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VPNs help you stay in business!

As working remotely continues to set a new working practice, business VPNs are even more in demand. In brief, a virtual private network (VPN) helps establish security through traffic encryption in a private network. Essentially, you can use this to allow remote users to connect to a businesss local network. They can even join two private networks between business sites. The end-user can then access corporate services and software as if they were onsite. Business VPNs are also useful for encrypting site-to-site traffic. These are the two powerful functions of a business VPN.

Many companies fear the uncontrolled nature of remotely connecting to an organizations network. Often, businesses demand users to use a VPN solution that works with an integrated policy control system. That way, admins can regulate access. Some companies even set up SMS or email push notifications for their business VPN to notify the administrator of a connection request.

In this article, Ill go through what a business VPN is, and what makes it different from other VPNs. Ill also talk about some of the best ones on the market as of this writing. Lets get started with what a business VPN is.

A business VPN works in the exact same way as a personal VPN. To clarify, it has two different connection methods. The first method will only encrypt your end-user data up to the VPN server. In most cases of Wi-Fi MITM attacks, this is good enough to stop the hacker. This is because MITM attacks have to occur near the Wi-Fi router, as it needs to intercept the Wi-Fi connection between the router and the user. The issue with this method is that some people fear the VPN service provider has access to unencrypted traffic at the VPN server.

To add to those fears, if the VPN server is ever compromised by cybercriminals, theyll have access to your data. For this reason, many prefer VPNs with end-point protection. This is the connection method, and in essence, it revolves around encrypting data between the end-user and the final recipient. This connection is a VPN tunnel, where your data packets arent visible until it reaches the recipient.

Now, lets have a look at some key features that you can find in VPNs. After that, well see how different a business VPN is when compared to a consumer VPN through these features.

VPNs include many features that you should consider before choosing one:

Now that you know some of the key features found in VPNs, how can you use these to compare and contrast business and consumer VPNs? Read on to find out!

In recent years, the difference between home and business VPN offerings has become smaller due to a highly competitive marketplace. To this end, you can expect to have many VPN providers that meet your needs. Heres a handy comparison table of features you can expect consumer VPNs to have compared to business VPNs, and vice versa.

Now that you know what features to look out for, lets have a look at the 5 best business VPNs out there!

Price: $7 per user per month on a one year contract

Features:

NordVPN is a robust solution for many businesses and home users. One of its advantages is the two-factor authentication feature that many administrators look for. It lets them ensure remote connections are really coming from the user stated in server transaction logs. NordVPN also has a good pricing model and site-to-site functionality.

That said, it doesnt offer a centralized administrative solution. It could be useful for SMBs where the lower number of users is easier to monitor. This puts into question the point of having site-to-site functionality when this is only useful in larger businesses where administrative VPN tools could be desirable.

In addition, the installation doesnt have automatic firewall optimization. This means you could be tinkering with firewalls and leaving holes by mistake if not fully integrated.

Price: $7 per user per month on a one year contract

Features:

One advantage of this business VPN offering is that you can use it to connect to many server locations worldwide. In turn, this reduces your likelihood of having VPN connections drop from an overused VPN server.

ExpressVPN has many useful features including a no-log policy to help hide who youre doing business with. It also supports routers and connected devices. That means all networked traffic gets encrypted. This is important for companies that use IoT devices that are normally produced to meet price points, not security. Hackers can easily gain access to an IoT device using an unencrypted Wi-Fi connection, as firmware and installation passwords are normally standardized.

Unfortunately, ExpressVPN isnt ideal for companies larger than an SMB. That said, this is a tempting VPN offering at a great price point for any small business.

Price: $3.24 (70% discount) or $10 (without discount) per user per month on a one year contract

Features:

PureVPN has a whole host of features not present in NordVPN or ExpressVPN. Its a better option in general as a business VPN. For instance, port forwarding can be useful to allow remote workers to leverage server solutions or access file archives. If you work with large media files, CAD software, or anything else that needs more power than a desktop, then this can be a cost-effective solution.

DDoS protection is also useful if you have public-facing servers that host websites. Often, you wont see this as part of a business VPN offering; the same goes for peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

It seems that PureVPN is trying to give you one integrated enterprise solution. Where PureVPN falls short, though, is site-to-site connectivity and a centralized control system. This may be a problem for anything other than SMBs that reside on a single site. If youre in a mid-sized business, this may hinder your growth. Then, youll eventually have to look for a more complete multi-site business VPN solution that offers centralized VPN administrative tools.

Another downside to PureVPN is that it doesnt have a two-factor authentication feature, which youll need as your users grow with the business.

Price: $10 per user per month

Features:

Twingate is one of the best VPNs on this list for integration purposes. It also has administrative tools that youd expect from a business VPN. The price for this solution is sensible for what it offers.

Yet, it lacks user authentication. If Twingate adds more enterprise features similar to PureVPN, then itll be an administrators dream to implement.

Price: $26.83 per user per year

Features:

KerioControl is the last on our list, but its one of the best business VPNs around. Somehow, it has managed to get the centralized administration tool right, along with automating installation and firewall capabilities.

Youre bound to like this business VPN as the risk of leaving holes in your firewall during the implementation process gets reduced. As a result, you wont have to spend all day tinkering with various settings.

KerioControl promises high availability and traffic optimization, meaning your business will likely not suffer extensive service downtime. This allows you to perform efficiently without tinkering with settings. Any drawback would be the price point for the solution, but its more than justified for what you get for your money. All in all, its a hassle-free enterprise-class VPN.

And thats the list! Those were the 5 best business VPNs available as of me writing this article. Lets have a quick recap.

To conclude, youre now knowledgeable on the 5 best business VPNs out there. Out of these, KerioControl and Twingate appear to be more intuitive to integrate into a business environment. This is mostly either due to them having an integrated firewall, or the ability to modify existing firewalls to ensure the VPN works well together.

In addition, these two, especially KerioControl, provide enterprise administrative tools that allow you to do things like changing device postures.

That said, if youre just starting out, any of the first three VPNs discussed will do just fine. Feel free to refer back to this article in the future should you need to!

Do you have any more questions about business VPNs? Check out the FAQ and Resources sections below!

A business virtual private network (VPN) works exactly the same way as a consumer VPN. However, it has additional enterprise tools, better support, and higher uptime. You can use a business VPN to connect different sites together or connect end-users working remotely. Business VPNs encrypt traffic, making it difficult for packet interception to occur between the user and destination through man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. This protects your businesss intellectual property, improves cybersecurity, and allows users to work as if they were onsite.

Split tunneling allows VPN users to decide what data gets encrypted and what doesnt. This can be useful for large data transfers that arent sensitive to the operations of a business. An example would be moving a promotional video between locations that would otherwise be publicly available.

Not really, unless youre up to something nefarious or worried about the service provider. VPN servers, unless stated otherwise, log connections for auditing or regulatory compliance. Governments also have the legal power and tools to monitor VPN connections, either with or without logs. If youre worried about the VPN service provider keeping logs of your traffic, use a VPN service provider that doesnt log access. Many providers offer this feature including ExpressVPN and PureVPN.

You can use two-factor authentication (2FA) with some VPN service providers. That ensures the user is establishing the VPN connection, and not a cyber attacker. When a user starts their VPN, a prompt to enter a pin from the authentication method used will appear. You can use many different authentication methods including email, SMS, and security keys. Of these, security keys are the most secure. However, if lost or if it stops working, your user might need a new one issued.

Its a great idea to use two-factor authentication (2FA). Many businesses use two-factor authentication to help secure their network. Ideally, use a security key as these are the most secure; SMS and email are easier to hack.

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Excerpt from:
Business VPN: What Is It and Which One Should You Consider? - TechGenix