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Business VPN & Zero Trust Access

Defguard

EU-Made Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Defguard Sp. z o.o. · defguard.net

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Defguard: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Defguard: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Defguard at a glance

Vendor
Defguard Sp. z o.o.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Defguard 3.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Defguard is a self-hosted WireGuard VPN with a built-in identity provider and MFA, from Defguard Sp. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 5 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 6 Nov 2026. all sources

Defguard alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Information Security Officer

Weighted verdict

Information security officer at a regional energy supplier that falls under NIS2 and was asked by its auditor who could reach the control systems last year. Wants access granted per resource, not per network, device checks before a connection, every access and admin change in a log that reaches the SIEM, an independent audit of the product, and the identities and logs kept in Europe by a vendor whose subprocessors are listed.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Information Security Officer

Panel median The Information Security Officer This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Information Security Officer
Access model & connectivity 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Identity, access policy & device posture 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Logs, audit trail & incident response 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Deployment, API & administration 3.5 of 5 4 of 5
Architecture, reliability & security assurance 4 of 5 4 of 5
European sovereignty 4 of 5 4 of 5

Access model & connectivity

How this is scored

What the product connects and how: a managed gateway VPN with shared or dedicated gateways and dedicated static IPs, a peer-to-peer mesh between devices and servers, access per application or resource (ZTNA), site-to-site links between offices and cloud networks (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), connectors behind a firewall without inbound ports, the protocols (WireGuard, IPsec, OpenVPN, a vendor protocol), split tunnelling and full tunnelling, always-on and auto-connect, clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and ChromeOS, the gateway and relay locations, NAT traversal and relays, and access for contractors without a managed device.

0 — Gives no remote access of its own; a browser extension, a consumer VPN for anonymous browsing or a security tool that only filters traffic.

3 — A VPN client that connects users to one gateway or network; site-to-site, per-resource access, the clients per platform and the locations are basic or not described.

5 — Clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, a modern protocol (WireGuard or IPsec), access to private networks through a gateway or connector without inbound firewall rules, split tunnelling, dedicated static IPs or self-run gateways, site-to-site or cloud network links, and the gateway or relay locations named.

8 — Access per application or resource rather than whole networks, peer-to-peer connections with relays as fallback, always-on and auto-connect, connectors for the major clouds and Kubernetes, gateways in many named regions, private DNS and split DNS, clientless browser access for contractors, and the protocol and encryption choices documented.

10 — Connectivity a distributed company runs on: every access model above in one product, high-availability gateways and connectors with failover documented, performance and throughput published per gateway type, post-quantum or equivalent key exchange documented, and an exit path to run the same network on self-hosted components.

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The Information Security Officer

Native clients cover Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android plus a CLI on WireGuard, with split tunnelling configured through allowed IPs, admin-enforced or user-selected full tunnel, always-on and pre-logon service locations, and firewall ACLs that shrink each user's tunnel to only the subnets their rules permit — the per-resource model I need for control-system access. Gateways run wherever we host them (Linux, FreeBSD, OPNsense), keep operating if the core goes down, and active-active high availability is documented. We found no public information on clientless browser access for contractors, peer-to-peer connections with relays, or private DNS handling. 2 8 9 14 15

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Identity, access policy & device posture

How this is scored

Whether access follows identity and the state of the device rather than the network: single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, Okta or any OIDC/SAML provider, SCIM or directory sync so a leaver loses access, multi-factor authentication, groups and per-resource access policies, least-privilege defaults, device posture checks (operating system version, disk encryption, EDR or MDM status, managed device certificates), just-in-time or time-limited access with approval, session lifetimes and re-authentication, and access revoked when a device is lost.

0 — No user identity at all; a shared key or configuration file grants access to the whole network.

3 — User accounts with a password or one identity provider; groups, per-resource policies and device checks are basic or not described.

5 — Single sign-on with Entra ID, Google Workspace and Okta, multi-factor authentication, user groups, access policies that restrict groups to named networks, resources or ports, automatic or SCIM-based deprovisioning, and basic device posture checks such as operating system version.

8 — SCIM provisioning from the major identity providers, per-resource policies with least privilege by default, device posture from EDR or MDM tools (for example CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Intune, Jamf), just-in-time access with approval and expiry, session re-authentication, policies kept as code, and the policy model documented.

10 — Access control a security team can audit and trust: continuous evaluation of identity and device state during a session, policies tested before they apply, emergency revocation documented, device identity bound to hardware, and the decision for every connection explainable from the logs.

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The Information Security Officer

Single sign-on works with Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, Okta, JumpCloud and any OIDC provider on top of a built-in identity provider, and MFA is enforced at the WireGuard protocol level so every connection — not just the login — is challenged. Device posture is checked before a connection and covers operating system and kernel versions, disk encryption, antivirus, Active Directory membership, device integrity and security-update age, with default-deny for unconfigured operating systems and failed checks written to the activity log. We found no public information on SCIM provisioning, just-in-time access with approval, or posture fed from EDR/MDM tools, and hardware-backed device attestation is only announced for a future release. 2 3 8 14 17

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Logs, audit trail & incident response

How this is scored

What can be seen and proven afterwards: connection and access logs (who reached which resource from which device, when), admin and configuration audit logs, how long logs are kept per plan, log export and streaming to a SIEM (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Datadog, an S3 bucket), alerts on unusual access, a view of active sessions and the ability to end them, DNS logs where DNS filtering is part of the product, and what the vendor states it does not log, such as the content of traffic.

0 — No logs of any kind; the admin cannot see who connected.

3 — A list of connected users or devices; access logs, admin audit logs, retention and export are basic or not described.

5 — Connection or access logs per user and device, an admin audit log of configuration changes, the retention period stated, log export by CSV or API, a view of active sessions or devices with the option to disconnect or revoke them, and a statement of what traffic data is and is not logged.

8 — Log streaming to named SIEM tools, network flow logs per resource, retention of a year or more stated per plan, alerts or webhooks on security events, logs filterable by user, device and resource, and the log schema documented.

10 — An audit trail that holds up in an investigation: every access decision and admin action recorded with its policy and reason, logs signed or tamper-evident, evidence suitable for ISO 27001, NIS2 or DORA audits, full export in an open format, and the customer able to keep logs entirely on its own infrastructure.

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The Information Security Officer

The activity log records date, user, IP, event, module and device across VPN connections, MFA outcomes, posture pass/fail and directory synchronisation, plus admin actions in the core interface, searchable and filterable by user, module, event, device and time range. Audit logs stream in real time to SIEM pipelines (Vector, Logstash) on the Business and Enterprise plans, and because the stack is self-hosted the records stay in our own database — which answers my auditor's question about who reached the control systems. We found no public information on tamper-evident or signed logs, a statement of what traffic data is not logged, or an administrator control to terminate a live session. 2 4 10 18 19

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Deployment, API & administration

How this is scored

How the product is rolled out and run by a small IT team or a service provider: time to the first connection, deployment of clients through MDM (Intune, Jamf, Kandji) with preconfigured settings, a central admin console, a documented REST API, a Terraform provider or configuration as code, roles for administrators, several teams, sites or customer tenants in one account, a multi-tenant console for managed service providers, a self-hosted or on-premises edition, the update process for clients and gateways, and support channels and hours.

0 — No central administration; every client is configured by hand with no console.

3 — A web console to add users and gateways; the API, MDM deployment, admin roles and multi-tenant set-up are basic or not described.

5 — A central admin console, a documented REST API, client deployment through MDM with preconfigured settings, admin roles, several networks or sites in one account, client updates managed centrally, and support channels and response times stated per plan.

8 — A Terraform provider or configuration as code, a multi-tenant console for service providers or several organisations, granular admin roles, a self-hosted or on-premises edition documented for production, gateways deployable as containers or cloud images, and webhooks or integrations with ticketing and chat tools.

10 — Administration that scales across many sites and tenants: every setting reachable by API and code with parity stated, staged rollouts of client and gateway updates, a self-hosted edition with feature parity stated, reseller or MSP billing per tenant, and an exit path for configuration and users documented.

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The Information Security Officer

Deployment is documented for Docker Compose, system packages, OVF and Terraform/OpenTofu modules on AWS with core, edge and gateway separated, and a documented REST API, webhooks and CLI management are available. Multiple instances and locations sit in one client with real-time configuration sync, which the vendor positions for managed service providers, and support runs via email and a ticketing system with an SLA offered at the enterprise tier. We found no public information on client rollout through MDM tools with preconfigured settings (Intune, Jamf, Kandji) or on granular administrator roles. 5 7 8 11 14 20

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Architecture, reliability & security assurance

How this is scored

How the product is built and how its claims are proven: a published architecture showing what the coordination servers, relays and gateways see, whether traffic passes through the vendor or end to end between devices, encryption and key management, open-source clients or servers, independent security audits and penetration tests with reports or summaries published, a vulnerability disclosure or bug bounty programme, high availability and failover of the vendor's control plane, what happens to existing connections when the vendor's service is down, the vendor's own public status page and incident history, and an SLA.

0 — Nothing is published about how the product works or is secured.

3 — Encryption is mentioned in marketing terms; architecture, audits, availability and the vendor's status page are basic or not described.

5 — An architecture overview of clients, gateways and the control plane, the encryption protocol and key handling named, an independent security audit or penetration test stated, a vulnerability disclosure contact, the vendor's public status page, and an availability SLA on the business plans.

8 — A security whitepaper with the data flow and what the vendor can see, open-source clients or core components, audit or pentest reports or summaries published by the auditor, a bug bounty, high availability of the control plane documented, existing connections kept alive when the control plane is down, and the incident history public with post-mortems.

10 — Assurance a regulated buyer can verify: fully open-source and reproducible components, recurring independent audits published in full, the control plane self-hostable with no call home, a documented failure mode for every vendor component, and several years of availability published.

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The Information Security Officer

The architecture is published down to which components face the Internet — only a stateless edge proxy and the WireGuard gateway — with mutual TLS between internal components and a control plane that can live permanently in the intranet, and gateways keep existing connections when the core is down. Periodic ISEC penetration tests are published in full with findings, severity counts, tested versions and links to the fixes, which is exactly the independent audit evidence my auditor would demand; the vendor also discloses ISEC is an investor and states there is no bug bounty because the code is open. We found no public information on a public status page, incident history with post-mortems, or published availability figures. 9 14 22 23

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where account data, user and device identities, connection logs and configuration are stored and processed, which party runs the coordination servers, relays and gateways the traffic passes through, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, identity, email, support and payment tools). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline. Gateway and exit locations outside Europe are part of what the product does and are not counted against it; where the logs and identities are stored and who processes them is. A self-hosted or open-source edition the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting of the control plane and logs unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but the location of the control plane and logs is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting of logs and account data available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (relays, support, identity, payment) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure for the control plane and logs, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated — or a self-hosted edition documented that keeps every record and connection on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, or a self-hosted open-source edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Information Security Officer

The contracting entity and data controller is Defguard Sp. z o.o. in Szczecin, entered in the Polish National Court Register with an EU VAT number, governed by Polish law, developed in Poland, and ISO 27001:2023 certification is published with certificate number and scope. The product is self-hosted first — keys, user metadata and traffic logs stay on our own infrastructure with no external cloud relays or third-party authentication required — and an offline licence that never contacts the vendor's licensing server can be bought, though subscriptions otherwise renew against that server. We found no public information on a published data processing agreement, and the named subprocessors (Google, Microsoft, Cookiebot) relate to the vendor's website rather than the product. 6 9 10 11 12 14

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user or per device and tier, minimum seats, what dedicated gateways, static IPs, extra networks or sites cost, which features (SSO, SCIM, device posture, log streaming, longer retention, site-to-site) need a higher tier, the free tier and its limits, the price of a self-hosted or on-premises licence, monthly versus annual billing, minimum term and VAT.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call or a partner quote.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with users, devices, gateways or features is unclear.

5 — Tiers are public with a price per user and their main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (dedicated gateways or IPs, extra sites, SSO or SCIM, log retention, the self-hosted licence) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its scaling rule (users, devices, gateways, networks), dedicated IPs and gateways priced, add-ons priced, minimum seats, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given team size, number of sites, gateways and devices, with every add-on, overage and support fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Information Security Officer

A free tier is public and generous — open source always free with unlimited users and locations, Business free up to 10 users and 1 location, and an Enterprise version usable without a licence to test — and licences scale by users and VPN locations with monthly or yearly billing and a 14-day grace period on subscriptions. However, no price figures for paid tiers appear on the captured pages: Business is a "configurable package - calculate price" and Enterprise is custom pricing, so I could not compute an annual cost. Offline licences carry a one-year minimum, pricing-page discounts do not apply to them, and they are sold by contacting sales. 6 8 11

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Defguard

Is Defguard European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies Defguard as EU-Made.

Where does Defguard store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026.

Does Defguard have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Defguard?

As of 6 Nov 2026, the panel rates Firezone (3.5/5), Tailscale (3.5/5) and Cloudflare Zero Trust (3.5/5) highest among the other 12 Business VPN & Zero Trust Access products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is GoodAccess (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Defguard alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Defguard? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (23)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Documentation (features overview) docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Documentation (device posture) docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Documentation (activity and audit logs) docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Documentation (deployment) docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Documentation (enterprise licence) docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Documentation docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Pricing page defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Security / trust page defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Compliance page defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Terms of service (names the operating company) defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Privacy policy defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  13. 13 GDPR page defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Access model & connectivity — found from sitemap defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Access model & connectivity — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  16. 16 Identity, access policy & device posture — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  17. 17 Identity, access policy & device posture — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  18. 18 Logs, audit trail & incident response — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  19. 19 Logs, audit trail & incident response — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  20. 20 Deployment, API & administration — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  21. 21 Deployment, API & administration — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  22. 22 Architecture, reliability & security assurance — found from sitemap docs.defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  23. 23 Architecture, reliability & security assurance — found from sitemap defguard.net Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →