There is a moment that happens for almost everyone who works remotely. You are in an airport, or a hotel lobby, or a coffee shop, and you need to get something done. You open your laptop, connect to the free WiFi without thinking twice, and get to work. Login to email. Open the project management tool. Maybe check the company bank account. Normal workday stuff. What you probably did not think about is that everyone else on that network, the person two tables over, the guy in the corner, whoever is running the network itself, potentially has the ability to see the traffic coming from your device. Not definitely. Not easily in every case. But the possibility is real, and for certain types of data, the risk is significant.
A VPN eliminates that possibility. It is not a complicated concept. It creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server operated by the VPN provider. All your traffic goes through that tunnel before it reaches the wider internet. Anyone watching the local network sees encrypted noise that is meaningless without the key to decode it. For remote workers who connect from anywhere, this is basic protection that should not be optional.
What A VPN Actually Does And Does Not Do
Before getting into specific tools, it is worth being clear about what a VPN actually protects against, because there is a lot of overblown marketing in this space.
A VPN protects your traffic from being intercepted on the local network you are connected to. This is genuinely valuable when you are on public WiFi. It also hides your real IP address from the websites and services you visit, which has some privacy value. And it encrypts the connection between your device and the VPN server, so your internet provider cannot see what you are doing either.
What a VPN does not do is make you anonymous on the internet, protect you from malware you download, or prevent phishing attacks from working. It is one layer of protection, an important one, not a complete solution on its own. With that framing in place, here is what to look for when choosing one for your team.
What Matters When Choosing a Business VPN
A verified no-logs policy means the provider does not store records of what you do while connected. This matters because a provider that keeps logs is a provider that could have those logs subpoenaed, stolen, or sold. Look for providers that have had their no-logs claims independently audited, not just ones that state the policy in their marketing material. A kill switch cuts your internet connection if the VPN drops unexpectedly, rather than letting your traffic continue unprotected over the local network. This should be standard and enabled by default.
Speed matters in practice. Some VPNs slow connections significantly, which is tolerable for casual browsing but genuinely disruptive for video calls, large file transfers, and the kind of constant cloud-based work that remote teams do all day. Look at independent speed test results rather than trusting provider claims.
Business-specific management features, the ability to enforce VPN use across the team, see who is connected, and manage everything centrally, are what separate business VPN solutions from consumer ones adapted for team use.
NordLayer
NordLayer is NordVPN’s business-focused product and it is genuinely well-built for the small to mid-size team use case. The infrastructure is fast, the no-logs policy has been independently audited multiple times, and the management portal gives you real visibility and control over team usage.
Setup for individual team members is straightforward. The apps work well on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. The auto-connect feature, which activates the VPN automatically when connecting to an unfamiliar network, removes the burden of remembering to turn it on. For a remote team that wants reliable protection without significant IT overhead, NordLayer is a solid default. The pricing is reasonable and scales cleanly as the team grows.
ExpressVPN Business
ExpressVPN has built its reputation primarily on speed and has maintained that advantage over years of independent testing. For teams that do a lot of video conferencing, large file uploads, and cloud-based collaboration, speed is not a secondary concern. A VPN that adds significant latency to every call is one that people will turn off and forget about. The privacy track record is also worth mentioning. When Turkish authorities seized ExpressVPN servers during an investigation several years ago, there was genuinely no useful data to recover. That real-world test, not a controlled audit but an actual law enforcement encounter, demonstrated that the no-logs policy is architecturally real, not just a policy statement.
ExpressVPN costs more than some alternatives and the business management features are less sophisticated than dedicated business solutions. But for teams where speed and proven privacy are the priorities, it earns its price.
Perimeter 81
Perimeter 81 is built specifically for businesses rather than adapted from a consumer product, and that fundamental difference shows throughout the platform.
The feature that remote teams find most practically useful is per-app tunneling. Rather than routing all traffic through the VPN, you can configure it to only send work-related applications through the encrypted tunnel while personal browsing goes directly to the internet. For freelancers and contractors who use the same device for work and personal use, this reduces the friction of keeping the VPN active all day while still protecting the connections that actually matter.
The centralized management dashboard is genuinely enterprise-grade. You can see every connected device, enforce usage policies across the team, set up network segmentation, and manage everything without touching individual machines. For a business with fifteen or twenty remote employees across different locations, this visibility is meaningful. It costs more than consumer-adapted solutions and the setup requires more initial configuration. For a two-person business, it is probably more than needed. For a growing team where proper network management is becoming important, the investment is justified.
Mullvad
Mullvad is the privacy-first choice in this space and it takes that commitment further than any other provider. No email address is required to sign up. You receive a randomly generated account number. You can pay in cash or cryptocurrency. The entire architecture is designed to collect as little information about users as possible.
For most small businesses, this level of anonymity is likely more than the situation requires. But for businesses in certain industries, journalism, legal work, sensitive consulting, where data confidentiality is genuinely critical and even metadata about who you are connecting to matters, Mullvad’s design philosophy is exactly what is needed. The interface is simpler and less polished than the consumer-focused options. Pricing is a flat five euros per month per device regardless of how many you use it on, which is a refreshingly straightforward model.
Getting Your Team To Actually Use It
The gap between having a VPN and your team consistently using it is where most small businesses fall down. People forget. They are in a hurry. The VPN adds a step and the work needs to get done now. The solution is removing the decision from the equation. Every major VPN client has an option to automatically connect when an unfamiliar network is detected. Enable this for every team member. The VPN becomes active without anyone having to remember to turn it on.
For contractors and freelancers who access your systems, make VPN use a stated requirement in your working agreement. Not a suggestion. A condition of access. The conversation is slightly awkward the first time and never awkward again after that.