Tailscale

Tailscale Inc.
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded2019
FounderAvery Pennarun
David Carney
Brad Fitzpatrick 
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario
Key people
Websitetailscale.com
Tailscale
DeveloperTailscale Inc.
Stable release
1.92.3[1] / December 16, 2025 (2025-12-16)
Repositorygithub.com/tailscale/tailscale
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, tvOS, Plan9
TypeSD-WAN, P2P, VPN, ZTNA
LicenseBSD
Websitetailscale.com

Tailscale Inc. is a software company based in Toronto, Ontario. Tailscale develops a partially open-source software-defined mesh virtual private network (VPN) and a web-based management service.[a][3][4] The company provides a zero config VPN as a service under the same name.[5]

History

Founded in 2019 by Google engineers Avery Pennarun, David Crawshaw, David Carney, and Brad Fitzpatrick,[6] the company secured funding of $12 million in a Series A round in November 2020 led by Accel with seed investors Heavybit and Uncork Capital participating.[7] In May 2022, the company secured a $100 million Series B round, led by CRV and Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors.[6][8] In April 2025 the company secured a $160 million Series C round, led by Accel, with participation from CRV, Insight Partners, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital.[9]

The company's name is inspired from a research paper The Tail at Scale[b] published by Google.[10]

Software

The open-source software acts in combination with the management service to establish peer-to-peer or relayed VPN communication with other clients using the WireGuard protocol.[11][12] Tailscale can open direct connection to the peer using NAT traversal techniques such as STUN or request port forwarding via UPnP IGD, NAT-PMP or PCP.[13] If the software fails to establish direct communication it falls back to using DERP (Designated Encrypted Relay for Packets) protocol relays provided by the company.[14] The IPv4 addresses given to clients are in the carrier-grade NAT reserved space. This was chosen to avoid interference with existing networks.[15] The Linux client can also send traffic to networks behind itself by disabling SNAT and routing directly to the source IPs. [16]

Supported platforms

The Tailscale client software supports a number of operating systems and embedded software systems,[17] including:

A Kubernetes operator[20] and Docker images[21] are also available.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Although Tailscale provides VPN software & services, it should not be confused to be what is commonly referred to as a VPN service, however Tailscale's software can be integrated with the Mullvad VPN service[2]
  2. ^ Dean, Jeffrey; André Barroso, Luiz. "The Tail at Scale". Google. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021.

References

  1. ^ "Tailscale changelog"
  2. ^ Chiara Castro (2023-09-08). "Mullvad and Tailscale join forces in the name of online security". TechRadar. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  3. ^ Rogers, Sarah (2021-09-09). "Tailscale VPN review". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 19 September 2021. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  4. ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven. "Tailscale launches Wireguard-secured mesh network". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  5. ^ Hanselman, Scott. "Using Tailscale on Windows to network more easily with WSL2 and Visual Studio Code". www.hanselman.com. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  6. ^ a b Kyle, Wiggers (5 May 2022). "Tailscale lands $100 million to 'transform' enterprise VPNs with mesh technology". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023.
  7. ^ Dillet, Romain (10 November 2020). "Tailscale raises $12 million for its WireGuard-based corporate VPN". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  8. ^ Tailscale (4 May 2022). "Tailscale raises $100M… to fix the Internet". Tailscale. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  9. ^ Tailscale (8 April 2025). "Building the New Internet, together — our Series C and what's next". Tailscale. Archived from the original on 8 April 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
  10. ^ Security Cryptography Whatever: Tailscale with Avery Pennarun & Brad Fitzpatrick. 15 Jan 2022. Event occurs at 45m53s. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023 – via archive.org.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ Morgan, Ethel. "Tailscale". ethulhu.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  12. ^ "What is Tailscale? · Tailscale Docs". Tailscale. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
  13. ^ "Troubleshooting device connectivity · Tailscale Docs". Tailscale. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
  14. ^ "Terminology and concepts · Tailscale Docs". Tailscale. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
  15. ^ "IP pool · Tailscale Docs". Tailscale. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
  16. ^ "Disable SNAT · Tailscale Docs". Tailscale. Retrieved 2025-03-15.
  17. ^ "Download · Tailscale". tailscale.com. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  18. ^ Tailscale. "Access Synology NAS from anywhere". Tailscale. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  19. ^ "QNAP". tailscale.com. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  20. ^ Tailscale. "Kubernetes operator". Tailscale. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  21. ^ "Contain your excitement: A deep dive into using Tailscale with Docker". tailscale.com. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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