It’s great that it works for you! For me every recommendation of networkchuck that starts with ‘and its free! You just have to sign up for…’ is a pointer to search for ‘open source alternative for…’.

That is how I found out about a Raspberry Pi with pihole and piVPN installed on the same device, using this manual. Pihole blocks ads, with piVPN you can log into your home network using the wireguard protocol.

I thought it was easy to set up, but of course it depends heavily on the time you can and want to invest. So Twingate can be the right solution for you, but I am often impressed by the excelent free software solutions that are out there.