What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Tailscale is to access my home network remotely. In my home network, I have deployed a wide range of microservices. For example, I use Tailscale to back up my pictures, and I need my phone to be synced to my remote server, which is why I use the VPN to create a tunnel and make that connection secure.
In addition to accessing images, I have a wide variety of devices connected through Tailscale, including my phone, a couple of computers, and a couple of PCs that I have set up. I also use it to monitor some statistics I have deployed in another microservice.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, the best features Tailscale offers are mainly the ease of use. It is easy to set up, easy to understand, and the documentation is good, which means if I want to connect a new device, I have no problem doing it.
The setup and device connection are easy for me primarily due to the user interface, which is clear and direct. The installation process and initial documentation are easy to understand and figure out, even if you have not worked with a similar product in the past. The fact that it is agnostic to the operating system allows me to use it on Linux, Windows, iOS, and on my Samsung phone, so I have no problem connecting any device that I want to.
Although I do not use it within my organization, Tailscale has positively impacted me by providing a private hosted server, with the main benefit being its built-in security and the ease of installation instead of needing to create HTTPS for my server. I prefer not to use HTTP over an open port, so I have more security when accessing my own private data.
Tailscale's security has helped me significantly, and part of the setup network-wise was implementing Tailscale. I have had no problems with any firewalls configuration, making it easy to track where the connections are coming from and easy to follow the stack trace of who is connecting and from where.
What needs improvement?
I have a pretty basic use of Tailscale. I do not deploy it for a big organization, so I am generally happy with the product itself and have no special requests for a different feature that I would like to be implemented.
I did find a bug during the setup, but it was a minor thing that I resolved pretty quickly. As I mentioned before, the documentation is straight and direct, even when deploying for the first time. To deploy it, I had to create a Docker container to which I deployed Tailscale because my operating system in my private network does not use a standard Linux distribution, and even that was easy, so not much I could say there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Tailscale for over the last year, mainly.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Tailscale is completely stable in my experience. I did the initial setup and have not needed to adjust it since. I have noticed on a more personal time metric that I have saved a lot of time, as it is an easy product and a convenient one. On a more professional note, I have not really deployed it for my organization yet, so I do not have metrics at hand to check.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think Tailscale's scalability would handle adding more devices or expanding usage without a problem. I have not had any issues, and it is really easy to add devices to the network. I have about ten connections right now, which is few, but I am quite sure that the process of adding new networks and adding new devices to the network would not carry out any significant problems.
How was the initial setup?
The setup and device connection are easy for me primarily due to the user interface, which is clear and direct. The installation process and initial documentation are easy to understand and figure out, even if you have not worked with a similar product in the past. The fact that it is agnostic to the operating system allows me to use it on Linux, Windows, iOS, and on my Samsung phone, so I have no problem connecting any device that I want to.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As I deploy Tailscale on my on-premise home network, I do not have any pricing costs, licensing, and setup issues.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did look around at different options just as a first research before choosing Tailscale, but I do not remember the name of the competitors. I think Tailscale was widely recommended, so I directly went with it.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Tailscale overall a ten out of ten.
I chose ten out of ten because the ease of installation, access to documentation, friendly UI, ease of tracking and debugging, and the facility I have to add new devices to the network all stand out. I have recommended Tailscale to my friends to use, and they have implemented it in their own servers. They are less technical than me, so I feel it is a good product and an easy product to understand.
I would tell others looking into using Tailscale to read the documentation and implement it for their own use case because it is pretty easy to set up and understand.
I really appreciate the monthly updates that Tailscale sends about what is changing. I do not understand the full technical details, but it is good to keep an eye out for it and read them, as well as read the newsletter over. My overall rating for this review is ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.