Twingate is a modern zero-trust network access platform that replaces traditional VPNs — using identity-aware split-tunneling to give distributed teams secure access to private resources without exposing them to the public internet.
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Twingate is a modern zero-trust network access (ZTNA) platform that replaces traditional VPN gateways with identity-aware, application-level access. Founded in 2019 by ex-Dropbox engineers, Twingate has grown to serve thousands of organizations globally as of 2026, with particularly strong adoption among engineering-led companies (developer-tool companies, fintech, SaaS startups) where the limitations of legacy VPNs are most painful.
The platform's defining proposition is the elimination of VPN concentrator infrastructure. Traditional VPNs route all traffic through a centralized gateway, creating performance bottlenecks and single points of failure. Twingate's architecture splits the control plane (Twingate's cloud) from the data plane (Connectors deployed inside customer networks), giving each user direct, encrypted, application-level access only to the specific resources they're authorized to use — without exposing network topology or requiring public IP addresses.
**Pricing (as of 2026, per twingate.com/pricing):** Starter plan is free for up to 5 users, 2 networks, and 1 admin. Teams plan at $5/user/month adds up to 50 users, multiple networks, and SSO via SAML. Business plan at $10/user/month adds compliance reporting, audit logs, and DNS-over-HTTPS. Enterprise plan adds advanced features (device posture checks, biometric MFA, compliance integrations) at custom pricing.
Twingate integrates with major identity providers (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, JumpCloud, OneLogin) for SSO and uses these as the source of truth for user authentication. Resource access policies are defined per group and resource — without complex network ACL configuration. Deployment time for a small team is typically 15-30 minutes versus days for traditional VPN.
According to G2 (200+ reviews as of Q1 2026), Twingate reviewers most frequently cite the deployment speed, performance compared to VPNs, and the developer-friendly API as standout strengths.
**Affiliate program:** Twingate runs a partner program through PartnerStack with recurring commission on referred customer subscriptions.
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Important details to help you make the right choice
Distributed teams that want zero-trust network access in 15 minutes — without VPN concentrator hardware, public IP exposure, or split-tunnel complexity.
Not the right fit for organizations needing site-to-site VPN for branch offices — Twingate is user-VPN focused. Also less suited to environments primarily on Windows Server with Active Directory only and no cloud identity provider.
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Traditional VPNs route all user traffic through a centralized gateway and grant access to the network at the IP layer — meaning a connected user can reach any resource on the network unless additional ACLs restrict them. Twingate uses identity-aware split tunneling and grants access at the application layer — users see only specific resources they're authorized to use, never the full network topology. Performance is typically better because traffic doesn't bottleneck through a single gateway, and security is tighter because lateral movement is impossible by design.
Pricing source: Official pricing page — Last verified: 4/29/2026
Yes — the Starter plan is free for up to 5 users, 2 networks, and 1 admin. The plan includes core ZTNA functionality, deployment to any cloud or on-premise infrastructure, and the same encryption as paid plans. The free tier is a real product, not a trial. Most teams outgrow the 5-user limit before they outgrow the feature set, at which point Teams ($5/user/month) is the natural upgrade.
For a small team with an existing identity provider (Okta, Entra ID, Google), Twingate deployment takes 15-30 minutes: install a Connector inside the network you want to protect, configure resource access policies in the admin console, invite users, and they install the Twingate client on their devices. There's no VPN concentrator hardware to provision, no public IP exposure, no firewall rule changes for inbound traffic — Connectors initiate outbound connections to the Twingate cloud.
Yes. Twingate supports any TCP/UDP application accessible from the network where a Connector is deployed — including on-premise Active Directory, file servers, internal web apps, databases, RDP, SSH, Kubernetes APIs, etc. The Connector establishes outbound connections to the Twingate cloud, so no inbound firewall rules or public IP exposure is required.
Twingate is true zero-trust network access (ZTNA) — application-level, identity-aware. NordLayer and ExpressVPN for Business are user-VPN solutions that primarily extend the legacy VPN model with centralized admin. For organizations adopting zero-trust principles or replacing VPN concentrator infrastructure, Twingate is the more appropriate architectural choice. For organizations primarily wanting to add VPN to remote workers without changing their underlying network model, NordLayer and ExpressVPN are simpler.
