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Google Cloud VPN 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

Google Cloud VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
5
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 Google Cloud VPN 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%
Google Cloud VPN1.1%
Other94.5%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Prashast Tripathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Customizes networks with flexible configurations and high reliability
Google Cloud VPN offers a lot of flexibility to customize, supporting dual track IPv4 and IPv6, and v6-only configurations. It supports dynamic routing, and the SLA is a key factor with a 99.999% reliability. The Cloud VPN tunnel supports up to 250,000 packets per second for both ingress and egress traffic.
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

"Google Cloud VPN offers a lot of flexibility to customize, supporting dual track IPv4 and IPv6, and v6-only configurations."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud VPN are its speed, connectivity, and reliability."
"Google Cloud VPN is a reliable and easy-to-use solution."
"Any time we had an issue with connecting the OpenVPN to a user, we just to them on the group's VPN and connected our VPN."
"The most valuable feature of the product is its compatibility with almost every network."
"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."
"The best features Tailscale offers are the ease of use and the security it provides for data in transition."
"The best features Tailscale offers for me are how easily we can connect to different clusters and different systems."
"There is no better option than this."
"With Tailscale, I set it up and forget it because it just works, allowing me to avoid worrying about the whole VPN aspect of my home network architecture."
 

Cons

"The price for Google solutions could be cheaper. In general, I would rate it a seven."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement. Additionally, cost-efficiency enhancements or service integrations could add further value."
"The logging needs improvement."
"The customer service and support from Google are not top-notch yet are available. I would rate them around 7.5 to eight out of ten."
"Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options."
"However, I think improvements could be made in the support for UI clients, especially on Linux machines."
"I think Tailscale can be improved by enhancing the free side of things."
"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."
"Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system for it to connect."
"I feel the speed of the control servers are a bit too slow."
"The only improvement I see for Tailscale is that I would love to check out Headscale to fully host it on my own infrastructure."
"I choose a seven because it sells what it does honestly, but I believe some more flexibility might be needed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not super cheap, but it's also not unrealistically priced."
"The product pricing is high."
"It is fairly priced."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Computer Software Company
14%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
14%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud VPN?
The price for Google solutions could be cheaper. In general, I would rate it a seven.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud VPN?
The troubleshooting guides need to be updated. We see errors but there's no proper documentation for resolving them. If Google can improve their resources on common problems and solutions, it would...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud VPN?
We set a VPC boundary for all our storage with Google Cloud VPN. For all our compute, everything goes into those VPC boundaries.
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...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 Google Cloud VPN vs. Tailscale and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.