Managed Nebula vs Tailscale

Managed Nebula and Tailscale are both overlay networking tools that create encrypted mesh networks between your hosts. They share a common goal of simplifying secure connectivity, but we think the approaches differ in ways that matter.

Nebula is a fully open-source overlay networking tool that we originally built at Slack and continue to maintain at Defined Networking. It uses its own protocol built on the Noise framework to create peer-to-peer encrypted tunnels between hosts. Managed Nebula is our cloud-hosted management layer that handles certificate authorities, host configuration, and distribution, while you retain full control of your network’s data plane.

Tailscale is built on top of WireGuard and uses a proprietary centralized coordination server to distribute keys and manage configuration across your network.

Below, we break down the key differences to help you decide which is right for your network.

	Managed Nebula	Tailscale
Protocol	Nebula (Noise IX)	WireGuard (Noise IK)
Architecture	Fully peer-to-peer mesh	Centralized coordination
Authentication	Certificate-based (Nebula CA)	Identity provider-based
Firewall	Stateful with security groups	Centralized ACLs
NAT traversal	Lighthouses (you operate)	DERP relays (Tailscale-operated)
Open source	Fully (MIT license)	Client only; server proprietary
Infrastructure	You run lighthouses and relays	Tailscale-operated relays
Free tier	Up to 100 hosts	Limited personal use
Pricing	$1/host/month	Per-user

Both Nebula and Tailscale create mesh networks where hosts communicate directly with each other, rather than routing all traffic through a central gateway. The key difference is how they coordinate that mesh.

Nebula uses its own protocol built on the Noise IX handshake pattern. Every host holds a signed certificate from a Nebula Certificate Authority, and hosts can establish direct peer-to-peer tunnels with any other host on the network without needing a central server to broker the connection. The data plane is fully decentralized. If our control plane goes offline, your existing network continues operating normally. Hosts already have their certificates and can establish new tunnels with each other.

Tailscale is built on top of WireGuard, using the Noise IK handshake. It adds a centralized coordination server that distributes public keys and network configuration to all hosts. While the actual data traffic flows peer-to-peer when possible, the coordination server is involved in key exchange and configuration updates. If the coordination server is unavailable, existing connections continue, but new connections and configuration changes cannot be established.

For a deeper comparison of how Nebula’s protocol compares to WireGuard, see our blog post on comparing Nebula and WireGuard. For an introduction to how mesh networks differ from traditional VPNs, see VPNs vs. mesh networks.

Nebula uses certificate-based authentication with its own simplified certificate format. Each host receives a certificate signed by a Nebula Certificate Authority that contains the host’s public key, Nebula IP address, name, and group memberships. When two hosts connect, they mutually validate each other’s certificates against the trusted CA.

This means adding a new host to a Nebula network only requires signing a new certificate. Existing hosts do not need to be reconfigured. They already trust the CA and will accept any validly signed certificate. Managed Nebula handles the CA and certificate lifecycle for you, and we support single sign-on (SSO) on all plans, including the free tier.

Tailscale relies on third-party identity providers (Google, Microsoft, Okta, etc.) for user authentication, with keys distributed through the centralized coordination server. This provides a familiar login experience but creates dependencies on both the identity provider and Tailscale’s coordination infrastructure for authentication to work.

Nebula has a stateful packet firewall built directly into the Nebula process. Because Nebula certificates include group membership information, firewall rules can reference groups rather than individual IP addresses. This works similarly to AWS Security Groups. Rules like “allow the WebApp group to access port 443” don’t need to be updated as hosts join or leave the network:

firewall:
  inbound:
    - port: 443
      proto: tcp
      groups:
        - WebApp

    - port: 22
      proto: tcp
      groups:
        - Admin

Tailscale manages access control through ACLs defined in their centralized control plane. Policies are written in a JSON-based format and configured through the admin console or API.

Both Nebula and Tailscale implement stateful packet filtering, which is a meaningful security advantage over other mesh networking tools that lack fine-grained access control.

Getting two hosts behind NAT to talk directly to each other is one of the harder problems in networking. Both tools solve it, but in different ways.

Nebula uses Lighthouses, special hosts that you deploy and operate, to coordinate peer discovery. When a Nebula host starts up, it registers its known IP addresses with the Lighthouses. When another host wants to connect, it queries the Lighthouse for the target’s addresses, and both hosts actively attempt to establish a direct connection through NAT hole-punching. Since you operate the Lighthouses, you control this infrastructure entirely. For difficult NAT situations where direct connections cannot be established, Nebula also supports relays that you run yourself.

Tailscale uses DERP (Designated Encrypted Relay for Packets) servers to relay traffic when direct connections cannot be established. While Tailscale also attempts NAT traversal for direct connections, the fallback relay infrastructure is operated by Tailscale. Your traffic paths depend on their infrastructure when direct connections fail.

We maintain an ongoing, public benchmarking effort that compares Nebula against other mesh networking tools including Tailscale, using dedicated hardware and rigorous methodology. Key findings from our benchmarking results:

• Throughput: Nebula, Netmaker, and Tailscale can all saturate a 10 Gbps network in a single direction on modern CPUs. All three are competitive at the top end.
• Memory: Nebula averages approximately 27 MB of memory. Tailscale uses significantly more (ranging from 60 MB to over 250 MB in our testing) with higher variability related to packet processing optimizations.
• Consistency: Nebula’s throughput and resource usage are extremely consistent and predictable. Tailscale shows more variability in both throughput and memory usage.
• CPU efficiency: Tailscale achieves better per-core CPU efficiency on Linux through segmentation offloading, though this shifts some processing burden to the kernel. These optimizations are not available on all platforms.

As we wrote in that post: “There is no single ‘best’ solution.” We publish the full benchmarking methodology, configurations, and raw data publicly.

Nebula is fully open-source under the MIT license. Every component, including the networking protocol, the firewall, and the certificate authority tooling, is available for inspection, modification, and self-hosting. You can run a complete Nebula network with zero dependency on us. Managed Nebula is an optional management layer on top of the fully open-source project.

Tailscale’s client is open-source, but the coordination server (the component that distributes keys and manages configuration) is proprietary. Headscale is a community-maintained open-source reimplementation of the coordination server, but it is not made or supported by Tailscale.

With Nebula, you have full access to and control over every component of your network. There are no proprietary dependencies.

With Managed Nebula, you run your own lighthouses and relays on infrastructure you control. Your network’s data plane is entirely yours. If the Managed Nebula management service experiences downtime, your overlay network continues operating. Hosts communicate, tunnels form, and firewalls enforce rules. We handle the certificate authority and configuration distribution, but your operational network does not depend on us.

As we explain on our pricing page: “We believe it is important for you to be in charge of your own uptime, and by running your own lighthouses and relays, your network can continue operating in the unlikely event that Managed Nebula is unavailable.”

With Tailscale, the coordination server and DERP relay infrastructure are operated by Tailscale. Your ability to add new hosts, update configuration, and relay traffic through difficult NATs depends on Tailscale’s infrastructure being available.

Managed Nebula offers simple per-host pricing:

• Free: Up to 100 hosts, 2 routes, SSO, and a simple management UI. No credit card required.
• Pro: $1/host/month with unlimited hosts, up to 100 routes, priority support, and guaranteed uptime
• Enterprise: Custom pricing with a dedicated Slack support channel and network design assistance

See our pricing page for full details, or contact sales for Enterprise.

Tailscale prices per user rather than per host, which affects cost calculations differently depending on your network topology and the number of devices per user.

Choose Managed Nebula if you want:

• Full control over your network infrastructure, including lighthouses and relays
• A fully open-source foundation with no proprietary dependencies
• Certificate-based authentication that scales without constant reconfiguration
• Built-in, group-based firewall rules that work like AWS Security Groups
• Predictable performance with low memory overhead
• Simple, transparent per-host pricing

Choose Tailscale if you want:

• Tight integration with third-party identity providers for user authentication
• A managed relay infrastructure you don’t need to operate
• A WireGuard-based solution with a familiar protocol underneath