CrowdStrike vs Tailscale: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
CrowdStrike had $4.8B of annual revenue in FY2026 and a net loss of $162.5M. Tailscale had $45.2M (unaudited) of annual revenue in FY2025.
Latest financial snapshot
CrowdStrike
- Latest annual revenue
- $4.8B (FY2026)
- Net income
- -$162.5M
- Net margin
- -3.4%
- Revenue growth
- +58.8% a year, FY2018–FY2026
Tailscale
- Latest annual revenue
- $45.2M (unaudited) (FY2025)
- Net income
- Unavailable here
- Net margin
- —
- Revenue growth
- —
Financial summary
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike is a high-growth subscription business with strong cash generation but thin GAAP profits. Fiscal 2026 revenue was $4.81 billion, up about 22% from $3.95 billion. Ending ARR rose 24% to $5.25 billion, with a record $1.01 billion of net new ARR. Free cash flow reached $1.24 billion (26% of revenue), yet the GAAP net loss widened to $162.5 million because of stock-based compensation and outage-related costs. Growth accelerated in fiscal 2027: Q2 revenue was $1.47 billion (+26%), ARR reached $5.84 billion (+25%), and Q2 free cash flow was a record $377 million. Management raised its fiscal 2027 net new ARR growth outlook to 34% at the midpoint and keeps a long-term target of $10 billion in ending ARR by fiscal 2031. CrowdStrike is a dominant force in modern cybersecurity, boasting a massive market valuation that generally exceeds $70 billion.
Tailscale
Tailscale is private and does not publish revenue. It raised a $3 million seed round announced in April 2020, a $12 million Series A led by Accel in November 2020, a $100 million Series B led by CRV and Insight Partners in May 2022 (reported valuation about $780 million), and a $160 million Series C led by Accel in April 2025. Bloomberg reported the Series C valuation at about $1.5 billion; CEO Avery Pennarun later described it to BetaKit as a $2 billion valuation. Total funding is roughly $275 million. In July 2026 Pennarun said sales were on track to double in 2026, as they have every year since launch, and that the company could reach profitability in under a year on its existing balance sheet.
Revenue and profit by year
CrowdStrike
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $4.8B | -$162.5M | -3.4% | +21.7% | Source |
| FY2025 | $4B | -$15.2M | -0.4% | +29.4% | Source |
| FY2024 | $3.1B | $72.2M | 2.4% | +36.3% | Source |
| FY2023 | $2.2B | -$183.2M | -8.2% | +54.4% | Source |
| FY2022 | $1.5B | -$234.8M | -16.2% | +66.0% | Source |
| FY2021 | $874.4M | -$92.6M | -10.6% | +81.6% | Source |
| FY2020 | $481.4M | -$141.8M | -29.5% | +92.7% | Source |
| FY2019 | $249.8M | -$140.1M | -56.1% | +110.4% | Source |
| FY2018 | $118.8M | -$135.5M | -114.1% | — | Source |
Tailscale
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 (unaudited) | $45.2M | — | — | — | Source |
| FY2024 (unaudited) | $32M | — | — | — | Source |
| FY2023 (unaudited) | $18.5M | — | — | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
CrowdStrike
- Subscription Revenue~95%
Recurring Falcon platform subscriptions across endpoint, identity, cloud, SIEM, exposure management, threat intelligence, and Falcon Complete managed services.
- Professional Services Revenue~5%
Incident response, forensic investigations, tabletop exercises, and security advisory engagements, which often lead to subscription sales.
Tailscale
No segment breakdown is published.
Business model and strategy
CrowdStrike
How it makes money
CrowdStrike makes money mainly from subscriptions to its Falcon platform, which accounts for roughly 95% of revenue; the rest comes from professional services such as incident response. Customers deploy one sensor and pay per protected endpoint, workload, or identity, then add modules (EDR/XDR, identity protection, cloud security, Next-Gen SIEM, exposure management, Charlotte AI) without installing new software.
Growth strategy
CrowdStrike's growth strategy is to become the consolidation platform for the security operations center. Beyond endpoint protection, it is pushing Next-Gen SIEM, cloud security, identity protection, exposure management, and Charlotte AI agentic security workflows.
Competitive advantage
CrowdStrike's advantage comes from its single-agent, cloud-native architecture and the volume of telemetry it collects. One sensor supports dozens of modules, so customers can add new products without new deployments, and data from its large installed base feeds detection models and the Counter Adversary Operations intelligence team.
Tailscale
How it makes money
Tailscale uses a product-led freemium model. A free Personal plan lets individuals and small homelab users run Tailscale at no cost, and Tailscale has said word-of-mouth from free users is what sells its paid business plans.
Growth strategy
Tailscale grows bottom-up. Free users bring it into their companies, and teams then convert to paid plans as more people join a tailnet. Integrations with Kubernetes, Docker, Synology NAS devices, cloud marketplaces and identity providers such as Okta, Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID keep adoption friction low. In 2026 the strategy leans heavily on AI.
Competitive advantage
Tailscale's edge is ease of setup: devices join a tailnet by signing in with an existing identity provider, and NAT traversal plus DERP relays make connections work without port forwarding. Its open-source client, peer-to-peer WireGuard data path and large free user base give it a bottom-up adoption channel that most enterprise ZTNA vendors lack.
Questions about CrowdStrike vs Tailscale
Which company has higher revenue — CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. or Tailscale?
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. had $4.8B (FY2026), while Tailscale had $45.2M (unaudited) (FY2025). By latest annual revenue, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. is the larger business, with Tailscale showing a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. vs Tailscale?
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. has a market capitalisation of $269.0B. A public market cap figure for Tailscale was not available (it may be privately held).
How does revenue per employee compare for CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. and Tailscale?
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. has $450k / employee in revenue per employee, while Tailscale has $151k / employee. Headcounts may use different dates, so the ratio alone does not establish which business operates more efficiently.
How do CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. and Tailscale make money?
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. and Tailscale generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.: CrowdStrike makes money mainly from subscriptions to its Falcon platform, which accounts for roughly 95% of revenue; the rest comes from professional services such as incident response. Tailscale: Tailscale uses a product-led freemium model.
Is CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. bigger than Tailscale?
By last reported revenue, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. ($4.8B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Tailscale ($45.2M (unaudited) (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the CrowdStrike vs Tailscale overview