A note before we start: This comparison comes from our real experience over the past two years helping 30+ small and medium-sized businesses in Beijing put remote work solutions into production. It is not a “market research report” — it is what owners concluded after half a year of actually running these deployments.
In the past month, three business owners in a row asked me the same question:
“We want to set up remote work. Do we keep buying SSL VPN appliances, or move to Tailscale? I hear Tailscale is unstable in China — is that true?”
Honestly, the answer in 2024 and the answer in 2026 are completely different.
Below we break down all four mainstream options available today. By the end you will know:
- Which one your company should choose
- The real pitfalls each option has run into
- Annual cost comparison for a 30-person company
1. The Four Mainstream Options at a Glance
| Option | Representative products | Best suited for | Annual cost (30 people) | Main pain points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional SSL VPN appliances | Sangfor / Fortinet / Huawei USG | 50+ people | RMB 50,000–100,000 upfront + RMB 10,000–20,000/year | Expensive hardware / single point of failure |
| Tailscale | US SaaS | Any size | $5/user/month ≈ RMB 12,000–15,000 | Unstable in China / fails compliance |
| ZeroTier | US SaaS | Any size | $5/user/month ≈ RMB 12,000–15,000 | Same as above + proprietary protocol |
| sTrust Zero Trust Security (China-developed) | Built in-house by Siwenlide | 5–500 people | RMB 7,000–12,000 | Limited service regions |
Let’s go through each one in detail.
2. Option A: Traditional SSL VPN Appliances (Sangfor / Fortinet / Huawei)
Who it suits
- Mid-sized enterprises with 100+ people
- Companies that need dedicated IT Operations staff
- Strict compliance requirements for access authentication
- Adequate budget (large upfront hardware spend)
Real costs (30-person company)
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Entry-level SSL VPN appliance (Sangfor SSL-1000-D80B) | RMB 35,000–60,000 |
| 30 SSL client licenses | RMB 12,000–25,000 |
| Implementation fee | RMB 3,000–8,000 |
| Annual maintenance | RMB 6,000–12,000/year |
| Total cost, year 1 | RMB 56,000–105,000 |
| Total cost, 3 years | RMB 74,000–141,000 |
Main problems
1. Single point of failure If the SSL VPN appliance fails, remote work across the whole company stops dead. We have seen an 80-person company whose appliance motherboard burned out and then waited eight hours for on-site Sangfor maintenance — during which every employee working from home was cut off.
2. Poor client experience SSL VPN clients drop connections often and need manual reconnection, and browser plug-ins run into compatibility problems.
3. Not truly “zero trust” SSL VPN follows a “gateway defense” model: once authentication succeeds, the user gets full access to the internal network. If an employee’s computer is phished, the attacker can move laterally across the entire intranet.
4. Costly to upgrade Going from 50 to 100 users means replacing the hardware and buying licenses again.
A real case
A 50-person trading company in Chaoyang spent RMB 80,000 on a Sangfor SSL VPN in 2022. In 2024, wanting to scale to 80 people, they found the appliance lacked the performance, which meant switching models and repurchasing licenses — an estimated additional RMB 50,000–70,000. In the end the owner said, “We may as well switch straight to SaaS zero trust.”
3. Option B: Tailscale (US SaaS)
Who it suits
- Overseas / cross-border teams
- Pure R&D teams with highly technical staff
- Those who do not care about compliance filing
- Flexible budgets, per-seat billing
Real costs (30-person company)
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Personal Free | $0/month (3 devices only) |
| Personal Premium | $48/user/year (personal) |
| Business | $5/user/month = $1,800/year for 30 people |
| Enterprise | $18/user/month |
| Annual cost for 30 people | Approx. RMB 12,000–15,000 |
Critical problems in China
1. The control plane is in the United States (DERP relays)
Tailscale’s control plane (controller plus DERP relay servers) is deployed in the United States, Europe and Singapore. Access from China means:
- 200–500 ms latency when traffic goes through DERP relays (an average of 180 ms from Beijing to the Tokyo DERP node)
- Severe jitter on DERP relays during peak hours (8–11 p.m.), with a 30–50% handshake failure rate
- Occasional QoS throttling by carriers
Measured: connecting from a Beijing office to a Shenzhen branch server over Tailscale gave a normal 100 ms in the afternoon, but spiked past 800 ms at night.
2. Fails compliance
- Cross-border data flows: employee computers reaching the corporate intranet through US relays triggers the Data Security Law
- MLPS 2.0 (China’s Multi-Level Protection Scheme) requires that important data not leave the country; Tailscale does not comply
- Filing: Tailscale’s control plane cannot obtain ICP filing
- Government customers: absolutely unusable
3. After-sales support
- English-only customer service
- No technical support team in China
- When something breaks, you can only wait for community replies on GitHub Issues
A real case
A 40-person tech company in Haidian adopted Tailscale in 2024. The first three months were great — live in five minutes. But it was rejected in an MLPS 2.0 assessment, so they had to switch. The migration — uninstalling clients, cleaning up configurations, moving to a new solution — took two weeks, and remote work suffered throughout.
4. Option C: ZeroTier (US SaaS)
Who it suits
Similar to Tailscale — for scenarios where technical decision-makers prefer custom network topologies.
Real costs (30-person company)
- Basic, free for 25 nodes
- Professional plan, $5/user/month
- Annual cost for 30 people: approx. RMB 12,000–15,000
Problems in China
Almost identical to Tailscale, plus one more:
1. Proprietary, closed protocol ZeroTier uses its own Layer 2 protocol (not an industry-standard one). That means: – If something breaks, only ZeroTier can fix it – You cannot connect your own gateway – Integration with other network equipment is difficult
2. Every Tailscale problem listed above ✗ Control plane in the United States ✗ Fails compliance ✗ Poor after-sales support
5. Option D: sTrust Zero Trust Security (China-developed, built in-house by Siwenlide)
Who it suits
- Small and medium-sized businesses with 5–500 people (our primary fit)
- Companies operating in mainland China
- MLPS 2.0/3.0 compliance requirements
- Replacing legacy SSL VPN appliances
- Those who no longer want to worry about hardware maintenance
Real costs (30-person company)
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Free trial | RMB 0 (full functionality for 5 users, 30 days) |
| Standard Plan | RMB 7,000/year (30 users) |
| Enterprise Plan | RMB 18,000/year (100 users / SSO included) |
| Private Deployment | Negotiable (financial / government & enterprise customers) |
Comparison with Tailscale
| Dimension | sTrust | Tailscale |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane location | Mainland China, Alibaba Cloud Beijing | United States |
| Connection stability in China | High / no overseas dependencies | Medium / DERP jitter |
| Compliance (MLPS 2.0) | ✅ Passed | ❌ Not passed |
| ICP filing | ✅ Filed | ❌ Not possible |
| Protocol | Domestically developed proprietary protocol | Third-party protocol |
| Annual cost for 30 users | RMB 7,000–12,000 | RMB 12,000–15,000 |
| Customer support | 7×12, in Chinese | English only |
| Single-device login | Default | Configurable |
| Private deployment | Supported | Self-hosted Headscale |
5-Minute Rollout Process
Our fastest customer went from registration to company-wide sTrust remote work in just 1 day:
Day 1, morning: – Register at strust.siwenlide.com – Create an organization and configure subnet authorization (Sales group → CRM subnet) – Invite employees: send SMS invitations
Day 1, afternoon: – Employees download the client (Windows/Mac/iOS/Android) – Log in with an SMS verification code + automatic delivery of access configuration – Verify: ping the internal gateway + access the CRM system
Day 1, evening: – Done — all employees onboarded
Case Study
TongTech (a 70-person technology team in the financial industry) replaced its existing Cisco AnyConnect with sTrust in 2025. The original solution cost RMB 150,000 for Cisco equipment plus RMB 30,000 per year in maintenance. After switching to sTrust, the annual cost is RMB 14,000, saving more than RMB 200,000 over 3 years. Most importantly, MLPS 2.0 (China’s Multi-Level Protection Scheme) was passed on the first review, whereas the original solution failed the review twice because its audit logs were incomplete.
6. Decision Tree: Which One Should Your Company Choose?
Flowchart
Where is your company located?
├─ 100% mainland China → go to the next question
└─ Includes overseas teams → Tailscale + a domestic entry point
or sTrust + overseas users via CF Tunnel
How many employees does your company have?
├─ < 100 → sTrust (best value)
├─ 100-300 → sTrust Enterprise or Sangfor, etc.
└─ 1000+ → Sangfor + third-party IAM / private sTrust
Do you need MLPS compliance?
├─ Yes → sTrust or a domestic SSL VPN
└─ No → Tailscale / ZeroTier will also work
What is your budget?
├─ < RMB 10,000/year → sTrust Standard
├─ RMB 10,000-30,000/year → sTrust Enterprise / Tailscale Business
└─ RMB 30,000-100,000/year → Sangfor / Fortinet / private sTrust
※ The prices above are reference prices as of August 2026, subject to variation by headcount range and service scope. They do not constitute a binding quotation; the final pricing shall be governed by the formal proposal and contract.
Recommended Solutions
| Company Profile | Recommended Solution |
|---|---|
| 5-30 employees, domestic office only | sTrust Standard, RMB 7,000/year |
| 30-100 employees, domestic + business travel | sTrust Enterprise, RMB 18,000/year |
| 100+ employees, MLPS compliance requirements | sTrust Enterprise + MLPS consulting |
| Cross-border teams (China-US / China-Europe) | Tailscale international + sTrust domestic, dual system |
| Government customers / SOEs | Private sTrust deployment |
| Legacy SSL VPN nearing expiry | Switch directly to sTrust (70%-80% cost savings) |
7. Migration Guide: From a Legacy Solution to sTrust
If you are currently using a traditional SSL VPN or Tailscale, migrating to sTrust typically takes 1-2 weeks:
Week 1
Day 1-2: Registration + internal network architecture review – Register at strust.siwenlide.com – Map existing subnets, applications, and user groups
Day 3-4: Import users + configure policies – Sync users from LDAP/AD (if applicable) – Configure subnet authorization policies – Configure MikroTik / server peers
Day 5: Pilot with 5-10 users – Select the IT team plus some key employees – Run through the complete login flow – Verify access to internal applications
Week 2
Day 6-7: Roll out to all employees – Send bulk SMS invitations to all employees – Employees download and activate the client – IT colleagues provide on-site support
Day 8-10: Decommission the legacy solution + failover drills – Keep the original SSL VPN appliance / Tailscale for 1 more week (as a contingency) – Decommission the legacy solution once all users are stable
Emergency Rollback
If any issues arise after the switch, 100% rollback within 24 hours: – Do not uninstall the legacy SSL VPN client (both clients coexist) – Retain Tailscale user accounts (simply disable the network)
8. Detailed sTrust Product Information
Platform Support
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| Windows | ✅ Win 7/8/10/11, including EV code signing |
| macOS | ✅ Intel + Apple Silicon |
| iOS | ✅ Available on the App Store |
| Android | ✅ APK + app stores |
| Linux | ✅ Standard client |
Core Features
- SMS verification code login + single-device enforcement
- Subnet-level / IP-level / port-level granular authorization
- MikroTik RouterOS integration (dual-WAN failover)
- Multi-peer synchronization (active-standby / traffic splitting)
- DNS push (remote users use the corporate internal DNS)
- Real-time connection status + audit logs + fail2ban
- Daily support reports + security dashboard emails
Pricing
- Free trial: full functionality for 5 users for 30 days
- Standard, RMB 7,000/year: 30 users / MFA included / 30-day audit logs
- Enterprise, RMB 18,000/year: 100 users / SSO included / private deployment consulting
- Private deployment: negotiable (financial / government & enterprise customers)
Start Your Trial
Sign up and start immediately — no phone appointment needed.
9. About Us
Siwenlide has focused on IT services for small and medium-sized businesses in Beijing for 14 years, serving 1,000+ customers, with 90% of them partnering with us for more than 3 years.
Our two business lines:
- IT All-in-One Subscription: from RMB 1,999/month — including IT operations, network equipment, enterprise broadband/private lines, backup, and emergency response
- sTrust Zero Trust System: from RMB 7,000/year — replacing traditional VPNs and Tailscale/ZeroTier
If you have both: – IT operations needs – Remote work / zero trust needs
We can bundle an “IT All-in-One + sTrust Zero Trust” combined solution, with an additional 20% off for annual payment.
10. Contact Us
Phone: 400-686-2011 (weekdays 9:00-18:00) Website: www.siwenlide.com sTrust Trial: strust.siwenlide.com Address: Chaoyang District, Beijing
Provided free of charge:
- 30-minute solution consultation (by phone)
- Assessment of your current VPN environment + migration cost estimate
- Comparison report PDF covering the 4 options
- 30-day free sTrust trial for 5 users
Summary: Traditional SSL VPN is too expensive + Tailscale is not compliant + ZeroTier is much the same → for a 30-person SME, the best choice is a domestically developed zero trust solution. sTrust costs RMB 7,000 per year, half of Tailscale and 80% less than SSL VPN.
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Siwenlide Technical Team · Beijing · 14 years, 1,000+ SMEs, full-stack IT + zero trust
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