Tailscale vs NetBird: $8 next to €6, and why this site will not subtract one from the other
The numbers first
- Tailscale Standard: $8 per user per month, billed monthly; Premium $18. NetBird Team: €6 per user per month, billed monthly; Business €12.
- This site converts no currencies. The difference between $8 and €6 appears nowhere in this article.
- Free tiers: Tailscale Personal, up to 6 users, "only suitable for non-commercial use". NetBird Free, up to 5 users, 100 machines.
- What is counted besides seats: Tailscale includes 50 tagged resources (servers and the like), then $1 each; user devices are free and unlimited. NetBird includes 100 machines plus 10 per user, then €0.50 each.
- Neither page states a minimum user count. Neither publishes an annual rate.
- For 10 people: Tailscale Standard $80 a month ($2,880 over three years); NetBird Team €60 a month (€2,160 over three years). In separate currencies.
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Links on this page currently go directly to providers without affiliate tracking.
The currency line comes first
This site's rankings keep US-dollar plans and euro plans in separate tables. Exchange rates move daily, and a ranking that flips depending on which day's rate was used is not something this site prints. NetBird is the only euro-priced vendor here; the euro ZTNA table for 10 to 24 people holds NetBird's two rows and nothing else.
So this article does not say which is cheaper. It says what each costs in its own currency and what conditions ride along with the figure. Readers are free to convert and compare on their own; this site does not do it for them.
Free tiers: 6 against 5, but one of them is not for companies
Tailscale Personal is $0 for "up to 6 users", "unlimited user devices" and "up to 50 tagged resources". The FAQ states it is "a free plan and is only suitable for non-commercial use of Tailscale". Creating a tailnet with a custom domain counts as business use and starts a 14-day trial automatically. In other words, Tailscale has no free tier for a company.
NetBird Free is €0 for "up to 5 users" and "100 machines". In the pricing page text read, there is no sentence restricting commercial use. This site does not claim there is no restriction; it records that the page does not print one the way Tailscale's does.
On headcount alone it is 6 to 5. On whether a company can use it, only NetBird's 5 is in the comparison.
What is counted besides seats: tagged resources against machines
This is where the two pages differ most.
Tailscale splits devices in two. A user device, meaning one a person logs in from, is "free and unlimited". A tagged resource, meaning a server, subnet router, app connector or other shared infrastructure owned by a tag rather than a person, is included up to 50, and each one past that is $1 a month. Ten people with three devices each add nothing; only the server side is counted.
NetBird counts one unit, machines. Team and Business include "100 machines + 10 per user", with every machine past that at €0.50 a month. The pricing page text read does not separate people's devices from servers. For 10 people the allowance is 200. Three devices per person is 30, add 20 servers and it is 50, leaving 150 spare.
Put in matching words: Tailscale's bill rises once servers pass 50; NetBird's rises once people's devices and servers together pass 200 (for 10 people). Which line is crossed first depends on the shape of the team.
How the bill is worked out
Tailscale: you choose the number of seats, and you are billed for that number at the start of the month. Its FAQ explains the switch away from monthly active users: customers found that billing unpredictable. There is no hard limit on seats; you add as you go. No annual rate is printed for Standard or Premium; Enterprise can pay by annual invoice.
NetBird: it charges "only for active users and machines that connected or logged in at least once during the billing period". An enrolled person who never connects in a month is not on that month's bill. No annual rate is printed.
Both bill monthly, but one bills on seats fixed at the start of the month and the other on who and what was active during it. If you want the budget fixed in advance, the first is easier to read. If headcount churns, the second has room to come in lower. Both statements stay inside what the pages say.
Ten people, in each currency
| Tailscale Standard | Tailscale Premium | NetBird Team | NetBird Business | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | $8 | $18 | €6 | €12 |
| 2 users | $16 a month | $36 a month | €12 a month | €24 a month |
| 10 users | $80 a month | $180 a month | €60 a month | €120 a month |
| 50 users | $400 a month | $900 a month | €300 a month | €600 a month |
| Three years, 10 users | $2,880 | $6,480 | €2,160 | €4,320 |
| Beyond seats | $1 per tagged resource from the 51st | same | €0.50 per machine from the 201st | same |
With no minimum on either side, the per-person figure equals the rate at every size. There is no difference column between the dollar pair and the euro pair, because there cannot be one.
What both pages say about the product
Tailscale's pricing page carries the line "WireGuard® for Enterprises"; NetBird's home page describes "a peer-to-peer WireGuard®-based network". Both vendors state on their own pages that they build on WireGuard.
NetBird's pricing page has a "Cloud" / "Self-Hosted" switch and a link to "Self-hosting NetBird", so a self-hosted option is part of what it sells. Tailscale's pricing page says nothing about self-hosting, and this article says nothing about it on Tailscale's behalf.
Each vendor's figures are taken apart on its own: How much does Tailscale cost for a business? and NetBird pricing in euros.
Who this is not for
Anyone who wants a single number to settle it. Two vendors in two currencies do not go into one ranking on this site.
Sources
- https://tailscale.com/pricing — checked 2026-10-02
- https://netbird.io/pricing — checked 2026-10-02
- https://netbird.io/ — checked 2026-10-02 (WireGuard wording)
- https://seatbill.com/vpn-pricing/d/tailscale — checked 2026-10-02
- https://seatbill.com/vpn-pricing/d/netbird — checked 2026-10-02
- https://seatbill.com/vpn-pricing/article-39 — checked 2026-10-02
Related on this site
- [[Tailscale pricing: free Personal vs $8 per user Standard]](d/tailscale.html)
- [[NetBird pricing: what a user costs with minimums and fixed charges]](d/netbird.html)
- [[How much does Tailscale cost for a business?]](article-39.html)
- [[NetBird pricing in euros: Team €6, Business €12]](article-56.html)
- [[Zero-trust network access in euros for a ten to twenty-four person team]](best/eur-ztna-10-24.html)
- [[Tailscale vs Twingate: cost per user at two, ten and fifty]](vs/tailscale-vs-twingate.html)
- [[Business VPN cost per user calculator]](tool.html)
Written by Kaz (pen name). Published October 2, 2026. Prices were checked on the dates given under Sources. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.