Tailscale

Tailscale provides modern mesh networking by eliminating the need for bastion hosts, VPN concentrators, and centralised network appliances. Rather than routing all traffic through a single gateway, Tailscale creates direct encrypted peer-to-peer connections between devices using WireGuard protocol, with automatically brokered key exchange and firewall hole-punching to traverse NAT. Identity-based access control replaces traditional IP-whitelisting; policies enforce access based on user identity, device posture (antivirus status, disk encryption), and role rather than source IP address. The platform supports cross-platform deployment (Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, NAS systems, IoT devices) and infrastructure-agnostic connectivity across single cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Deployed by over 40,000 businesses including Microsoft, NVIDIA, Duolingo, and Hugging Face, Tailscale offers tiered pricing: Personal tier (free for up to 6 users), Standard (£8 per user per month), Premium (£18 per user per month, with advanced security features), and Enterprise (custom pricing for large organisations). All tiers support unlimited devices per user and seamless roaming between networks. Premium tier unlocks network flow logs, device posture integration, just-in-time access workflows, and priority support. The platform also provides Aperture, a separate tool for governing AI agent access to infrastructure. Tailscale competes with traditional VPNs (NordVPN, ExpressVPN), Cloudflare's Zero Trust platform, and custom WireGuard deployments. Unlike consumer VPNs, Tailscale focuses on private network access rather than internet anonymity. Advantages include simplified deployment (setup takes minutes), direct peer connections reducing latency, and unified access control. However, it requires active deployment and management; enterprises cannot simply enable it as a passive security layer.