5 Best Business VPNs in 2023
With the number of cyberattacks only increasing each passing year, using a VPN at work has become a necessity. No matter if you run a small or large organization, cybersecurity should be one of your main concerns. This is particularly true in today’s era of remote work and an overall globalized economy.
A robust business VPN can protect your valuable business data and keep you safe from hackers and third-party breaches. Likewise, it can allow you to obtain additional conveniences and advantages. But, not all business VPNs are capable of this, and some are even outright damaging to use.
To help you pick the best business VPN service, we’ve comprised this detailed guide covering everything you need to know. Learn the difference between business and personal VPNs, find out how to pick the right business VPN, steps on how to set it up, and much more.
The Best Business VPN services – shortlist:
- Perimeter 81 – The Best VPN for the business overall.
- NordLayer – Great business VPN from a trusted provider.
- VyprVPN – Very secure and private.
- TorGuard – Superb for both small and large businesses.
- GoodAccess – Great subscription plans with excellent value.
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What Is a Business VPN?
A business VPN is a tool that allows organizations to protect their data and internal resources. Unlike a VPN service created for personal use, a business VPN is specifically designed to guarantee security and privacy for organizations.
Business VPNs are generally more sophisticated than standard consumer VPNs, as they can deliver more functions, which we’ll get to later on. These tools are also becoming increasingly popular with businesses that comprise a distributed workforce.
Looking back into the past, we can clearly differentiate two distinct types of connections when it comes to business VPNs. These are remote-access VPNs and site-to-site VPNs. As the name implies, the former connection types are used to create a secure tunnel between the organization’s network and the remote user. These are most often temporary connections.
On the other hand, site-to-site connections are designed to deliver encryption and protection between different offices that work within the same branch or share the same corporate network. In contrast to remote-access connections, site-to-site VPN connections are generally permanent.
5 Best VPN Solutions for Small Business
1. Perimeter 81
It’s hard to argue that Perimeter 81 is the best VPN for small businesses. It offers a comprehensive cloud network management platform, making it easy for every organization to build and manage its network. It delivers over 40 PoPs with unlimited data usage.
The service has four subscription plans, each with a monthly and a yearly option. The Essentials plan provides all the basics you would need for your small business and is available for businesses with as little as five users. On the other side of the scale, the Enterprise plan is very advanced and customizable. But, to be eligible for it, you need to sign up at least 50 users.
With Secure Web Gateway and Device Posture Check features, Perimeter 81 is very safe to use. It also supports two-factor authentication and offers single sign-on capabilities. Perimeter 81 has apps available for all four major software platforms. It also possesses more advanced features like API support, SIEM integration, and SCIM.
Depending on what plan you opt for, you can take advantage of many network features. For example, the Enterprise plan comes with an always-on feature, site-to-site connectivity, split tunneling, private DNS, and DNS filtering. Even Perimeter 81’s most basic plan includes the latter three features. Of course, every plan also allows you to create customized zero-trust network policies.
On top of all of this, Perimeter 81 is super simple to set up. You can deploy your network in less than 15 minutes. The support is helpful and professional, and businesses subscribed to the more expensive plans can count on 24/7 support with dedicated account managers.
2. NordLayer
NordVPN is the most popular and, in our opinion, the best consumer VPN service on the market. And, besides offering a top-quality VPN service for individual consumers, NordVPN has also created a solution for businesses. This comes in the form of its impressive NordLayer business VPN. Previously known as NordVPN Teams, the freshly rebranded service delivers a long list of valuable features.
NordLayer is an excellent VPN for both small and large businesses, as it presents a very flexible service. You can choose between a basic and advanced plan or create your own custom plan that best suits your organization.
Businesses can add an unlimited number of users and take advantage of smooth integration with all major operating systems and multi-cloud resources. The basic plan comes with shared access to over 30 global server locations. The advanced plan also offers you to choose between more than 20 dedicated server locations, so you can conveniently get a dedicated IP address in a location of your choosing.
The network security and protection features deliver all of the tools you would look for in a trusted business VPN. The basic plan includes 256-bit encryption, two-factor authentication, ThreatBlock, and detection for jailbroken/rooted devices. The advanced plan further expands this by offering custom DNS, biometrics, and network segmentation.
NordLayer’s plans are 100% cloud-native and don’t impose any traffic limitations. The service itself is also very user-friendly, much like the provider’s VPN apps for individual consumers. The control panel is intuitive, and you can count on around-the-clock live support.
3. VyprVPN
Like NordVPN, VyprVPN is a go-to service for many individual users looking for strong privacy and security features. It offers several subscription plans, and you can contact the service to request a free trial and see if this business VPN is right for your organization.
VyprVPN is based in Switzerland, a country known for its privacy laws and lack of participation in international matters. Not only that, but this VPN fully owns and manages every server, DNS, and hardware, so there are no third parties in the mix. This means that you can count on maximum privacy for your company data.
VyprVPN is also capable of accessing restricted locations and can even bypass the Great Firewall of China. In addition to standard industry protocols like OpenVPN, PPTP, and L2TP/IPSec, VyprVPN has also developed a proprietary Chameleon technology.
This VPN provides very solid connection speeds that work excellently across the entire global server network. The more expensive plans also provide sophisticated features such as site-to-site protection options, zero-trust access, and other aspects critical for safeguarding your organization.
It allows unlimited usage and easy user management, so it’s a good long-term choice if you’re looking for scalability support as you grow your organization. Apps are available on all four major platforms and are very simple to use.
4. TorGuard
TorGuard’s extensive server network of over 3,000 servers in 50 countries makes it a great choice for organizations employing remote workers in all parts of the globe. It offers unlimited speeds and bandwidth, plus it supports custom server setups.
The service is one of the safest VPNs around, as it blocks all known leaks and supports military-grade 256-bit encryption . It supports all TorGuard tunnel types, offers kill switch protection, advanced script settings, and more.
TorGuard’s advanced Stealth VPN feature masks your VPN traffic as regular traffic, allowing you to avoid deep packet inspection and firewalls that can block VPN use.
Much like Perimeter 81, TorGuard offers four subscription plans. However, the plans aren’t as flexible as with our top pick, as you’re paying for a fixed number of users with each plan instead of paying for each individual user.
For instance, the Starter package supports five users and five email accounts, while the most expensive Large package supports 20 users and equally as many email accounts. Every plan also comes with at least one dedicated IP address.
TorGuard is a great pick for organizations that want to comply with government and industry-specific regulations, as all of its plans are HIPAA compliant. You can set up TorGuard on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux. Additionally, the service supports Chrome and Firefox browser extensions.
5. GoodAccess
Depending on your organization’s finances, GoodAccess’ plans can be as simple or advanced as you pick. For example, the basic paid subscription plan comes with an automatic threat blocker, 2FA, and getaway-level access logs. The more advanced plans include all of this plus features like zero-trust access control, custom domain blocking, and single sign-on.
GoodAccess has over 35 anytime-ready cloud gateways all across the globe. You can even get a new dedicated gateway with a static IP address on demand. Other convenient features that GoodAccess delivers to its users include split tunneling support, site-to-site connectivity, and backup gateways.
GoodAccess has all of the tools to guarantee firm Internet privacy. It offers strong encryption, public Wi-Fi protection, port forwarding, and secure protocols like OpenVPN and IKEv2. This VPN’s customer support is on par with the best in the industry, with videoconferences, live chat, and email support available 24/7.
Best of all, if your company is running on a tight budget, you can sign up with GoodAccess entirely for free. To be frank, you’ll only get some basic security and network features with the GoogAccess free plan, but this is still better than not using a VPN at all. Plus, once you decide you want to start paying for a premium service, you can move to the Essential plan that costs as low as $4 per user and unlocks many benefits.
How to Choose a VPN Solution for Small Businesses
If you’ve never researched such topics related to cybersecurity for small businesses, choosing the best business VPN might seem like a daunting task. But, there’s no reason to worry, as you only need to know what key aspects you should pay attention to. Here’s what to look for when choosing a VPN solution for small businesses:
- Security Capabilities – the first of the two main aspects to consider when picking a VPN for your small business is the overall security. More precisely, the VPN’s encryption capabilities, supported protocols, and whether it suffered from any security breaches in the past.
- Privacy Features – apart from security, the VPN should also be uncompromisingly private. This means it shouldn’t keep any user data logs or share any information with other third parties.
- Ease of Use – it’s also critical to consider that not all of your employees might be tech-savvy. Because of this, the business VPN should be easy to set up for each individual employee and simple to use.
- Connection Speed – whether your employees work from a single office or connect remotely, the VPN you pick should support stable and fast connection speeds. To ensure this, the service should deliver fast dedicated server options and support fast protocols.
- Price – while the price of the service shouldn’t be your determining factor, it is certainly worth considering. This is especially true if you have a fairly small budget for your business. So, when evaluating this aspect, be certain that you’re getting good value for money and not overpaying for features that you don’t necessarily need.
- Scalability and Control Features – a good VPN for business needs to provide an intuitive control panel for easy centralized management. Not only this, but it should offer enough scalability to ensure the smooth addition of new users through the control panel as the business grows.
Benefits of Using a VPN for Your Business
When evaluating whether or not your business needs a VPN, it’s key to consider many key benefits that come from using a business VPN service. To highlight the most important ones, here are the most significant advantages of using a VPN for business:
Quickly and Safely Scale Your Network
Using business VPN software can help you scale your business with ease without compromising security or performance. In particular, as you scale your business and add new employees, particularly remote workers, a business VPN can ensure that your Internet traffic and company data remain safe.
Protect Against Security Breaches
Hackers are constantly working on new threats that aim to steal data from businesses and individual users. And, while using antivirus software is a good way to minimize the risk of this happening, it doesn’t make your business impervious to such attacks.
With end-to-end encryption, a business VPN keeps your data and the data of your customers safe and private. Plus, even if attackers manage to intercept the communication between you and the client, they can’t access the actual information encrypted by the VPN’s tunnel.
Moreover, this is also valuable for employees within the business itself. For example, if only certain departments have access to the encryption key, only specific employees can decrypt the information and make use of it.
Remote Work and Research
Remote work has become increasingly prevalent, particularly thanks to the ongoing pandemic. But, pandemic or not, it’s clear to see that the globalized economy is setting the stage for remote work as the preferred way of operating an organization.
While running an office with a distributed workforce is unquestionably advantageous in many regards, it also comes with certain risks. Most notably, if the network the employees are using to share data is not secure,
Even with the security aspect aside, these VPNs can be very valuable for the way organizations operate. For example, businesses can do remote market research and investigate their competitors to find the best model.
Great Cost-to-Benefit Ratio
For businesses, especially small ones, every financial strain can take a big toll on the overall budget. Because of this, sometimes increasing a company’s security through a traditional enterprise service simply doesn’t make sense from a financial perspective.
But, with modern VPNs for businesses, organizations can obtain all of the above benefits at a very cost-effective rate. Setting up a business VPN is quick and simple, and your organization doesn’t need a dedicated IT team to manage and maintain everything.
Business VPNs to Avoid
Using a safe and trusted VPN for business is of paramount importance, and choosing an unreliable VPN can do you more harm than good. Unfortunately, there have been numerous examples of VPN services exploiting their users’ trust, abusing data, or even directly injecting user devices with malware and putting their valuable information at risk.
Arguably the two most notorious VPN services businesses should avoid are HolaVPN and Betternet. These two VPNs were very popular a couple of years ago, primarily because they were operating on free subscription models.
However, they were exposed for exploiting users’ individual bandwidth to engage in illegal activities, contained in-app malware, and even redirected users to third-party sites to make a profit off of them.
Although these are the two best-known examples that show how dangerous deceitful VPNs can be, there are many more services that have an unproven reputation and should be avoided.
That’s why we recommend you stick with one of our top picks. Each of the five business VPNs featured on this page is thoroughly tested and proven to be safe and private for businesses.
How to Setup a VPN for Small Businesses
When you pick the right VPN appliance for your small business based, the setup process is fairly straightforward. It takes a few minutes, and you can often rely on detailed help from the VPN’s customer support staff. Here’s how to set up a small business VPN:
- Pick one of our recommended VPN providers and sign up.
- Create the user accounts you need for your team members.
- Set up your gateways.
- Download the VPN apps for your devices.
- Connect to a VPN server and enjoy the benefits!
Additionally, some VPN business plan options even offer a dedicated account manager. A dedicated business VPN account manager makes this process even more streamlined, as you can rely on constant support and prompt help.
Business VPN vs. Personal VPN
From a layman’s perspective, there isn’t much difference between a consumer VPN and a business VPN service. And, in a sense, this is true. Both of these protect your network by masking your real IP address, allowing you access to other regions worldwide and unlocking many other benefits.
That said, if we compare business VPNs and personal consumer VPN services, it’s easy to see that the latter are more basic. Consumer VPNs are mainly intended for individual users or a small group of users. In line with that, consumer VPNs are also cheaper than business VPN solutions.
Focusing on business VPNs, they enable companies to have hundreds or thousands of simultaneous connections on the same server from different user accounts. They can be easily set up to establish an internal network for the company to protect the business’ privacy.
The last part is precisely where the most significant difference lies. The best business VPNs allow companies to effectively manage all employees, enabling companies to track employee activity, control access, and more.
VPN for Business FAQs
How much does a business VPN cost?
A good ballpark subscription price to expect from a trusted business VPN is around $10 per user per month. That said, the price of such a service depends very much on the VPN itself and the features the subscription includes. So, it’s important to choose according to your business plan and company resources.
Should I use a free business VPN?
If you’re just starting your business or are looking to minimize costs, a free business VPN might sound like a good idea. However, using a free VPN often comes with a list of potential risks and limitations. So, it’s always best to pay for a subscription and be certain that you’re getting the best possible service.
The best business VPN services we’ve covered on this page deliver stringent and robust protection, wide server networks, and fast connection speeds. Free VPNs often have to compromise on all of these aspects, as they don’t have the finances to offer more sophisticated services.
Should you set up your own VPN server for a small business?
Setting up a VPN server is not an easy task and requires technical knowledge. It will take time to set up but also maintain the service afterward. So, before starting, you should make sure it’s worth it from a cost, time, and strategic perspective.
If you decide that going down this route is the right thing for your small business, it’s best to create a checklist that will enable you to assess your situation and get optimal performance and the best value for your money. When deciding to set up a VPN server for your business, you should evaluate these factors:
- Price
- Technical knowledge
- Security
- Maintenance
- Scalability
- Good performance and speeds
- Cost of opportunity
Are VPNs needed for big corporations?
Yes, all businesses, no matter their size, should use a VPN. Whether you want to add extra security to your company or take advantage of remote accessibility features and other benefits, a VPN can be a very important tool for every business.
Are there alternatives to business VPNs?
For some companies, business VPNs might not be the most attractive solution. Luckily, there are a few alternatives businesses can use to protect valuable information and ensure network security. The best alternative to business VPNs include the following:
- Cloud VPNs
- Zero Trust Network Access solutions
- Multi-Protocol Label Switching
Should I use a cloud-based VPN or host my own VPN server?
The top business VPNs we’ve recommended above are cloud-based services, which are generally a better option for businesses. In short, cloud-based VPNs are simpler to set up for businesses, don’t take much effort to manage, and allow for smoother scalability.
Is it legal to use a VPN for business?
Yes, in most countries worldwide, using a VPN for business is perfectly legal. That is, as long as you don’t use the VPN service for any illegal purposes. However, in some countries like China, Russia, or the UAE, you might get in trouble for using a VPN, so make sure to check your country’s stance on VPN use.
Conclusion
To sum up everything we’ve discussed on this page, the reason why businesses need a VPN is that they need to protect their data. Companies use VPNs to secure access to private information from hackers and eavesdroppers. A trusted VPN for business will secure remote connections and protect internal business networks from unauthorized access.
Besides secure access, a business VPN also requires little management and has minimal costs. This way, it enables you to easily scale up your business. It also can unblock content in different regions. This opens up possibilities to do market and competitor research as well.
Overall, whether you’re looking for VPN solutions for small businesses or a larger company, our five top picks are the best business VPN services you can currently get. And, while you won’t go wrong with any of our selections, we uphold Perimeter 81 as the best VPN for business.
Cybersecurity and VPN researcher