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A consumer VPN app on everyone’s laptop is not a business VPN. Once you have more than one or two remote employees, you need centralized user management, per-employee access controls, and an admin dashboard that lets you revoke someone’s network access the moment they leave — none of which a personal NordVPN or ExpressVPN subscription gives you. This guide covers the tools built for that job: traditional business VPNs and the newer Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) platforms that are quietly replacing them, for teams roughly 5-250 people who need secure remote access without hiring a dedicated network engineer.
Business VPN vs. ZTNA: the distinction that actually matters
A traditional business VPN puts every connected device on the company network, the same way a personal VPN puts your laptop on a VPN server. A ZTNA platform instead grants access resource-by-resource — an employee’s device only reaches the specific app or server their role needs, not the whole network. Most of the products below (NordLayer, Twingate, Check Point Harmony SASE) now sell some flavor of ZTNA alongside or instead of classic VPN, because the security case for it is stronger: a compromised laptop can’t move laterally across everything the company runs.
NordLayer: the manageable default for most small teams
NordLayer, NordVPN’s business product, is the closest thing to a “just works” pick for a small business without in-house IT. It runs on NordLynx (Nord’s WireGuard-based protocol), sells three tiers — Lite, Core, and Premium — and published pricing across sources runs roughly $7-11 per user, per month on annual billing (higher on month-to-month), so get a live quote rather than trusting last month’s number. Core adds biometric login, auto-connect, and site-to-site connectivity; Premium layers in network segmentation, API access, DNS filtering, and third-party SSO. The catch worth knowing before you sign up: every plan has a 5-user minimum, so a solo founder or a 3-person team still pays for 5 seats. You get 6 devices per license and a 14-day money-back window to test it.
Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81): the widest all-in-one stack
If you’ve read an older “best business VPN” roundup naming Perimeter 81, know that the product has been rebranded — Check Point acquired Perimeter 81 in late 2023 and now sells it as Check Point Harmony SASE. It’s the most feature-dense option here: VPN, ZTNA, a cloud firewall, a secure web gateway, and DNS filtering under one unified policy dashboard, which is why it earned “best business VPN” callouts from outlets like Tom’s Guide even before the rename. Published pricing for the newer SASE tiers is less consistently public than NordLayer’s or Twingate’s, so budget for a sales quote. It’s the strongest pick for a growing company that wants one platform instead of stitching together a VPN, a firewall, and a web filter separately — and the Check Point backing means more enterprise-grade compliance credentials than a VPN-only competitor.
Twingate: identity-first access control for SaaS-heavy teams
Twingate skips the “everyone on one network” model entirely in favor of identity-aware, resource-level ZTNA — access is scoped to specific apps and revoked instantly when someone’s role (or employment) changes, with device posture checks and DNS filtering layered on top. Published pricing starts around $10 per user, per month for its business tier, with a free tier for very small setups and custom enterprise pricing above that. It’s the pick for security-led teams running mostly SaaS and internal web apps who want tightly scoped, auditable access rather than a flat network connection — reviewers generally rate it ahead of NordLayer and Perimeter 81/Harmony SASE on support responsiveness and pricing transparency, if behind Tailscale on raw feature depth.
Tailscale: the technical team’s pick
Tailscale takes a genuinely different architecture from the other three: instead of routing traffic through a central gateway, it builds a peer-to-peer WireGuard mesh directly between devices, using Tailscale’s servers only for coordination. That makes it fast and simple to reason about for a DevOps-heavy team already comfortable with WireGuard concepts, and it has a real free tier for very small teams. Paid pricing runs from roughly $8 up to $18 per user, per month depending on tier — for context, a 50-person team lands around $300/month on Tailscale’s Business plan per published estimates. It’s less of a fit for a non-technical small business that wants a vendor-managed dashboard and phone support; it’s a strong fit for a startup or engineering team that wants to replace a clunky legacy VPN without a heavy admin layer.
Comparison table
| Provider | Starting price | Seat minimum | Architecture | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordLayer | ~$7-11/user/mo (annual) | 5 users | Gateway VPN + ZTNA | Non-technical small teams wanting a managed default |
| Check Point Harmony SASE (ex-Perimeter 81) | Custom quote | None published | Full SASE (VPN+ZTNA+firewall+SWG) | Growing companies wanting one all-in-one platform |
| Twingate | ~$10/user/mo | None (free tier available) | Identity-aware ZTNA | SaaS-heavy teams needing scoped, auditable access |
| Tailscale | Free – ~$18/user/mo | None (free tier available) | Peer-to-peer WireGuard mesh | Technical/DevOps teams wanting a lightweight setup |
Every price above shifts with promotions and plan length — confirm the current rate on each vendor’s site before committing.
Honest downsides worth knowing
- NordLayer’s 5-seat minimum means it’s genuinely not the cheapest option for a 1-3 person outfit, even though its per-seat rate looks competitive on paper.
- Check Point Harmony SASE’s pricing is the least transparent of the four — expect a sales call, not a self-serve checkout, and budget extra evaluation time for that.
- Twingate and Tailscale both assume someone on the team is comfortable configuring access policies; neither hands you the phone-support hand-holding a legacy VPN vendor might.
- Tailscale’s mesh model means there’s no traditional “VPN server” to point at — if your team expects a familiar connect-to-a-server VPN experience, the mental model takes a moment to adjust to.
- None of these four are a substitute for a proper firewall/EDR stack on top — a business VPN or ZTNA tool secures the connection, not the endpoint itself.
Verdict: pick by team shape
A small business with no in-house IT and a straightforward “let remote staff reach the office network securely” need should start with NordLayer — it’s the most turnkey of the four, even with the 5-seat minimum. A company already juggling a firewall, a web filter, and a VPN separately should look at Check Point Harmony SASE to consolidate onto one platform. A SaaS-first team that cares most about tightly scoped, auditable per-app access should evaluate Twingate. And a technical team — especially one already comfortable with WireGuard — will likely prefer Tailscale’s lighter-weight mesh model over any of the gateway-based options.
FAQ
Can I just use a personal VPN subscription for my small business?
For one or two people working remotely occasionally, a personal VPN plan technically works. Once you have a team, you lose the centralized user management, access logs, and instant-revoke-on-offboarding that a business VPN or ZTNA platform provides — which is the actual security gap that matters for a company, not raw encryption strength.
What’s the real difference between a business VPN and ZTNA?
A business VPN puts a connected device on the company network, similar to how a personal VPN puts you on a VPN server. ZTNA grants access one resource at a time based on identity and device posture, so a compromised device can’t reach anything beyond what that specific user is authorized for.
Is there a minimum team size these products make sense for?
NordLayer enforces a hard 5-seat minimum regardless of actual headcount. Twingate and Tailscale both offer usable free tiers for very small teams, making them the more natural starting point below 5 people.
Do I still need a separate firewall or antivirus if I have a business VPN?
Yes — a business VPN or ZTNA platform secures the network connection between a device and your company’s resources; it doesn’t replace endpoint protection (antivirus/EDR) on the devices themselves or a firewall at your network edge.
Editor’s pick: read our full NordVPN Review 2026 for the complete breakdown of NordVPN’s consumer app, which underpins its NordLayer business product.
Sources consulted: CEO Views – Top 9 Best Business VPN Solutions for Remote Teams & Small Offices, Twingate – Perimeter 81 vs Tailscale: Which one is better for your business?, CostBench – NordLayer Pricing 2026: 4 Plans from $7-$14/month, Security.org – NordLayer Review and Pricing Guide in 2026, PeerSpot – Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81): Pros and Cons 2026, and PeerSpot – Tailscale vs Twingate (2026).