Regardless of how big or small your business is, cybersecurity should never be ignored or underestimated. That’s why it’s important to have a reliable VPN service for you and your employees. A good VPN client ensures that you maintain secure communications and top-notch security, no matter where you’re traveling to or from.
VPNs ensure that data breaches are highly unlikely (especially when combined with strong anti virus software), and they take hardly any effort to set up. Similarly, if your staff regularly travel for work, you don’t want to be transmitting important data across hotel or coffee shop Wi-Fi networks without a VPN encrypting the information along the way. Not convinced? Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about VPNs.
Of course, VPNs aren’t just for solving a business solution. Below you’ll find roundups of best VPNs for other needs:
- The best (overall) VPN services
- The best VPN for the iPhone or iPad
- The best VPNs for Android
Now that you know how important it is to have a good VPN supporting you, here’s a look at some of the best services out there for your business needs.
Best Overall VPN: ExpressVPN
In the case of a small business with only a handful of employees, it can be effective to use a regular consumer orientated VPN service. That’s why ExpressVPN is a good call for companies that only have 5 or fewer employees.
The service has all the features you could need. It offers servers across 94 countries encompassing 160 different locations, with no bandwidth limits in sight. Besides allowing users to view censored and blocked websites regardless of their location, it offers military-grade AES-256 encryption so your data is always secure.
No logs are held by ExpressVPN and no data is ever written to a hard drive so it’s impossible to trace activities back to you. A network lock kill switch blocks all internet traffic if your VPN connection drops unexpectedly, and there’s also split tunneling features so you can route some device traffic through a VPN while the rest accesses the internet directly.
24/7 support is also great for the business that never sleeps.
Prices start at $12.95 per month on a rolling basis, with the best deal stemming from a 12 month deal that works out at $8.32 per month, billed $99.95 every 12 months. It’s a small price to pay for keeping your data secure.
Best For Security: NordVPN
NordVPN is a popular name in the VPN field and for good reason. It offers nearly 6000 servers across 60 different countries. All well as that, its security features are second to none.
There’s military-grade level of encryption, as well as CyberSec technology which blocks ads and malicious websites before they get anywhere near your device. In addition, there’s the DoubleVPN feature which allows you to encrypt yourself twice making your data even more secure than before.
Typical features such as a no logs policy, automatic kill switch, and DNS leak protection are also included. While a single NordVPN account can secure up to 6 devices at once, it’s the ability to sign up for a dedicated business account that will make this most appealing to growing small businesses.
You can opt to purchase a dedicated business VPN server for internal use, with each VPN account assigned a dedicated IP address. The admin of the account can easily add, remove, and configure every user license across the business too, so you can easily keep on top of company goings on. Business users also get a dedicated account manager so customer support is that bit more efficient and ideally suited if you’re new to VPN services.
The catch? You need to fill in a form on the website to get a quote for your business needs. On the plus side, it does mean a bespoke service so you don’t pay for more than you require.
Best Dedicated Business Solution: Perimeter 81
A dedicated business solution should bring with it team and network management consoles, and that’s precisely what Perimeter 81 provides. Servers wise, it has over 700 servers across more than 35 different locations.
Requiring a minimum of 3 team members, Perimeter 81 then goes onto support between 5 and over 100 devices with further custom options available when required. Clients are available for all major operating systems, along with Linux and Chromebook, with a single click web management console that’s easy to get to grips with.
When it comes to security, Perimeter 81 is as effective as NordVPN with extensive encryption, as well as the option to utilize dedicated IPs as and when needed. Via the admin console, you can also create multiple user groups and manage team permissions so you’re always on top of things. It’s possible for you to internally monitor bandwidth consumption too and other network activity, although Perimeter 81 will never keep tabs on it itself.
Prices start at $8 per month per team member, with Enterprise packages available for those requiring a bespoke solution.
Best For Experts: TorGuard
Focused on small businesses that require extra features such as anonymous email accounts and more than one dedicated IP, TorGuard might look a little intimidating to inexperienced users, but it’s a worthwhile service for those that know what they’re doing.
It has over 3000 servers across more than 50 locations with security covered by the regular but solid options such as 256-bit AES encryption, OpenVPN support, PPTP, L2TP, IPsec, and more. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry about it. Many of the services here provide similar.
Where TorGuard gets more involved is its support for more than one dedicated VPN IP address. Its business accounts also come with a 24/7 dedicated account manager and access to a management portal that means you can easily manage who accesses content via your VPN.
TorGuard doesn’t come cheap starting at $69 per month for 10 users, 10 email addresses, and 3 dedicated IPs, but if you’re serious about cybersecurity and know what you’re doing, it’s a good option to pursue.
Best Free VPN: ProtonVPN
We wouldn’t recommend a free VPN as a permanent solution for your business needs, but if you simply need to use a VPN client temporarily then ProtonVPN is a good option to take.
In exchange for a quick sign up process, you get an unlimited data allowance for free each month with no speed limits and no adverts. The service offers a no logs policy too, as well as extensive security, so you can be confident that your data is safe.
So, what’s the catch? You can only use it on one device at a time and speeds are a little slow. That’s because there’s only a choice of three countries/server locations in the free package, but that’ll do you just fine when you’re in a jam. This is far from a long term solution for your business, but if you’re a freelancer or you want to pass account details around between your employees, this is a make-shift fix while you set up with a more business minded VPN service provider.
For your other small business, including best cloud storage options for businesses, we’ve got you covered.