Best VPN for Business Use
Why Businesses Need a VPN in 2026
Business VPNs serve two distinct purposes that are often conflated. The first is encrypting internet traffic when employees connect through untrusted networks, such as coffee shop WiFi, hotel networks, airport hotspots, and coworking space connections. Without encryption, anyone on the same network can potentially intercept login credentials, customer data, financial information, and other sensitive traffic. The second purpose is providing secure remote access to internal business resources like file servers, databases, admin panels, and internal applications that should not be exposed to the public internet.
The remote work shift has made the second purpose increasingly critical. When your team works from home, from client sites, and from travel locations, they need access to the same internal resources they would reach from the office network. A business VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between the employee's device and your business network, making remote access as secure as being physically in the office. Without this, businesses either expose internal resources to the internet (a significant security risk) or restrict remote access entirely (a significant productivity limitation).
The traditional VPN model where all traffic routes through a central server is being replaced by zero trust network access (ZTNA) solutions that verify every access request individually. Instead of giving an authenticated user access to the entire network, zero trust tools grant access only to the specific applications and resources that user is authorized to reach. This approach is more secure because a compromised account cannot access resources beyond its authorization, and it is faster because traffic goes directly to the resource rather than routing through a central server.
NordLayer: Best for Small Teams
NordLayer, the business product from NordVPN, costs $8 per user per month for the Lite plan and $11 per user per month for the Core plan. The Lite plan includes AES-256 encryption, dedicated servers, a threat protection firewall, and support for up to 200 users. The Core plan adds site-to-site VPN, dedicated IP addresses, device posture checks, and DNS filtering. Custom Enterprise pricing is available for larger deployments.
NordLayer provides the simplest path from zero to a functioning business VPN. The admin panel walks through setup in under 30 minutes: invite team members by email, they install the NordLayer app on their devices, and they connect with one click. There is no hardware to configure, no complex network rules to write, and no VPN infrastructure to maintain. For small businesses without dedicated IT staff, this ease of deployment is the primary selling point. The apps work on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, covering every device your team uses.
The dedicated server feature assigns your business a private VPN server that only your team uses. This provides a consistent IP address that you can whitelist on business services, meaning your admin panels and internal tools only accept connections from your VPN's IP address. Combined with strong passwords and two-factor authentication, this IP whitelisting creates a defense-in-depth approach that significantly reduces the attack surface of your business applications.
The threat protection feature blocks known malicious websites, phishing attempts, and malware downloads at the network level before they reach employee devices. This protection works automatically without requiring employee action, which is important because social engineering attacks succeed precisely when employees do not recognize the threat. For businesses that handle customer data privacy, this network-level protection demonstrates proactive security measures that compliance frameworks look for.
NordLayer's limitation is that it is a traditional VPN with some modern features bolted on, not a true zero trust solution. Traffic routes through NordLayer's servers, which adds latency for bandwidth-intensive tasks. The access controls are network-level rather than application-level, meaning you can restrict access to network segments but not to individual applications within those segments. For businesses that need granular, per-application access control, Twingate or Cloudflare Access provide a more modern approach.
Perimeter 81: Best Zero Trust Platform
Perimeter 81 costs $8 per user per month for the Essentials plan with cloud VPN, DNS filtering, and basic zero trust policies. The Premium plan at $12 per user per month adds device posture checks, multi-factor authentication enforcement, and advanced traffic routing. The Enterprise plan at $16 per user per month adds microsegmentation, cloud firewall, and compliance reporting.
Perimeter 81 bridges the gap between traditional VPN and full zero trust architecture. It provides the familiar VPN functionality that employees understand (connect with one click and access internal resources) while implementing zero trust principles behind the scenes. Access policies are defined per application rather than per network segment, user identity is verified continuously rather than once at connection time, and device health is checked before granting access to ensure that compromised or outdated devices cannot reach sensitive resources.
The cloud firewall feature controls which applications each user group can access based on their role, location, and device health. A marketing team member can access the CMS and social media management tools but not the financial database or server infrastructure. A developer can access the staging environment but not production servers without additional approval. These granular controls prevent lateral movement, meaning that if one account is compromised, the attacker cannot use it to access resources outside that account's normal authorization scope.
For businesses with multiple office locations or cloud infrastructure across providers, Perimeter 81's site-to-site connectivity creates encrypted links between locations without requiring dedicated hardware at each site. Your AWS resources, Google Cloud services, Azure deployments, and physical office networks all connect through Perimeter 81's mesh, creating a unified private network that employees access from anywhere. This multi-cloud connectivity is increasingly relevant as small businesses use SaaS applications hosted across different cloud providers.
Perimeter 81's limitation is complexity relative to simpler VPN solutions. Setting up per-application policies, device posture rules, and microsegmentation requires more planning and configuration than NordLayer's simpler approach. For businesses with five to ten employees using a handful of shared applications, Perimeter 81's zero trust capabilities may be more architecture than the situation demands. The value increases proportionally with team size, application count, and security requirements.
Twingate: Best for Developer Teams
Twingate offers a free Starter plan for up to 5 users with access to 10 remote networks. The Teams plan at $5 per user per month adds unlimited networks, activity logging, and DNS filtering. The Business plan at $10 per user per month adds device trust, posture checks, and admin API access. The Enterprise plan adds custom authentication policies and dedicated support.
Twingate takes the most modern approach by eliminating the VPN tunnel entirely. Instead of routing all traffic through a central server, Twingate creates direct, encrypted connections between the user's device and the specific resource they are accessing. This means there is no performance penalty from routing traffic through a VPN server, no single point of failure if the VPN server goes down, and no network-level access that could be exploited by an attacker who compromises one connection.
The deployment model is lightweight. Install a connector (a small software agent) on each network that contains resources you want to secure, define which resources each user group can access, and install the Twingate client on employee devices. When an employee tries to access a protected resource, Twingate authenticates their identity, verifies their device meets security requirements, and creates a direct encrypted connection to that specific resource. The employee does not need to "connect to the VPN" before working. Access is automatic and transparent.
The free tier supporting five users with access to ten remote networks is the most generous free offering in the business VPN category. A small development team or startup can secure access to their cloud infrastructure, internal tools, and staging environments without any cost. The free plan includes the same zero trust architecture and encryption as paid plans, making it a genuine product rather than a limited demo.
Twingate's limitation is that it requires connectors installed on each network you want to protect, which means you need administrative access to those networks and the ability to run a small software agent on a machine within each one. For businesses that primarily need WiFi encryption for traveling employees rather than secure access to internal resources, NordLayer's approach is simpler. Twingate excels specifically at the secure remote access use case.
Cloudflare Access: Best Free Zero Trust
Cloudflare Access offers a free plan for up to 50 users with application-level access control, identity provider integration, and basic logging. The paid Cloudflare Zero Trust plan starts at $7 per user per month and adds device posture checks, session management, and expanded logging. Cloudflare Gateway, included in the paid plan, provides DNS filtering, web filtering, and malware protection.
Cloudflare Access leverages Cloudflare's global network of over 300 data centers to provide zero trust access with minimal latency. When an employee accesses a protected application, the request routes through the nearest Cloudflare data center where identity is verified, access policies are evaluated, and the connection is established. Because Cloudflare's network is closer to both the user and the application than any centralized VPN server would be, the performance impact is negligible. Many users report that applications feel faster through Cloudflare Access than through a traditional VPN.
The 50-user free tier is remarkable for businesses that want enterprise-grade zero trust without a subscription. You get application-level access control, integration with identity providers (Google Workspace, Azure AD, Okta, GitHub), multi-factor authentication enforcement, and basic access logging. For small businesses that use cloud-hosted applications like admin panels, staging environments, and internal wikis, Cloudflare Access provides serious security at zero cost.
Cloudflare Access' limitation is the technical setup. Configuring DNS records, installing the Cloudflare daemon on servers, and defining access policies requires comfort with networking concepts and command-line tools. A business owner without technical skills will need help from a developer or IT consultant for the initial setup, though the ongoing administration is manageable through the web dashboard. For non-technical teams, NordLayer's one-click approach is dramatically simpler.
Choosing the Right Business VPN
For small teams that need WiFi protection and simple remote access without IT complexity, NordLayer provides the easiest deployment and the most familiar VPN experience. For businesses building a security-focused infrastructure with per-application access controls, Perimeter 81 provides the most comprehensive zero trust platform. For developer teams that need secure access to cloud resources without VPN performance penalties, Twingate provides the most modern architecture with a generous free tier. For technically capable teams that want enterprise-grade zero trust at minimal cost, Cloudflare Access provides the strongest free offering.
For most small ecommerce businesses, the realistic need is WiFi encryption for traveling employees and IP whitelisting for admin panels. NordLayer or a consumer VPN service with team management (NordVPN Teams, ExpressVPN with shared accounts) handles this at $5 to $10 per user per month. Zero trust solutions become relevant when you have internal applications, multiple cloud environments, or compliance requirements that demand granular access control and audit logging.