Best Remote Access VPNs for Businesses [Oct 2020]

The world, as we know, has been changed forever, so does our daily work routine. For the first time in history, almost all companies are enforcing their employees to work remotely. Work from home has become our new everyday life, and it’s going to stay like this for the days to come.

Now here comes the problem, when your employees are at the office, they use the office network, so your data remains confidential. But remote workers aren’t there to log in to your network, so to protect your data, you need the best remote access VPN.

Short Summary of recommended items

What Is a Remote Access VPN?

Remote Access VPN has gained popularity because of its ability to provide remote network security features to an independent computer network from anywhere around the world.

So, a Remote Access VPN helps your employees log in securely into your office network from anywhere around the work. It’s like work from home VPN that establishes secure remote access to the server in your company’s network.

The data sent through these virtual tunnels are encrypted, so when some cybercriminals snoop around, they will find only gibberish. The data can be read-only once it reaches its final destination, ensuring protection at the highest level.

A remote access VPN requires a Network Access Server (NAS) to authenticate any device attempting to sign in to the VPN. To sign in, your employees need to provide valid credentials. 

So your employees also need to install client software on their devices to establish a connection to the VPN service. This client software establishes the virtual private tunnel to the NAS and manages all the encryption details to maintain a secure connection.

Why You Need a Remote Access VPN in 2020

Protects Your Confidential Data

You might have heard about Garmin, right? A group of hackers literally tortured the company for weeks. At last, it is believed that Garmin paid a $10 million ransom to get their access back.

This incident is proof that no matter how small or big your business is, you must incorporate cybersecurity in your company. 

A VPN works by adding an extra layer of protection by encrypting all your data. So, in short, it provides secure remote access to the server and, if someone intercepts this data, it will be in an unreadable format until it arrives at its final destination. So no matter how hard they try, your data will remain confidential.

Secure Connection

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all the companies are enforcing work from home worldwide. There is a high chance that you don’t know how your employees are connecting to your office network.

All the public networks from your local library to Starbucks is a playground for cybercriminals. Your confidential data could be compromised if one of your employees access your business data through these networks. VPN protects your connection by creating an encrypted connection to the internet. So by choosing the best remote access VPN service with remote network security features, you could avoid all these unnecessary risks of a security breach.

High-Speed Internet

Your ISP limits your bandwidth, which lowers your online speeds. They do these regularly to get rid of network congestion and ensure enough bandwidth for all users. 

While you are using a VPN, your ISP won’t see what you are doing online. So they won’t know whether you are using up too much bandwidth. So say bye-bye to those pixelated video conferences.

Bypass Firewalls

You may face some geo-restrictions and content blocks when you are on a business trip. These restrictions may block you from accessing your bank accounts, company servers, and applications. A VPN allows you to bypass these restrictions with ease by establishing secure remote access to the server that are located worldwide. You can easily bypass any firewall that you encounter with the help of a VPN; it hides your IP address, the address for which the firewall restrictions have been applied.

An excellent VPN would even let you bypass government firewalls, like the Great Firewall of China, so that you won’t have to deal with government censorship.

Cost-Effective Protection

Yes, you heard that right. A VPN is an affordable way to protect all your business data with ease. Most remote access VPN services provide remote network security features at an affordable rate for small businesses, so you don’t always have to hire a cybersecurity expert for your needs.

Best Remote Access VPN in 2020

#1. Perimeter 81

A user-friendly VPN that will keep all your business data safe and secure, no matter what

Perimeter 81 comes first in the list of best secure remote access VPN in 2020. They are fast, secure, and reliable so that all your data remains protected 24 x 7. With their intelligent business VPN, you can protect your cloud environments, staging servers, and your business databases with ease.

Pricing and Key Features

Perimeter 81 provides you three different business packages to choose from:

• Essentials: This plan includes all the necessary features that you need to secure and manage your network. It will cost you $8 per user per month when billed annually and an additional $40 per month per gateway.
• Premium: This plan includes a management network, security features for a more significant business. It will cost you $12 per user per month when billed annually and an additional $40 per month per gateway.
• Enterprise: It features enterprise-ready security features to customize and manage your networks. They will quote your price when contacted.

Key Features

• Static IPs and Private Servers: You can deploy high-speed private servers that are solely dedicated to your company’s needs and secure your team’s resource access with dedicated IPs.
• Cloud Management Platform: This VPN feature will help you to create your organization’s network. Included on the premise and on the cloud.
• Manage Team Access: Add team members to your network, create multiple user groups, and manage team permissions in a unified management portal.
• Policy-Based Segmentation: You could easily manage application access by creating customized policies with a more granular authentication approach.
• Monitor Network Activity: Audit resource access, monitor your bandwidth consumption and detect any network anomalies.
• Automatic Wi-Fi Security: Their patented feature will help you automatically protect your employees’ devices when they connect to unsecured public Wi-Fi.
• Customer Support: They provide you with a 24/7 in-app chat support along with email support. Their phone support and success engineer support is only available in the Enterprise plan.

Bottom Line

Perimeter 81 comes with robust central management and auditing features, making it the best remote access VPN currently available in the market. Their 24 x 7 secure access to all your cloud and network resources is worth your money.

#2. ExpressVPN

One of the most reputed companies in the VPN industry will protect your employees 24 x 7

ExpressVPN is one of the top reputed VPN that ace all the tests that are done by security experts across the world. They provide you with features that most remote access VPN doesn’t offer, like 160 different server locations and a regularly tested security system.

Pricing and Key Features

ExpressVPN comes in three different plans:

• 1 Month Plan: Their one-month plan will cost you $12.95 per month.
• 6 Months Plan: This plan will cost you $9.99 per month and $59.95 when charged for six months.
• 15 Months Plan: Their fifteen-month plan (most popular) comes with a special deal that includes three free months. This plan will cost you $6.67 per month and $99.95 when billed for 15 months.

Key Features

• 160 Server Locations: You could choose any of their 160 VPN servers in 94 countries worldwide.
• Public Wi-Fi safety: Protect yourself against unsecured Wi-Fi networks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and more.
• Network Lock Kill Switch: Network Lock keeps your data safe if your VPN connection drops, blocking all internet traffic until protection is restored.
• TrustedServer Technology: Their approach to running VPN servers ensures that no data is ever written to a hard drive, keeping you secure.
• 24 x 7 Support: You could contact them 27/7 via live chat and email to help you with anything that you need.
• Military Grade Encryption: Your data is protected by AES-256 encryption, the standard trusted by security experts worldwide.

Bottom Line

ExpressVPN is one of the most reputable names in the VPN industry, so it doesn’t matter wherever your employees are, they will be protected 24 x 7. ExpressVPN is the best remote access VPN.

#3. NordVPN Teams

An exceptional business that will help you to keep your information confidential

NordVPN Teams comes next in the list of best remote access VPN in 2020. They provide a robust remote access VPN that is designed to keep all your business data confidential. Their extensive network of servers ensures smooth performance no matter where you and your coworkers are. 

Pricing and Key Features

NordVPN Team comes in three different packages:

• Basic Plan: Their basic plan will cost you $7 per user per month ($84 when billed annually). 
• Advanced Plan: Their advanced plan will cost you $9 per user per month ($108 when billed annually).
• Enterprise Plan: Reach out to NordVPN for a quota to build your fully customized network security system with some advanced security features.

Key Features

• Military Grade Encryption: Protect data on your devices with AES 256-bit encryption, which top security experts use worldwide.
• Control Panel: You can manage user accounts, control permissions, create gateways, all from one centralized Control Panel.
• Centralized Billing: With this feature, you could handle all NordVPN team’s expenses with ease, and you won’t receive multiple invoices for different users.
• Dedicated Account Managers: These managers will help you to make the best of your NordVPN Teams service.
• License Transferability: You don’t need to worry about losing a user license if your employee changes; you can transfer to an old account to a new employee.
• Activity Log: See if your coworkers are online and which gateways they are using at all times.

Bottom Line

With clients like Facebook, Dribble, Nvidia, and SoundCloud, NordVPN Team, is an all-in-one solution for all your security needs. With their dedicated support team, you will have seamless integration with your existing business, making them the perfect work from home VPN for your employees. NordVPN Teams is the best remote access VPN.

#4. Windscribe 

A business VPN with one of a kind protocol that ensures world-class protection.

It is a user-friendly VPN access with one of a kind protocol that ensures world-class security. Their pro version gives you access to unlimited data and servers in more than 110 cities across 63 countries.

Pricing and Key Features

Windscribe provides you with three different pricing plans:

• Monthly Plan: This plan will cost you $9 per month.
• Yearly Plan: This plan will cost you $4.08 per month (billed $49 annually).
• Build a Plan: Here, you can build your custom plan according to your needs.

Key Features

• Strongest Encryption: Windscribe uses AES-256 cipher with SHA512 auth and a 4096-bit RSA key. They also support perfect forward secrecy.
• Scribe Force: It’s a word given for Windscribe Team Account. It allows you to manage VPN accounts for your business, all in one place.
• R.O.B.E.R.T: It’s one of a kind customizable server-side domain and IP blocking tool which blocks ads and trackers, prevents infections, provides custom access rules, and allows you to browse faster.
• Extensive Network: Windscribe delivers one of the most diverse networks out there. They provide you with servers in 110 cities across 63 countries.
• No Identifying Logs: They do not store any logs that can be used to identify you. 
• Config generators: They allow you to generate configuration files and profiles for OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard, and SOCKS configs.

Bottom Line

Windscribe is an excellent remote access VPN service if you are starting. You could try their free plan to test whether the service suits your needs or not. Upgrading to a paid account in Windscribe is super easy as well. Windscribe is the best remote access VPN.

#5. Surfshark 

A VPN that provides outstanding security features at an affordable rate.

Surfshark comes last in the list of best remote access VPN in 2020. They are a relatively new VPN service provider that has quickly become a crowd favourite over the past few years. If you are on a strict budget, then it is the perfect choice for you.

Pricing and Key Features

Surfshark VPN comes in three different pricing plans:

• 1 Month Plan: Their one-month plan will cost you $11.95 per month.
• 12 Month Plan: Their twelve-month plan will cost you $5.99 per month (billed $71.88 annually).
• 24 Month Plan: Their twenty-four-month plan will cost you $1.99 per month (billed $47.76 every 24 months).

Key Features

• High-Level Encryption: They guard your data by using industry-leading AES 256-GCM encryption.
• Private DNS and Leak Protection: Private DNS on each server and leak protection take their security to the next level.
• Camouflage Mode: This mode makes sure that even your internet provider can’t tell that you are using a VPN.
• Unlimited Devices: You can connect and use all your devices simultaneously. You can protect as many devices as you would like at once.
• Clean Web: You will have a cleaner browsing experience with no ads, trackers, malware, and phishing attempts.
• Strict No-Logs Policy: They don’t monitor, track, or store what you do online.

Bottom Line

Their consistent speed at an affordable rate makes them the perfect work from home VPN for your employees. Yet they aren’t the ideal choice for every requirement; you can use this VPN without compromising your privacy. Surfshark is the best remote access VPN.

Comparison 

Product	Perimeter 81	ExpressVPN	NordVPN Teams	Windscribe	Surfshark
Tracking	No	No	No	No	No
Customer Support	Slow customer support in basic plans	No Phone Support	Yes	No 24/7 customer support	Yes
High-Speed Connection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Slower Speed Outside US	Medium
Device Compatibility	Supports all major platforms	Supports all major platforms	Supports all major platforms	Supports all major platforms	Supports all major platforms
User Experience	Easy installation and setup	Easy installation and setup	Easy to use, but OpenVPN configuration isn’t user friendly	Easy installation and setup	Easy installation and setup
Central Management	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Dedicated Account Manager	Only on a custom plan	No	Yes	No	No
Pricing	Affordable	Expensive	Expensive	Affordable	Cheap

Remote Access VPN vs. Site-to-Site VPN

A Site-to-Site VPN helps businesses to extend their network across multiple locations. This means a user in a particular place can access resources from another location securely. Let’s take an example, shall we?

Suppose you are location A, and you connect to a network where your colleagues, user B, and user C are connected. In that case, you will be able to access resources available in your colleagues (B and C) locations and vice versa.

In the case of site-to-site VPN, your employees don’t need a VPN client software because the VPN gateway of one user communicates with the gateway of another to create a secure tunnel.

In a remote access VPN, it connects an individual remote device to a private network instead of connecting the whole network through a gateway.

So you might decide whether you should go for a remote access VPN or a Site-to-Site VPN? If you have many offices in different locations, you should go for a Site-to-Site VPN else it is better to go for a remote access VPN since it is specially designed for excellent user experience.

Conclusion 

A remote access VPN can be beneficial to both business and personal users. The work from home routine will stay in the times to come, so it’s better to start preparing from now.

For any business staying connected with all the resources is a vital factor. According to our research, Perimeter 81, ExpressVPN, and NordVPN Teams are the best and reliable remote access VPN that is available in 2020. If you do have some queries, do ask me in the comments below.