Best VPNs for Small Businesses

With so many incentives for businesses to invest in a VPN solution, including special subscriptions and significant discounts, the value gained is always worth the financial sacrifice.

Without guaranteed security and privacy, it’s only a matter of time before a business falls victim to a cyberattack. The best VPNs for businesses safeguard all online activities and offer all kinds of other benefits:

• Unblocked content.
• Low-cost communication.
• Secure public Wi-Fi access.
• Malware and tracking prevention.
• Data and privacy protection and compliance.
• Remote work protection.

Accessing geographically blocked content is one of the main reasons why so many people subscribe to VPN services. Certain countries restrict access to social media platforms, streaming services, search engines, and news and information websites.

While this may not appear to be an issue for businesses, traveling professionals can be largely affected by it. For example, if an employee is working in a country that imposes restrictions, they may not be able to publish work or communicate via social media and VoIP apps.

Plenty of companies subscribe to VoIP services for business purposes, and one of the most popular is Microsoft Teams. It allows employees to make and receive voice and video calls on the same platform used for hosting chats and video meetings.

That said, sometimes employees are required to contact international local numbers, and that can incur significant costs, especially over time. This is when businesses can leverage the power of VPNs, as they allow you to change your virtual location to match the country being called, potentially reducing call rates.

VPNs allow users to remain hidden and anonymous from ISPs and offer protection from public internet hotspots. Considering the dangers of public Wi-Fi, employees should never connect to such networks without a VPN.

Hackers exploit the vulnerabilities of these connections to disrupt, damage, or steal data. For example, when traveling, you might be in a situation where you need to access a company asset while in an airport, hotel, or other public space. In these cases, using free Wi-Fi can create an entry point for malicious actors to infiltrate your company.

Targeted ads often carry malware, which can lead to data breaches and mishaps in business continuity. Once again, businesses subscribed to VPNs won’t have to worry about this since most VPN solutions include automatic ad blockers and privacy features that prevent tracking. This allows teams to work efficiently while enhancing the company’s overall online security posture.

Proper data and privacy protection are vital when conducting business online. At a certain point, you will not only be required to override restrictive country-based laws but also ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPPA.

VPNs can easily tackle this. They feature military-grade encryption and use carefully designed protocols to keep sensitive information accessible to you and your co-workers only.

Additionally, by providing data security, access control, and robust privacy features, VPNs offer businesses a cheap and easy way to comply with many different regulations.

According to the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence 2024 Index, cybercrime increased by 400% since 2020, largely due to the rise in remote work. This is a huge cause for concern, especially for small businesses.

Implementing a business VPN can easily mitigate most of the dangers posed by cybercrime since it encrypts an organization’s entire IT infrastructure. In turn, employees get secure access to the company’s network and internal resources from anywhere. Essentially, no matter where you are, you can access the organization’s entire network as if you were physically present in the office.

VPNs are suitable for both personal and business use. However, the two services focus on different aspects, so it’s important to carefully assess your needs before investing.

For instance, the number of available servers is more important for individual users seeking to unblock streaming services. Likewise, personal users often look for additional features like P2P compatibility.

However, for businesses, these aren’t the most essential aspects to focus on. Instead, it’s much more beneficial to favor VPNs that offer dedicated servers instead of shared ones. The main reason for this is that private servers considerably enhance the security and performance of corporate environments.

In addition, providers like NordLayer offer cutting-edge network security with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), scalability, compliance, threat detection, and support management – services not typically included in personal VPNs. Nonetheless, a personal VPN that supports multiple users may suffice for very small businesses, depending on their specific requirements.

Corporate VPNs offer a distinctive approach to privacy and security. They let businesses create closed virtual private networks and control access to them granularly. This type of VPN is more complex to set up and requires an IT team to configure it successfully.

One of the main reasons businesses subscribe to a corporate VPN is to fortify and protect their network infrastructure. For instance, most corporate VPNs allow workers who conduct their activities offsite to remotely connect to their network via mobile devices after being properly authenticated.

After connecting, the data exchanged in that network is always encrypted, private, and secure, making exploitation much more difficult for hackers. Furthermore, these VPNs always include advanced security features, strong privacy controls, enhanced user management, and integration with existing systems.

Another big difference is that corporate VPNs are scalable and provide different pricing options depending on the number of users and extra features needed. While it’s possible to use a corporate VPN with an individual one, this is generally not recommended as it can lead to potential risks and security conflicts. Since the primary objective is to enhance security, we recommend keeping corporate and personal browsing separate.

Considering the differences between individual and business-oriented VPNs, it’s important to know what to look for. While individuals usually focus on features designed for personal use, like an extensive list of server locations, the primary goal of businesses is security.

Any business should aim to fortify its networks with strong security protocols. This is paramount to handling and protecting data in transit without worrying about breaches or unauthorized access. Most VPNs for organizations combine military-grade AES-256 encryption with extra layers of security and stricter implementation measures that ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Regardless of business size, it’s important to ensure that the VPN you subscribe to has all the necessary features for scaling up. Small businesses often expand, so choosing a VPN that can adapt to future needs will provide long-term ease and convenience.

Similarly, flexibility allows businesses to adapt to changing work environments, with features like easy integration with existing infrastructure.

As a small business, it’s fundamental to have a platform that offers a way to manage networks efficiently. Centralized management is often provided by VPNs for businesses and should be always looked for. It allows administrators to oversee and control VPN usage across an organization, with options to set up security policies and user access.

Businesses should always favor VPNs offering private static IP addresses. Unlike shared servers, this takes security to a whole new level, reducing the chances of being blocked due to someone else’s actions.

Even more important than that is it ensures consistent access to critical business assets and services. This is critical for companies with remote teams to guarantee stable and secure access to their networks from anywhere.

It’s rare for business VPNs to not include threat protection, but it’s still vital to check that they do. Combining advanced encryption with extra security features like phishing prevention, malware blocking, real-time detection, and ad blockers helps safeguard networks from cyberattacks.

Online protection is crucial, particularly for small businesses. Given the growing number of cyberattacks on micro-enterprises, digital security concerns shouldn’t be taken lightly. VPNs are one of the best services that businesses can use to protect themselves. They’re no longer a luxury but a necessity, being one of the cybersecurity essentials for small businesses.

They provide strong encryption standards, data protection, compliance adherence, and secure access to the business’s online infrastructure anywhere in the world. If you have a business and want to avoid a meltdown due to a cyberattack, we recommend trying one of our VPN recommendations, such as NordLayer. This company offers all the features required not only to protect your company but also to lay the foundation for business continuity.