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Aruba Remote Access Points vs Tailscale comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Remote Access Points
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Tailscale
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba Remote Access Points is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tailscale is 4.3%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tailscale4.3%
Aruba Remote Access Points1.2%
Other94.5%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Theesula Majuwanagamage - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of ELV and ICT at Intec Systems Solution Pvt Ltd
Efficient Setup and Strong Performance Highlight Versatile Capabilities
In terms of areas for improvement in Aruba Remote Access Points, when planning for the customer's end, you need to highlight the precautions against EMF emissions and environmental emissions, as well as power management limitations. If the user is in one direction and you're transmitting everywhere, that's not good power management. Currently, all access points provide the same power requirement to the client, but we should explore what extra mile we can go. We are facing energy crises and climate issues, along with GHG and SDGs protocols. If we highlight the alignment with these protocols, it can enhance the product quality as an environmentally friendly option. Apart from that, service-wise, every unit is the same. Users can only distinguish those requirements using spectrum analyzers; otherwise, minor data delays of one or two seconds do not matter, but for high-security or high-speed needs, it becomes significant.
Adeniyi Stephen - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at CloudKite.io
Secure access has simplified hybrid connectivity and has unified multi-cluster workflows
I would say that in terms of Tailscale, if I have so many tailnets I need to connect to, there are some issues in the login process that need a little bit of attention from the Tailscale team. Sometimes, you would probably need to restart your entire system for it to connect. As a DevOps as a Service engineer, I have so many clients that are using Tailscale, and I would need to connect to maybe five different tailnets because they are different clients. Client A might have a Tailscale, Client B, Client C, and so on. When changing between tailnets, sometimes it hangs. Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system. This is a bit of a headache in that aspect. However, I believe if you are just using a particular tailnet, just one, then it is quite easy and there won't be any headache. For me, I think it can be improved in the aspect of having multiple tailnets to connect to. A good refresh on the Tailscale side and the backend side to refresh the connection anytime there is a new connection to be made would be helpful. Instead of needing to restart the system, it should be able to refresh itself. The connection side and connecting to multiple Tailscale instances can be problematic, and sometimes you have to restart your system when switching between them. The ACL sometimes is like another language on its own entirely. It is fine, but they need to make it in a YAML format instead of the current format because it is quite new and something you have to go and study. If they can make it like a YAML format, that would be better. Aside from the switching which I mentioned and the fact that you have to relearn their ACL, if the ACL could be in a YAML format instead of JSON format, that would be beneficial. I don't think there is much they can do about the switching of tailnets, but if they can have a YAML format of the ACL, that would be good. Every other thing is a ten out of ten. The connection-wise is easy to set up and easy to install. It is good to have things connected all together from on-premises, from so many environments, and even exit nodes as well. It is good overall. The pricing, I think Tailscale can be a little bit on the higher side. It is not for teams with just small users. If you want to set it up for small users and a small startup, I don't think you can afford it and might need to go to other open-source alternatives. It is good for teams that have maybe fifty plus users or one hundred users. In terms of pricing, I would say it is on the higher side, but it is worth it. The price is worth the functionality. As a user, I would say it is more on the higher side, but based on its functionality, it is worth the price.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Aruba works well in large spaces, especially for manufacturing. That's when you start seeing the effectiveness of Aruba."
"This solution is widely adopted and involves both technology and non-technical devices. It is robust, except in cases of significant power outages."
"It is a very stable tool."
"Aruba Remote Access Points provide a level of protection for our IPs."
"We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without issues."
"The Aruba Remote Access Points are simple, not expensive, and very intuitive for management and configuration."
"It's easy to manage."
"The tool's most valuable features are its ease of configuration and deployment."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization and consulting work by making remote connections easy, significantly reducing the friction and making this very reliable, even behind difficult networks with CGNAT or other situations that make establishing connections difficult using other means."
"In terms of how Tailscale has impacted my organization positively, it is good for security on the network side of things and helps us connect properly, so because our company is remote globally, even if someone is in Australia and needs to connect to a cluster or any services, instead of routing through the public internet and exposing the traffic there, we can connect internally through Tailscale tailnets and everybody is working."
"The most positive impact Tailscale has had on my organization is significant."
"For my organization, we use Tailscale for our database as a secure way to access our VPC, and it is an easy, lightweight, and very useful way for everyone to connect and disconnect with a very nice UI."
"There is no better option than this."
"This quick setup with Tailscale has saved me probably days of work that I would have spent learning how to configure traditional VPN solutions, more traditional solutions like WireGuard, where I would have had to learn their entire configuration process and it would have taken days just to set that up."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization with shorter time for setting up connections and improved accessibility."
"Since implementing Tailscale, we have seen improved remote access reliability, reduced VPN maintenance overhead, faster onboarding for new users, and stronger security through identity-based access controls, all while significantly lowering the administrative workload."
 

Cons

"But the hardware needs to be revamped when we compare the Meraki solution."
"The price of Aruba Remote Access Points could be better. It is a little expensive."
"I don't really have any critiques at this time."
"One thing that would be beneficial is for the Aruba Central mobile app to work more effectively. Currently, it does not function as expected when I really need it."
"I would rate stability as five out of ten. Sometimes it is stable, and sometimes it is not."
"The solution is costly for medium-sized companies."
"It could have better monitoring features."
"The product is not user-friendly."
"Tailscale could be improved with more advanced network visibility and monitoring tools, cleaner pricing tiers for scaling teams, and enhanced built-in reporting for device posture and controls for enterprise environments."
"I would not say anything in Tailscale's use case could be improved; what it does and its intended use is perfect, but the application on the laptop is a little buggy since it continuously opens in the background when it should not be."
"Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system for it to connect."
"One thing I want Tailscale to improve is their user interface for Arch Linux, which is one of the devices I have that I installed Tailscale on, but they do not have the native package with full features, a capability I really want them to develop."
"I initially got introduced to Tailscale in high school when I needed access to services running on my server, but due to deep packet inspection being in place, I could not use Tailscale."
"I am currently testing the ability to expose to the WAN certain services that we select, which is in beta. I imagine it is still in development, but from the tests we have done, the connection outward is quite slow, which is a point of curiosity, and I hope that aspect can be improved."
"I think Tailscale can be improved by enhancing the free side of things."
"Currently, if Tailscale goes down, our services are not operable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of pricing, we've found Aruba's offerings to be very competitive."
"There are no other expenses than standard licenses for the product."
"Price-wise, Aruba Remote Access Points is in the middle, so my rating for its pricing is three out of five."
"Aruba pricing is not very high. They offer competitive pricing for what they provide."
"The price of Aruba Remote Access Points could be better. It is a little expensive."
"You require no separate licensing to convert an access point to RAP."
"Aruba Remote Access Points' pricing is good and affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
19%
Construction Company
11%
Government
6%
Healthcare Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Remote Access Points?
This solution is widely adopted and involves both technology and non-technical devices. It is robust, except in cases of significant power outages.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Remote Access Points?
We do not use Zero Touch Provisioning with Aruba Remote Access Points because the Aruba device being expensive compared to cheaper Cisco options holds us back.
What needs improvement with Aruba Remote Access Points?
The device requires reconfiguration if we use a standalone setup because the battery fault leads to all configurations resetting. This is a significant area for improvement, especially when the dev...
What needs improvement with Tailscale?
Tailscale could be improved in different ways. I have not really found any problem with it so far. It pretty much solved the problems of other VPN clients that we have been trying. If Tailscale pro...
What is your primary use case for Tailscale?
My main use case for Tailscale is connecting to company internal systems due to GDPR requirements. The company is located in Germany with private servers in Germany, and I stay in the UK, so I use ...
What advice do you have for others considering Tailscale?
My advice to others looking into using Tailscale is to definitely try it out because it is going to really abstract away a lot of network problems, especially when it comes to private networks, pri...
 

Also Known As

Aruba RAP
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trafford Metropolitan Borough
Bamboo Health, Duolingo, Shiguredo, Instacart, Corelight, Machinify, Bolt, Mercari, Cobalt, Yugabyte, Jasper, VersaBank, Zego, Gini and Finter
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Remote Access Points vs. Tailscale and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.