Aqua Security vs Tailscale Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Aqua Security | Tailscale | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Custom | $8/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 4 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | custom | per-seat |
Dev Security
- Code repo discovery and code scanning
- Vulnerability and risk scanning of container images
- Dynamic Threat Analysis (DTA) in a secure sandbox to detect sophisticated malware
- Open source health scoring
- Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) scanning
- Pipeline security with static pipeline analysis
- CI/CD posture management
- Integrity checks of code throughout the lifecycle
- Automated next-gen SBOM generation and analysis
- CI/CD, registry and SCM toolchain integrity and governance
Cloud Security
- Auto-discovery, inventory and risk assessment across cloud accounts
- Agentless cloud workload scanning
- Support of AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle and Alibaba Cloud environments
- Hundreds of configuration checks across compute, database, storage and identity resources
- Out-of-the-box compliance reporting
- eBPF-based real-time detection of malicious behavior
- Drift prevention to ensure immutability of workloads at runtime
- Advanced malware protection with malware blocking and deletion
- Service identity-based segmentation (firewall)
- Event audit trails, incidents view, and response policies
Platform
- End-to-end visibility across the entire SDLC
- Risk-based prioritization and insights
- Contextualized risk scoring
- Built-in compliance and custom reporting
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- Broad integrations with third-party tools
Personal
- Unlimited user devices
- Up to 6 users
- Up to 3 ACL groups
- Up to 50 tagged resources to start
- 1,000 mins per month for ephemeral resources
- Access nearly all of Tailscale's features
- Try SSH and Kubernetes features
Standard
- Unlimited users
- Deploy users and groups with SCIM
- Up to 10 ACL groups
- 1,000 mins per month for ephemeral resources
- Configure Tailscale with MDM tools
- Device posture integrations with MDM, EDR, XDR
- Advanced user roles for billing, IT, auditors, and more
Premium
Popular- Up to 300 ACL groups
- 10,000 mins per month for ephemeral resources
- Just-in-time access to resources
- Advanced Tailscale SSH
- Network flow logs
- Log streaming
- Regional routing and traffic steering
- Priority support
Enterprise
- Custom device quantities and limits
- Solutions Engineer consultation and implementation assistance
- Custom MSA & SLAs
- Premium support with dedicated professional services
- Custom pricing and bundling to meet your organization's needs and budget
- Pay by invoice
Aqua Security vs Tailscale FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Tailscale has a free plan. Aqua Security doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Aqua Security uses custom pricing, while Tailscale goes with per-seat. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Aqua Security: Full-stack cloud-native security with no self-serve entry point screams enterprise-only — they're not competing with Snyk on developer tooling price points or Wiz on PLG motion. Aqua is going after security-mature orgs with real budgets, likely landing in the same deals as Palo Alto Prisma and Wiz at the high end. Tailscale: Tailscale sits in the mid-market sweet spot — cheaper than traditional enterprise VPN solutions and zero-trust vendors like Zscaler, but priced above scrappier open-source alternatives like Headscale. They're clearly targeting dev-forward teams and mid-size companies who want enterprise-grade networking without the enterprise procurement nightmare.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Aqua Security and Tailscale and let you know when something moves.