Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in business VPN software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 13 tools, reviewed
#1 GoodAccess
Gateway-based zero trust, built for SMBs · Czech Republic · goodaccess.com
EU-incorporated, Czech Republic Gateway-based zero trust SMB-focused
GoodAccess was built specifically for small and mid-sized businesses wanting zero trust access without the complexity of an enterprise SASE platform, and its gateway-based model is a genuine middle ground between Tailscale's minimal-config mesh and a full site-to-site VPN.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Essential $7/user/month (annual) or $9 monthly, minimum 5 users. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: SMBs wanting simple, gateway-based zero trust
- Strengths: Cloud VPN gateways; Zero trust access policies; Site-to-site connections.
Where it falls short
Additional gateways and connectors, needed for multiple office locations or cloud environments, are billed as separate add-ons on top of the per-user rate, so a company with several sites should get a full quote rather than assume the headline price.
Wrong for
A company needing many gateways across numerous locations should price the add-ons carefully before assuming GoodAccess is the cheaper option.
Visit GoodAccess →
#2 ScribeForce (Windscribe)
Windscribe's team VPN, billed per seat · Canada · windscribe.com
Consumer VPN infrastructure Simple per-seat pricing Centralized team billing
ScribeForce is Windscribe's business product, repackaging its consumer VPN network with centralized billing and team management so an admin can provision and pay for several employees' VPN access from one place.
- Pricing: Per user / month. $5.00 per seat/month, includes centralized billing and team management on top of Windscribe's consumer Pro features. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Very small teams wanting a simple shared VPN
- Strengths: Centralized billing and management; Shared VPN server access; Ad and tracker blocking.
Where it falls short
It is built on consumer VPN infrastructure rather than a purpose-built business access-control architecture, so it lacks the per-resource policy, device posture checks and audit logging that ZTNA-first products like Twingate offer.
Wrong for
A company needing granular per-application access control, device posture checks or detailed audit logs should choose Twingate or Tailscale instead.
Visit ScribeForce (Windscribe) →
#3 Surfshark for Teams
Surfshark's team VPN, a Nord Security sister brand · Netherlands · surfshark.com
Nord Security sister brand Consumer-style bundled extras Minimum 5 licenses
Surfshark for Teams licenses the consumer Surfshark VPN network for business use, and since a 2022 merger it operates as a sister brand to NordLayer under the same Nord Security holding structure, though the two remain separately run products.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Per-user monthly pricing, minimum 5 licenses on a 1-year plan: Starter from $5.90/user/month, One from $6.90/user/month, One+ from $9.40/user/month. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Small teams already using Surfshark personally
- Strengths: Shared VPN server access; Centralized team billing; Incogni data removal (higher tiers).
Where it falls short
The bundled consumer extras, data removal and identity-theft coverage, are unusual positioning for a business buyer more focused on access control than personal protection services, and there is no free trial published for the team product specifically.
Wrong for
A company needing granular per-application access control or detailed audit logs should choose Twingate or Tailscale.
Visit Surfshark for Teams →
#4 Tailscale
WireGuard-based mesh VPN, working in minutes · Canada · tailscale.com
WireGuard mesh network Fastest setup in category Free for small teams
Tailscale builds a mesh network on top of the WireGuard protocol, and its reputation for near-zero-config setup is deserved: two machines can be securely connected in minutes rather than the hours a traditional VPN gateway typically takes to configure correctly.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Personal plan free forever for up to 6 users (non-commercial); Standard $8/user/month, Premium $18/user/month, Enterprise custom. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Engineering and DevOps teams wanting fast setup
- Strengths: Mesh VPN networking; Zero-config device connections; Access control lists.
Where it falls short
The free Personal plan is explicitly non-commercial, so a real business deployment starts on a paid tier, after a 14-day trial, rather than growing out of the free one.
Wrong for
A company wanting a bundled SASE platform with firewall and web filtering included, or one without any engineering capacity to manage access-control policy, may prefer a more guided product like GoodAccess.
Visit Tailscale →
#5 Twingate
Zero trust network access, admin-console first · United States · twingate.com
ZTNA-first architecture Free for up to 5 users Granular resource policy
Twingate was built from the start around granting access to one specific resource at a time rather than the wider network, and its admin console makes that policy genuinely easy to define and audit, which is where it separates from older VPN products retrofitted with ZTNA branding.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Starter free for up to 5 users. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Teams wanting granular per-resource access policy
- Strengths: Zero trust network access; Per-resource access policy; Device posture checks.
Where it falls short
Per-seat pricing on the Teams and Business tiers runs higher than some flatter-rate competitors once a company grows past its free tier, and it has less of a traditional site-to-site VPN story than NordLayer or OpenVPN Access Server for a company that still wants full network-level access for some use cases.
Wrong for
A company that specifically wants full network-level access rather than per-resource grants, or one already committed to a broader SASE platform for other reasons, gets less differentiated value from Twingate's narrower focus.
Visit Twingate →
#6 NordLayer
SASE-oriented VPN from the Nord Security group · Lithuania · nordlayer.com
Nord Security group Formerly NordVPN Teams Site-to-site + remote access
NordLayer launched in 2019 as NordVPN Teams and was rebranded in 2021 once its feature set grew beyond a simple team VPN into a broader SASE-style bundle covering site-to-site connections, a secure web gateway and cloud firewall alongside remote access.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Per-user monthly tiers named Lite, Core and Premium, plus a custom Enterprise offer, which replaced the older Basic and Advanced plans in October 2023. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Teams wanting a recognizable consumer-VPN parent brand
- Strengths: Site-to-site VPN; Remote access VPN; Secure web gateway.
Where it falls short
Its precise corporate structure spans several jurisdictions, and current self-serve pricing is worth confirming directly before budgeting, since it was not consistently accessible during this review.
Wrong for
A buyer specifically wanting a vendor whose entire business is B2B, with no consumer VPN product alongside it, may prefer Twingate or GoodAccess instead of a brand built primarily around NordVPN.
Visit NordLayer →
#7 OpenVPN Access Server
Self-hosted VPN server, billed per connection · United States · openvpn.net
Self-hosted Connection-based pricing Built on OpenVPN protocol
Access Server is OpenVPN, Inc.'s commercial, self-hosted product built on the open-source OpenVPN protocol, distinct from the free Community Edition, and it remains the most traditional entry in this ranking: a company stands up its own server and every connecting device joins that network.
- Pricing: Usage-based. Free for up to 2 simultaneous connections, permanent, no credit card. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Teams wanting full control of their own VPN server
- Strengths: Self-hosted VPN server; Site-to-site and remote access; Two-factor authentication.
Where it falls short
Being self-hosted, ongoing patching, scaling and uptime are the buyer's own responsibility rather than a vendor's, a real and ongoing operational cost that a managed product like Tailscale or Twingate absorbs into its subscription.
Wrong for
A company without spare engineering capacity to run and patch its own server, or one specifically wanting per-resource ZTNA access rather than full network access, should choose a managed product instead.
Visit OpenVPN Access Server →
#8 Cloudflare Zero Trust
Zero trust access on Cloudflare's global network · United States · cloudflare.com
Global edge network Genuine free tier Bundled SASE platform
Cloudflare Zero Trust, formerly Cloudflare for Teams, runs access control on top of the same global edge network Cloudflare uses for its CDN and DNS products, which is a real performance advantage for a distributed team connecting from many locations.
- Pricing: Per user / month. A published free plan is available to start a proof of concept. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Companies already using Cloudflare for other services
- Strengths: Cloudflare One Client (formerly WARP); Zero trust network access; Secure web gateway.
Where it falls short
It is sold as part of a broader platform bundling web gateway, browser isolation and data-loss prevention, which is more than a small company purchasing only remote access typically needs, and buying it standalone is a less common, less well-supported path than adopting the fuller bundle.
Wrong for
A small team wanting only simple point-to-point access without a broader security platform attached may find Tailscale or Twingate a more focused, easier-to-price fit.
Visit Cloudflare Zero Trust →
#9 Zscaler Private Access
Enterprise ZTNA inside the Zero Trust Exchange · United States · zscaler.com
Original enterprise ZTNA vendor Zero Trust Exchange platform Publicly traded (NASDAQ: ZS)
Zscaler Private Access was one of the first products to popularize zero trust network access at enterprise scale, and it remains part of the broader Zero Trust Exchange platform that many large security teams have already standardized on for web and private app access together.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only enterprise pricing; no published self-serve tiers or per-user rates. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Large enterprises with a formal security procurement process
- Strengths: Zero trust network access; App segmentation; Workload-to-workload security.
Where it falls short
There is no self-serve signup and no published pricing anywhere, so evaluating it always means a formal sales process, and its interface and deployment model assume a dedicated network security team rather than a generalist IT admin.
Wrong for
A company without a dedicated security team, or one under a few hundred employees, will find the procurement process and platform complexity a poor match.
Visit Zscaler Private Access →
#10 Check Point SASE Platform
Formerly Perimeter 81, now Check Point's SASE line · Israel · checkpoint.com
Formerly Perimeter 81 Renamed twice since 2023 Bundled with Check Point security suite
This product started as Perimeter 81, an SMB-friendly ZTNA startup that reached unicorn status in June 2022, before Check Point Software Technologies acquired it in August 2023 for roughly $490 million and renamed it Harmony SASE.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only; Internet Access, Private Access (ZTNA) and SaaS Security are sold as a bundled platform without a published self-serve rate card. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Companies wanting Check Point's broader security suite
- Strengths: Zero trust network access; Secure web gateway; SaaS security posture.
Where it falls short
Two renames in three years make researching the product's own history and older reviews confusing, and pricing is entirely quote-only.
Wrong for
A small company specifically wanting the simpler, faster-to-deploy startup product Perimeter 81 originally was should look at Tailscale or Twingate instead.
Visit Check Point SASE Platform →
#11 Cisco Secure Access
Cisco's cloud-native access platform, plus legacy AnyConnect · United States · cisco.com
Cisco-standardized enterprises Cloud-native SSE/ZTNA Legacy AnyConnect still supported
Cisco Secure Access is the company's cloud-native SSE platform, and it covers both models in this category at once: ZTNA for apps that support it and VPN as a Service for the ones that do not.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only enterprise pricing; no published self-serve tiers. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Enterprises already standardized on Cisco networking
- Strengths: Zero trust network access; Secure web gateway; VPN as a Service (VPNaaS).
Where it falls short
There is no published pricing and no self-serve trial, matching the sales-led enterprise model typical of Cisco's security portfolio, and evaluating either product line means an existing or new Cisco sales relationship.
Wrong for
A company with no existing Cisco networking investment gains little from choosing Cisco specifically over a faster-to-deploy, self-serve alternative like Tailscale or Twingate.
Visit Cisco Secure Access →
#12 Netskope One Private Access
Universal ZTNA, recently listed on Nasdaq · United States · netskope.com
IPO'd September 2025 (NASDAQ: NTSK) Universal ZTNA Part of Netskope One SSE platform
Netskope One Private Access is described by the company as a universal ZTNA solution, sold as part of the broader Netskope One security service edge platform rather than as a standalone point product.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only enterprise pricing; no published self-serve tiers. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Large enterprises wanting a newly public vendor
- Strengths: Zero trust network access; App-level access segmentation; Cloud and web security integration.
Where it falls short
Pricing is entirely quote-only, and the product is sold as one module of a larger platform rather than something a small company can adopt in isolation easily.
Wrong for
A company not already evaluating a broader SSE or SASE platform purchase gets little from Netskope specifically over a lighter, self-serve ZTNA product like Tailscale or Twingate.
Visit Netskope One Private Access →
#13 ExpressVPN for Teams
Consumer VPN network, licensed for teams · British Virgin Islands · expressvpn.com
Consumer VPN network Owned by Kape Technologies License-based team pricing
ExpressVPN for Teams takes the company's well-known consumer VPN network, spanning servers in 113 countries, and licenses it for shared business use with centralized billing, aimed at a small team wanting simple, private shared internet access rather than fine-grained access control over specific internal systems.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Self-serve per-user pricing with a 5-license minimum: at 5-9 licenses $9.74/user/month billed monthly, $4.68 on a 12-month plan or $3.05 on a 2-year plan, falling to $6.50, $3.12 and $2.04 at 50+ licenses. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Small teams wanting simple shared VPN access
- Strengths: Shared VPN server access (113 countries); Centralized team billing; Split tunneling.
Where it falls short
Its consumer-grade server network was not purpose-built for granular access control, so it lacks the per-resource policy and audit logging that ZTNA-first products in this ranking offer natively.
Wrong for
A company needing per-application access control, device posture checks or detailed audit logs should choose Twingate or Tailscale.
Visit ExpressVPN for Teams →
