Twingate Private Access

What do you like best about the product?

Migrating from a bastion server with SSH keys, trying to keep all of those in place and uptodate was cumbersome.

Using Terraform to manage Twingate users, groups, service accounts, tokens, connectors, and resources fits into the "Infrastructure as Code" paradigm nearly perfectly.

What do you dislike about the product?

There is a "click-ops" of policy management. It would be nice to have them also managed via Terraform.
It would also be nice to have MFA at the resource level. Depending upon workflow, the simple friction point of needing to authenticate can be enough to block a bad thing. Currently, even if the resources were in separate groups, each with the MFA enabled, if as soon as you have authenticated, all resources in all groups that require authentication are now accessible. I believe there is a plan to go with per-group authentication.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Moving from a single Bastion server running SSH, using IaC, was cumbersome. Twingate significantly simplifies that, but also allows us to now use external pipelines to access the resources in a sensible manner using service accounts, as well as exposing private endpoints to the appropriate members in a secure fashion.

What do you like best about the product?

The best part in Twingate is the simple admin experience. After add the Gateway to infrastructure it's easy to add resources and manage policies. This is very useful when you have to manage a large number of resources, what is our case. Also, onboard internal users is so easy with Twingate client, we collected a lot of great feedbacks about the client app for all OS.

What do you dislike about the product?

No dislikes about Twingate. Maybe the pricing would be a problem if the number of seats are so high.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We have multiple private cloud environments, with microservices and internal tools. Using Twingate we can control the acesses and ensure that only allowed people can access resources.

What do you like best about the product?

authentication, security, integration into existing apps

What do you dislike about the product?

clunky, why are there two icons on my home bar?

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Authentication, security

What do you like best about the product?

Twingate is an awesome "VPN" replacement software with an easy to use interface, easy end user setup, and top-notch security for split/full tunnel access.

What do you dislike about the product?

I hate to be "that guy" but I am here writing this review so hopefully someone at Twingate addresses some of the concerns and drawbacks I have with their product.

Twingate is outrageously horrible to configure and deploy across most MDMs such as NinjaRMM, Intune, and Jamf Pro. This is not limited to one OS its the same across macOS & Windows.

When it comes to installing the software "willy nilly" with nothing silent or configured for the end user it operates fine. When it comes to deploying it with those settings such as the root cert for next dns, machine key, silent install, configurations for the application such as launch agent on macOS, etc. it really has problems.

macOS is mainly where this product needs attention for deployment. It constantly has updating issues, dual instances, and orphaned system extensions. The Twingate team is well aware that the product falls short when it comes to Enterprise deployment and management.

I find a majority of issues lie within the documentation itself I had to "pry" proper deployment documentation for Jamf that works out of one of their leads for macOS. They need to heavily invest in updating deployment documentation across all MDMs they support and OS's they support.

I find a lot of the enterprise deployment "strategies" they recommend are very piece-meal and thrown together like a half-finished puzzle in which you the admin are left to "figure out". Their solution for deploying all items related to Twingate on Windows is one massive PowerShell script, which I am not opposed too if it worked and was easily manipulatable. I will give them props for a solid uninstall script on Windows though that works well when troubleshooting it.

Twingate falls flat on the macOS side mainly - the inability to troubleshoot the product with an easy to use uninstall script is what is really lacking here. macOS needs a proper uninstall script from Twingate that won't leave orphaned system extensions without a device restart -Windows does not have this issue.

From a product standpoint are you considering Twingate for home use or a small outfit - its going to work great. When it comes to large scale deployment, configuration, and management it really falls short.

DNS management and integration with NextDNS has a ton of growing to do - the GUI for an admin is confusing and could have more options. Seems like a ton of stuff is missing that you would expect from a DNSFiltering dashboard.

I could keep going but I have already ranted enough. I would avoid Twingate until it is more mature for larger enterprises. They need to invest resources into the product admin dashboard, dns integrations, and work with more MDMs to understand how their product is being used by admins and end users as far as usability and deployment goes.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Twingate did not really "solve" anything for us it just made it easier for end users to more to a more modern "VPN" solution than use the legacy WatchGuard one we were. I think the security team enjoys the fact that the resources are easily manageable based on permissions and groups.

What do you like best about the product?

The install and configuration of Twingate is extremely easy and would highly recommend to anyone looking for a VPN alternative.

What do you dislike about the product?

Nothing to dislike! The product is very easy to use.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We have an R&D team looking to provide access to our devices to external users and this was an excellent choice and was very easy to setup and add access and control access to our intewrnal resources.