The Showdown

Tailscalevsztm

Why pay monthly fees for Tailscale when you can self-host ztm for free? Let's look at the facts.

Tailscale

The Expensive Option

  • Closed Source (Black box)
  • Expensive monthly fees per user
  • Data stored on their servers
WINNER

ztm

The Freedom Choice

  • 100% Open Source Code
  • Free forever (Self-hosted)
  • You own your data completely
Interactive Calculator

Calculate Your "SaaS Tax"

SaaS pricing is designed to scale with your success. See how much wealth transfers from your bank account to Tailscale's shareholders.

10 people
150100200+
$

*Estimated standard pricing for Tailscale. Adjust if needed.

Estimated Annual Waste
$1,440
Monthly Burn Rate$120
5-Year Projection$7,200
Cost with Self-Hosted$0
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Calculations based on 10 users at $12/mo.

Detailed Breakdown

0
Centralized Coordination
Decentralized P2P
1
WireGuard
HTTP/2 Tunnels
2
Managed control plane
Zero-trust mesh