Netmaker vs Tailscale
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Netmaker and Tailscale.
Quick Verdict
3.6/5
Netmaker
0 reviews
4.1/5
Tailscale
0 reviews
Tailscale is rated higher (4.1 vs 3.6). Netmaker is an open source platform for creating and managing WireGuard virtual networks. Self-hosted on your infrastructure. More feature-rich than raw WireGuard with a dashboard and ACL management. Tailscale creates a private WireGuard mesh between all your servers and devices with zero config. Works through firewalls and NAT. Free Personal plan for non-commercial use: up to 6 users with unlimited user devices.
Netmaker Self-hosted WireGuard network management | Tailscale Zero-config WireGuard mesh VPN for your infra | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.6 (0 reviews) | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | DevOps teams that want self-hosted WireGuard mesh networking with a dashboard, ACLs, and site-to-site links under their own control | Developers and small teams running servers across multiple providers who want secure mesh connectivity without managing bastions, VPN concentrators or firewall rules |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceself hostableapi access | free tieropen sourceapi accessteam features |
| Visit Netmaker → | Visit Tailscale → | |
Netmaker
Pros
- + Free community tier is unlimited — self-hosted, Apache 2.0, unlimited networks and devices
- + Per-active-connection billing with hourly proration instead of idle seat licenses
- + Peer-to-peer WireGuard mesh keeps traffic off a central bottleneck; relay and egress gateways cover hard NAT cases
- + Deployment choice: fully self-hosted, Netmaker Cloud, or fully managed by their team
- + Dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 networks, private DNS, OAuth, ACLs; SCIM/SIEM/traffic logs on Business
Cons
- - Very small vendor (single-digit headcount, ~$2.8M raised) behind a critical-path product
- - Pricing page mixes current per-connection rates with legacy platform/network fees and a $99/month plan — billing basis is ambiguous
- - Community tier is community-supported only; SLAs are Enterprise-only
- - Self-hosting the server adds operational overhead (upgrades, database, TLS, monitoring)
- - Native mobile meshing not supported — phones connect via gateway and the standard WireGuard app
Tailscale
Pros
- + Near-zero-config WireGuard mesh: devices connect peer-to-peer through NAT with no firewall surgery
- + Free forever for non-commercial use (up to 6 users, unlimited user devices)
- + Seat-based billing is predictable; invited-but-inactive users do not occupy seats
- + Full IPv6 support inside the tailnet plus IPv4/IPv6 interoperability via relays
- + Open-source clients; self-hostable control plane (Headscale) exists for the trust-constrained
Cons
- - Proprietary hosted control plane coordinates key exchange and sees network metadata
- - Not a privacy VPN — anonymous internet exit is an add-on or your own exit node
- - SLA-backed support is a paid add-on package on every plan, including Premium
- - Tagged-resource and ephemeral-minute meters can raise the bill for Kubernetes-heavy fleets
- - Seat overage auto-charges and is not refunded when seats are reduced afterwards
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