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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
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba Remote Access Points is 1.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tailscale is 4.4%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tailscale4.4%
Aruba Remote Access Points1.1%
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

"We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without issues."
"The solution is very stable, I haven’t heard about any failure of the access points, it seems to be reliable and the performance is good, there are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn’t crash or freeze."
"We have many government colleges here and provide a wireless network to all students, faculty, and teachers, so we have deployed their security access network and firewall security."
"Aruba Remote Access Points provide a level of protection for our IPs."
"The stability and performance of Aruba Remote Access Points with minimal issues in an IT environment are worth a recommendation."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is experienced by those working at home since they get a secure Wi-Fi connection."
"What I like best about Aruba Remote Access Points is that it's pretty easy to set up."
"The platform has the most valuable advanced filtering feature."
"Tailscale has been helping my organization a lot, primarily for security, as I do not have to open up any port in my router, which is really helpful."
"Tailscale is incredibly easy to use, and I will always sing its praises."
"Tailscale is a very solid framework and is very useful for smaller companies if they want to start out or even bigger companies who want to have a robust network of devices that they want to manage."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization by making the previously unusable doorbell with the cloud solution fast and reliable for remote access."
"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."
"The biggest benefit of Tailscale is simplicity; it is quick to set up and provides a stable and secure connection."
"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."
 

Cons

"I don't really have any critiques at this time."
"There is room for improvement in terms of pricing. If they can be more competitive."
"Our difficulty with Aruba is that the product and the license are two different items. So, if we are adding an access point, we have to pay for two items. We have to pay to add the access point in the controller and we have to pay for the license."
"But the hardware needs to be revamped when we compare the Meraki solution."
"The solution is costly for medium-sized companies."
"Its scalability capabilities should be improved."
"The product needs an increased level of security for the end user."
"They can add more graphical reporting systems so that network admins and system admins get more information about user usage, such as which user, what they use, and when they use it."
"I am currently facing an issue where on my Mac, Tailscale does not allow me to log in to multiple accounts."
"The only improvement I see for Tailscale is that I would love to check out Headscale to fully host it on my own infrastructure."
"Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options."
"Another issue is that when I use Tailscale with other alternatives such as Radmin and ZeroTier, it takes high priority and takes all the incoming connections, even if the other alternative has a different IP scope."
"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."
"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 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

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

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
14%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

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 Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your primary use case for Aruba Remote Access Points?
We have a solution that is completely Aruba, including the controller, access point, and switch. We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without iss...
What needs improvement with Tailscale?
I would love to see two specific improvements brought to the Tailscale Android client, both of which are standard in several other VPN applications: * The app currently lacks the ability to automat...
What is your primary use case for Tailscale?
I use Tailscale to connect to my home server for various tasks, such as checking its status and streaming movies or series from my media server. I also use it to monitor my home surveillance system...
What advice do you have for others considering Tailscale?
I am currently utilizing Tailscale's free tier, and it has performed flawlessly. For any individual, hobbyist, or small team looking for a seamless, secure way to remotely access home servers and l...
 

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: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.