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FortiSASE 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.3
FortiSASE provided cost-effective solutions, quick integration, and seamless hybrid workflows, saving time and costs compared to alternatives.
Sentiment score
5.3
Tailscale increases productivity and efficiency by simplifying connectivity, reducing infrastructure needs, and minimizing configuration and troubleshooting efforts.
With FortiCASB, we manage to save around 50% on our budget compared to other products.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
Previously, networks with FortiGate were used, and that forced us to spend on hardware. With Tailscale, that type of investment is not necessary.
Devops Engineer at Allenta
We have seen clear return on investment since implementing Tailscale by eliminating VPN server infrastructure costs.
System Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
With Tailscale, I set it up and forget it because it just works, allowing me to avoid worrying about the whole VPN aspect of my home network architecture.
Application Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
FortiSASE support is knowledgeable but often slow, with mixed user satisfaction, and improvements needed in response times and documentation.
Sentiment score
6.3
Tailscale's customer service is praised for responsiveness, but most find platform reliable and rarely need direct assistance.
I am totally satisfied with their response time and support quality.
Solution Architecht at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
If there is a solution in the market, the people supporting it should be technical enough to resolve issues at their first level or second level, or at least at the third level.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
At a high level, they deliver the intended information, but I still need their representatives, particularly sales engineers, to provide detailed explanations, as the documentation may not cover every area that all audiences might be looking for.
Senior Manager at CTC Global Sdn Bhd
Tailscale is that reliable, and their documentation answers any questions I have.
Application Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
The user interface, documentation, and support for Tailscale are fabulous.
IT Support / Sysadmin
I would give it a ten out of ten.
DevOps Engineer at CloudKite.io
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.7
FortiSASE offers scalable, user-friendly management, effortless expansion, and adaptability, ideal for enterprises, with minor third-party integration concerns.
Sentiment score
6.7
Tailscale scales effectively across platforms, handling hundreds of devices, maintaining seamless performance and minimal speed impact without issues.
FortiSASE is a very scalable solution because it licenses every user individually.
Co-Founder & General Manager at Beta Integrated Solutions
If the customer is within the Fortinet ecosystem, they are generally good for scalability.
Senior Manager at CTC Global Sdn Bhd
I would say it is really scalable, and I do not think I have ever experienced any downtime with Tailscale.
Software Engineer at Psycontech
As a free-tier user, I have tested my limits, connecting the maximum amount of devices, and everything performed great.
Application Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
We have over 300 to 400 devices that use Tailscale that we connect with and utilize on a daily basis.
IT Support Engineer at a security firm with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.4
FortiSASE's stability has mixed reviews, with some praising reliability and others reporting glitches and connection issues.
Sentiment score
8.3
Tailscale is reliable with minimal downtime, easy setup, and high stability, though iOS updates may cause temporary issues.
They maintain high availability using numerous data centers globally.
IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave
FortiSASE is not stable yet and is in the learning stage.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
Tailscale is a SaaS platform, so Tailscale scales it themselves.
DevOps Engineer at CloudKite.io
Tailscale is stable; it has never given me downtime on their side.
Infrastructure Lead & Student Developer (also Head of Ops - FOSSCET) at College of Engineering Trivandrum
For what we use it for—interconnection and networks—it is very stable.
Devops Engineer at Allenta
 

Room For Improvement

FortiSASE requires enhancements in security, compatibility, pricing, user-friendliness, and cloud management, with issues in installation and licensing.
Tailscale seeks better login processes, enhanced UI, improved network visibility, YAML ACLs, advanced options, and free-user features.
FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
If third-party vendors could be integrated and supported, enabling two-way communication, it would greatly enhance the solution compared to competitors such as Netskope and Zscaler.
Senior Manager at CTC Global Sdn Bhd
While connectivity from outside to inside is okay, inside to outside is not.
IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave
Tailscale could be improved with more advanced network visibility and monitoring tools, cleaner pricing tiers for scaling teams, and enhanced built-in reporting for device posture and controls for enterprise environments.
System Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
At my apartment, I can do 2-gig networking, but when I connect via the exit node, and I'm wired in somewhere else, and that place also has 2-gig networking, I'm at max getting half of my speed.
Software engineer
I would like Tailscale to provide more censorship-resistant options, such as Shadowsocks or VLESS, as fallback protocols.
IT Support / Sysadmin
 

Setup Cost

FortiSASE pricing is debated, viewed as high by some and competitive for existing Fortinet users, with regional cost nuances.
Tailscale offers affordable VPN solutions with predictable costs for enterprises and cost-effectiveness for small teams and startups.
FortiSASE is an expensive product and the cost is indeed high.
IT Manager at PTECH
The pricing for FortiCASB is competitive and not expensive.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
When combining everything for a full SASE solution, I notice the pricing becomes quite high.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Tailscale has definitely made it so I don't have to incur additional costs.
Senior Technical Support Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The setup has been straightforward and predictable with the per-user subscription model and no infrastructure or hardware setup cost, making the initial deployment inexpensive.
System Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
I never used a license. I never purchased or bought anything more than the basic free license.
Field Service Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

FortiSASE offers seamless remote work, AI security, integration with Fortinet's ecosystem, scalability, and comprehensive management features at competitive pricing.
Tailscale offers quick setup, strong security, and efficient management, featuring access control, cross-platform support, and seamless connectivity.
The important aspects are twofold. One is authorization, and the second is access control.
IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave
FortiCASB is user-friendly and integrates well with other Forti-products, providing enhanced management capabilities.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
In FortiSASE, these features are bundled, and since they are tightly integrated with the firewall, SD-WAN works without additional payment.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
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.
Software Engineer
The most valuable features are the Zero Trust architecture, peer-to-peer connectivity using WireGuard, easy deployment and setup, access control for granular permissions, single sign-on, subnet and routing, exit nodes, and cross-platform support.
System Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
Tailscale's security is fabulous, especially the access control features and the ability to use existing OAuth accounts for access.
IT Support / Sysadmin
 

Categories and Ranking

FortiSASE
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
Tailscale
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (4th), ZTNA (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

LK
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
Implementation complexity challenges are addressed and bundled solution offers significant ROI
For other solutions such as FortiAnalyzer and FortiSIEM, integration is easy, but it's not straightforward due to license complexity. As FortiSASE is new in the market in India, if you want to use a Delhi data center, you need a separate license, and if you have a different kind of firewall, you cannot transfer your license from one box to another box. FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time. The product appears to have been launched without being tested properly in real market conditions. While testing may have been done in lab environments, real-time scenarios seem to be missing from this solution. The SPA licenses are limited to the box UTM, UTM make and model. If someone has a UTM currently and plans to upgrade or downgrade in the coming year after procuring the SPA license for three years, they cannot transfer those licenses to another box, which is a challenge that needs improvement.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiSASE ?
The pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiSASE are very advantageous if you are already a Fortinet customer. If you have FortiGate, the Fortinet firewall, it will be a very good solution for ...
What needs improvement with FortiSASE ?
I think Fortinet can improve FortiSASE in two main areas: one is enhancing the Secure Web Gateway module, and the second is providing more advanced data classification options since the current DLP...
What is your primary use case for FortiSASE ?
I would describe the use case for FortiSASE as replacing traditional SSL VPN with ZTNA, which enhances Zero Trust Network accessibility for users in any remote location. For example, a user in Indi...
What needs improvement with Tailscale?
Tailscale could be improved in different ways. I have not really found any problem with it so far. It pretty much solved the problems of other VPN clients that we have been trying. If Tailscale pro...
What is your primary use case for Tailscale?
My main use case for Tailscale is connecting to company internal systems due to GDPR requirements. The company is located in Germany with private servers in Germany, and I stay in the UK, so I use ...
What advice do you have for others considering Tailscale?
My advice to others looking into using Tailscale is to definitely try it out because it is going to really abstract away a lot of network problems, especially when it comes to private networks, pri...
 

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 Fortinet, Check Point Software Technologies, Tailscale and others in ZTNA. Updated: May 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.