Small businesses need VPN for remote access to office resources and secure browsing on public networks. Tailscale is the simplest option: deploy in minutes with no server infrastructure. NordLayer and Proton VPN Business provide managed VPN with team management features. For on-premises VPN, a firewall with built-in VPN (Meraki, Fortinet) is often the simplest approach.
8 of 15 products in this category match the small business filter and are highlighted below.
Usage-based pricing · Cloud · Free trial
Built on Cloudflare's global edge network, Cloudflare One pulls Zero Trust access, CASB, DLP and gateway functions into one usage-based platform. The breadth of capability at accessible price points keeps it competitive with SMB and enterprise buyers alike. A functional free tier changes the entry path. Many teams start there and expand once their requirements get clearer.
Per-user · Cloud · Free trial
Secure remote access with no network infrastructure of its own to sit on is the case NordLayer addresses, pairing a business VPN with Zero Trust network access under the Nord Security name. Per-user pricing and a short path to first deployment make it a practical replacement for basic consumer VPN setups that were never meant to be supported at SMB or mid-market scale.
Per-user · Cloud / On-prem · Free trial
Running on hardware or cloud accounts the team already controls, OpenVPN Access Server keeps complete control of VPN endpoint data in house rather than at a hosted provider. Above the free two-user tier, licensing is per user. Client devices connect over the OpenVPN protocol, which most of them support natively with no extra software installed.
Per-user · Cloud · Free trial
OpenVPN CloudConnexa is the managed cloud service built on the OpenVPN protocol, simplifies deployment for teams that want OpenVPN reliability without self-hosting, but pricing per connection can exceed alternatives.
Best for: Organizations that trust the OpenVPN protocol and want managed cloud deployment without the infrastructure overhead of self-hosted OpenVPN Access Server.
Per-user · Cloud · Free trial
Now part of Check Point, Perimeter 81 delivers remote access from the cloud at per-user pricing, with automatic Wi-Fi security and split tunneling handled on the user's behalf. Its usual role is transitional: a step for teams leaving appliance-based perimeter security that are not yet ready to commit to a full SASE platform.
Per-user · Cloud · Free trial
Proton VPN Business is the privacy-first business VPN (Swiss jurisdiction, no-logs policy verified by audit, and open-source clients) strongest for organizations where privacy is a non-negotiable requirement.
Best for: Privacy-conscious organizations, journalism teams, and businesses operating in jurisdictions with surveillance concerns that need a verified no-logs VPN with Swiss legal protections.
Per-user · Cloud · Free trial
Authentication comes from existing identity providers and the mesh itself runs on WireGuard, so no network configuration expertise is needed to stand it up. Most teams are operational in under an hour, a genuinely different setup experience from traditional VPN. Engineering teams hitting friction with OpenVPN or Cisco alternatives are the usual arrivals, licensed per user.
Open source · Cloud / On-prem · Free trial
WireGuard is a protocol first and a product second. The codebase is deliberately minimal, performance is high, and configuration is far less involved than IPsec or OpenVPN demand. Most teams encounter it indirectly, through a managed service such as Tailscale or an appliance that uses WireGuard as its transport, instead of running the implementation themselves.
The rest of the VPN tools category, listed because the small business filter above did not select them. Worth reading when the highlighted options do not fit.
Usage-based pricing · Cloud · Free trial
AWS Client VPN provides managed OpenVPN-based remote access to AWS VPCs, the natural choice for AWS-native architectures, but per-connection hourly pricing makes it expensive at scale.
Custom quote · Cloud
Cato delivers SD-WAN, firewall, CASB and ZTNA from a single cloud fabric, which means the platform displaces several things at once. Buyers are usually retiring MPLS circuits, firewall appliances and VPN infrastructure in the same project. This is not an addition to an existing stack. That shapes the commercial side, because the numbers only work when network and security budgets are reviewed together.
Custom quote · Cloud / On-prem
Remote access here is rarely a standalone purchase. The client tends to come attached to the network estate, in organizations already running Cisco firewalls and ASA appliances. The license conversation happens with the rest of the infrastructure, not separately from it. Buyers shopping specifically for remote access in isolation generally find cloud-delivered alternatives cheaper per seat.
Custom quote · Cloud · Free trial
Meraki keeps network devices under one cloud dashboard, with licensing attached to the hardware itself. Network administrators get centralized visibility and policy control and skip running management infrastructure on site. Cost is the trade-off: hardware and subscription bundling pushes total cost of ownership above comparable functionality assembled from separately licensed vendor components.
Custom quote · Cloud / On-prem
Existing Fortinet security infrastructure is the context this makes sense in: the SD-WAN functions run on FortiGate next-gen firewalls, and there is no extra box to deploy or manage. Evaluated as a standalone SD-WAN platform, the full FortiGate licensing model belongs in the total cost analysis from the start, well before the WAN design is settled.
Custom quote · Cloud
Part of Palo Alto's SASE portfolio, this SD-WAN platform is bought with its security controls instead of in front of them. The organizations evaluating it are usually retiring MPLS circuits and several security appliances at once, not adding one capability to an otherwise settled network. At that scale procurement is vendor-led and the quote follows the design.
Custom quote · Cloud
Identity and context decide access, application by application, so users never get a route to a full network segment the way legacy VPN hands them one. Delivery runs from Zscaler's global cloud infrastructure under a custom quote. Enterprise organizations retiring older remote access infrastructure typically evaluate it next to Cloudflare One and Palo Alto Prisma Access.
Tailscale deploys in minutes with no server: users install the client, authenticate with SSO, and connect. NordLayer ($8/user/month) provides managed VPN with a web dashboard. Both are simpler than configuring OpenVPN or IPsec on a firewall.
If employees access on-premises resources (file servers, internal apps) remotely, yes. If everything is cloud-based (Google Workspace, SaaS tools), VPN may be unnecessary: zero-trust access (Tailscale, Cloudflare Access) provides per-app access without full network VPN.
Tailscale is free for up to 100 devices. NordLayer starts at $8/user/month. Proton VPN Business is approximately $8/user/month. Firewall-based VPN (Meraki, Fortinet) has no per-user cost but requires hardware. For 10-50 users, expect $80-$400/month.
