Setting up a VPN for your small business involves choosing the right type of VPN for your team’s needs, picking a protocol and provider, and configuring access for every employee who connects remotely. The process can be as simple as subscribing to a cloud-hosted service and distributing login credentials, or as involved as configuring a dedicated VPN server on your office router. Here’s how to evaluate your options and get everything running.
Pick the Right VPN Type
Small businesses generally choose between three VPN architectures, and the best fit depends on how your team works and where your data lives.
A remote access VPN lets individual employees connect securely to your company network from home, a coffee shop, or a hotel. VPN client software is installed on each employee’s device, and it creates an encrypted tunnel back to a VPN server at your office or in the cloud. This is the most common setup for small teams with remote or hybrid workers.
A site-to-site VPN links two or more office networks together. If you have a headquarters and a satellite office, a site-to-site VPN lets both locations share resources as if they were on the same local network. Individual employees don’t need to install separate apps because the connection runs between the routers at each location.
A cloud VPN (sometimes called VPN as a service) skips the on-site hardware entirely. The VPN infrastructure is hosted in the cloud, and employees connect through a desktop or mobile app, or even a web browser. Cloud VPNs are fast to deploy globally and work well for businesses that already run most of their applications in cloud platforms like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
If your company stores sensitive files on a local office server and employees need to reach them from home, a remote access VPN makes sense. If your data already lives in cloud apps and you just need to encrypt employee traffic and control access, a cloud VPN is simpler to manage. Most small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get the best balance of cost and ease from either a cloud VPN service or a remote access VPN running on a business-grade router.
Choose a VPN Protocol
The protocol determines how your data is encrypted and routed. You don’t need to become an expert here, but understanding the main options helps you make a smarter choice when configuring your router or selecting a provider.
WireGuard is the newest mainstream protocol and typically the fastest. Its codebase is small (under 4,000 lines of code for the Linux kernel), which makes it easier to audit for security flaws and less likely to be misconfigured. It uses modern cryptographic standards including ChaCha20 encryption and Curve25519 key exchange. If your provider supports WireGuard, it’s usually the best default for speed and security.
OpenVPN is an open-source protocol that has been battle-tested in enterprise environments for years. It supports a wide range of encryption methods through the OpenSSL library, commonly using AES-256 encryption. That flexibility is a double-edged sword: it gives you fine-grained control, but incorrect configuration can introduce vulnerabilities. OpenVPN tends to carry more overhead than WireGuard, so connections can be somewhat slower.
L2TP/IPsec bundles the Layer 2 Tunnel Protocol with IPsec for authentication and encryption. It’s widely supported across devices and deeply integrated into many enterprise environments. It’s a solid fallback if WireGuard or OpenVPN aren’t available on your hardware, though it’s generally considered older technology.
SSTP is fully integrated with Windows and works well in Microsoft-heavy environments, but it’s less useful if your team uses Macs, Linux, or mobile devices.
For most small businesses, WireGuard is the simplest and fastest option. Choose OpenVPN if you need more granular control over how the VPN behaves, or if your router or provider doesn’t yet support WireGuard.
Steps to Set Up a VPN
The exact steps vary depending on whether you’re configuring a router, running your own VPN server, or subscribing to a hosted service. Here’s the general process that applies across all three approaches.
Gather Your Components
You need three things: a VPN server (either a physical device in your office, a virtual server you manage, or a provider’s cloud infrastructure), a VPN client app for each employee’s device, and a VPN-capable router if you’re handling this on your own hardware. Many business-grade routers have VPN server functionality built in and can support dozens of simultaneous encrypted tunnels.
Prepare Your Network
Before installing anything, uninstall any existing VPN client software that employees don’t need. Leftover clients from previous setups can conflict with new ones. Review your network configuration: make sure your router’s firmware is up to date, your firewall rules allow VPN traffic on the necessary ports, and you have a static IP address or dynamic DNS service so remote employees can reliably connect back to your office.
Install and Configure VPN Clients
If you’re using a hosted business VPN service, download the provider’s client app on each employee device. Most providers offer apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux. If you’re running your own VPN server on a router or dedicated machine, you’ll configure the server first, then distribute configuration files or credentials to each employee’s client software.
Set Up User Accounts and Permissions
Create individual login credentials for each employee. Avoid sharing a single set of credentials across the team because it makes it impossible to revoke access for one person without disrupting everyone else. If your VPN service supports single sign-on (SSO), connect it to your existing identity provider so employees use the same login they already use for email or other company tools.
Select Your Protocol and Test
In your VPN server or client settings, choose the protocol you want (WireGuard, OpenVPN, or IPsec). Have a few employees test the connection from outside the office network. Verify they can access the internal resources they need, that speeds are acceptable, and that the connection doesn’t drop during normal use. Check that traffic is actually being encrypted by confirming the VPN client shows an active tunnel before employees access sensitive systems.
What Business VPN Services Cost
Cloud-hosted business VPN services typically charge per user per month, with discounts for annual billing and larger teams. Pricing starts low: Windscribe’s ScribeForce plan begins at $3 per seat per month and drops further as you add more users. Other providers like NordLayer offer flexible pricing designed for small IT budgets, while ExpressVPN provides team discounts of up to 40% off its standard consumer pricing depending on the number of licenses.
Some providers prorate costs when you add or remove employees mid-cycle. TunnelBear, for example, prorates the cost of new seats added during an annual subscription and credits you for unused time when you remove a user. That kind of flexibility matters for small businesses with seasonal staff or growing teams.
Beyond price, look at what’s included. Proton VPN’s business plans bundle an encrypted email service, password manager, and calendar alongside the VPN, plus compliance with standards like ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA. NordLayer includes dedicated IP support, dedicated servers, and 24/7 technical support. Features like split tunneling (which lets employees route only work traffic through the VPN while personal browsing goes direct) and multi-hop connections (which route traffic through two servers for extra privacy) are common across most business plans.
If you’re setting up a VPN server on your own router instead of subscribing to a service, your ongoing cost is essentially zero beyond the router hardware and your internet connection. The trade-off is that you handle all maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting yourself.
When a VPN May Not Be Enough
Traditional VPNs grant broad network access. Once an employee connects, they can typically reach everything on the company network, not just the specific app or file they need. If an employee’s credentials are stolen, the attacker gets that same wide access.
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a newer approach that grants access to specific applications rather than the entire network. Instead of trusting anyone who connects with valid credentials, ZTNA checks the user’s identity, device health, location, and other context before granting access to each individual resource. IT teams get detailed visibility into who accessed what, when, and from where, which simplifies compliance reporting.
For a small business with a handful of remote employees connecting to a file server, a traditional VPN works fine. But if your team is fully remote, uses dozens of cloud applications, or handles regulated data like health records or financial information, ZTNA offers tighter security with less administrative overhead. Several business VPN providers, including NordLayer, now blend VPN and ZTNA features into a single platform, so you don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other from day one.