Tailscale Personal
Remote Home Assistant access without port forwarding; voice-assistant bridging and vendor support stay paid.
Technical Profile & Specs
verified 2026-08-10
- Cost
- $0 / forever (Free tier / Free tool)
- License
- proprietary, free
- Hosting Model
- Local or hosted (your machine or their cloud)
- Platforms
- desktopmobilethey host it
- Installation
- Install Tailscale on each device and sign them into the same free Personal tailnet
- Where Your Data Lives
- WireGuard private keys stay on enrolled devices; device identity, public keys, ACLs, routes, and coordination metadata live in Tailscale's control plane, while encrypted payload traffic is peer-to-peer when possible and otherwise crosses DERP relays.
- The Catch / Trade-off
- Tailscale makes private remote access easy, but every client must join the tailnet and it does not replace Nabu Casa's public URL, voice-assistant linking, cloud webhooks, or Home Assistant support.
Replaces 2 paid apps
up to $21.19/mo ($254/yr) in subscriptions
Tailscale Personal FAQ
Common questions
Is Tailscale Personal free and open source?+
Tailscale Personal is a free tool that runs on local or hosted. Remote Home Assistant access without port forwarding; voice-assistant bridging and vendor support stay paid.
What paid software does Tailscale Personal replace?+
Tailscale Personal serves as a free replacement for 2 paid SaaS applications: Home Assistant Cloud, NordVPN, saving up to $21.19/month ($254/year) in subscription bills.
How do you install and set up Tailscale Personal?+
Installation: Install Tailscale on each device and sign them into the same free Personal tailnet.
What is the catch or trade-off with Tailscale Personal?+
Tailscale makes private remote access easy, but every client must join the tailnet and it does not replace Nabu Casa's public URL, voice-assistant linking, cloud webhooks, or Home Assistant support.