Localport vs Tailscale
Tailscale joins your machines into one private WireGuard network. Localport gives a person, server or CI job mutual TLS access to named ports on named devices, and gives local services static public URLs with your own domain.
Tailscale is free for up to 6 users. A team of 25 pays $200 a month there, and $24 on Localport.
Last checked 16 October 2026
What Tailscale is
Tailscale builds a private network of your devices over WireGuard, peer to peer where the network allows. Funnel publishes a device's service to the internet on a ts.net name.
- A private network of every device
- Encrypted end to end
- Free for up to 6 users
What Localport is
Localport gives a person, server or CI job mutual TLS access to the ports you allow on each device, and nothing else on its network. Tunnels give local services static public URLs over HTTP, TCP or TLS.
- A device joins no network
- Remote Access over mutual TLS, granted per device
- Static public URLs with your own domain
What Tailscale does well.
Localport is not a network between your machines, and every plan is paid.
- Encrypted end to end
- Devices connect peer to peer over WireGuard, with relays as a fallback.
- Machine-to-machine networking
- Every device on the network can reach the others its access rules allow.
- A plan at no cost
- Personal is free for up to 6 users.
- Session recording
- SSH, Kubernetes and database sessions, as a platform extension.
What Localport does better.
- Static public URLs on any port
- HTTP, TCP and TLS tunnels with your own domain and a reserved TCP port. Funnel listens on 443, 8443 and 10000 only, over TLS, on ts.net names, and is in beta.
- Access to a device, not a network
- A grant opens the ports you allow on the devices it names. The device's network stays unreachable, and the device reaches nothing of yours.
- Ports set in the dashboard
- Each device serves only the TCP and HTTP ports listed for it, up to 32. Removing a port closes the connections using it.
- Revocation closes live connections
- Narrowing a grant, revoking a certificate or removing a device closes the connections it covered.
- CI without a stored secret
- A pipeline exchanges the OIDC token that GitHub Actions, GitLab or Buildkite issues for a certificate.
- Protection on public URLs
- IP allowlist, basic auth, header authentication and webhook signature verification at the edge.
- Fanout
- Every teammate's machine on a tunnel receives a copy of each webhook.
- One price for the team
- Pro includes 50 members. Tailscale Standard is $8 a user.
What it costs
Tailscale is free for up to 6 users. Above that it is priced per user, and Localport is priced per team.
| Tailscale / month | Localport / month | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| A team of 6 Tailscale Personal: free for up to 6 users | Free | $24 on Pro | |
| A team of 10 Tailscale Standard: 10 users at $8 | $80 | $24 on Pro | 3.3x less |
| A team of 25 Tailscale Standard: 25 users at $8 | $200 | $24 on Pro | 8.3x less |
| A team of 50 Tailscale Standard: 50 users at $8 | $400 | $24 on Pro | 16.7x less |
Tailscale Premium is $18 per user. Localport Pro covers up to 50 members and is $20 a month billed yearly.
Side by side
| Tailscale | Localport | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | One private network of all your devices | Mutual TLS access to named ports on named devices |
| Default | Devices reach each other, narrowed by access rules | Nothing is reachable until granted |
| Connection path | Peer to peer, with relays as a fallback | Through the region you choose |
| Public URLs | Funnel: ports 443, 8443 and 10000, TLS only, ts.net names, beta | HTTP, TCP and TLS, any port, custom domains |
| Pricing | Per user: Standard $8, Premium $18 | One flat price per team |
How Localport handles your data.
- Open-source agent
- The program on your machine is Apache 2.0. Read it before you run it.
- Traffic content is not logged
- Request and response bodies are not stored.
- A region for each tunnel
- EU, US or Asia Pacific. Account data is stored in the EU.
- Your keys stay with you
- Private keys for Remote Access are created on your machine and not sent to us.
Common questions.
Tailscale details are from Tailscale pricing, What is Tailscale, Connection types, Tailscale Funnel as published on 16 October 2026.
Is Localport a VPN like Tailscale?
No. Tailscale connects your machines into one private network. Localport connects one person or machine to the ports you allow on one device, over mutual TLS, and nothing else on that device's network is reachable.
Is Localport end-to-end encrypted like Tailscale?
A Localport TLS tunnel is end to end: the edge routes it by SNI and never decrypts it. Other traffic is encrypted on every hop and its content is never stored. Tailscale encrypts all traffic end to end.
Can Localport replace Tailscale Funnel?
Yes, for publishing a local service. Localport tunnels carry HTTP, TCP and TLS on any port, with your own domain and an IP allowlist, basic auth or header authentication in front.
How does pricing compare with Tailscale?
Tailscale is free for up to 6 users, then $8 per user per month on Standard. Localport Pro is $24 a month for up to 50 members, so a team of 25 pays $24 instead of $200.
Does every device need a client?
The device you reach runs the Localport agent, and the person reaching it runs localport access. A visitor to a public tunnel installs nothing.