Tech Walkthroughs

Remote and hybrid work has made VPNs a core part of business infrastructure - not a nice-to-have. Whether your team is connecting to company resources from home, a hotel, or a coffee shop, an unprotected connection is a liability. But not all VPNs are built for remote work. Consumer VPNs prioritize streaming and anonymity; business-grade VPNs prioritize reliability, team management, and the kind of audit trails your IT or security team actually needs.

We tested seven VPN services across 50+ server locations, measuring real-world speeds, evaluating split tunneling and kill switch reliability, checking no-logs policies and third-party audits, and assessing how well each tool handles team provisioning and device management. Here's what we found.

How we evaluated

• Speed and reliability - Real download/upload speeds across US, EU, and APAC servers during business hours. Consistent connectivity matters more than peak speed.
• Security and privacy - No-logs policy and independent audit status, encryption standards (AES-256, WireGuard/OpenVPN), and kill switch reliability.
• Split tunneling - Can you route only business traffic through the VPN while keeping other traffic direct? Critical for video calls and speed.
• Team management - Central dashboard, user provisioning, device limits, SSO/SAML support, and billing by seat.
• Compliance and audit support - SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR posture, and whether the provider can support compliance documentation needs.

Top picks at a glance

NordVPN Teams (NordLayer) - Our top pick for remote teams. Dedicated business product (NordLayer) with central user management, SSO, dedicated IP options, and audited no-logs policy. Fast WireGuard-based speeds, reliable kill switch, and competitive per-seat pricing. Best for teams of 5–500 that need a managed, compliant VPN without enterprise complexity.

ExpressVPN - Best for individual remote workers and small teams that prioritize raw speed and ease of use over centralized management. Consistently fastest in our tests, excellent split tunneling, and reliable on restrictive networks. Lacks the team dashboard of NordLayer but is unmatched for personal remote work use.

NordVPN / NordLayer: best managed VPN for remote teams

Nord Security offers two products: NordVPN for individuals and NordLayer for business teams. For remote work at the team level, NordLayer is the right product - it's built around centralized management, not personal anonymity.

What NordLayer does well

Central team management. NordLayer's admin dashboard lets you provision users, assign device limits, set access policies by user group, and see connection activity across your team. You can onboard a new employee, assign them to the right server group, and enforce VPN-on policy in minutes - without touching individual devices. For IT managers or anyone provisioning VPN access at scale, this is the feature that separates NordLayer from consumer VPNs.

Dedicated IPs and gateway servers. NordLayer offers dedicated IP addresses and private gateway servers - meaning your team always connects from a known, fixed IP. This matters for allowlisting: your office server, cloud tools, and internal apps can whitelist that IP, so only VPN-connected team members get access. Consumer VPNs share IPs across thousands of users; that shared pool gets blocked by many corporate services.

Security credentials. Nord Security has completed multiple independent no-logs audits (PwC) and holds ISO 27001 certification. The underlying encryption uses AES-256 with NordLynx (WireGuard-based) for speed and OpenVPN for compatibility. The kill switch - which cuts internet access if the VPN drops - was 100% reliable in our tests. These aren't marketing claims; they're third-party verified.

SSO and identity integration. NordLayer supports SAML 2.0 SSO, meaning you can tie VPN access to your existing identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace). When an employee leaves, you disable their account once and VPN access is revoked automatically. For teams using any modern identity provider, this removes a significant offboarding risk.

Speed. NordLayer's NordLynx protocol delivered average download speeds of 480–520 Mbps in our US tests - well above what any remote worker needs for video calls, file transfers, or cloud tools. EU servers averaged 380 Mbps. Speed drops were minimal when switching servers.

Where NordLayer falls short

NordLayer's pricing scales by seat, and team management features are only available on the Core plan ($11/user/month) and above - the Lite plan ($8/user/month) skips dedicated IPs and SSO. For very small teams (fewer than 5 people) without IT management needs, a NordVPN individual subscription is cheaper. And while NordLayer is strong, it doesn't yet match Cisco or Palo Alto for the deepest enterprise compliance requirements (FedRAMP, FIPS 140-2).

NordLayer pricing

• Lite: $8/user/month - basic internet threat prevention, 5-user minimum
• Core: $11/user/month - dedicated IPs, SSO, advanced controls, 5-user minimum
• Premium: $14/user/month - network segmentation, site-to-site VPN, 5-user minimum
• Enterprise: From $7/user/month (100+ users) - custom-fit pricing, private gateways, SLA

ExpressVPN: best speed for individual remote workers

ExpressVPN consistently ranks as the fastest consumer VPN in independent tests - and in our testing it held that position comfortably. If you're an individual remote worker or managing a small team where centralized dashboards aren't a priority, ExpressVPN's combination of speed, reliability, and ease of use is hard to beat.

What ExpressVPN does well

Raw speed. ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol (their WireGuard alternative) delivered our highest consistent speeds: 510–560 Mbps on US servers, with sub-100ms latency. On restrictive networks - hotel Wi-Fi, corporate firewalls, international connections - ExpressVPN was more reliable at maintaining connection than any other provider we tested. For video calls and real-time collaboration tools, this reliability matters more than peak throughput.

Split tunneling. ExpressVPN's split tunneling implementation is polished and works reliably across Windows, Mac, and Android. You can route only specific apps through the VPN (e.g., your company's internal tools) while keeping Zoom, Slack, and browser traffic direct. This prevents the VPN from slowing your video calls while still protecting sensitive data flows - the setup most remote workers actually need.

Server coverage. ExpressVPN operates 3,000+ servers in 105 countries. If your team is globally distributed or you need to connect to regional resources in unusual locations, ExpressVPN's server density is unmatched among consumer VPNs.

Ease of use. The apps are consistently the most polished in the category - fast to connect, simple to switch servers, and reliable on reconnect after network changes (moving from Wi-Fi to cellular, for example). For non-technical employees who just need it to work, ExpressVPN requires the least hand-holding.

Where ExpressVPN falls short

ExpressVPN has no business-grade team management dashboard. There's no central provisioning, no SSO, no usage reporting, and no dedicated IPs at a manageable per-seat price. For teams that need to enforce VPN policy, track compliance, or onboard/offboard employees centrally, ExpressVPN is the wrong tool. It's a great individual VPN used by a team - not a team VPN product.

ExpressVPN pricing

• Basic (2-year): $3.49/month - core VPN, 10 devices
• Advanced (2-year): $4.49/month - adds threat manager, ad blocker, 12 devices
• Pro (2-year): $7.49/month - adds identity protection features, 14 devices
• Note: No team management features on any plan; each account is individual

Other VPNs worth knowing

Perimeter 81 (now Check Point Harmony SASE): The strongest full enterprise option with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), SASE architecture, and deep compliance tooling. Overkill for most remote teams, but right for security-first organizations with complex access requirements. Pricing is enterprise and requires a sales conversation.

Surfshark Business: A budget-friendly alternative to NordLayer with a similar team dashboard, unlimited devices per seat, and a solid no-logs policy (audited by Deloitte). Slightly slower than Nord in our tests, but meaningfully cheaper for larger teams.

Mullvad: The privacy-first choice for teams that prioritize anonymity above all else - accepts cash payment, no accounts, no logs. Excellent for security researchers or journalists. Lacks any team management, making it impractical for most business remote work use cases.

Remote work VPN setup tips

Always use split tunneling

Routing all traffic through a VPN adds unnecessary latency to video calls and large file downloads. Configure split tunneling so only your company's internal tools (VPN-required resources, cloud storage, internal dashboards) go through the VPN tunnel. Everything else - Zoom, Google Meet, general browsing - stays direct. Most remote workers see a noticeable improvement in call quality once they configure this correctly.

Enable the kill switch

The kill switch cuts your internet connection if the VPN drops unexpectedly. Without it, a momentary disconnect can expose your traffic on an untrusted network before the VPN reconnects. Enable it for all work devices and educate your team about why a sudden internet drop means "reconnect the VPN," not "disable the kill switch."

Pair your VPN with a password manager

A VPN protects your connection; it doesn't protect your credentials. Combine it with a team password manager like 1Password Teams to cover both the network and credential attack surfaces. This two-layer approach covers the most common remote work security failures: intercepted traffic and compromised passwords. See our Best Password Manager for Teams 2026 guide.

Verify your VPN works before travel

Some countries block VPN protocols at the network level (China, UAE, Russia). If your team travels internationally, test your VPN's obfuscation mode before the trip - not at the airport. NordVPN's obfuscated servers and ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol both handle restrictive networks better than most, but no VPN guarantees connectivity everywhere.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a business VPN or will a personal VPN do?

For individual remote workers without IT requirements, a personal VPN (NordVPN individual, ExpressVPN) is usually sufficient. Once you have 5+ employees, compliance needs, or internal resources that require allowlisted IPs, you need a business product like NordLayer. The team management and dedicated IP features aren't available on consumer plans.

Does a VPN slow down remote work?

A well-configured VPN on a fast connection adds 5–15% latency overhead - imperceptible for most work tasks. The main issue is routing all traffic through the VPN (which adds unnecessary overhead for video calls). Use split tunneling to route only business-critical traffic through the VPN and you'll rarely notice it. The bigger risk is a slow VPN provider - which is why speed testing matters in our evaluation.

What's the difference between a VPN and Zero Trust?

A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between a device and a network - once inside, the user typically has broad access. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) verifies identity and device health for every application request, granting minimum necessary access. For most SMB remote teams, a business VPN is the right tool. Larger organizations with many internal apps and strict compliance requirements should evaluate ZTNA solutions like Perimeter 81 or Cloudflare Access.