Many people are familiar with the security advantages of using a VPN or a VPN. By connecting to a VPN server, you can access an encrypted connection and hide your IP address from your ISP or malicious actors trying to gain access to your accounts. But the best VPN services can also be used to securely connect to devices, whether to enable remote desktop work or simply to share essential files from one PC to another. Tailscale claims to be a simple way to set up a secure VPN network. Our Tailscale review will take a look at its plans, quirks, interface, support, and security to see if it lives up to expectations.
Tailscale offers 4 basic tiers of plans (Image credit: Tailscale)
Packages and prices
Setting up a personal device network with Tailscale is free. A user can add up to twenty devices. Tailscale also offers a Personal Pro plan for $5 a year that extends personal accounts up to 2 devices. For companies that require accounts for multiple users, the Team plan is €XNUMX per user per month, which lets each user connect up to XNUMX devices and XNUMX administrators. For more devices, the enterprise plan costs €XNUMX per user per month and allows ten devices per user and unlimited administrators. Companies that require an unlimited number of devices per user will need to upgrade to the Enterprise tier and contact Tailscale for costs.
Tailscale has a secure VPN with no configuration files or firewall ports (Image credit: Tailscale)
Features
Tailscale's primary feature is the ability to create a "mesh" VPN, where each and every device on the network can connect to each other directly. This is different from traditional "hub and spoke" VPN, where each device is routed through a "hub" server, which means that a device must go through a server to connect to another device. The mesh model allows for faster and more secure connections between devices. Tailscale's main attraction is that it's extremely easy to set up, allowing your devices to connect with each other in minutes. In contrast to potentially difficult network setup, Tailscale offers the peace of mind that comes from knowing you haven't left any vulnerabilities open in your firewall. Tailscale fournit une adresse IP stable por caque appareil de votre réseau, ce qui facilita la connexion à votre appareil ou à celui d'un collègue depuis n'importe où et elimine le besoin de reconfigurador votre réseau si vous déplacez l'emplacement physique d' a waiter. Tailscale's Taildrop feature allows users to easily share files of any kind and size directly between their devices, without mediators. We tested this feature and found it to be even faster than Apple's AirDrop, sending small files virtually instantly. One downside to Taildrop is that it can only share between devices owned by the same user, so team members can't use it to share documents with each other. This restriction is understandable, as it's easy to see how the feature can be bloated, but can hinder its efficiency for some businesses.
The Tailscale administration menu is clean and simple, with only certain little tabs and options (Image credit: Tailscale)
Interface and in use
In the Tailscale app and browser, devices can see all other active devices on the internet and their unique IP addresses. With the browser-based admin panel, users have more options. You can also monitor services running on machines on the network, view a list of users, set controls for certain users, set up automatic domain names for devices with Tailscale's Magic DNS, and enable and disable settings like Taildrop. Once configured, Tailscale's more advanced features require technical knowledge (for example, access controls are JSON-based).
Tailscale has an overly comprehensive documentation section (Image credit: Tailscale)
Support
At first, Tailscale support seems pretty lightweight. A browser link that says "Support" only leads to an email address, offering no options for phone or live chat. However, just about any question you might have about Tailscale is covered in detail in its documentation section, as well as a full explanation of how Tailscale works and how it stacks up against certain contenders. It can still be too comprehensive for some users, as it can be quite difficult to find a quick answer. There is also a fairly active discussion forum where users can post questions or bugs and get support from the Tailscale developers and community.
Tailscale's usual questions have answers about their security (Image credit: Tailscale)
Security
Traffic between devices using Tailscale is end-to-end encrypted, which means that absolutely no one in Tailscale can see what you're sending. No connection is routed through the Tailscale servers, and most connections are just peer-to-peer between the 2 machines. Tailscale users must log in with multi-factor authorization. Users sign in to Tailscale with their existing Google, Microsoft, or GitHub accounts. Since users don't have a separate Tailscale account, there's no way to hack it, adding an extra layer of security.
Competition
Tailscale is a different genre of VPN from the popular hub and radio options. Therefore, users who are only looking for an encrypted way to browse the Internet or move their IP address to another location should look elsewhere, such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
Final verdict
Tailscale is incredibly easy to set up and is a great tool for developers who need easy access to multiple machines, or for businesses looking for a simple VPN for remote workers. However, as Tailscale is still partially new, certain features are still under development. You still can't share securely outside the network, to show a user a work in progress, for example. Since Tailscale is free for personal users, we advise you to at least review it to see if it might work for you.