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SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge...
Ranking in ZTNA
16th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (25th)
Tailscale
Ranking in ZTNA
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the ZTNA category, the mindshare of SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) is 2.1%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tailscale is 6.6%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ZTNA Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tailscale6.6%
SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)2.1%
Other91.3%
ZTNA
 

Featured Reviews

Kallamuddin Ansari - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Consultant at HR Software Solution
Remote access has become more secure and flexible but reporting still needs deeper analytics
SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) offers excellent features including Zero Trust Network Access, VPN as a service, and Cloud Access Security Brokers. One of the standout features is Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) for Software as a Service, providing visibility and control over cloud applications employees use, not only regarding whether they can use them but also regarding the actions they perform within those applications. This is especially useful in organizations utilizing many SaaS tools such as Office 365, Salesforce, and cloud storage, where consistent security policy enforcement is required, even from personal devices or remote locations. The secure web gateway feature is critical for modern-day internet security. SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) provides secure web gateway features for users accessing the internet, including URL filtering, domain filtering, blocking malicious websites, preventing phishing or ransomware threats, and enforcing acceptable use policies. SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) has had a very positive impact on our organization as our workforce becomes more distributed, with noticeable improvements including easier and more secure remote access. Previously, managing VPN clients and hardware gateways was difficult for new or non-technical users, but with SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE), users simply authenticate and get secure access to only the applications they need. There are numerous improvements I notice, such as improved BYOD security, reduced risk of lateral movements, simplified management, lower hardware dependency, and better visibility and compliance reporting. After moving to SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE), we saw a 38% reduction in VPN-related tickets. Users are no longer facing client errors, tunnel failures, and certificate issues, which saves nearly 25 hours per month on troubleshooting remote access problems. Onboarding remote users has become 60% faster, now taking only 10 to 15 minutes instead of 30 to 40 minutes. Additionally, there has been a 52% reduction in risky connection attempts primarily from devices with outdated operating systems or disabled antivirus, with zero lateral movement and a 30% drop in failed login anomalies.
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.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"After moving to SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE), we saw a 38% reduction in VPN-related tickets, saving nearly 25 hours per month on troubleshooting remote access problems, onboarding remote users has become 60% faster, and there has been a 52% reduction in risky connection attempts with zero lateral movement and a 30% drop in failed login anomalies."
"Tailscale's best features include the ability to seamlessly integrate and add devices, exit nodes, a very simple UI that is easy to set up, and importantly, access to a CLI so that my agents can set up Tailscale for me."
"The biggest benefit of Tailscale is simplicity; it is quick to set up and provides a stable and secure connection."
"Tailscale is incredibly easy to use, and I will always sing its praises."
"The best features Tailscale offers are the ease of use and the security it provides for data in transition."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization and consulting work by making remote connections easy, significantly reducing the friction and making this very reliable, even behind difficult networks with CGNAT or other situations that make establishing connections difficult using other means."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to speed up development without worrying about GDPR restrictions."
"Tailscale is very intuitive as well as accessible, which allowed us to connect everything to our testing network very seamlessly since it could easily be downloaded onto mobile devices or other devices."
"Since implementing Tailscale, we have seen improved remote access reliability, reduced VPN maintenance overhead, faster onboarding for new users, and stronger security through identity-based access controls, all while significantly lowering the administrative workload."
 

Cons

"SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) has some areas for improvement, particularly in reporting and dashboards."
"I feel the speed of the control servers are a bit too slow."
"I would not say anything in Tailscale's use case could be improved; what it does and its intended use is perfect, but the application on the laptop is a little buggy since it continuously opens in the background when it should not be."
"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."
"I choose a seven because it sells what it does honestly, but I believe some more flexibility might be needed."
"Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options."
"I am currently testing the ability to expose to the WAN certain services that we select, which is in beta. I imagine it is still in development, but from the tests we have done, the connection outward is quite slow, which is a point of curiosity, and I hope that aspect can be improved."
"One thing I want Tailscale to improve is their user interface for Arch Linux, which is one of the devices I have that I installed Tailscale on, but they do not have the native package with full features, a capability I really want them to develop."
"I initially got introduced to Tailscale in high school when I needed access to services running on my server, but due to deep packet inspection being in place, I could not use Tailscale."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Insurance Company
13%
Government
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Security Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
16%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)?
The setup cost for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) was minimal as most of the investment was in time spent configuring connectors and access policies rather than infrastructure, since it is cloud...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)?
SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) has some areas for improvement, particularly in reporting and dashboards. While it provides strong visibility, it could benefit from deeper analytics, customizable...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE)?
My main use case for SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge (CSE) is for remote and hybrid work access, specifically for Zero Trust Network Access to sensitive and private resources, as well as secure access ...
What needs improvement with Tailscale?
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 ...
What is your primary use case for Tailscale?
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 n...
What advice do you have for others considering Tailscale?
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 ...
 

Also Known As

Banyan Security
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Redox, Byton, Veeva, BlueVoyant
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, Tailscale, Check Point Software Technologies and others in ZTNA. Updated: July 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.