Cloudflare Access vs. Tailscale vs. Pomerium

If you have shortlisted Cloudflare Access, Tailscale, and Pomerium for your ZTNA needs but are unsure which one to choose, this article is here to guide you. These three solutions follow Zero Trust principles but vary significantly in architecture, features, and ideal use cases. This Cloudflare Access vs. Tailscale vs. Pomerium guide contains a detailed comparison of each to help you better understand their differences and make a more informed decision about your organization's security requirements.

Cloudflare Access vs. Tailscale vs. Pomerium: Key Takeaways

Here is the summary of the main differences (and similarities) between Cloudflare Access, Tailscale, and Pomerium.

1. Pricing:

• Cloudflare Access: Free plan with limited features, $7/user/month for the Standard plan, and custom pricing for Enterprise users.

• Tailscale: Free for personal use, $6/user/month for Starter, $18/user/month for Premium, with custom pricing for Enterprise plans.

• Pomerium: Free and open-source with a business tier at $7/user/month and custom Enterprise options.

2. Architecture:

• Cloudflare Access: Cloudflare Access is a cloud-based Zero Trust solution that acts as a VPN alternative. It routes traffic through Cloudflare’s global network, allowing for centralized security and inspection. This architecture introduces latency since all traffic passes through Cloudflare’s infrastructure, but it also benefits from Cloudflare’s built-in DDoS protection and performance optimizations.

• Tailscale: Tailscale uses a mesh VPN architecture based on WireGuard. Devices connect directly to each other in a peer-to-peer manner without routing traffic through centralized servers, reducing latency. Its mesh design simplifies network management but can lead to limitations in large-scale, complex environments requiring more advanced controls.

• Pomerium: Pomerium’s self-hosted architecture is designed as a VPN alternative, using a reverse proxy for secure access. By operating at the edge and within the organization’s infrastructure, Pomerium minimizes latency. This architecture allows full control over data and security policies without needing third-party intermediaries, ideal for high-compliance and performance-sensitive environments.

3. Security:

• Cloudflare Access: Inspects all traffic passing through its network, which can introduce a potential privacy risk if the network is compromised. While traffic is secured, the middleman nature increases the attack surface.

• Tailscale: Uses strong encryption via WireGuard for secure device-to-device communication, focusing on simplicity but lacking continuous verification of actions.

• Pomerium: Offers the highest security through self-hosting and continuous verification, ensuring that every request is checked before execution, without third-party traffic inspection.

4. User-to-Service:

• Cloudflare Access: Manages user-to-service traffic via a reverse proxy through Cloudflare’s network infrastructure. 

• Tailscale: Handles user-to-service traffic through mesh networking, ensuring direct connections. Uses mesh networking for direct peer-to-peer connections between services.

• Pomerium: Pomerium handles user-to-service traffic through a reverse proxy, with minimal latency due to edge deployment. Its edge-deployed nature reduces latency compared to Cloudflare.

5. End-to-End Encryption:

• Cloudflare Access: Does not provide full end-to-end encryption as it inspects all traffic.

• Tailscale: Yes, provides end-to-end encryption via WireGuard, ensuring data protection.

• Pomerium: Yes, supports end-to-end encryption while offering continuous verification.

6. Client Requirement:

• Cloudflare Access: It distinguishes its ZTNA approach into two types: agent-based and service-based. Agent-based ZTNA requires installing a software client (or "agent") on endpoint devices to manage access. Service-based ZTNA, on the other hand, operates through the cloud and doesn't require a client installation, providing clientless access via a cloud service. This distinction allows organizations to choose between direct client installations or cloud-driven security based on their specific needs.

• Tailscale: Requires users to install a client on their devices to access the Tailnet. For applications or servers, you can either install the Tailscale client on each one or set up a subnet router, which makes a private network accessible through the Tailnet without needing to install the client on every individual server.

• Pomerium: Offers clientless access for a more seamless user experience without endpoint dependencies. In other words, users do not need to install any software on their devices to access resources, as Pomerium acts as an identity-aware reverse proxy, enforcing security policies at the application layer.

7. Context-Awareness:

• Cloudflare Access: Provides limited context awareness, mainly focusing on identity and device posture checks, with more advanced features requiring Enterprise plans.

• Tailscale: Does not natively support context-aware security features, relying mostly on identity and encryption for access control.

• Pomerium: Fully context-aware, continuously validating user sessions based on identity, device, and environmental factors, offering fine-grained control over who can access which resources based on real-time data.

8. Open Source:

• Cloudflare Access: Not open-source, proprietary software with commercial plans.

• Tailscale: Yes, partially open-source with a commercial version available.

• Pomerium: Fully open-source, with enterprise support options for organizations needing additional features.

9. Role-Based Access Controls:

• Cloudflare Access: Supports role-based access control across its entire product suite.

• Tailscale: Offers role-based access control, allowing policies based on identity providers.

• Pomerium: Yes, provides flexible role-based access control with fine-grained policies.

10. Speed:

• Cloudflare Access: Slower due to routing all traffic through Cloudflare’s network, which can introduce latency depending on the user's location relative to Cloudflare's infrastructure.

• Tailscale: Offers low latency by enabling peer-to-peer communication through a mesh network, allowing direct device connections without central routing, improving speed for most use cases.

• Pomerium: Fastest due to its self-hosted, edge-deployed model that avoids the latency introduced by third-party networks, allowing organizations to control routing and minimize delays.

11. Identity Provider Integration:

• Cloudflare Access: Supports multiple identity providers (Google, AzureAD, Okta, etc.), but SSO is limited to Enterprise plans.

• Tailscale: Yes, integrates with popular identity providers like Google, AzureAD, and Okta.

• Pomerium: Provides authentication through your existing IdP and supports all major single sign-on (SSO) providers, including Okta, Google, Azure AD, AuthO, Ping, and GitHub.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, Cloudflare Access, Tailscale, and Pomerium each offer unique benefits for secure remote access. Cloudflare Access excels in cloud-based management, Tailscale simplifies peer-to-peer networking, and Pomerium provides robust, self-hosted control. Choosing the right solution depends on your organization's priorities—whether it's ease of use, speed, security, or control over data and infrastructure.