Business Choice 2021: VPN Services for Work

When you work in the office, you tend to trust the internet connection you're utilizing is somewhat secure. Maybe you shouldn't. Having a VPN running to encrypt the traffic from you to the web is never a bad idea, no matter where you are. The idea is even more important when you work from home or on the road. Then you need the kind of security a VPN service provides. Perhaps better yet, you'll get a dedicated, remote access VPN that tunnels directly to company servers. That protects you and the company.

No matter what kind of VPN you use, or have thrust upon you by the IT department, it turns out the best name to pick this year is the same in both categories.

VPN Services for Work 2021

Not everyone probably believes they need a VPN at the office, but it doesn't hurt. We asked people as they rated virtual private networks in our Readers' Choice survey to check a box if they use the same VPN for work coverage. These are the results, and they show three of the same four vendors that appeared in last year's results—only Private Internet Access didn't make the cut this time. NordVPN was in third place in 2020 with an overall satisfaction rating, but this year it skyrocketed up the list to first place by earning an 8.7 out of 10 overall, a jump of over half a point.  

That alone wasn't enough to clinch the win. Because last year's winner, ExpressVPN, is right there, doing more than nibbling at Nord's heels, it's biting. The two are almost even on so many scores, including another tie for setup (9.2). Nord led the way for cost, reliability, and trustworthiness; ExpressVPN has the reigns for performance, internet speed, and ease of use. How to decide a winner came down to that very important likelihood-to-recommend score, where NordVPN's 8.9 was ahead of Express VPN's likewise stellar 8.7. Customers of either product seem very happy with what they bring security-wise to their work table.

Trailing, as it did last year and the year before that, is Norton Secure VPN. It goes to show, as we frequently see in this survey, a large user base doesn't always translate into a happy user base. It scores particularly badly for tech support, but does well for setup with an 8.5—it just doesn't hold a flickery candle to the competition's 9.2 in the same category.

Remote Access VPNs 2021

Big names like Cisco have occasionally dominated the results when it comes to remote access VPNs, and Cisco indeed did okay this year, enough to land in second place. But NordVPN Teams, the product the brand markets for secure, remote access across the cloud, killed it with an 8.6 overall score, more than enough to secure its second win for remote access.

Except for tech support, NordVPN was the only vendor to score across the board scores in the 8s, all of which were higher than the 8s scored by Cisco for its AnyConnect client, with the exception of a tie for performance at 8.5. The two have similar scores under tech support of 7.8 for Nord and 7.7 for Cisco; they were the only vendors with enough answers to even get tech support scores.

The chart is similar to what we saw in 2020. Especially at the top, with Nord and Cisco battling like virtual private dragons. A couple of vendors dropped out this year due to lack of response, but of those left, Microsoft's VPN Client took the biggest tumble from a 7.7 overall to 7.4, while Open VPN went up from 7.4 to 7.6. We got a new addition this time around with Palo Alto's GlobalProtect making the list, but, sadly, all the way at the bottom, with a couple of surprises: It had the highest score for setup at 8.8, even ahead of Nord's 8.7, and better performance scores over Nord's, as well.

For more, read The Best Business VPNs for Businesses and Teams.

Full Results

The PCMag Business Choice survey for VPNs was in the field from September 13 to October 4, 2021. For more information on how our surveys are conducted, read the survey methodology.

Readers’ Choice 2021: VPNs