Best VPN for Business: Tested & Ranked By Our Experts

A business VPN encrypts your company’s internet traffic and shields sensitive data from cyberattacks. If your team works remotely, accesses cloud services or handles any confidential information, a VPN is a baseline security requirement.

This guide covers what to look for, the top options and how to get set up.

How Business VPNs Differ From Consumer VPNs?

Consumer VPNs hide your IP and help you browse privately. Business VPNs protect an entire organization.

A business VPN supports multiple users under one account with a centralized admin dashboard for managing devices, permissions and security policies. It typically includes SSO, MFA and device compliance checks.

Business VPNs offer dedicated servers and IP addresses, keeping your company traffic separate from public traffic and preventing your IPs from getting blacklisted by banks or cloud platforms.

Types of Business VPNs

Remote Access VPN: This is the most common type. It lets individual employees connect securely to your company network from anywhere. Think of it as a private tunnel between their device and your office. Our remote access VPN guide covers the top picks and setup steps.
Site-to-Site VPN: This connects entire office networks to each other. If your company has branches in different cities or countries, a site-to-site VPN links them so they function like one unified network. It’s always on and doesn’t require employees to do anything.
Cloud VPN: Instead of routing traffic through physical hardware, a cloud VPN runs through a provider’s cloud infrastructure. It’s easier to scale, requires less in-house setup and works well for companies that already rely heavily on cloud services.
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Increasingly replacing traditional VPNs. ZTNA verifies every user and device before granting access to specific resources, not blanket network access.

What to Look for When Choosing a Business VPN?

Choosing the right business VPN matters. Every provider promises speed and 99.9% uptime. Reality varies wildly. Here’s what matters:

Encryption and protocols: AES-256 encryption is the standard. Stick with modern protocols like WireGuard or OpenVPN. Avoid providers still using PPTP or L2TP, both of which have known vulnerabilities.
Scalability: A solution that works for 10 employees should also handle 100. Cloud-based VPNs tend to scale more smoothly than on-premise setups. For teams scaling beyond 100 users, our guide to enterprise VPN solutions covers dedicated infrastructure and advanced management options.
Speed: Every VPN introduces some slowdown due to encryption and routing. The best providers keep speed loss to 10–15%. Anything worse hurts productivity.
Centralized management: Your IT admin needs one dashboard to onboard employees, set permissions, monitor activity and enforce policies. Without this, managing a VPN becomes a burden. A VPN only works if every employee uses it; clear usage policies are essential.
Compliance: If you handle sensitive data, your VPN should support relevant frameworks, such as HIPAA for healthcare, GDPR for European operations and SOC 2 for finance. Avoid providers headquartered in Five Eyes countries where data handover can be compelled. Understanding where VPNs are legal also matters if your team operates across multiple jurisdictions.
Split tunneling: This lets employees route only business traffic through the VPN while personal traffic goes directly. Useful for remote workers who need secure access to company resources.
Pricing: Compare providers on total value, not sticker price alone. A slightly more expensive provider with better speed, security and management tools will save money by preventing costly breaches. Never use a free VPN for business. Free providers often monetize your data, offer weak encryption and lack management features.

Top Business VPN Picks

Comparison graphic of the best VPN for business, highlighting NordLayer, Surfshark, Proton VPN and PIA around a secure laptop network map.

After analyzing dozens of providers, reviewing independent speed tests, security audits and pricing structures, we have compiled this list of the top business VPN solutions.

Provider	Best For	Price	Servers	Speed Loss
NordLayer	Overall	$8–$14	8,000+	Minimal
Surfshark	Security bundles	$5.90–$6.90	4,500+	~8% download
Proton VPN	Dedicated infra	$6.99–$19.99	18,000+	Under 8%
PIA	Small business	$3.33	35,000+	~15%

NordLayer: Best Overall

Built by the NordVPN team, NordLayer is a full network-access security solution. It includes always-on VPN, Firewall as a Service, SSO integration and AES-256 encryption with the NordLynx protocol. Enterprise plans available for 50+ users with a 14-day free trial.

Surfshark: Best for Security Bundles

Surfshark pairs its VPN with built-in antivirus and a data breach monitoring service that tracks exposed emails, payment cards and employee IDs. It runs on RAM-only servers that wipe all data on reboot. Upload speeds can drop up to 50%, a concern if your team uploads large files frequently.

Proton VPN: Best for Dedicated Infrastructure

Proton VPN offers dedicated servers and IP addresses in 15 countries. Dedicated IPs prevent blacklisting, reduce spam-flagging of business emails and give cloud services a consistent identity to trust. Swiss-based with no data retention requirements and compliant with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA. Special pricing available for journalists and nonprofits.

Private Internet Access (PIA): Best for Small Business

Private Internet Access (PIA) has the largest server network available. All software is open source. Each account covers 10 simultaneous device connections. Mac performance varies more than Windows. 30-day money-back guarantee included.

How to Set Up a Business VPN?

Choose your provider based on team size, budget and security needs.
Purchase licenses and create your business account.
Configure the admin dashboard by adding employees, setting permissions, enforce MFA.
Deploy the software on all employee devices (Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile).
Verify connections by running speed tests and DNS leak checks.
Establish usage policies covering BYOD rules and incident reporting.

Best VPN for Business: FAQs

How much does a business VPN cost?

Most business VPNs run between $5 and $15 per user per month, depending on the provider and plan tier. If you’re a smaller team, options like PIA can bring that down to under $4 per user.

Can a VPN slow down my team's internet?

A little, yes. Encryption adds overhead. But the best providers keep speed loss under 15%, which most teams won’t even notice during normal work like browsing, calls and file access.

Is a business VPN enough to protect my company?

It’s a critical layer, but not a complete solution on its own. You’ll still want firewalls, antivirus, employee security training and ideally a zero-trust framework to cover all your bases.

Do we need a dedicated IT team to manage a business VPN?

Not necessarily. Most modern business VPNs come with intuitive admin dashboards that any tech-savvy team member can handle. Larger deployments with custom configurations may benefit from dedicated IT support, though.

What is Zero Trust Network Access and do we need it?

Zero Trust means no user or device is automatically trusted, everyone has to verify their identity before accessing anything. If your team is mostly remote or you handle sensitive data, it’s worth considering. Providers like Twingate and NordLayer already bake ZTNA principles into their platforms.

The Bottom Line

For most businesses, NordLayer offers the best balance of security, management and pricing. Small businesses on tight budgets should look at PIA. Companies needing dedicated infrastructure should consider Proton VPN. If you want a VPN bundled with antivirus and breach monitoring, Surfshark covers it.

The important thing is to pick one. Every day without a VPN is a day your data is exposed.