“Security that hurts performance will not scale; security that respects profit margins will.”
The remote work market pushed VPNs from a niche IT tool into a core line item on enterprise P&Ls. Right now, investors look at one simple proxy: how fast a security tool pays back in lower breach risk per employee. In that lens, five VPN providers keep surfacing in mid-market and enterprise deals: NordLayer, Perimeter 81, Cisco AnyConnect / Secure Client, Zscaler Private Access, and Tailscale. Each follows a different revenue play, a different network model, and a different tradeoff between security guarantees and productivity.
Security teams do not buy VPNs for encryption alone. They buy control, auditability, and proof that access risk goes down quarter over quarter. CFOs sign the PO when the vendor can tie those controls to measurable drops in incident tickets, shadow IT usage, and downtime. Vendors that win in this cycle are the ones that translate security features into metrics that sound like revenue protection, not just compliance coverage. The pattern is clear in current contracts: buyers want SSO, device posture, role-based access, and strong logging, but they only renew when employee complaints about “slow VPN” do not spike.
The trend is not perfectly clean yet, but the market is signaling that the old perimeter VPN model is losing ground in remote-first teams. IP-based firewalls and shared credentials do not map well to employees working from home networks, co-working spaces, or public Wi-Fi. At the same time, full zero trust platforms are still expensive and hard to roll out across legacy systems. So IT leaders sit in the middle. They need a VPN that feels modern enough for cloud access and SaaS-heavy workflows, but that can still talk to on-prem AD, old ERPs, and internal file shares without a messy rewrite.
“VPN spend correlates with remote headcount growth more than with company size. A 150-person fully remote startup often spends more on VPN than a 500-person hybrid company.”
From a business value angle, the question is not “What is the most secure VPN?” but “What VPN gives us the best ratio of reduced breach probability to lost employee time?” A 60-second connection delay, multiplied across hundreds of logins each day, compounds very quickly into lost hours, missed meetings, and dropped calls. For engineering-heavy teams, a VPN that adds even 20-30 ms latency to every request can slow deploy pipelines and CI jobs. For sales teams, any friction during demos or calls shows up as lower close rates. The VPN decision is a revenue decision.
Security leaders also track vendor risk. VPN vendors hold keys to network access. A vendor breach can become your breach. This turns vendor architecture and jurisdiction into serious buying factors. Where are the servers hosted? Who can access logs? How is key material stored? PE firms and strategic buyers ask these questions in due diligence. Startups planning an exit or a funding round worry about security questionnaires long before the term sheet, and VPN posture is part of that picture.
“Roughly 70% of mid-market security questionnaires now include at least one direct VPN or secure remote access question.”
Against that backdrop, the “top 5” is not about brand recall alone. It is about how each provider supports remote-first work while preserving security posture and keeping per-seat costs tied to real revenue outcomes. NordLayer and Perimeter 81 go hard at the modern SMB and mid-market remote team, with easier rollouts and clean dashboards. Cisco keeps its hold in larger enterprises that live inside its network stack. Zscaler offers a private access model that mirrors the way SaaS works. Tailscale pushes a peer-to-peer mesh model that appeals strongly to engineering groups and smaller, highly technical teams.
The rest of this piece breaks down those five, but the thread stays the same: Where does each one fit in a remote team security strategy, and what is the actual business payoff?
Why VPN Choice Became a Revenue Question
The last big VPN refresh cycle was about compliance: SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA. Companies deployed VPNs to show auditors that internal apps sat behind an access control layer. That spend felt like a security tax. Remote work changed that. Now, VPN setups dictate whether employees can reach systems reliably from anywhere. If the VPN is down, support tickets spike, SLAs slip, and NPS suffers.
Investors now read incident postmortems. They connect downtime to churn. A security posture that keeps people out of systems during a breach is good, but a posture that keeps the right people out of systems during a normal workday is revenue drag. Remote teams expose this gap faster. A sales rep joining a demo late because of VPN login issues hurts revenue more than a slightly more complex access rule improves security.
Enterprise buyers look at three broad buckets when they evaluate VPNs for remote teams:
1. Access control model: Does it support identity-based access, device checks, and granular segmentation, or is it just a big, flat tunnel?
2. Performance footprint: How much latency and overhead does the client add under real-world home and mobile networks?
3. Operational overhead: How hard is it for IT to roll out, maintain, and audit across geos, devices, and contractors?
Vendors that can tell a clear story in all three buckets tend to win multi-year deals. Those that only talk about encryption or raw server count often stall at pilot stage.
Top 5 Enterprise VPNs For Remote Teams
1. NordLayer: NordVPN’s Business Arm
NordLayer grew out of consumer VPN roots, but the product strategy is different. The company leans on brand recognition for security and privacy, then adds features that speak to IT leaders: network segmentation, SSO, user and group controls, and audit logs.
For remote teams, NordLayer positions itself as “secure access as a service” without forcing a full zero trust platform shift. You get fixed IPs, private gateways, and site-to-site connections. The architecture sits well in hybrid environments where some apps live in AWS or Azure and others still sit behind a physical firewall.
From a business perspective, NordLayer competes on three levers:
– Faster procurement because buyers know the brand.
– Straight pricing tiers that map cleanly to headcount.
– A client that end users recognize, which reduces training time.
“VPN products with a known consumer brand see shorter sales cycles in SMB and lower mid-market segments.”
NordLayer Pricing Model
Pricing shifts over time, but the rough structure stays stable: per-user, per-month tiers with extra cost for dedicated servers and site-to-site.
| Plan | Target Team Size | Approx. Monthly Price (per user) | Key Extras |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic / Starter | 10-50 users | $8-$10 | Shared gateways, SSO, user management |
| Advanced | 50-250 users | $11-$14 | Dedicated servers, private gateways, site-to-site |
| Enterprise | 250+ users | Custom | Priority support, custom features, SLAs |
For a 200-person remote company, that puts VPN spend in the mid five figures annually. Security leaders justify that spend by comparing it with the expected cost of even a minor access breach or compliance failure. When the VPN centralizes access to internal tools, the company can retire some homegrown access scripts or legacy jump hosts, which saves engineering time.
Where NordLayer Fits
– Remote-first SaaS companies with a mix of internal tools, cloud resources, and third-party SaaS.
– Startups moving from unmanaged single-account VPNs toward a serious access control stack.
– Companies that want a quick win during SOC 2 or ISO prep while they shape a wider zero trust plan.
From a risk view, NordLayer still uses a fairly classic gateway model under the hood. The business value comes from making that model easier to manage and easier to audit, not from rewriting the network story.
2. Perimeter 81: VPN Plus Network-as-a-Service
Perimeter 81 pitches itself at companies that want VPN, zero trust network access, and some SD-WAN like features in one package. The tool wraps remote access, network segmentation, DNS security, and web filtering into a cloud admin panel. For growing remote teams, that bundling turns what would be three or four vendors into one contract.
Investors like this model because expansion revenue is baked in. A company might start with basic VPN seats, then add private gateways, dynamic firewall rules, and device posture checks as security maturity grows. This aligns vendor revenue with the customer’s own security roadmap.
Perimeter 81 focuses on:
– Network visibility: mapping which users connect to which resources and from where.
– Policy-based access: tying access to user roles, groups, and device posture.
– Replacement of legacy hardware: substituting hardware VPN appliances with cloud-managed gateways.
Perimeter 81 Pricing Snapshot
Numbers move over time, but the pricing pattern looks like this:
| Plan | Approx. Monthly Price (per user) | Network Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $8-$10 | Basic VPN, SSO, shared gateways | Smaller remote teams |
| Premium | $12-$15 | Private gateways, device posture, network visibility | Mid-market remote-first companies |
| Enterprise | Custom | Advanced segmentation, SIEM integration, 24/7 support | Regulated or high-compliance orgs |
The revenue story here is about consolidation. One vendor secures remote access to AWS, Azure, GCP, on-prem data centers, and SaaS apps. That lets IT reduce spend on discrete hardware firewalls and older VPN appliances that do not fit a remote-first world.
Where Perimeter 81 Fits
– Fast-growing companies that need to replace on-prem firewalls and VPN boxes without hiring a big network team.
– Distributed teams that want clear visual maps of access relationships.
– Organizations that want to move toward zero trust but still need a classic VPN on-ramp for some legacy tools.
The tradeoff: this centralization puts a lot of trust into a single vendor. For some risk committees, that is acceptable if the vendor passes a deep security review. For others, it pushes them toward more modular stacks.
3. Cisco AnyConnect / Secure Client: The Incumbent
Cisco has sat in the enterprise VPN seat for a long time. AnyConnect, now bundled into Cisco Secure Client, grew up in a world of office networks, hardware firewalls, and on-prem directories. For large companies running Cisco gear across data centers, this stack feels natural.
The financial driver is clear: Cisco often sells VPN as part of a wider bundle that includes routers, switches, firewalls, and security subscriptions. For a CIO already locked into Cisco contracts, adding AnyConnect is a low-friction choice that keeps vendor count down.
From a remote team angle, AnyConnect shines where:
– There is heavy legacy infrastructure only reachable through site-to-site tunnels and Cisco firewalls.
– The company runs strict network segmentation at the IP level.
– VPN is only one piece of a wider Cisco security deployment.
Cisco Licensing Model
Cisco tends to license through:
– Per-user or per-device VPN licenses, often annual.
– Hardware appliances or virtual appliances for headends.
– Separate support contracts.
Comparing pricing directly with NordLayer or Perimeter 81 is tricky because Cisco deals are often wrapped into larger, negotiated bundles.
| Factor | Cisco AnyConnect / Secure Client | Modern Cloud VPN (e.g., NordLayer) |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Tied to Cisco ASA/Firepower or Secure Firewall devices | Hosted gateways, no hardware required |
| Billing | Enterprise agreements, term licenses | Monthly or annual per-user SaaS |
| Fit for remote-only startups | Lower, unless legacy infra forces it | Higher, fast rollout, minimal hardware |
For remote teams in older enterprises, AnyConnect remains the default. For newer remote-native companies, it rarely makes the shortlist unless there is a clear Cisco footprint already in place.
Where Cisco Fits
– Large enterprises with Cisco firewalls, SD-WAN, and established network teams.
– Organizations that treat remote access as an extension of a strict on-prem network, not as a greenfield design.
– Teams where VPN is only used for a few internal legacy systems and most SaaS tools sit outside VPN.
The business value case leans on sunk cost and familiarity rather than on fresh product-led growth.
4. Zscaler Private Access (ZPA): VPN Without Classic VPN
Zscaler Private Access does not market itself as a VPN in the traditional sense. It presents itself as a zero trust access layer: apps are never “on the network;” users get per-app connections based on identity and context.
Remote teams that adopt ZPA think less in terms of “always-on VPN” and more in terms of per-app access policies:
– A finance user connects only to financial systems, not engineering tools.
– A contractor reaches a single internal API, not the whole subnet.
– Developers reach staging but not production without explicit approval.
From a revenue lens, ZPA’s pitch focuses on lower breach blast radius and simplified audit. If a token is stolen, the attacker sees only a few apps, not an entire network segment. For regulated firms or those holding sensitive data, that risk reduction can matter more than VPN comfort.
“Zero trust access tools see higher adoption in companies that have faced at least one public security incident in the past five years.”
ZPA Pricing and Positioning
Pricing data is not as straightforward, as Zscaler targets mid to large enterprises with custom quotes. Yet the pattern stays similar:
| Plan Tier | Approx. Target Segment | Key Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Business | Upper mid-market | Core ZPA, SSO, app segmentation |
| Enterprise | Large enterprise | Advanced policies, DLP, SIEM integration |
| Custom bundles | Global orgs | Combined ZIA (Internet Access) + ZPA packages |
ZPA is usually part of a larger network security overhaul. That means the sales cycle is longer, but contract values are also much larger. For a remote team inside a big company, ZPA can dramatically reduce the number of VPN-related tickets, because many workflows stop relying on a manual “connect VPN first” step.
Where ZPA Fits
– Enterprises on a long-term zero trust roadmap.
– Remote teams inside regulated sectors: finance, healthcare, government.
– Organizations that have already invested in Zscaler Internet Access and want one vendor for both outbound and private access.
ZPA is not usually the first VPN choice for a 100-person startup, but it comes into play as those startups grow into 1,000-person companies with more risk on the table.
5. Tailscale: Mesh VPN For Developer-Heavy Teams
Tailscale approaches VPN differently. Instead of routing all traffic through central gateways, it builds a peer-to-peer mesh based on the WireGuard protocol. Devices connect directly to each other over encrypted tunnels, authenticated with identity providers like Google Workspace, Okta, or Microsoft Entra ID.
For remote teams with strong engineering culture, this model can be appealing:
– Lower latency for internal service-to-service traffic.
– No central choke point that can fail and block everyone.
– Simple config files that feel natural for DevOps and SRE teams.
From a business value side, Tailscale reduces overhead when teams need to connect many services across clouds and home labs. Engineers can expose a dev environment from their laptop to a teammate without punching firewall holes or configuring a central VPN.
Tailscale Pricing Overview
Tailscale focuses on seat-based and node-based pricing.
| Plan | Approx. Monthly Price (per user) | Notable Limits / Features | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Low user count, basic ACLs | Small teams, side projects |
| Standard | $5-$6 | SSO, ACLs, audit logging | SMBs, engineering teams |
| Enterprise | Custom | SAML, device posture, advanced policy | Larger orgs, security-heavy setups |
ROI often shows up as fewer support tickets and faster internal collaboration. New hires can get access through identity-based rules rather than static VPN credentials. That lowers misconfigurations and admin overhead.
Where Tailscale Fits
– Developer-heavy companies that want a friction-light way to connect dev, staging, and internal tools.
– Remote teams with resources scattered across cloud accounts and home or small office environments.
– Startups that want modern cryptography and identity-based routing without building a big gateway setup.
The main tradeoff for some enterprises is that Tailscale does not perfectly map onto old firewall and network diagrams. That requires a mindset shift in security review meetings.
Comparing The Top 5 For Remote Teams
From a remote work ROI angle, these VPNs fall into a few clear categories.
Business Focus vs Technical Depth
| Vendor | Main Buyer Persona | Remote Work Strength | Key ROI Lever |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordLayer | IT leads at SMB / mid-market | Fast rollout, familiar brand | Lower friction during security and compliance ramp |
| Perimeter 81 | CISOs and IT managers replacing hardware | Central SaaS panel for network and access | Vendor consolidation, fewer boxes and tools |
| Cisco AnyConnect | Network teams in legacy-heavy enterprises | Deep tie-in to Cisco stack | Use of existing Cisco investment |
| Zscaler Private Access | Security leaders on zero trust journeys | Per-app, identity-based access | Lower breach blast radius, clean audit story |
| Tailscale | DevOps / engineering leadership | Mesh networking, low-latency peer access | Fewer network tickets, faster engineering workflows |
The decision point for a remote CTO or CISO is not which vendor has the most protocols or the longest feature list. It is which model matches their architecture and org chart.
– If the company is mostly SaaS and cloud native, NordLayer, Perimeter 81, or Tailscale usually fit.
– If the company still has heavy on-prem with Cisco, AnyConnect is still a contender.
– If the company is on a deliberate zero trust track with budget to match, ZPA rises toward the top.
Performance And Employee Experience
Employee tolerance for VPN issues has dropped. Remote workers compare their personal streaming experience at home with the friction they feel when logging into a corporate VPN. If Netflix runs in 4K but Git or Slack choke over VPN, frustration goes straight to the security team.
From case studies and public reviews, a rough pattern appears:
– Tailscale and WireGuard-based tools often show lower latency and faster handshakes.
– NordLayer and Perimeter 81 work to keep client UX simple, leaning on consumer VPN UX patterns.
– Cisco AnyConnect is stable but sometimes slower to adapt to home-network quirks, especially when tuned for corporate offices.
– ZPA’s per-app model can reduce overhead, but adds complexity in policy definition; once tuned, it removes the “full-tunnel slowdown” effect for many apps.
That user experience matters for ROI. Fewer complaints mean fewer tickets, less IT time lost, and less temptation for employees to bypass controls with unsanctioned tools.
Enterprise Security Controls That Matter Most
When remote teams evaluate VPNs now, the question set is tighter and more grounded in revenue and compliance risk.
Identity And Access Management Integration
SSO and identity provider integration are base-level requirements for serious buyers. VPN accounts need to follow user lifecycles automatically. When HR offboards someone, that needs to cut access everywhere, including VPN.
VPNs that integrate cleanly with Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, and similar tools save hours during audits and mergers. Role changes propagate into VPN groups without manual edits.
From a business view, this lowers the chance of a dormant but active account that can be abused during a breach.
Device Posture And Conditional Access
Remote teams run on a mix of corporate and BYOD devices. That raises risk. Some VPNs add posture checks:
– Is the OS up to date?
– Is disk encryption enabled?
– Is an approved antivirus tool running?
Vendors like Perimeter 81, Zscaler, and Tailscale (at the higher tiers) lean on this as a differentiator. NordLayer has been moving in this direction as well. Cisco handles posture through its wider endpoint tools.
The ROI here comes from fewer incidents where a compromised or stolen laptop opens the door to the whole network.
Logging, Auditing, And Reporting
Security teams live in logs. When a phishing incident hits, they need to answer questions fast:
– Who connected from which IP?
– What resource did they reach?
– How long were they connected?
VPNs that expose clean, structured logs that flow into SIEMs earn trust faster. This is also where enterprises look hard at vendor regions, data handling practices, and retention policies. A privacy-conscious customer base will ask whether their traffic is inspected or just routed.
Cost, Contracts, And Negotiation Dynamics
VPN contracts often sit in a price band that seems low compared with, say, CRM or cloud spend. Yet their influence on risk and employee satisfaction is large. Budget-conscious buyers look at three types of cost:
1. Direct per-seat price. Scales with headcount.
2. Infrastructure or hardware cost. More relevant for Cisco-style deployments.
3. Indirect operational cost. IT and security the team spends keeping the VPN working.
Vendors try to reduce perceived indirect cost during the sale, with dashboard demos, automation stories, and testimonials. Buyers that model IT hours honestly often find that a slightly higher per-seat price is worth it if it cuts manual config time and reduces incidents.
For remote teams, contract terms around support and incident response also matter. A VPN outage hits every region at once. Vendors that commit to tight SLAs and 24/7 support often win in distributed orgs that cross time zones.
Choosing The “Top” VPN For Your Remote Team
No single VPN in this list wins every scenario. The choice shapes how your security team thinks about network access for years, so it needs to map to where your company is going, not just where it is now.
From a growth and funding angle, investors look for:
– A coherent remote security strategy, not a patchwork of tools.
– Evidence that access controls support hiring in new regions without chaos.
– A vendor stack that will survive an audit during M&A or late-stage funding.
If your team is:
– Under 300 people, fully remote, mostly SaaS and cloud native: NordLayer, Perimeter 81, or Tailscale often strike the right balance between control and ease.
– Embedded in a large legacy company with Cisco gear everywhere: Cisco AnyConnect remains practical.
– In a regulated, larger environment with strong security funding: Zscaler Private Access can be a move toward a more modern access story.
The market is still shifting. Newer vendors are trying to pull more security functions into their VPN products. Older vendors are refitting existing stacks to appeal to remote-first teams. The trend is not fully settled, but one thing is clear: VPN spend is no longer just a checkbox for auditors. It is a direct lever on how remote teams work, how fast they ship, and how safely they handle customer data.