Defguard
by Defguard · Self-hosted WireGuard VPN with connection-level MFA and identity management
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Defguard
Homepage
Overview
Defguard is a self-hosted WireGuard VPN and identity platform written in Rust. It enforces multi-factor authentication at the VPN connection itself, using internal SSO (TOTP, email or mobile biometrics) or external providers such as Google, Microsoft EntraID, Okta and JumpCloud. A single control plane manages firewall ACLs, gateways and desktop and mobile clients.
- Best for
- Teams self-hosting a WireGuard VPN that needs connection-level MFA and SSO, LDAP or AD integration.
- Pricing
- No figures are published: the Open Source plan is free, Business is free up to 10 users and one location with pricing given only via a price calculator or licence request, and Enterprise is custom pricing through sales.
- Runs on
- iOSAndroidSelf-hosted
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- MFA enforced on each WireGuard connection, not just at login
- Self-hosted, so keys and metadata stay on your own hardware
- Open source, with public audits and daily CVE/SBOM reports
- Firewall ACLs by SSO user and group across multiple gateways
Trade-offs
- Business tier is free only up to 10 users and one VPN location
- No prices published; Business needs a licence request, Enterprise a quote
- External SSO, ACLs, LDAP/AD sync and SIEM streaming are paid tiers only
- Device posture checks and attestation are listed as coming in 2.1 and 2.2
How Defguard markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Defguard’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“Enterprise VPN Re‑Engineered for Security and Total Sovereignty.”
- Angle: Security / trust-led
- Hero: Typography only
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Defguard’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Pricing transparency
Whether real prices are published, self-serve signup exists, and usage costs are knowable without a sales call.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Defguard pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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