NetBird vs Tailscale

NetBird

The captured terms describe optional hosted reverse proxy services that "facilitate network connectivity between devices, networks, services, or the public internet", and device metadata fields point to AWS, GCP and Azure clouds with Docker, Kubernetes and OpenStack platforms. Beyond that, we found no public information in the captured facts on clients per platform, split tunnelling, static IPs for my supplier portal, site-to-site links or gateway locations.

Tailscale

WireGuard peer-to-peer connections with DERP relays as fallback, subnet routers for site-to-site between our two plants, split DNS and MagicDNS, and default-deny grants that expose named resources instead of a whole network, on clients documented for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android with no inbound firewall ports — that is the ERP-and-file-server access I need. I found no public information on always-on or auto-connect behaviour or on clientless browser access for contractors, and the relay fleet is described only as running in multiple regions, not named ones.

NetBird

Account authentication runs through Auth0 in the USA under standard contractual clauses, and the trust page lists multi-factor authentication, role-based access control and user access reviews among established controls. We found no public information in the captured facts on single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID, SCIM or directory sync to cut off a leaver the same day, or on groups, per-resource policies and device posture checks.

Tailscale

Sign-in goes through our own identity provider with MFA and context-aware settings inherited from it, Microsoft AD, Okta and Google named among the providers, and SCIM group sync keeps access tied to the account so a leaver disappears with their group. Grants are default-deny and directional down to users, groups, tags and hosts, the policy file can live in Git, users can be required to re-authenticate on a schedule, and device posture rules draw on operating system version plus synced EDR and MDM attributes with just-in-time access on top. I found no public information on hardware-bound device identity or a documented emergency revocation procedure.

NetBird

We found no public information on connection or access logs, admin audit trails, retention periods or SIEM export; the captured documentation pages on traffic events and event streaming produced no confirmed facts, and the trust page describes NetBird's own access reviews and incident-response testing rather than anything my team could query after an incident.

Tailscale

Configuration audit logs on all plans record who changed what and when, are kept 90 days, cannot be extended in place, and export by API; network flow logs show which node talked to which resource but are a Premium and Enterprise feature. Streaming to Splunk, Datadog, Elasticsearch, Panther, Cribl and Axiom, or to a private endpoint on our own node, is documented, every connection is logged at both endpoints so tampering is detectable, and the pages state that packet contents and client operations are never logged. Retention of a year or more per plan is not something I found on these pages.

NetBird

The terms allow cancellation by logging into the account, defects go to hello@netbird.io, support runs through Slack, GitHub and a status page, and a weekly maintenance window of up to two hours is fixed in the terms. We found no public information in the captured facts on deploying clients through Intune or another MDM, a documented API, admin roles or multi-tenant management.

Tailscale

Clients install and auto-update through MDM — Microsoft Intune and Jamf are named in the update methods — with system policies for preconfigured settings and selectable release tracks, which is the Intune-first rollout I want for 140 seats. The admin console with Owner, Admin, IT admin and Network admin roles, a REST API available on all plans, GitOps for the policy file, Terraform support, webhooks and multiple tailnets on request give my three-person team the levers it needs. I found no public information on a self-hosted or on-premises edition for production.

NetBird

The trust page lists an ISO 27001 official certificate with audit report, a 2025 penetration test report, SOC 2 Type II, tested business-continuity and incident-response plans, and encryption with key management established, plus a public status page. The captured pages give different positions on source code — the imprint shows "OPEN SOURCE 30.7k" while the terms state the software's source code will not be disclosed — and we found no public information on what the control plane or relays can see, on high-availability behaviour, or on an availability commitment beyond the two-hour weekly maintenance window.

Tailscale

The how-it-works page says plainly what the coordination server sees — public keys and connection metadata, never private keys or traffic — and the crypto is documented down to Noise IK with X25519, WireGuard on the data plane and a TLS 1.2 minimum, with node and relay code open source, DERP regions failing over independently, and existing connections surviving a coordination-server outage. SOC 2 Type II and Latacora audits are stated, but the reports come on request rather than published, the security page states there is no bounty program, and I found no public information on a status page, an availability SLA or an incident history.

NetBird

NetBird GmbH is registered in Berlin (HRB 237529 B) under German law and jurisdiction, the privacy policy commits to processing personal data in the EU/EEA with application hosting on AWS's Luxembourg entity restricted to EU/EEA servers, and there is a subprocessor list with names, locations and safeguards, a referenced data processing agreement, and ISO 27001. On the other hand, user authentication runs through Auth0 in the USA under Privacy Shield/EU standard contractual clauses, and several US website and marketing tools such as Cloudflare, HubSpot, Microsoft Clarity and Reddit appear in the list without a stated safeguard.

Tailscale

The contracting entity for new accounts is Tailscale US Inc., a Delaware corporation, the terms set exclusive venue in New York County, and processing is stated to occur in Canada, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom — a mixed chain, even though an Article 27 GDPR representative, EDPO, is appointed and a published DPA relies on standard contractual clauses. A subprocessor page with ten days' change notice is referenced and personal data is returned or destroyed within thirty days of termination, but the captured pages do not show which subprocessors are used or where, and no EU hosting option is proven here.

NetBird

The captured terms are clear on commercial mechanics — packages whose scope depends on the subscription, an indeterminate term cancellable monthly with 14 days' notice, self-service cancellation, and reverse proxy features subject to usage-based pricing, bandwidth limits, connection or relay quotas and fair-use policies. But no per-user or per-tier price figure appears in the captured facts, so I cannot compute what a 140-user year costs or whether a dedicated IP comes extra.

Tailscale

Standard is $8 per user, per month, Premium is $18 per user, per month, the Personal plan is $0, and tagged resources such as exit nodes cost $1 per month beyond the first fifty included — with plan-change proration, overage timing, excluded taxes and USD invoices all stated, so the per-user basis survives a budget round. Enterprise is custom-priced through sales, extra ephemeral minutes are sales-priced, minimum seats and minimum term are not stated, the terms say the fees are specified at checkout, and log streaming and network flow logs need Premium or Enterprise.