Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) 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

SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge...
Ranking in ZTNA
14th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (24th)
Tailscale
Ranking in ZTNA
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the ZTNA category, the mindshare of SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) is 3.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tailscale is 8.7%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ZTNA Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tailscale8.7%
SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)3.4%
Other87.9%
ZTNA
 

Featured Reviews

Kallamuddin Ansari - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Remote access has become more secure and flexible but reporting still needs deeper analytics
SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) offers excellent features including Zero Trust Network Access, VPN as a service, and Cloud Access Security Brokers. One of the standout features is Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) for Software as a Service, providing visibility and control over cloud applications employees use, not only regarding whether they can use them but also regarding the actions they perform within those applications. This is especially useful in organizations utilizing many SaaS tools such as Office 365, Salesforce, and cloud storage, where consistent security policy enforcement is required, even from personal devices or remote locations. The secure web gateway feature is critical for modern-day internet security. SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) provides secure web gateway features for users accessing the internet, including URL filtering, domain filtering, blocking malicious websites, preventing phishing or ransomware threats, and enforcing acceptable use policies. SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) has had a very positive impact on our organization as our workforce becomes more distributed, with noticeable improvements including easier and more secure remote access. Previously, managing VPN clients and hardware gateways was difficult for new or non-technical users, but with SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE), users simply authenticate and get secure access to only the applications they need. There are numerous improvements I notice, such as improved BYOD security, reduced risk of lateral movements, simplified management, lower hardware dependency, and better visibility and compliance reporting. After moving to SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE), we saw a 38% reduction in VPN-related tickets. Users are no longer facing client errors, tunnel failures, and certificate issues, which saves nearly 25 hours per month on troubleshooting remote access problems. Onboarding remote users has become 60% faster, now taking only 10 to 15 minutes instead of 30 to 40 minutes. Additionally, there has been a 52% reduction in risky connection attempts primarily from devices with outdated operating systems or disabled antivirus, with zero lateral movement and a 30% drop in failed login anomalies.
reviewer2811270 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
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

"After moving to SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE), we saw a 38% reduction in VPN-related tickets, saving nearly 25 hours per month on troubleshooting remote access problems, onboarding remote users has become 60% faster, and there has been a 52% reduction in risky connection attempts with zero lateral movement and a 30% drop in failed login anomalies."
"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."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization by making the previously unusable doorbell with the cloud solution fast and reliable for remote access."
"I have been using it every day since June 2025, and it has never given me a problem."
"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 really helped in terms of security because users can be in another part of the world and, instead of them connecting to the company environment through the local network there, they can switch on their Tailscale and once they switch on their Tailscale, they don't have to connect over their internet; they just go through Tailscale to access company infrastructures."
"The security is valuable, as there are many providers available, but Tailscale fulfills the requirements that we had, allowing us to access and expose internal apps without exposing them to the general internet."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) has some areas for improvement, particularly in reporting and dashboards."
"Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options."
"Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system for it to connect."
"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."
"However, I think improvements could be made in the support for UI clients, especially on Linux machines."
"Currently, if Tailscale goes down, our services are not operable."
"I feel the speed of the control servers are a bit too slow."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which ZTNA solutions are best for your needs.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Insurance Company
13%
Security Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Media Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)?
The setup cost for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) was minimal as most of the investment was in time spent configuring connectors and access policies rather than infrastructure, since it is cloud...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)?
SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) has some areas for improvement, particularly in reporting and dashboards. While it provides strong visibility, it could benefit from deeper analytics, customizable...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)?
My main use case for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) is for remote and hybrid work access, specifically for Zero Trust Network Access to sensitive and private resources, as well as secure access ...
What needs improvement with Tailscale?
Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options. However, we have a paid policy, so we pay Tailscale every month. At some point, we may want to host ...
What is your primary use case for Tailscale?
We have been using Tailscale for about four or five months, and we have been using it from the beginning. For our main use case, we use Tailscale because it creates a peer-to-peer VPN mesh where we...
What advice do you have for others considering Tailscale?
My advice to others looking into using Tailscale is that if there is a use case where you want to secure your private EC2 instances, the workflows, your Git repositories, and sensitive data, Docker...
 

Also Known As

Banyan Security
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Redox, Byton, Veeva, BlueVoyant
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 Fortinet, Check Point Software Technologies, Cloudflare and others in ZTNA. Updated: February 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.