No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

SonicWall Netextender 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 Netextender
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
12th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
14
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 SonicWall Netextender is 2.6%, down from 3.9% 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%
SonicWall Netextender2.6%
Other93.0%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Rich Darress - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Operating Officer at Darress Tech
Has provided secure remote access to multiple client networks with consistent performance
When buying the appliance itself, there is one downside that isn't exclusive to SonicWall. When you apply all the security settings, many people have one gig connections for internet ISP. If you're bringing in a one gig connection, you have to have a more robust SonicWall to handle that throughput with all your security settings turned on. It gets pretty pricey upfront if you're bringing in a one gig connection. If the customer starts with a two, three, four, or 500 meg connection and has a small unit, they have to replace the whole box when upgrading to a gig, so scalability there is atrocious. However, this issue exists with pretty much any appliance.
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

"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"The most valuable feature for the Netextender is the ease with which we can integrate it with SAML."
"The best feature is that employees can connect to our LAN, and have access to our network from home."
"It allows us to work remotely."
"NetExtender works very well; I have never had an issue with it, and it has been working well for me."
"The product is very cost-effective; for the price-sensitive market, this is a very good product for an SSL VPN solution."
"It can support multifactor authentication. Also, it is a very basic application."
"I found nothing of value in this solution."
"Tailscale's best features include the ability to seamlessly integrate and add devices, exit nodes, a very simple UI that is easy to set up, and importantly, access to a CLI so that my agents can set up Tailscale for me."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization with shorter time for setting up connections and improved accessibility."
"Tailscale is very intuitive as well as accessible, which allowed us to connect everything to our testing network very seamlessly since it could easily be downloaded onto mobile devices or other devices."
"The biggest benefit of Tailscale is simplicity; it is quick to set up and provides a stable and secure connection."
"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."
"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."
"Tailscale definitely saves me a lot of time securing our server because I can just install Tailscale, close many ports, and then share them with my teammates while benefiting from its very generous free tier."
"There is no better option than this."
 

Cons

"Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances."
"The initial setup of SonicWall Netextender is straightforward. The only issue we encountered was with relocating the VPN appliance. If we needed to move it from an on-premise to an on-cloud architecture, we had to start over and redeploy it from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not portable and any changes to its physical location often result in the need for a fresh deployment to ensure everything functions properly."
"Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances. So, you end up having to do a lot of administrative work to recover if an internet provider goes down, and you cannot leverage it as easily into a DR solution."
"The UI could be a little better."
"The solution takes more bandwidth these days and it would be helpful if that was reduced."
"There must be a multi-factor authentication enabled or integrated by default with it in order to be integrated with NetExtender."
"The product does not work well."
"The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth."
"I choose a seven because it sells what it does honestly, but I believe some more flexibility might be needed."
"Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system for it to connect."
"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."
"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."
"Currently, if Tailscale goes down, our services are not operable."
"I am currently facing an issue where on my Mac, Tailscale does not allow me to log in to multiple accounts."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, or Fortinet, it is a little cheaper."
"Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way."
"The solution has a pretty good price."
"The solution is cheap itself, not too costly."
"The price of SonicWall Netextender is reasonable. Whether it's a small shop with only five users or a larger operation with 130 users, we have received no complaints or objections regarding cost from any of the clients we are looking to deploy it with."
"You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years."
"After a certain number of users, you require extra licensing."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Infrastructure VPN solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Netextender?
The pricing for my experience with the setup cost and licensing of SonicWall Netextender is fair. The Netextender itself has no cost. It's the SSL licensing that is attached to the SonicWall. It us...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Netextender?
SonicWall Netextender has not helped with compliance, as it is not applicable for what I'm doing. I've put several feature requests in over the years and they've implemented them all, so it current...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Netextender?
Getting to local resources on a customer's network is my main use case with SonicWall Netextender or SonicWall SSL-VPN. As a managed service provider, all my customers have SonicWalls and I get int...
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 SonicWall Netextender vs. Tailscale and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.