunl is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.5). Enclave Networks provides zero-trust connectivity for distributed teams, MSPs and infrastructure. It replaces traditional VPN with direct peer-to-peer tunnels that require no VPN server, no open firewall ports and no public IP exposure; connections fall back to Enclave-operated relays only when a direct path cannot be established. Pritunl is a self-hosted VPN solution offering user management, multi-protocol support (OpenVPN, WireGuard), and single sign-on capabilities. Built for teams needing controlled network access without vendor lock-in.
Enclave Networks Zero-trust private networking without VPN complexity | Pritunl Open-source VPN server with centralized management and SSO integration | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.5 (0 reviews) | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | MSPs and IT teams connecting multi-site, multi-cloud or hybrid estates that want closed firewalls and policy-driven zero trust connectivity, with per-machine licensing that suits device fleets. | Teams with Linux operations skills that need self-hosted remote access with SSO, audit logs, and full control over where traffic flows. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi access | free tieropen sourceself hostableteam featuressso |
| Visit Enclave Networks → | Visit Pritunl → | |
Enclave Networks
Pros
- + Per-enrolled-system pricing is simple and predictable ($8.00/mo list, $7.33/mo annual)
- + Strong cryptographic defaults: Ed25519 certificates, per-session Curve25519 ECDHE with forward secrecy, AES256-GCM tunnels
- + No VPN concentrator, no open firewall ports, no network reconfiguration — direct peer-to-peer tunnels
- + Multi-tenant portal and subnet gateways fit MSP and multi-site operations well
- + SSO/OIDC trust requirements (Entra ID, Okta, Google, Duo, JumpCloud) gate tunnel establishment
- + Generous honesty in the docs, including a frank explanation of relay fallbacks and their cost
Cons
- - Every container and every machine counts as a paid enrolled system — costs grow with fleet size
- - Free tier is non-commercial only (5 systems); no free commercial usage
- - Relayed fallback paths traverse Enclave-operated servers with higher latency and lower throughput
- - No published uptime SLA or third-party audit report we could find
- - Small vendor (Wales, small-company filings) with a thinner ecosystem than the consumer mesh brands
Pritunl
Pros
- + Free Community tier with a single server and unlimited users — usable without registration or a credit card
- + Per-server pricing with unlimited users keeps licensing flat as teams grow
- + Real identity integration: SSO providers, LDAP/Active Directory/OAuth sources, TOTP and push second factors
- + Security engineering beyond the category norm: SELinux policies, TPM and Apple Secure Enclave device attestation, dynamic firewall
- + Both OpenVPN and WireGuard clients, plus WireGuard/IPsec site-to-site links and multi-cloud VPC peering
- + All source code public on GitHub since 2013 — auditable and customizable via the Python plugin system
Cons
- - SSO, failover clustering, and site-to-site links are gated behind the $70/month Enterprise tier
- - Self-hosting means you own patching, MongoDB operations, certificate rotation, and incident response
- - No vendor SLA or published support response guarantees in the documentation we reviewed
- - MongoDB becomes part of the VPN trust boundary and needs its own hardening
- - Scale claims (thousands of concurrent users) are vendor statements we could not verify independently
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