Enterprise virtual private networks (VPNs) are security solutions to protect remote users and provide access to corporate resources such as internal networks, applications, and cloud data repositories. Like traditional VPNs, they apply encryption and other security to data transmissions to protect users and data against attack or misuse. However, the best enterprise VPN solutions also enable quick, global deployments with easy to manage and use software.
To help you choose the right one for you, I’ve compared features, customer support offerings, pricing, and licensing information to rank the top solutions for professional use.
Here are the six best enterprise VPN solutions for businesses, non-profits, and government agencies of all sizes:
- Perimeter 81: Best overall VPN solution
- PureDome: Best for quick global access
- OpenVPN: Best for flexible deployment
- Twingate: Best for DevSecOps deployments
- NordLayer: Best for SaaS user security
- GoodAccess: Best customer service
Table of Contents
Top Enterprise VPN Solutions Comparison
The following table provides a quick overview of the top six enterprise VPN solutions with regards to pricing and four key features: centralized dashboards for administrator (admin) management, security tool integrations, URL address filtering, and log retention.
| Centralized Dashboard | Security Tool Integrations | URL Address Filtering | Log Retention | Pricing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perimeter 81 | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | $8+/user + $40/gateway |
| PureDome (PureVPN) | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ | $6.76+/user + $40/gateway |
| OpenVPN | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | $11+/user |
| Twingate | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ | $5+/user |
| NordLayer | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | $8+/user |
| GoodAccess | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | $7+/user + $39/gateway |
Despite very competitive scores among the top tools, I found Perimeter 81 to provide the best overall value for those seeking a secure software-as-a-service (SaaS) remote virtual private network connection for business. Continue on to read more about each of these top solutions in terms of pricing, features, and primary use cases, or jump down to see how I evaluated the products.
Note: All monthly prices are based on a one-year commitment unless otherwise noted.
Perimeter 81 – Best Overall
Overall Rating: 4.4/5
- Backend manager experience: 4.8/5
- Security features: 4.6/5
- User experience: 4.6/5
- Cost and licensing clarity: 3.2/5
- Customer support: 4.1/5
Perimeter 81 earns the top spot in our rankings because of the wide range of features that also earn the tool the top ranking for user experience, backend management experience, and network security features. Users will enjoy the high speed global connections protected by optional secure web gateway (SWG) filtering for malicious websites and malware. Admins will appreciate the security tool integrations, reporting, monitoring, and the consolidated dashboard.
Pros
Cons
- Essentials: $8/user/month + $40/gateway/month; minimum 10 users
- Premium: $12/user/month + $40/gateway/month; minimum 10 users
- Premium Plus: $16/user/month + $40/gateway/month; minimum 20 users
- Enterprise: Contact sales; minimum 50 users
- Add-ons: Additional fees for DNS filtering, web filtering, and malware protection
- Free trial: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free demo: Contact to schedule
- Broad security features: Supports IP whitelisting, zero-trust network access (ZTNA), user segmentation, and device posture checks for network access control (NAC).
- Wide availability: Provides connector apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and Chromebook as well as browser-based access for applications.
- Cloud access connections: Enables point-to-point connections for internal network connections and makes cloud assets available to NordLayer users.
- Enforce policy: Prevent user sign-out from VPN to access resources outside of protection and block access to undesirable sites (pornography, gambling, etc.).
- Supports integration: Connects with security information and event management (SIEM) tools and single-sign on (SSO) providers.
Perimeter 81’s private global network and security features come at a premium price. For those more sensitive to price and with less strict network security feature requirements, consider PureDome, which has access points from more than 70 countries.
PureDome – Best for Quick Global Access
Overall Rating: 4.1/5
- Backend manager experience: 4.4/5
- Security features: 3.6/5
- User experience: 4.3/5
- Cost and licensing clarity: 3.9/5
- Customer support: 4.4/5
PureDome builds off of its successful PureVPN consumer offering to provide a large global reach of high-speed (10+ Gbps) connections in more than 70 countries. Choose this vendor for large, geographically dispersed teams that need high-speed connections. PureDome supports a wide range of endpoint devices (Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, Android, Chromebook) and protects users with group management, automated connections, and always-on VPN.
Pros
Cons
- Basic: $6.76/user/month + $40/dedicated gateway/month; minimum 5 users
- Professional: $9/user/month + $40/gateway/month; minimum 5 users
- Enterprise: $13.45/user/month + $40/gateway/month; minimum 5 users
- Free trial: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free demo: Contact to schedule
- High-speed connections: Supplies high speed connections in more than 70 countries, starting at 10 Gbps with upgraded 20 Gbps servers in key international locations.
- Effective management: Enables admins to view and manage teams, gateway loads, and user roles and access through a consolidated management console.
- Device review: Applies NAC profiles for professional and enterprise customers to block access to unpatched or insufficiently managed endpoint devices.
- Dedicated support: Provides dedicated customer executives by chat and email to all customers, with available phone and priority support for premium customers.
- Optional integration: Supports integration with identity and access solutions.
PureDome provides global access to a high-speed network, but some will prefer more security features. For a fully private global network with more security controls, consider Perimeter 81.
OpenVPN – Best for Flexible Deployment
Overall Rating: 4.1/5
- Backend manager experience: 4.1/5
- Security features: 4.5/5
- User experience: 3.4/5
- Cost and licensing clarity: 4.3/5
- Customer support: 4.2/5
OpenVPN provides the most flexible deployment options of any vendor because it is a tunneling protocol, an open-source project, and the company behind the two enterprise VPN solutions. Engage their CloudConnexa platform and provide users with direct access to OpenVPN’s cloud-hosted infrastructure. Alternatively, license the Access Server and build out your own private self-hosted network of access points and servers anywhere you want.
Pros
Cons
- Free: Supports up to 3 connections
- Growth: $11/connection/month; minimum 5 connections
- Enterprise: Contact sales; minimum 5 connections
- Free trial: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free demo: Contact to schedule
- Deployment options: Provides a unique option to build out self-hosted enterprise VPN infrastructure quickly and easily or to adopt a more convenient cloud-hosted option.
- Diverse MFA: Supports traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA), Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication, and device registration.
- Group access: Allows for group definitions and user-group connections to provide access templates for specific asset and application access.
- Web filtering: Enables self-hosted instances with network monitoring intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systems (IDS/IPS) options to perform domain name system (DNS) and website filtering of known-malicious and unwanted websites and categories.
- Transparent pricing: Offers both monthly and annual pricing as well as volume-based discounts; includes a price calculator on the pricing page of the website.
A self-hosted enterprise VPN brings back the maintenance and configuration headaches of traditional VPN infrastructure and OpenVPN’s gateway speeds tend to be slower than other top solutions. For an alternative self-hosted technology with less infrastructure overhead, consider Twingate’s peer-to-peer mesh network solution.
Twingate – Best for DevSecOps Deployments
Overall Rating: 4/5
- Backend manager experience: 4.5/5
- Security features: 3.8/5
- User experience: 3.9/5
- Cost and licensing clarity: 4.3/5
- Customer support: 3.4/5
Twingate’s unique technology permits the implementation of peer-to-peer zero-trust connections that programmers include in infrastructure-as-code. These headless service accounts launch on demand, integrate with existing infrastructure, modify access rules, and integrate with GitHub. Development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) teams creating websites and applications can insert secure Twingate connections into containers and other virtual architectures.
Pros
Cons
- Starter (free tier): Supports up to 5 users, 1 admin, 10 remote networks
- Teams: $5/user/month; up to 100 users, 3 admins, 20 remote networks
- Business: $10/user/month; up to 500 users, 10 admins, 100 remote networks
- Enterprise: Contact sales
- Free trial: 14 days
- Free demo: Contact to schedule
- Unattended security: Implements zero trust controls for automated and unattended continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) processes.
- Monitoring integration: Feeds alerts to SIEMs and integrates with mobile device management (MDM) tools for enhanced security processes.
- Defines allowlists: Limits access to approved locations through an IP whitelist (aka: allowlist) that rejects unapproved IP addresses as an equivalent to URL filtering.
- Quasi-legal VPN: Uses a technology that bypasses gateways for peer-to-peer connections that doesn’t technically violate laws against VPN in China, etc.
- Optional gateways: Bypasses requirements for static IPs and gateways but also uses a partner to provide this legacy infrastructure for those that need it.
Twingate’s novel peer-to-peer technology may make some IT teams uncomfortable. For a more traditional approach to both on-site and cloud-hosted VPN, consider OpenVPN.
NordLayer – Best for SaaS User Security
Overall Rating: 3.9/5
- Backend manager experience: 4.1/5
- Security features: 3.9/5
- User experience: 4.2/5
- Cost and licensing clarity: 3.1/5
- Customer support: 4.2/5
NordLayer delivers a solid enterprise VPN candidate with competitive features and capabilities. However, unlike most competitors, Nord Security also offers SaaS file encryption (NordLocker), password management (NordPass), and managed detection and response (NordStellar). Buyers can select Nord to deliver multiple, fully compatible tools to provide robust, turnkey protection for remote users.
Pros
Cons
- Lite: $8/user/month; minimum 5 users
- Core: $11/user/month + $50/dedicated server/month; minimum 5 users
- Premium: $14/user/month + $50/dedicated server/month; minimum 5 users
- Enterprise: $7+/user/month; minimum 50 users
- Free trial: 14-day money-back guarantee
- Free demo: Contact to schedule
- Rich add-ons: Provides a wealth of premium security (firewall policies, device posture check), access (static IPs, DNS filtering), and SaaS protections for remote users.
- Robust MFA: Enables secure access to the enterprise VPN app through SSO or a variety of MFA, including authenticator apps, security keys, or biometrics.
- Multiple VPN options: Allows admins to select from traditional IKEv2 or OpenVPN (UDP or TCP) protocols or the proprietary NordLynx protocol based on Wireguard.
- Included threat protection: Delivers ThreatBlock protection to all business tiers that automatically detects and blocks malicious domains based on threat intelligence feeds.
- Human-touch support: Supplies premium subscribers with dedicated account managers and technical architects for faster, smoother onboarding and integrations.
NordLayer is one of a suite of effective tools to protect remote users, but speeds max out at 1Gbps for connections. For speeds up to 10 Gbps, a global private network, and the best-rated customer service, consider GoodAccess.
GoodAccess – Best Customer Service
Overall Rating: 3.9/5
- Backend manager experience: 3.9/5
- Security features: 4.1/5
- User experience: 4/5
- Cost and licensing clarity: 3.2/5
- Customer support: 4.5/5
GoodAccess earns the best-rated customer support by providing strong support options for all tiers of customers. Premium customers gain priority and 24/7 phone support as well as the knowledge base access, chat, and email support enjoyed by regular customers. In addition to the broad support, GoodAccess also provides strong security features, unlimited data usage, and centralized client app distribution for all tiers of customers.
Pros
Cons
- Essential: $7/user/month + $39/dedicated gateway/month; minimum 5 users
- Premium: $11/user/month + $39/dedicated gateway/month; minimum 5 users
- Enterprise: Contact sales
- Cloud and branch connectors: $29/connector/month
- Free trial: 14 days
- Free demo: Contact to schedule
- Accessible support: Provides chat and email support and a solution architect for deployment assistance, even for the lowest levels of business customers.
- High-speed access: Use servers with 1 Gbps (standard) to 10 Gbps (premium) speeds supported by the faster WireGuard VPN protocol.
- Private global network: Deploys fully owned servers and network connections with access points placed in more than 35 global locations.
- DNS options: Allows customers to customize included DNS for client-specific DNS blocking or to use a private domain name server.
- Threat Blocker: Supplies all tiers of customers with Threat Blocker Premium, which automatically protects against known-malicious domains updated regularly by threat intelligence feeds and enhanced with customizable blacklists (aka: denylists).
Although GoodAccess is a strong enterprise VPN solution with superior customer support, customers that need more than just VPN access should consider an option that integrates with other user-protection SaaS solutions, such as NordLayer.
Top 5 Features of Enterprise VPNs
Enterprise VPNs need to provide convenient administration and global access, deploy quickly, and maintain strong security and a comfortable user experience. Each of these features helps to distinguish enterprise VPNs from competing methods to secure network access for remote users such as self-hosted VPNs, secure web gateways (SWG), or firewalls-as-a-service (FWaaS).
Easy Admin Management
Administrators need solutions that make it easier to manage and secure users. Effective enterprise VPNs provide a consolidated user management dashboard, easy integration of identity management and security tools, and good reporting and logs for investigation or compliance. Most tools deliver as SaaS for dramatically reduced maintenance when compared to self-hosted VPN, SWG, or firewall solutions.
Global Reach & Scalability
Growing companies expand overseas and require global access points that can scale as the company and its user-base increase. A large number of cloud-based international gateway access points provide low-latency access for remote users and SaaS delivery of the enterprise VPN backend enables scalable growth.
Quick Deployment & Implementation
A key differentiating feature of an enterprise VPN is the fast deployment. Traditional VPN providers such as Citrix, Fortinet, or Ivanti provide applications and connectors that integrate with their VPN solutions, but that takes significant time to implement, configure, and validate. Enterprise VPNs provide available infrastructure and apps that allow for single-day deployments of fully connected resources, applications, and users.
Strong Security Features
Enterprise VPNs must provide strong, secure connections. Multifactor authentication and encrypted tunnels secure the user side with better solutions while also providing DNS security, URL/website filtering, and malware detection. Strong encryption, point-to-point security, and group access management further secure access within the network and assure appropriate users access to sensitive resources.
User-Friendly Connections
Enterprise VPNs must provide easy-to-use clients for mobile devices and desktops so that users will have minimal motivation to avoid using the app. Additionally, good solutions provide low-latency access close to the user and high-speed gateways to provide an ongoing good user experience.
How I Evaluated the Best Enterprise VPN
To evaluate enterprise VPN solutions, I weighed five different criteria and each category consisted of sub-criteria with their own weights. The subcriteria summed up to a five-point rating for each category and combined to an overall five-point score for the tool. Based on the scores, I selected the top six tools and considered their pros, cons, and features. These capabilities helped me to define use cases in which each solution might be the best fit for a buyer.
Evaluation Criteria
Backend manager experience earned the highest weighting because overwhelmed security teams need easy to manage and implement tools that reduce headaches, not add to them. The solution also must work well, so security features and user experience were also heavily weighted. While price and customer service also matter and need to be considered, I didn’t weigh them as heavily as the key functional features.
- Backend manager experience (30%): Includes installation and use factors such as integration of cloud assets, identity management, or security tools, dedicated servers or IP addresses, centralized dashboards, user configuration profiles, and reporting.
- Criterion winner: Perimeter 81
- Security features (25%): Factors important security features into the score such as IP whitelisting, firewall policies, attack filtering, session duration controls, and log retention.
- Criterion winner: Perimeter 81
- User experience (20%): Consists of speed and user protection sub-criteria like endpoint compatibility, gateway speeds, kill switches, auto-connect, and always-on VPN.
- Criterion winner: Perimeter 81
- Cost and licensing clarity (15%): Considers both the listed prices for various levels and user quantities as well as licensing transparency, user minimums, and discounts.
- Criterion winner: Multiple winners
- Customer support (10%): Looks at the availability and options for rapid customer support (phone, chat), delayed customers support (email, tickets), self-help information, hours of operation, and the availability of dedicated customer support representatives.
- Criterion winner: GoodAccess
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Is the Difference Between an Enterprise VPN & Business VPN?
Enterprise VPNs are cloud-based remote access and Business VPN (aka, traditional VPN) is a locally hosted VPN solution. The largest organizations will require on-site solutions, point-to-point VPN solutions, and high volume VPN capabilities, which are difficult to manage, take time to deploy, and are expensive to scale or deploy globally.
What Is the Difference Between an Enterprise VPN & a Self-Hosted VPN?
Enterprise VPNs are hosted by third-party cloud providers that also provide the software or access points for remote users. Self-hosted VPNs will be fully controlled and installed on cloud-based or local IT infrastructure of the purchasing organization. Some organizations deploy the equivalent of a self-hosted enterprise VPN using paired connection apps and VPN tools, but these are more expensive and time consuming to deploy and manage than enterprise VPN.
Do Business VPNs Need Stealth-Mode?
Most businesses don’t need the stealth-mode of consumer-oriented VPNs that hide the app from the ISPs or government firewalls (in China, Russia, Vietnam, etc.). Stealth-mode vendors also tend to promote privacy focused servers that don’t log use, but this undermines the typical businesses need to log and track users for compliance or breach investigations.
Bottom Line: Enterprise VPNs Provide Fast, Remote Security
Remote users need secure access to applications and resources and enterprise VPNs provide quick-to-deploy options that enable fast action and a good experience for users and managers. Many small businesses will choose enterprise VPNs because they lack large teams to manage in-house VPNs and many large enterprises will select enterprise VPNs for potential cost savings. Test drive your preferred options to verify a good fit for your needs.
For an in-depth analysis of alternative ways to secure remote users, read VDI vs VPN vs RDP.
