Networking · alternatives
Alternatives to Twingate
21 networking tools sit alongside Twingate in this directory. Below is what separates each from Twingate on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 21
- With a free tier
- 13
- Cheaper to start
- -
- Twingate starts at
- Free
Why people look past Twingate
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. Twingate has a free tier. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Zero-trust mesh VPN built on WireGuard with identity-based access
- Publishes an entry price of Free, where Twingate does not.
- Sold on a freemium model rather than Per user per month.
- 4 tiers to Twingate's 3.
Open source WireGuard mesh VPN with identity based access policies and a hosted control plane
Priced and rated the same as Twingate on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Identity-aware session broker for infrastructure access without distributing credentials
- Publishes an entry price of Free, where Twingate does not.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per user per month.
- 2 tiers to Twingate's 3.
Open source infrastructure monitoring, free at its core, with paid support and modules sold separately by Icinga GmbH
- Sold on a Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately model rather than Per user per month.
- 2 tiers to Twingate's 3.
Free, community-driven network monitoring with commercial support sold by a third-party partner, not the project itself
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee; commercial support sold by a third-party partner model rather than Per user per month.
- 1 tier to Twingate's 3.
Software-defined mesh networking, free up to 10 devices and one network, then billed per device
- Sold on a Free up to 10 devices and 1 network, then per additional device per month model rather than Per user per month.
Every Twingate alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twingate (this page) | Free | Per user per month | 3 | |
| TailscaleA mesh network rather than a broker, and it connects machines to each other as well as users to resources | Free | Freemium | 4 | vs Twingate |
| NetBirdOpen source with a self hostable control plane, if a hosted proprietary broker is the blocking objection | Free | Per user per month | 3 | vs Twingate |
| HashiCorp BoundaryIf the requirement is brokered, session recorded access to infrastructure rather than general application access | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Icinga | Free | Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately | 2 | vs Twingate |
| LibreNMS | Free | Open source, no licence fee; commercial support sold by a third-party partner | 1 | vs Twingate |
| ZeroTier | Free | Free up to 10 devices and 1 network, then per additional device per month | 3 | vs Twingate |
| pfSense | Free | Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate | 2 | vs Twingate |
| OpenVPN | Free | Open source core is free; Access Server billed per simultaneous connection | 3 | vs Twingate |
| Catchpoint | Free | Free tier plus published entry tiers, enterprise quote-only | 4 | vs Twingate |
| Nebula | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Headscale | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Twingate |
| Zabbix | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Netdata | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Domotz | On request | Per collector or per managed device per month | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Juniper Mist | On request | Quote, hardware plus required Wi-Fi Assurance subscription | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Auvik | On request | Quote, per managed device | 1 | vs Twingate |
| Kentik | On request | Annual contract only, per tier | 2 | vs Twingate |
| Cisco Meraki | On request | Quote, hardware plus mandatory recurring licence | 1 | vs Twingate |
| PRTG Network Monitor | On request | Per sensor tier, billed monthly on an annual contract | 5 | vs Twingate |
| ThousandEyes | On request | Quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts | 1 | vs Twingate |
| MikroTik RouterOS | On request | One-time purchase, per licence level | 2 | vs Twingate |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Twingate badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
What you would be giving up
Twingate is most often brought in for retiring a vpn concentrator that grants whole network access to anyone who authenticates, giving contractors access to two internal applications without putting them on the corporate network, reaching private cloud resources across several accounts without building peering and bastion hosts, producing per user access logs for an audit that a network level vpn cannot supply. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Twingate is broadly right and the question is cost, the Twingate pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Networking category lists everything the directory holds, and best networking tools ranks them.
Twingate runs on windows, macos, linux, ios, android, docker. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Twingate alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Twingate?
- 21 other networking tools are listed in this directory, led by Tailscale, NetBird, HashiCorp Boundary, Icinga. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Twingate?
- 13 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Tailscale, NetBird, HashiCorp Boundary, Icinga, LibreNMS.
- Is there a reason to switch away from Twingate?
- Nothing in the data flags one. Twingate has a free tier. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from Twingate?
- Twingate is most often brought in for retiring a vpn concentrator that grants whole network access to anyone who authenticates, giving contractors access to two internal applications without putting them on the corporate network, reaching private cloud resources across several accounts without building peering and bastion hosts, producing per user access logs for an audit that a network level vpn cannot supply. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Twingate?
- None of the networking tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Twingate alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Networking, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Twingate against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Twingate covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every networking tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Networking category, 21 tools beside Twingate. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.