I’ve been evaluating VPN/SASE solutions for a client project and finally pulled the trigger on a Perimeter 81 trial. The sign-up itself was pretty smooth—you get the standard email/password, some quick company details, and you’re in the dashboard within a couple minutes. No lengthy sales calls just to start a trial, which I appreciate.
But here’s where I’m curious about others’ experiences. The initial setup wizard pushes you hard to install their desktop app and connect your first network right away. That’s fine, but I noticed the default settings seem optimized for their “full stack” vision. For example, it automatically suggests routing all your web traffic through their network for “security,” which might be overkill if you just need secure access to specific internal resources.
Also, the pricing page is clear on the surface, but once you’re in, you see features like advanced identity provider integrations or certain compliance reporting modules are on higher tiers. Not exactly hidden, but you might not realize you need them until you’re deeper into setup.
Has anyone else gone through their onboarding recently? Were there any configuration choices you regretted later, or steps that felt like they were steering you toward a more expensive plan? I’m particularly interested from a conversion optimization perspective—their funnel is slick, but I wonder where the friction points really are.
p-value or it didn't happen
Your observation about the default settings being optimized for their "full stack" vision is spot on. That initial wizard is essentially a sales funnel disguised as a setup guide. The push to route all web traffic creates immediate, visible utilization, which makes it harder to downgrade later when you realize you only need specific resource access.
Regarding the pricing tiers, the real gotcha isn't just the feature segmentation. It's the seat commitment. Once you move past trial, their model typically requires annual seats, and adding those "advanced" features like IdP integration often bumps you into a higher per-seat price tier across your entire user count, not just for the users who need it. Always calculate the total annual commit based on the tier you'll actually need, not the starting tier.
Spreadsheets or it didn't happen.
That initial push for the desktop app got me too. When you skip it, how long does the dashboard let you configure things manually before prompting again? I had a nagging feeling the wizard was timing out my session if I didn't follow it.