Comparison

Tailscale vs Connectarr

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

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.

About

Connectarr

Features
Read full description

Your self-hosted media stack, one app. Connectarr brings your existing media services together on iPhone and iPad. Manage your library, track downloads, discover titles, handle requests and keep an eye on the tools behind it all—from one native app. LIBRARY & CALENDAR Browse movies, TV shows, seasons and episodes from Sonarr and Radarr. Monitor titles, edit profiles, manage files, find missing episodes and add entire movie collections. Check upcoming releases in a day-by-day calendar. DOWNLOADS & ACTIVITY See one queue for SABnzbd, NZBGet, qBittorrent, Transmission and Synology Download Station. Pause, resume or remove jobs, review history, add supported magnet links, torrent files and NZBs from your phone, and set speed limits on supported clients. DISCOVER & REQUEST Explore movies and shows by trend, genre, actor or streaming platform, with results relevant to your country. Get suggestions inspired by your library. Add titles to Sonarr or Radarr, or request them through Overseerr or Seer. MEDIA SERVER INSIGHTS Connect Plex, Emby or Jellyfin to see what's playing, continue watching and recent additions. Open a title on your own compatible player and get additional playback insights with Tautulli. Connectarr itself is not a media player. MORE TOOLS, LESS SWITCHING Manage subtitles in Bazarr, search and maintain indexers with Prowlarr or Jackett, track Tdarr transcoding, inspect Docker containers and Portainer stacks, and check live TV and recordings in Dispatcharr. BUILT AROUND YOUR SETUP Use local, remote or VPN addresses with automatic fallback. Customize your Home and tab bar, add calendar and activity widgets, and lock the app with Face ID or Touch ID. No Connectarr account is required. EXPLORE DEMO Try the app with sample data before connecting a server. Free includes ads and lets you connect Bazarr, Overseerr and one core service. Pro unlocks all core services, media server integrations, push notifications and an ad-free experience. Ultimate adds advanced homelab tools and customization. A free trial is available for eligible Ultimate subscribers. IMPORTANT Connectarr is an independent companion for your own self-hosted services. It does not provide, host or stream media. You need your own configured servers to use live features. Some features require a paid subscription. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Tailscale3 screens
Connectarr4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tailscale at none against Connectarr's 12. Tailscale also leads on ads (none vs shown) and chart position (#56 vs unranked). Connectarr's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Connectarr sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Tailscale asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tailscale ships an update fortnightly, Connectarr every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Tailscale versus Connectarr: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTailscaleConnectarr
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (765 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews60.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings765 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreemium—
Best chart rank#56 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB114 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTailscale Inc.Valentin Devigne

Bugs and requests

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

Connectarr

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Tailscale

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Connectarr

Subscriptions10
  • Connectarr Pro - Tdarr$0.991 Month
  • Torrent Clients (Monthly)$1.991 Month
  • Connectarr Pro - NZB Clients$1.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Connectarr Pro$2.991 Month
  • Connectarr Ultimate3 Days trial2 variants$4.991 Month
  • Connectarr Pro - Tdarr$9.991 Year
  • Torrent Clients (Yearly)$19.991 Year
  • Connectarr Pro - NZB Clients$19.991 Year
  • Connectarr Pro$24.991 Year
  • Connectarr Ultimate (YEAR)3 Days trial2 variants$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Tailscale free?
Tailscale is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Connectarr free?
Connectarr is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Tailscale or Connectarr have ads?
Connectarr shows ads; Tailscale does not.
Which is updated more often, Tailscale or Connectarr?
Tailscale ships an update fortnightly, and Connectarr every 4 days. Most recently, Tailscale was updated on October 25, 2026 and Connectarr on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons