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VPN & ZTNA Tools Compared

Remote access has shifted from VPNs to Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) — per-application access based on user identity and device posture. Side-by-side comparison across 4 tools — descriptive only, no recommendations.

6 min read Data verified: May 2026 4 tools compared
WireGuard
VPN Protocol (OSS)
Free / OSS
Free (GPL-2.0) WireGuard is a protocol and reference implementation, not a managed service
Visit official site →
Cloudflare Zero Trust
ZTNA / SASE
Freemium / Paid
Free up to 50 users Pay-as-you-go $7/user/mo; Enterprise Contract custom pricing
Visit official site →
Zscaler Private Access
ZTNA / SSE
Paid
$140-$375+/user/yr ($12-$31/user/mo) based on capabilities and scale small businesses $7,500-$25,000/yr; enterprise $20,000-$280,000+/yr
Visit official site →
Tailscale
Mesh VPN / ZTNA
Freemium / Paid
Free Personal (3 users, 100 devices) Personal Plus $5/mo flat (6 users); Starter $6/user/mo; Premium $18/user/mo; Enterprise custom
Visit official site →
Comparing →
WireGuard
VPN Protocol (OSS)
Cloudflare Zero Trust
ZTNA / SASE
Zscaler Private Access
ZTNA / SSE
Tailscale
Mesh VPN / ZTNA
$ Pricing & plans
5 dimensions
Pricing model
Free under GPL-2.0
no commercial licensing tier. Commercial implementations (Tailscale, Cloudflare WARP, NetMaker, NordLayer) provide managed layers on top with their own pricing.
Free up to 50 users (permanent, no time limit)
Pay-as-you-go $7/user/mo annual (covers core ZTNA + SWG); Enterprise Contract custom pricing with extended log retention, SIEM integration, custom DLP, and dedicated support
ZPA $140-$375+/user/yr depending on capabilities
small deployments ~$7,500/yr for 50 users on basic ZPA via AWS Marketplace; enterprise platform bundle (full SSE/SASE) ~$20,000/yr for 50 users; large enterprise deployments commonly $50K-$280K+/yr
Personal free (3 users, 100 devices)
Personal Plus $5/mo flat for up to 6 users; Starter $6/user/mo annual (or $7 monthly); Premium $18/user/mo annual (or $20 monthly); Enterprise custom. Vendr data shows 16% average savings on enterprise via negotiation. 50% nonprofit/education discount available.
Pricing tier
Free / OSS
Freemium / Paid
Paid
Freemium / Paid
Free tier / trial
Free tier
Software permanently free; no commercial tier
Free tier
Permanent free tier supports up to 50 users — includes full ZTNA, SWG (DNS and HTTP filtering), Digital Experience Monitoring, device client, application connector, CASB (2 read-only API integrations), DLP (limited predefined profiles)
Paid only
No free tier; demos and PoCs via Zscaler sales or partners; AWS Marketplace fixed-price editions from $15,750 to $312,000 annually
Free tier
Permanent free Personal plan (3 users, 100 devices); 14-day free trial of Business plans for custom-domain tailnets; first two weeks of Starter and Premium also free for new business signups
Volume discounts
Not applicable
software is free
Pay-as-you-go is flat $7/user/mo
Enterprise Contract tier offers negotiated pricing with volume discounts and multi-year commitments; bundling with other Cloudflare One products improves overall pricing
Per-user pricing decreases significantly with volume
multi-year commitments common (3-year terms typical); bundling ZIA + ZPA improves per-user rates for both; Enterprise Agreements available for large deployments
Per-user pricing scales with volume
50-200 user deployments often see negotiated pricing; multi-year commitments unlock additional savings; Vendr data shows ~16% average savings via negotiation on enterprise deals
Hidden costs
Operational layer (key distribution, peer management, ACL enforcement) must be…
built or sourced; monitoring and logging infrastructure; if scaling to many users, the operational labor cost often justifies a managed service built on WireGuard
DNS query overages beyond ~150,000/seat/month (may require additional seat…
purchases), Log Explorer beyond 10GB free ($1/GB/month), Remote Browser Isolation add-on, dedicated egress IPs (Contract add-on), email security (Area 1) add-on, Magic WAN for SD-WAN replacement requires Contract plan
Professional services for deployment and policy migration, App Connector…
infrastructure (VM/container hosting), separate licensing for ZIA (internet access), ZDX (digital experience monitoring), and other Zero Trust Exchange products; bandwidth/overage charges may apply in years 2-3; renewal uplift commonly negotiated
Cloud egress charges if using cloud-hosted exit nodes (AWS, GCP, Azure egress…
at ~$0.09/GB), subnet router infrastructure (must stay online 24/7), separate DNS filtering and endpoint security (Tailscale routes traffic but doesn't inspect it), SSH session recording and log streaming are Enterprise-only
↗ Deployment & integrations
3 dimensions
Deployment
Native Linux kernel module since Linux 5.6 (March 2020)
userspace implementations for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, BSDs; deployable on routers (OPNsense, pfSense, OpenWrt) and embedded devices; commonly run on small VPS instances or self-hosted servers
SaaS via Cloudflare's global anycast network (300+ cities)
WARP device client (Windows/macOS/Linux/iOS/Android) creates WireGuard-based tunnel; Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) connects private resources without exposing public IPs; agentless browser-based access for web apps via Cloudflare Access
SaaS via Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange (150+ data centers)
App Connector (lightweight VM or container) deployed in customer environment makes outbound connection to Zscaler edge — apps never expose public IPs; Zscaler Client Connector on user devices; Private Service Edge option for on-premises deployment
Coordination plane (proprietary SaaS) + WireGuard peer-to-peer data plane
clients on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, FreeBSD; subnet routers for connecting non-Tailscale subnets; exit nodes for full-tunnel routing; Headscale open-source alternative for self-hosting the coordination plane
Typical deployment time
Minutes for individual setup
hours to days for small site-to-site deployments; longer at scale where key management, ACL distribution, and monitoring need to be built or sourced from a managed wrapper
Hours to days for ZTNA setup with Cloudflare Tunnel and Access policies
days to weeks for full SASE rollout including WARP client deployment, DNS/HTTP filtering policies, and identity integration
Weeks for mid-market deployments
months for large enterprise rollouts with policy migration from legacy VPNs, App Connector deployment, identity integration, and user training; Zscaler positions ZPA as deployable in 'hours' for simple replacements
Minutes for individual or small team setup (install client, authenticate)
hours to days for team rollouts with ACL design; days to weeks for larger deployments with SSO/SCIM integration, MDM deployment, and ACL governance
Key integrations
Linux kernel-native
clients across all major OS platforms; integrates with firewalls (OPNsense, pfSense), routers (OpenWrt, MikroTik), Kubernetes (via CNI plugins like Calico WireGuard), and configuration management (Ansible, Terraform); foundation for Tailscale, Cloudflare WARP, NetBird, Headscale, Netmaker
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, GitHub, OneLogin, Ping, generic SAML/OIDC
identity providers via SCIM; Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Datadog for log forwarding; Terraform provider for IaC; AWS, Azure, GCP for tunnel deployment
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping, Google Workspace, SAML/OIDC IdPs
SCIM provisioning; CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft Defender for device posture; Splunk, IBM QRadar, Microsoft Sentinel for SIEM; ServiceNow, Jira; broad SaaS integrations
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, OneLogin, GitHub, Apple ID, generic…
OIDC for SSO; SCIM provisioning at all paid tiers (broader than previously); MDM tools (Jamf, Intune, Kandji) for client deployment; Kubernetes Operator; Terraform provider; GitHub Actions integration
🌍 VPN & ZTNA-specific evaluation
7 dimensions
Architecture / approach
Open-source VPN protocol with peer-to-peer encrypted tunnels; not a centralized service
each peer holds keys and connects directly; runs as kernel module on Linux for line-rate performance
Cloud-native ZTNA + SASE platform
identity-aware, per-application access enforced at Cloudflare's edge; no central VPN concentrator; traffic routed through nearest anycast PoP; supports both clientless (browser-based) and client-based (WARP) access
Cloud-native ZTNA via Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange (150+ data centers)
App Connector establishes outbound-only connection from app to nearest Service Edge — apps are never exposed to internet; user traffic routed through nearest Service Edge with broker model creating per-app TLS tunnels
Mesh VPN built on WireGuard
peer-to-peer encrypted connections between devices; centralized coordination server handles key exchange and ACL distribution; no central data plane bottleneck; ZTNA model with identity-bound access via external IdP
Underlying protocol
WireGuard protocol itself
uses ChaCha20-Poly1305 for symmetric encryption, Curve25519 for ECDH, BLAKE2s for hashing, SipHash24 for hashtable keys, HKDF for key derivation; Noise Protocol Framework-based handshake
WireGuard tunnels for WARP client (since 2020), HTTPS for browser-based access
QUIC (HTTP/3) default for cloudflared Tunnel in 2026; mTLS for service-to-service
Micro-encrypted TLS tunnels between App Connector and Service Edge
Client Connector tunnels user traffic via TLS to Service Edge; modern TLS 1.3 with strong cipher suites
WireGuard for all data plane connections (ChaCha20-Poly1305, Curve25519, BLAKE2s)
coordination plane uses HTTPS; DERP relay servers fall back for peers that can't establish direct connections
Per-application access
Not natively
WireGuard provides network-level access between peers; per-application policies require layering ZTNA control on top (e.g., via a managed service or local firewall rules)
Yes — Cloudflare Access enforces per-application policies based on identity,…
device posture, country, IP, and custom rules; supports self-hosted web apps, SaaS apps, and non-web protocols (SSH, RDP, VNC, arbitrary TCP/UDP via WARP)
Yes — per-application access is the core architectural principle
users connect to specific named applications, not networks; granular app segmentation; AI-powered user-to-app segmentation auto-discovers apps and recommends policies
Yes — ACLs define per-user/group access to specific devices, ports, and services
tag-based ACLs enable scalable policies; Tailscale SSH (Premium) provides identity-based SSH without managing SSH keys; per-resource access control aligns with ZTNA principles
Device posture / trust
No native posture checking
devices are trusted by virtue of holding the private key; posture / trust enforcement requires an external layer (managed ZTNA service or custom integration)
WARP client provides device posture signals (OS version, disk encryption, MDM…
enrollment, running processes, OS patch level); access policies can require specific posture criteria; integrates with CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft Intune for richer signals
Continuous device posture validation via integration with CrowdStrike,…
SentinelOne, Microsoft Defender, Carbon Black, others; policies can require minimum OS version, disk encryption, MDM enrollment, EDR running
Device posture checks supported (OS version, disk encryption, EDR running, MDM…
enrollment) at Premium and Enterprise tiers; integration with Microsoft Intune, Jamf, Kandji, and other MDMs; Tailnet Lock prevents unauthorized device additions
Identity / IdP integration
Not built-in
WireGuard uses public-key cryptography for peer identity (pubkey-as-identity); identity provider integration requires a separate layer (Tailscale, Headscale, NetBird, Cloudflare WARP, or custom scripting via wg-easy / wg-manager)
SAML 2.0, OIDC, and dozens of pre-built IdP integrations (Okta, Entra ID,…
Google Workspace, GitHub, OneLogin, Ping); SCIM provisioning supported; supports social IdPs (GitHub, Google) for developer use cases
SAML 2.0, OIDC support for Entra ID, Okta, Ping, Google Workspace, ADFS,…
generic SAML providers; SCIM provisioning; context-aware policies combining identity, device, location, time, and content
SSO via Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, OneLogin, GitHub, Apple ID,…
custom OIDC; SCIM provisioning at all paid tiers (recently expanded from Enterprise-only); user roles (Owner, Admin, Member, plus advanced roles on paid plans) for delegated administration
Performance / scale
High throughput
typical deployments achieve 500 Mbps to 1+ Gbps; 10+ Gbps achievable on tuned hardware; Linux kernel implementation has very low CPU overhead; fast handshake (1 RTT for established peers)
Anycast network spans 300+ cities
users typically connect to nearest edge with single-digit ms latency; Cloudflare Tunnel has no throughput limitations and no VM infrastructure requirements; auto-scales globally
Designed for very large enterprise scale
supports hundreds of thousands of users; 150+ data centers globally for proximity-based PoP routing; performance reflects global proxy architecture — latency depends on user-to-PoP proximity
WireGuard performance
peer-to-peer connections typically achieve near line-rate; coordination overhead is minimal; DERP relays add latency only when direct connections fail; scales to thousands of devices per tailnet
Self-hosting / sovereignty
Entirely self-hosted by design
no cloud component; full data and key sovereignty; commonly deployed on customer-controlled VPS, routers, or appliances
Not available
Cloudflare Zero Trust is SaaS only; for sovereignty requirements, organizations evaluate alternatives or pair with self-hosted complements; Cloudflare for Government meets FedRAMP Moderate
Primarily SaaS
Private Service Edge option allows on-premises deployment of inspection nodes for data residency/latency requirements; supports air-gapped scenarios via Private Service Edge plus customer-managed infrastructure
Coordination plane is SaaS by default
proprietary Tailscale infrastructure handles key exchange and ACL distribution. Headscale (community-maintained, open source) provides a self-hosted alternative for the coordination plane while still using standard Tailscale clients — adds operational responsibility but enables full self-hosting
✓ Compliance & certifications
1 dimension
Compliance certifications
Software has no specific certifications
users deploy in their own compliant environments. The cryptographic primitives (ChaCha20, Poly1305, Curve25519) are well-studied and used in FIPS-validated contexts when paired with appropriate hardware
SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, PCI DSS, HIPAA (BAA available), GDPR,…
FedRAMP Moderate (Cloudflare for Government)
FedRAMP High, IRAP, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 27701,…
PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR; broad regulatory certifications appropriate for highly regulated industries
SOC 2 Type II
HIPAA-aligned configurations available; GDPR; ISO 27001 in progress per Tailscale public statements
◧ Positioning
3 dimensions
Target deployment
Technical teams building secure point-to-point or site-to-site tunnels with…
minimal overhead; foundation for many managed VPN/ZTNA services
Organizations from small teams up to enterprises wanting unified ZTNA + Secure…
Web Gateway across a single global network, with simple per-user pricing
Mid-market to enterprise wanting the most-deployed ZTNA platform with deep SSE…
integration and Zscaler ecosystem alignment
Developer-led teams, startups, distributed engineering organizations wanting…
WireGuard-based mesh networking with minimal operational overhead and identity-aware ACLs
Strengths cited
Modern cryptography (ChaCha20-Poly1305, Curve25519, BLAKE2s, Noise handshake),…
small codebase (~4,000 lines vs OpenVPN's ~100,000+), high performance with low CPU overhead, merged into Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds in 2020, kernel-level performance, well-suited for mobile due to fast handshake and low battery drain, foundation for major commercial VPN and ZTNA platforms
Generous free tier (50 users), simple per-user pricing without bandwidth…
surcharges, global anycast network spans 300+ cities for low-latency access, Cloudflare Tunnel eliminates inbound firewall rules and public IP exposure, browser-based SSH/VNC for clientless access, broad SASE bundling (ZTNA, SWG, CASB, DLP, RBI, email security) on one platform, fast deployment (often hours not weeks)
Most-deployed ZTNA solution globally per Zscaler positioning, recognized leader…
in Gartner Magic Quadrant for SSE, inside-out App Connector architecture means apps never exposed to internet, scales to very large enterprise deployments, deep integration with Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) for full SSE/SASE coverage, broad compliance certification breadth, mature partner ecosystem
Built on WireGuard for high performance and modern cryptography, near-zero…
configuration (install client, authenticate, you're on the network), peer-to-peer architecture means low latency and no central bottleneck, MagicDNS automatically assigns human-readable names, ACLs enable identity-based zero-trust access, NAT traversal handles tricky network topologies, genuinely useful free tier, open-source Headscale provides self-hostable coordination
Where it fits less well
WireGuard is a protocol
not a turnkey managed service. Production deployments at scale require building the operational layer (key distribution, peer management, ACLs, monitoring) or using a managed service built on top (Tailscale, Cloudflare WARP, Netmaker, Headscale)
DNS query soft limit of ~150,000/seat/month may trigger additional seat purchase
Remote Browser Isolation, email security, dedicated egress IPs, and Magic WAN are Enterprise add-ons with separate pricing; Log Explorer free up to 10GB then $1/GB/month
Premium pricing positioned for enterprise
ZIA and ZPA priced separately (bundles available but commit to broader scope); App Connector hardware/VM footprint to plan and maintain; latency profile reflects global proxy architecture — well-suited for centralized inspection but requires planning for distributed users
Coordination plane is proprietary (SaaS-based) unless using Headscale for self-hosting
per-user pricing makes costs predictable but can grow with team size; Premium ($18/user/mo) is a meaningful jump from Starter ($6) — features like full ACLs, Tailscale SSH, and audit logging gate at Premium; not an inspection/filtering product (no DLP, threat detection, or content filtering)
Head-to-head comparisons
3 pairs
WireGuard vs Tailscale→ Cloudflare Zero Trust vs Zscaler Private Access→ Tailscale vs Cloudflare Zero Trust→
Methodology Comparison data synthesized from publicly available vendor documentation, MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations, AV-TEST results, Gartner Peer Insights, G2/Capterra/TrustRadius reviews, anonymized transaction data (Vendr, CostBench, CheckThat.ai), and publicly reported pricing as of May 2026. defend.network is independent and has no commercial relationship with the vendors compared.