RedFox Bastion vs Competitors
An honest, feature-by-feature comparison of Zero Trust access and Privileged Access Management platforms. See how RedFox Bastion stacks up against open-source and enterprise alternatives.
ZTNA Application Access
Reverse proxy for any internal web app (Grafana, Kibana, admin panels) with identity-aware policy enforcement. No VPN required. Unique at this price point.
Swiss sovereignty
100% self-hosted, zero telemetry, no cloud dependency. Swiss company (Geneva) under Swiss data protection law (nFADP). Your data stays on your infrastructure.
Transparent pricing
From €39/month (Standard) to €119/month (Enterprise). No per-user fees, no hidden costs, no sales calls required. Compare that to $47,000+ hardware appliances.
Feature comparison matrix
| Feature | RedFox | Guacamole | Teleport | Azure Bastion | StrongDM | CyberArk | FortiPAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol support | |||||||
| SSH browser access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| RDP browser access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| VNC browser access | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Database proxy | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Kubernetes access | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Application Access (ZTNA) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Authentication | |||||||
| OIDC (Entra ID, Okta) | ✓ | ● | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SAML 2.0 | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MFA enforcement | ✓ | ● | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Certificate-based auth | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Access control | |||||||
| RBAC | ✓ | ● | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Policy engine (IP, time) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ● | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Just-in-time access | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ● |
| Credential vault | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Password rotation | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit & compliance | |||||||
| Session recording | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ● | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| WORM audit logs | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ● | ✗ |
| Query / command logging | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Security architecture | |||||||
| mTLS inter-service | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Ed25519 JWT tokens | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Zero telemetry | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Deployment | |||||||
| Self-hosted (on-premise) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ● | ✓ | ✓ |
| SaaS / cloud-hosted | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Docker deployment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Hardware appliance | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pricing | |||||||
| Free / open-source tier | ✗ | ✓ | ● | ● | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Transparent public pricing | ✓ | ✓ | ● | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Pricing comparison
| Solution | Pricing model | Typical annual cost | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| RedFox Bastion | Fixed monthly/annual | €369 - €1,139/year | 14-day trial |
| Apache Guacamole | Free (open-source) | $0 | Fully free |
| Teleport | Per-resource, quote-based | $10,000 - $100,000+ | Community (limited) |
| Azure Bastion | Hourly + data transfer | $1,700 - $6,400+/instance | Developer SKU (limited) |
| StrongDM | Quote-based (per-user) | $30,000 - $200,000+ | None |
| CyberArk PAM | Quote-based (per-user) | $100,000 - $500,000+ | None |
| FortiPAM | Hardware + subscriptions | $47,000+ (appliance) + annual support | None |
Pricing based on publicly available information and industry reports as of April 2026. Enterprise pricing varies by deployment size and negotiation.
Detailed competitor analysis
Apache Guacamole
Open-source, clientless remote desktop gateway
Apache Guacamole is a free, open-source project that provides browser-based access to SSH, RDP, and VNC. It uses a Java servlet (guacd) to proxy connections and renders sessions in the browser via HTML5.
Strengths
- ✓ Completely free and open-source (Apache 2.0)
- ✓ VNC and Telnet support (protocols RedFox does not cover)
- ✓ Large community and well-documented
- ✓ No vendor lock-in
Gaps vs RedFox Bastion
- ✗ No built-in ZTNA / Application Access
- ✗ No native OIDC or SAML — requires extensions or reverse proxy for SSO
- ✗ No policy engine (IP restrictions, time windows)
- ✗ No credential vault
- ✗ No WORM audit trail — logs are standard application logs
- ✗ No commercial support — community-only
- ✗ No database proxy
Teleport
Open-source + commercial infrastructure access platform
Teleport by Goteleport provides unified access to SSH servers, Kubernetes clusters, databases, and web applications. It uses certificate-based authentication and offers both a Community (open-source) and Enterprise edition.
Strengths
- ✓ Native Kubernetes access (RedFox does not yet support K8s)
- ✓ Strong certificate-based identity model (core architecture)
- ✓ Open-source Community edition available
- ✓ Cloud-hosted SaaS option (RedFox is self-hosted only)
Gaps vs RedFox Bastion
- ✗ Community edition limited to companies under 100 employees / $10M revenue
- ✗ Enterprise pricing is quote-based and can be expensive
- ✗ No built-in credential vault or password rotation
- ✗ Telemetry in cloud edition
- ✗ Complex setup for self-hosted deployments
- ✗ No WORM-compliant audit logs
Azure Bastion
Microsoft-managed bastion service for Azure VMs
Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS service that provides secure RDP and SSH access to Azure virtual machines directly through the Azure portal, without exposing public IPs.
Strengths
- ✓ Fully managed PaaS — no infrastructure to maintain
- ✓ Deep Azure integration (RBAC, NSGs, VNet peering)
- ✓ Developer SKU available at no cost for dev/test
- ✓ Native integration with Microsoft Entra ID
Gaps vs RedFox Bastion
- ✗ Azure-only — cannot access on-premise or multi-cloud resources
- ✗ No ZTNA / Application Access for web apps
- ✗ No database proxy
- ✗ No credential vault or password rotation
- ✗ No WORM audit logs — relies on Azure Monitor
- ✗ Hourly billing adds up quickly at scale (~$140-730/month per instance)
- ✗ No self-hosted option — requires Azure subscription
- ✗ Limited to SSH and RDP protocols (no ZTNA, no DB proxy)
StrongDM
Commercial Zero Trust infrastructure access platform
StrongDM provides a unified access layer for databases, servers, Kubernetes clusters, and web applications. It focuses on policy-based access control, just-in-time access, and comprehensive audit logging.
Strengths
- ✓ Native Kubernetes access (RedFox does not yet support K8s)
- ✓ SOC 2 Type II certified
- ✓ Cloud-hosted SaaS option (RedFox is self-hosted only)
- ✓ Clean, modern user experience
Gaps vs RedFox Bastion
- ✗ SaaS-first — limited self-hosted options
- ✗ No transparent public pricing (quote-based, typically $30-200K+/year)
- ✗ No credential vault or password rotation
- ✗ No WORM audit trail
- ✗ Telemetry sent to StrongDM cloud
- ✗ Vendor lock-in risk with proprietary platform
CyberArk PAM
Enterprise-grade Privileged Access Management suite
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the industry-leading enterprise PAM solution. It provides a Digital Vault for credential storage, session isolation, automatic password rotation, and comprehensive privileged account lifecycle management across on-premises and cloud environments.
Strengths
- ✓ Industry leader in PAM (Gartner Magic Quadrant leader)
- ✓ Automatic password rotation (RedFox does not yet support rotation)
- ✓ Deep enterprise integrations (SIEM, ITSM, IGA)
- ✓ Broadest compliance coverage (SOX, PCI-DSS, HIPAA)
- ✓ Mature vendor with 25+ years in the market
Gaps vs RedFox Bastion
- ✗ Very expensive — enterprise contracts typically $100K-500K+/year
- ✗ Complex deployment requiring dedicated infrastructure
- ✗ Steep learning curve and long implementation cycles (3-12 months)
- ✗ No native ZTNA / Application Access for web apps
- ✗ No database proxy — focused on credential management
- ✗ Legacy architecture — not cloud-native
- ✗ No transparent pricing
- ✗ No Docker-native deployment
FortiPAM
Fortinet Privileged Access Management appliance
FortiPAM is Fortinet's privileged access management solution, available as hardware appliances (FortiPAM-1000G, FortiPAM-3000G) or virtual machines. It integrates with the Fortinet Security Fabric and provides credential management, session monitoring, and ZTNA-tag-based access control. FortiPAM 1.8 consolidates FortiSRA (Secure Remote Access) into the platform.
Strengths
- ✓ Deep Fortinet Security Fabric integration (FortiGate, FortiClient, EMS)
- ✓ Hardware appliance option for air-gapped environments
- ✓ Password rotation (RedFox does not yet support rotation)
- ✓ VNC browser access (RedFox does not support VNC)
- ✓ ZTNA tag-based access governance within Fortinet ecosystem
- ✓ Consolidates PAM + SRA in a single platform (v1.8)
Gaps vs RedFox Bastion
- ✗ High upfront cost — hardware starts at ~$47,000 (50 users) to ~$80,000+ (100 users)
- ✗ Requires Fortinet ecosystem for full value (FortiGate, FortiClient)
- ✗ No transparent public pricing for subscriptions
- ✗ No Docker-native deployment
- ✗ No ZTNA Application Access for arbitrary web apps (tied to Fortinet ZTNA)
- ✗ No database proxy
- ✗ Limited community — smaller than CyberArk or Teleport
- ✗ Vendor lock-in to Fortinet ecosystem
When to choose what
Choose RedFox Bastion if you need
- ✓ ZTNA Application Access for internal web apps without VPN
- ✓ Full data sovereignty (100% on-premise, zero telemetry)
- ✓ SSH + RDP + database proxy + ZTNA in a single platform
- ✓ WORM-compliant audit logs for regulatory requirements
- ✓ Transparent, predictable pricing without per-user fees
- ✓ Swiss jurisdiction and nFADP compliance
- ✓ Docker-native deployment in minutes, not months
Consider alternatives if you need
- ● Free/OSS only — Apache Guacamole is fully free for SSH/RDP/VNC
- ● Kubernetes access — Teleport or StrongDM have native K8s support
- ● Azure-only VMs — Azure Bastion integrates natively with Azure RBAC
- ● Enterprise PAM suite — CyberArk for full credential lifecycle at scale
- ● Fortinet ecosystem — FortiPAM if you already run FortiGate/FortiClient
- ● SaaS-managed — StrongDM or Teleport Cloud if you prefer not to self-host
- ● Password rotation — CyberArk or FortiPAM for automated credential rotation
Ready to evaluate RedFox Bastion?
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