{
  "name": "Tailscale",
  "slug": "tailscale",
  "pricingModel": "freemium",
  "normalized": {
    "currency": "USD",
    "entry": {
      "plan": "Standard",
      "perMonth": 8,
      "unit": "seat",
      "unitNoun": "user",
      "billing": "monthly",
      "free": false,
      "contactSales": false
    },
    "plans": [
      {
        "plan": "Personal",
        "perMonth": 0,
        "unit": "unknown",
        "unitNoun": null,
        "billing": "unknown",
        "free": true,
        "contactSales": false
      },
      {
        "plan": "Standard",
        "perMonth": 8,
        "unit": "seat",
        "unitNoun": "user",
        "billing": "monthly",
        "free": false,
        "contactSales": false
      },
      {
        "plan": "Premium",
        "perMonth": 18,
        "unit": "seat",
        "unitNoun": "user",
        "billing": "monthly",
        "free": false,
        "contactSales": false
      },
      {
        "plan": "Enterprise",
        "perMonth": null,
        "unit": "unknown",
        "unitNoun": null,
        "billing": "unknown",
        "free": false,
        "contactSales": true
      }
    ],
    "hasFreePlan": true,
    "hasFreeTrial": true,
    "contactSalesOnly": false
  },
  "pricingDetails": {
    "tiers": [
      {
        "name": "Personal",
        "price": "Free",
        "features": [
          "100 devices",
          "Nearly all features",
          "$0.50/extra device"
        ],
        "isPopular": false,
        "description": "3 users",
        "priceMonthly": 0
      },
      {
        "name": "Standard",
        "price": "$8/user/mo",
        "features": [
          "Unlimited users",
          "SCIM user and group provisioning",
          "Up to 10 ACL groups",
          "Device posture integrations"
        ],
        "isPopular": true,
        "sourceQuote": "$8Per user, per month",
        "priceMonthly": 8
      },
      {
        "name": "Premium",
        "price": "$18/user/mo",
        "features": [
          "100 + 20/user devices",
          "Tailscale SSH",
          "Full ACLs",
          "Network logging"
        ],
        "isPopular": true,
        "description": "Advanced",
        "priceMonthly": 18
      },
      {
        "name": "Enterprise",
        "price": "Contact us",
        "features": [
          "Custom limits",
          "SCIM provisioning",
          "Tailnet Lock",
          "Session recording"
        ],
        "isPopular": false,
        "description": "Large orgs",
        "priceMonthly": null
      }
    ],
    "currency": "USD",
    "trialDays": 14,
    "billingNote": "Secure private network / VPN alternative.",
    "hasFreeTier": true,
    "hasFreeTrial": true
  },
  "costFacts": null,
  "pricesByRegion": null,
  "verdict": "Tailscale has made WireGuard-based mesh networking absurdly simple, what used to require manual key exchange, firewall rules, and config files now takes one login. The free tier at 3 users and 100 devices is generous enough for most personal and homelab use. The Starter plan at $6/user/month is competitively priced against both traditional VPNs and competitors like ZeroTier. The real value inflection is Premium at $18/user/month, where Tailscale SSH eliminates SSH key management entirely, a genuine operations burden removed. The billing model (charged monthly for active users) means you only pay for people who actually connect, which is fairer than seat-based licensing. The 50% nonprofit/education discount is a nice touch. The main concern is vendor dependency: your entire network topology lives in Tailscale coordination servers, and while traffic is peer-to-peer and encrypted, the control plane is proprietary.",
  "bestFor": "Personal (Free): Up to 3 users and 100 devices for free, indefinitely. Includes nearly all of Tailscale features, MagicDNS, subnet routing, exit nodes, key expiry, and ACLs. For a solo developer connecting a laptop, NAS, homelab, and cloud VMs, this is a fully functional zero-trust network at zero cost. | Personal Plus ($5/mo): Expands to 6 users while keeping 100 devices and all core features. Useful for sharing a homelab, NAS, or game server with family members. At $5/month flat (not per user), it is one of the cheapest ways to create a private mesh network for a household. | Starter ($6/user/mo): First two weeks free. 100 base devices plus 10 per additional user (pooled). Includes MagicDNS, basic ACLs, split tunneling, and Kubernetes Operator. No hardware, no config files, no port forwarding, users install the client and they are on the network. Dramatically simpler than WireGuard manual setup or traditional VPNs. | Premium ($18/user/mo): First two weeks free. 100 base devices plus 20 per user. Adds Tailscale SSH (no SSH key management), Funnel for public-facing services, full ACL functionality, MDM policies, configuration logging, and priority support. The SSH feature alone eliminates an entire class of infrastructure tooling. | Enterprise (Custom): Custom device limits, user/group provisioning (SCIM), Tailnet Lock, posture management, SSH and Kubernetes session recording, log streaming, and dedicated support. Invoice and annual billing available. Required for organizations that need SOC 2-compliant network audit trails.",
  "hiddenCosts": [
    "Active user billing: Tailscale charges for any user who connects during a billing period. A contractor who connects once in a month counts as a full active user at $6 or $18. No prorating for partial use",
    "DERP relay traffic: peer-to-peer connections are free, but when NAT traversal fails, traffic routes through Tailscale DERP relays. This is included but adds latency and reduces throughput, monitor relay usage for performance-critical paths",
    "No built-in DNS filtering or threat protection: Tailscale routes traffic but does not inspect it. You still need a separate DNS filtering solution (Pi-hole, NextDNS) and endpoint security. It replaces the VPN, not the firewall",
    "Subnet router hosting: connecting legacy devices or entire subnets requires running a subnet router on your infrastructure. This node must stay online 24/7, adding an operational burden Tailscale does not manage for you",
    "Exit node bandwidth: using a Tailscale node as an exit node (full tunnel) routes all traffic through that machine. Cloud-hosted exit nodes incur egress charges from your cloud provider, a busy exit node on AWS can cost $0.09/GB outbound",
    "Premium-only features that teams expect: SSH session recording, log streaming, and SCIM provisioning are Enterprise-only. Most growing teams will outgrow Starter quickly and face a 3x jump from $6 to $18/user/month"
  ],
  "recentChanges": [
    {
      "date": "2026-11-03",
      "summary": "Plans changed: Standard added at $8 per user a month; Personal Plus, Starter removed."
    }
  ],
  "priceHistory": [
    {
      "date": "2026-11-02",
      "entryPrice": 8,
      "plans": [
        {
          "name": "Personal",
          "price": "Free"
        },
        {
          "name": "Standard",
          "price": "$8/user/mo"
        },
        {
          "name": "Premium",
          "price": "$18/user/mo"
        },
        {
          "name": "Enterprise",
          "price": "Contact us"
        }
      ],
      "source": "read",
      "url": null
    }
  ],
  "partnerLink": false,
  "provenance": {
    "lastVerifiedAt": "2026-11-03",
    "sourceUrl": "https://tailscale.com/pricing",
    "confidence": "high"
  },
  "source": "Toolradar",
  "citation": "Toolradar, verified 2026-11-03, https://toolradar.com/tools/tailscale/pricing",
  "affiliateUrl": "https://toolradar.com/api/go/tailscale?ref=mcp&key=json",
  "toolradarUrl": "https://toolradar.com/tools/tailscale/pricing"
}