Best Business VPN for 2020: Keeping SMB Data Safe

Virtual private networks were born for businesses, and though they’ve evolved past that into the consumer market, they’ll invariably be tied to business. That said, they aren’t the easiest thing to deploy, especially if you run a small business with a limited number of employees. The team here at CommQueR.com is here to help.

In this guide to the best business VPN, we’re going to give you five business-focused solutions that will be easy to setup and deploy in your company. Before diving into our picks, we’ll discuss why businesses should use VPNs, as well as the criteria we used to make our selections.

If you’re looking for a short answer, NordVPN is the way to go. Not only does it provide an excellent personal service, it also offers a fantastic business service. If you want more options, though, read on.

Why Businesses Should Use VPNs

VPNs have long been a business tool, well before the consumer options came to be. For business, they’ve been used to connect remote workers, allowing employees to access essential files and applications from outside the office.

Such a system is only possible if you have a server where all the data is stored. In most cases, you’ll need to configure a VPN manually to let remote workers access your files, but with the rise of secure cloud storage, access to files is cheaper and easier than it has ever been.

That said, cloud storage doesn’t account for the other upside of using a business VPN, and that’s a secured connection (read our best VPN for cloud storage piece). Instead of recommending tools that an IT department can use, we’re going to give you consumer options that have reached into the business world, meaning anyone, even with limited technical experience, can stay protected.

VPNs allow you to connect to the internet through another server. When connecting to that first server, your traffic is encrypted, which you can learn about in our description of encryption. After that, the encryption skin is shed and your traffic moves on to the open internet. The initial connection to the VPN server disguised your IP address and traffic requests, though.

For security, the value is clear. If you have, say, employees dealing with sensitive documents on public WiFi, a VPN is essential. Because your connection is encrypted, network snoopers won’t be able to intercept your traffic and steal sensitive information.

Plus, VPNs have practical uses for business. Maybe you have to access a website that’s only available to IP addresses in a certain country or you need to conceal your source IP address if you deal solely online. VPNs are security tools as much as they are practical ones, and once you sign up for a plan, you’ll notice situations where they’re useful.

Best Business VPN 2020

Choosing the Best Business VPN

For the most part, choosing a business VPN is similar to choosing a consumer one. Fast speed, a large server network and top-notch security are still the foremost concerns. Unlike consumer VPNs that impose a restriction on simultaneous connections, though, business VPNs need to be able to connect multiple users with a simple way to manage them.

That’s where we started. For example, ExpressVPN is the best VPN we’ve tested — you can see why in our ExpressVPN review — but the five-simultaneous-connection limit and lack of user control features make it a bad choice for businesses.

We also looked for business-specific features, such as dedicated IP addresses and centralized billing. Though they may seem minor, additional deployment and billing options have a big affect on optimizing different aspects of your businesses.

Most important, though, is user management. As with business password managers — read our best password manager for small business guide — the key difference between a corporate and consumer product is user management. Like an all-seeing eye, a strong user management system allows you to see how your employees are using the service.

As mentioned, our standard VPN criteria apply. VPN security is of the utmost importance, especially considering that businesses are prime targets for cybercrime. A combination of strong VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN, and top-notch encryption will usually keep you safe.

Though ease of use, server locations and speed played a role in our selections, price took a backseat. Value is important for businesses, but as is the case with most custom services, the price you’ll end up paying depends on your needs and number of employees.

1. Best VPN for Business: NordVPN

NordVPN is ranked second out of the VPNs we’ve reviewed, and for good reason. Though there’s inconsistency across its network, it’s a feature-rich, inexpensive and powerful option for consumers. That said, with a souped-up list of features and special integrations, it’s a great choice for businesses, too.

It starts with a dedicated account manager. No matter how large or small your business is — NordVPN asks that you have at least five accounts — you’ll have a dedicated line for issues. It isn’t just a direct line to support, either. Your account manager can work with you to deploy configurations that would otherwise be impossible.

The core business features are present, too. Each account on your plan can get a dedicated IP address for consistent and stable access to company databases and services. NordVPN also keeps billing simple with centralized payment for your users and an easy-to-use management interface.

One of the more convenient features for businesses is the ability to transfer licenses. You need a simple way to move your licenses because employees cycle. Thankfully, NordVPN accommodates such a task.

Other Reasons We Like NordVPN

As mentioned, NordVPN has a massive network. It’s made up of around 5,000 servers in over 60 countries. No matter where you’re located or where you want to tunnel to, NordVPN will likely have a location to accommodate you.

Business users can still take advantage of NordVPN’s excellent consumer feature set. At the core are specialty servers, which tune your connection for an aspect of security or anonymity. For example, Double VPN servers allow you to bounce off two servers for double the encryption. Read our Windscribe review to see another provider that offers such functionality.

Shy of ExpressVPN, NordVPN is the best VPN we’ve tested, and its catering to corporate markets makes it a perfect choice for your business. You can learn all the reasons we love it in our NordVPN review or get in touch about setting up a business account to see how you like it.

NordVPN Review

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2. TorGuard

TorGuard offers premade business plans that will give you several user packages, dedicated IP addresses and email addresses. Unlike NordVPN, you aren’t simply purchasing a VPN subscription. Rather, you’re purchasing a package of secure email, dedicated IP address and the VPN.

The preset plans are useful for businesses with less than 20 employees. If you need more accounts, you’ll have to contact TorGuard for a custom configuration. Thankfully, all accounts come with a dedicated account manager who can answer questions and help you troubleshoot if anything goes wrong.

That said, even with under 20 employees, a custom solution may be best for you. Though the preset plans come with some number of dedicated IP addresses, a custom plan includes a dedicated server, which is important for consistent access.

Of course, TorGuard wouldn’t rank second without user management controls, and, thankfully, it satisfies that front. The VPN control panel allows you to manage employees, track your dedicated IP addresses, setup encrypted email and more. With it, you’ll be able to get a bird’s eye view of how your business is taking advantage of TorGuard.

Other Reasons We Like TorGuard

TorGuard isn’t especially user-friendly — though we wouldn’t call it difficult to use, either — and that’s largely because of the customization it offers. It’s highly configurable, allowing you to change the protocol, cipher and data authentication method. With that flexibility, you can set the level of security that makes sense for your business.

Flexibility is great, but one of the reasons we love TorGuard is how fast it is. It ranked fourth in our fastest VPN guide, just behind Astrill (read our Astrill review). That said, our testing was close, so small variations in speed could push TorGuard even higher in the ranking.

Though it may not be as attractive as NordVPN, TorGuard has the capability to play ball. Between its speed, configurability and long list of features, it’s a great choice for your business. You can read our TorGuard review to learn more or check out the preset plans to see what works for you.

Torguard Review

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3. VyprVPN

VyprVPN offers two plans for business users: VyprVPN for Business and VyprVPN for Business Cloud. The first is like TorGuard and NordVPN, providing multiple-user management, a large network of servers and dedicated account manager. VyprVPN for Business Cloud is interesting, though, because it allows you to take advantage of a dedicated server.

Your own server means you can integrate apps such as Salesforce into your VPN and allow workers to access them remotely. Plus, VyprVPN allows you to add servers to your plan, so you can segment clusters for different teams.

VyprVPN for Business Cloud is easy to deploy and expandable, allowing you to scale and control the service in the way that works best for your business. For example, Wunder, a web design company with employees around the world, used VyprVPN for Business Cloud to centralize the disjointed and inconsistent solution of using multiple public and private servers.

Though we said price wasn’t our primary concern, VyprVPN is inexpensive. Business plans start at just a few hundred dollars per year, and VyprVPN will even give you a free trial to see how you like it. It’s an easy-to-deploy, no-nonsense solution that still provides a lot of power.

Other Reasons We Like VyprVPN

Our favorite features from the consumer app are available for business users, too. VyprVPN lets you use Chameleon, which is a proprietary protocol based on OpenVPN. It connects in a similar way, but obfuscates your packets as they’re being sent, so you can bypass deep packet inspection. Chameleon was one reason VyprVPN made our best VPN services for China list.

Plus, your employees can take advantage of the NAT firewall. Like any firewall, it’ll block requests based on a list of rules. It runs on VyprVPN’s servers, though, meaning the incoming threat is identified and blocked before even making it your machine.

That said, VyprVPN isn’t perfect. The speeds are lower than we’d like and the interface could use a face lift. It’s still a solid choice for businesses, though. The privately-owned network means no third-parties will be messing with your business data and the long list of features means you can configure the service how you want.

You can learn more in our VyprVPN review or reach out about a free trial to see how you like it.

VyprVPN Review

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4. SaferVPN (Perimeter 81)

We think SaferVPN is just okay. The pricing is good, but the network is small. The privacy is solid, but the streaming performance is anything but. That said, the business version of the VPN, Perimeter 81, is quite good.

Its inexpensive monthly rate gives you access to shared gateways in 35 locations, but you can purchase dedicated gateways for $40 per month. As with VyprVPN for Business Cloud, that allows you to add dedicated locations to your plan and segment them for different teams. Only the employees you want to give access to will get it.

As for business features, Perimeter 81 offers everything we want. You can manage team members by assigning them certain permissions and selecting them for user groups, as well as monitor the resources and bandwidth they’re consuming. Perimeter 81 offers one of the most complete ways to view your network activity.

It offers uncommon features, too, most notably activity reports, single sign-on integration and automatic WiFi security. The latter is great for employees who travel because the VPN will automatically detect unsecured WiFi networks and protect the connection before anything can go wrong.

Other Reasons We Like SaferVPN

One of SaferVPN’s saving graces is its excellent user experience, and, thankfully, that carries over to Perimeter 81. The app is modern and accessible, making it easy for you to manage users and simple for your employees to understand the new toy that fell in their lap.

Your employees are known as “team members” to Perimeter 81. Team members have unique email addresses and user licenses. Each license is good for up to five connections, meaning your employees can keep desktops, laptops, phones and tablets protected at no extra cost.

SaferVPN may not be our favorite provider, but it’s not bad, either. As a middle-of-the-road consumer option, it doesn’t impress, but the business side of it is great. Perimeter 81 offers the flexibility of other business VPNs, plus a few tricks of its own. You can read our SaferVPN review to learn about the consumer platform or request a demo of Perimeter 81 to try it yourself.

SaferVPN Review

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5. Goose VPN

Goose VPN is the poor man’s business VPN. It doesn’t offer a business plan, nor any business-specific features, which is why it ranked last here. That said, it’s one of the few providers to offer unlimited simultaneous connections, and as the winner of our best VPN for multiple devices guide, it should have a home here, too.

It isn’t the only VPN to offer unlimited simultaneous connections — read our SurfShark review to learn about another — but it’s one of the few that get close to truly unlimited. In most cases, digging into the fair use policy on “unlimited” simultaneous connections quickly reveals that there are, in fact, limits to how many devices you can protect.

Goose VPN doesn’t break that trend. It has a fair use policy, too, but it’s generous. You can connect as many devices as you want, so long as you don’t require more than 1 perfect of all resources in the network. The network isn’t huge, but taking even 1 percent of the power seems unlikely.

That said, it’s the poor man’s business VPN for a reason. You’re missing out on user management, an account manager and business integrations. Goose VPN should strictly be used as a cheap way to secure your employees’ traffic and nothing more. It’s great for that, though.

Other Reasons We Like Goose VPN

Goose VPN excels in user-friendliness and pricing. Unlike most VPNs, there’s a limited monthly option available that caps your data transfer at 50GB. In the likely event that you need more, you’ll have to purchase an unlimited plan. The monthly rate isn’t impressive, but if you buy a year upfront, it’s less than $60.

The application is easy to use and streamlined enough that you can teach it to your employees. That said, it has a decent amount of flexibility. There are multiple protocols to choose from, as well as start-up settings. Though not as configurable as TorGuard, Goose VPN still gives you the essentials.

Compared to our other recommendations, though, it’s a janky solution. You can scoot by for a while with a small team, but if you’re looking for a true business VPN, you should stick with our top four picks. Even so, it’s worth it to read our Goose VPN review to see if it’ll get you by.

Goose VPN Review

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Final Thoughts

Putting together your own VPN is costly, time-consuming and unreliable. The options above give you the benefits without many of the drawbacks, providing large server networks and the ability to integrate with other platforms. Goose VPN is the odd man out, but it’s not bad for a temporary solution.

Out of our reviews, the providers on the list above are the few that offer business plans.  Which VPN are you using for your business? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.