Small businesses don't need $15+/user/month VPNs. Three paths get you under $10: free-tier zero-trust (Twingate), low-cost mesh VPNs (ZeroTier), and self-hosted VPNs on a $5 VPS (PiVPN, Headscale). Here's what each costs and who it's for.
Small businesses don't need to spend $15+ per user per month on a VPN. There are three paths that get you under $10: free-tier zero-trust services, low-cost mesh VPNs, and self-hosted VPNs on a $5 VPS. Here's what actually works and what each costs.
1. Free-tier zero-trust services. Tools like Twingate offer a genuine free tier for small teams — no credit card, no self-hosting. You get zero-trust access controls without the per-user pricing of enterprise VPNs.1
2. Low-cost mesh VPNs. ZeroTier gives you a mesh network where devices connect peer-to-peer without a central server. The free tier covers 10 devices, and the paid plan is a flat monthly fee rather than per-user.2
3. Self-hosted VPNs on a $5 VPS. PiVPN and Headscale are free open-source tools you run on a cheap VPS. Total cost: $5/month for hosting, unlimited users. The tradeoff is setup time and maintenance.6
Business VPN pricing ranges from $0 to $120/user/month, with a median of $13/user/month.3 Six of eleven tools in CostBench's comparison offer free tiers.3 Mainstream business VPNs like NordLayer start at $5/user/month for 50+ users, or $8–14/user/month at standard tiers.4 Surfshark's business plan runs $5.90–6.90/user/month, and Proton VPN Professional is $9.99/user/month yearly.4
The point: $10/user/month is the ceiling for "cheap" business VPNs, and several options come in well below that — some at zero.
Twingate's Starter tier is free for up to 5 users and 50 resources, which covers most micro-businesses.1 If you outgrow that, Teams is $5/user/month (with a 15% yearly discount), supporting up to 100 users with SSO via Google Workspace and device posture checks.1
This is the easiest pick to recommend: zero software cost for small teams, a clean upgrade path, and no server to maintain. Setup takes about 15 minutes. The zero-trust model means you're not exposing a full network tunnel — users only reach the specific resources you authorize.
ZeroTier's free Personal tier covers 10 devices on 1 network — enough for a small team that just needs devices to talk to each other.2 The Essential plan at $18/month covers 10 devices with $2 per additional device, which works out to $1.80/device — well under $10/user equivalent for most small teams.2
ZeroTier is a mesh VPN, meaning devices connect directly to each other rather than through a central server. That's great for latency and redundancy, but it's a different model than traditional VPNs. If you need site-to-site or device-to-device connectivity more than remote access to a corporate network, this is the one.
PiVPN is a one-command installer that sets up WireGuard or OpenVPN on a Raspberry Pi or any Debian/Ubuntu VPS.9 The software is free; your only cost is hosting. Pair it with a Vultr Cloud Compute instance at $5/month (1 GB RAM) and you've got a full VPN server for unlimited users under $10/month total.7
This is the absolute cheapest path, but it requires comfort with the command line. You're responsible for updates, security patches, and key management. For a tech-savvy small business, the ROI is hard to beat.5
Headscale is an open-source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server.8 It's free to run — your only cost is hosting, which can be a $5/month VPS.7 If you like Tailscale's WireGuard-based mesh VPN experience but don't want per-user licensing, Headscale gives you the same protocol stack with zero recurring SaaS fees.8
This is more involved than PiVPN — you're running a control server, not just a VPN endpoint — but for small teams that want mesh networking without per-seat pricing, it's a strong option. Suitable for personal use or small organizations.8
If you're going the self-hosted route, you need a VPS. Vultr Cloud Compute Regular Performance starts at $5/month for 1 GB RAM, with hourly billing and no contract.7 Plans range from $2.50 to $640/month, so you can scale up if needed.7
Hetzner's CX21 is another option at €5.49/month with 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM — more horsepower for the same ballpark price.6 Either way, a $5–6/month VPS is the foundation that makes self-hosted VPNs viable under $10.
The median business VPN costs $13/user/month.3 Every option here comes in below that — and three of them are free.
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