Google Smart Lock vs Tailscale
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Google Smart Lock
Securely log in to websites and apps using your phone's built-in security key or a physical Bluetooth key. It simplifies access by remembering your passwords and offering a more convenient sign-in experience.
- Use phone as security key
- Use Bluetooth security key
- Password saving
- Simplified sign-in
- Secure access
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Smart Lock allows you to use your Bluetooth security key or set up the security key built in to your phone.
Tailscale
Securely connect devices, users, and workloads with a mesh VPN built on WireGuard. It brings identity to network access, enabling Zero Trust principles across diverse environments. Modernize your network for homelabs, businesses, and cloud infrastructure.
- Secure mesh networking
- Identity-based access control
- Zero Trust security
- WireGuard-based VPN
- Homelab and business VPN
- Cloud and workload connectivity
- Hardware-agnostic overlay network
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Securely connect people, workloads, and even AI agents to anything on the internet with Tailscale, the secure connectivity platform built on WireGuard®. Tailscale brings identity to the network layer so you can control access based on users, groups, tags, and devices instead of IP addresses, applying Zero Trust principles end-to-end across every environment. Tailscale transforms your existing network from a legacy hub and spoke model to a modern, lightweight, and responsive mesh networking architecture that eliminates single points of failure and delivers better performance, scalability, and security for your end users, devices, and remote resources. Tailscale can be used for your Homelab VPN and connectivity, Business VPN, Workload Connectivity across clouds, Kubernetes clusters, regions, and environments, Privileged Access Management (PAM), Edge & IoT, CI/CD, and Securing AI – all on the same platform. Replace legacy VPNs, connect workloads across on-prem and cloud infrastructure providers, power Zero Trust initiatives, and make remote access secure by simplifying software-defined networking and security operations. Modernize your home, your organization, and your enterprise networking at scale with Tailscale. Tailscale is hardware-agnostic, so you can make decisions about your hardware independently from decisions about your network. Tailscale creates an overlay network, using your existing network, so you can incrementally deploy Tailscale without needing new network switches or to change your network architecture. Tailscale integrates with 100+ technologies and dozens of identity providers, and is available on a wide range of platforms — including Apple’s macOS, iOS, and tvOS — so you can securely connect from wherever you work.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Tailscale at 61% against Google Smart Lock's 9%. Tailscale also leads on rating (4.4 vs 2.5) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Tailscale holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 614 and 741 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 9% of Google Smart Lock's written reviews are positive against 61% of Tailscale's.
Google Smart Lock ships an update every 2 months, Tailscale fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Google Smart Lock | Tailscale |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.5 (614 ratings) | 4.4 (741 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 9.4% of reviews | 60.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 614 | 741 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Best chart rank | #134 | #90 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 56 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tailscale Inc. | |
Customer experience
Google Smart Lock
Tailscale
User reviews
Google Smart Lock
From 614 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Works fine
- 🔒 Adds extra security layer
- 👍 Useful app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes on iOS 18 update
- 🐛 Doesn't work with Yubikey
- 🐛 Doesn't work with child accounts
- 🐛 Unreliable, constant issues
- 🐛 Locked out of accounts
Tailscale
From 741 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to set up and use
- 🔒 Secure remote access
- 👍 Convenient for accessing home network
- 👍 Seamless connectivity between devices
- 🚀 Powerful networking features
Room to improve
- 🔋 Significant battery drain
- 🐛 Connectivity issues and bugs
- 🐛 Unreliable performance
- 🐛 Broken functionality after updates
Bugs and requests
Google Smart Lock
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes on launch
- Doesn't detect nearby devices
- Endless login loop
- Incompatible with latest iOS
Requested features
3 requests- Support for NFC security keys
- Easier setup and usage
- Better compatibility with other devices
Tailscale
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inability to connect or authenticate
- Exit node feature not working as expected
- Inconsistent behavior when switching networks
- App getting stuck in a loading state
Requested features
5 requests- On-demand VPN connection
- Ability to switch between multiple accounts
- More granular control over exit nodes
- Integration with other networking tools
- Dark mode option
In-app purchases
Google Smart Lock
No in-app purchases
Tailscale
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Google Smart Lock free?
Is Tailscale free?
Which has better reviews, Google Smart Lock or Tailscale?
Do Google Smart Lock or Tailscale have ads?
Which is updated more often, Google Smart Lock or Tailscale?
Which is more popular, Google Smart Lock or Tailscale?
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