Category · VPN & Privacy
VPN & Privacy Tools for a Digital Business
VPNs, encrypted email, password managers, secure cloud storage and private messaging for founders, consultants, creators and remote teams, compared on official documentation.
Facts checked on official vendor pages · Updated
What privacy tools does a small business actually need?
Five layers cover most of the everyday risk: a VPN for untrusted networks, encrypted email and calendar, a password manager with shared vaults, encrypted file storage and an encrypted messenger. Proton sells the first four under one plan, and Signal covers messaging for free. None of it makes you anonymous or compliant on its own: a VPN hides your traffic from the local network and your internet provider, not from the accounts you sign in to.
Most privacy advice is written for individuals. This guide is for people protecting a business that lives online: client email, shared passwords, contracts in a cloud drive, calls with contractors on hotel Wi-Fi. Each section below covers one job, names the tools worth knowing and says who should skip them. Every price, free-plan limit and audit was checked on the vendor's own website on October 15, 2026. BestStacked hasn't tested these tools hands-on, and this page doesn't score them; where a full BestStacked review exists, the card links to it.
Choosing only a VPN? The unranked five-provider comparison, with audits and renewal prices, is on Best VPN Services. Setting up all five layers? Follow The Privacy-First Business Stack. Best VPN Services · The Privacy-First Business Stack
Featured provider
Proton VPN
Proton VPN comes from Proton AG, the Swiss company behind Proton Mail, Pass and Drive. It's the first layer of BestStacked's Privacy-First Business Stack because the same Proton account also opens the rest of the suite.
It's also the only VPN in our comparison with a free plan: one device, servers in 10 countries that Proton picks for you, no ads and no data cap. VPN Plus covers 10 devices and adds Secure Core multi-hop routing, NetShield blocking of ads, trackers and malicious scripts, and streaming and P2P support.
Key facts
- Free plan
- 1 device, servers in 10 countries (randomly selected; one Proton page says 5), no data cap
- VPN Plus
- $9.99/mo monthly, or $53.88 for the first year, then $83.88/yr
- Audits
- Securitum no-logs audit every year since 2022; latest report 2026
- Jurisdiction
- Switzerland
- For teams
- Proton VPN for Business from $6.99/user/mo billed yearly, 2-user minimum
Why Proton is featured: Proton is the launch partner of BestStacked's VPN & Privacy section and the first layer of BestStacked's Privacy-First Business Stack. Featured placement is not a ranking or a score. The VPN comparison is unranked and applies the same columns to every provider. BestStacked has an affiliate relationship with Proton for its business products (Workspace, VPN for Business, Mail for Business and Drive for Business). Links to those are affiliate links; every other link on this page, including Proton VPN's personal plans, is a plain vendor link. Proton did not pay for, review or approve this page.
The five layers
Privacy tools by job
VPN software
A VPN encrypts traffic between your device and the VPN server. That protects you on hotel, airport and café Wi-Fi and hides your browsing from your internet provider. It doesn't hide you from sites you sign in to, stop phishing or replace device security. Listed alphabetically.
Full ranking: Best VPN Services (unranked comparison) · Proton VPN vs NordVPN
ExpressVPN
- Best for:
- Covering many device types, including routers, smart TVs and game consoles
- Skip if:
- You want a free plan or a price that stays flat after year one
- Price:
- Basic $14.99/mo monthly, or $74.85 for the first 15 months, then $99.95/yr
- Business controls:
- ExpressVPN for Teams, 5-license minimum, admin dashboard
Mullvad
- Best for:
- Keeping personal data off the account: no email, an account number instead, and cash accepted
- Skip if:
- You need a business account, an admin console or more than 5 devices
- Price:
- €5/mo on any term, with no renewal increase
NordLayer
- Best for:
- Teams of 5 or more that need central admin, SSO and dedicated gateways
- Skip if:
- You work alone: it's billed per user with a 5-user minimum
- Price:
- Lite $8, Core $11, Premium $14 per user/mo billed yearly
- Business controls:
- SSO on every plan; dedicated IP gateway +$40/mo on Core and Premium (yearly billing)
NordVPN
- Best for:
- Individuals who want extras in one subscription: malware protection, Meshnet and dark-web monitoring
- Skip if:
- Renewal cost matters: Basic renews at $139.08/yr after a $65.88 first year
- Price:
- Basic $14.99/mo monthly, or $65.88 for the first 12 months, then $139.08/yr
- Business controls:
- NordVPN sends business buyers to NordLayer
Proton VPN
- Best for:
- Starting free, or anyone moving email, passwords and files to Proton
- Skip if:
- You need more than 10 devices on one account
- Price:
- Free; VPN Plus $9.99/mo monthly, or $53.88 for the first year, then $83.88/yr
- Business controls:
- VPN Essentials $6.99/user/mo billed yearly, 2-user minimum; also included in Proton Workspace
Surfshark
- Best for:
- Households and small teams with lots of devices: every plan is unlimited
- Skip if:
- You want price stability: Starter renews at $79/yr after the intro term
- Price:
- Starter $16.45/mo monthly, or $50.85 for the first 15 months, then $79/yr
- Business controls:
- Surfshark for Teams from $5.90/user/mo on a 1-year plan, 5-user minimum
Encrypted email and calendar
Proton Mail encrypts messages end to end between Proton users and stores mail in a form Proton says it can't read. Subject lines, sender and recipient addresses, and mail to non-Proton addresses aren't end-to-end encrypted by default. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer client-side encryption only on enterprise tiers.
Full ranking: The Privacy-First Business Stack
Proton Mail + Calendar
- Best for:
- Encrypted mail and calendar from a Swiss provider, on your own domain
- Skip if:
- Your team depends on Gmail or Outlook add-ons and shared-inbox tools
- Price:
- Free (up to 1 GB); Mail Plus $3.99/mo billed yearly; Mail Essentials $6.99/user/mo billed yearly
- Business controls:
- Custom domains and an admin console; Proton says it offers BAAs on request for HIPAA
Google Workspace
- Best for:
- Teams that live in Google Docs and want the widest add-on ecosystem
- Skip if:
- You need client-side encryption on a Business plan: Google lists it only for Enterprise Plus, Frontline Plus and Education editions
- Price:
- Business Starter $7/user/mo with a 1-year commitment ($8.40 flexible)
Microsoft 365
- Best for:
- Teams standardised on Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams
- Skip if:
- You want Double Key Encryption without an enterprise licence: Microsoft says it comes with Microsoft 365 E5
- Price:
- Business Basic $7/user/mo paid yearly; Business Premium with Copilot $32
Password managers
Shared vaults stop passwords living in spreadsheets and chat threads, and let you revoke a contractor's access in one place. Business tiers add admin policies; SSO usually sits on the higher tier.
Proton Pass
- Best for:
- Teams already on Proton, or anyone who wants hide-my-email aliases built in
- Skip if:
- You need SSO and SCIM on the cheapest business tier
- Price:
- Free (unlimited logins and devices); Pass Plus $2.99/mo billed yearly; Pass Essentials $1.99/user/mo; Pass Professional $4.49/user/mo
- Business controls:
- Pass Professional adds SSO, SCIM and activity logs; audited by Cure53 (2023) and Recurity Labs (2026)
1Password
- Best for:
- Established teams that want mature admin policies, reporting and SSO integration
- Skip if:
- Budget is tight and you only need shared vaults
- Price:
- Teams Starter Pack $24.95/mo for up to 10 members; Business $8.99/user/mo, billed annually
- Business controls:
- SSO with Okta, Entra ID, OneLogin and Duo on Business; SOC 2 Type 2 per 1Password
Bitwarden
- Best for:
- Cost-conscious teams that want open-source apps and a free personal plan
- Skip if:
- You want SSO on the Teams plan: Bitwarden lists SSO on Enterprise
- Price:
- Free for individuals; Teams $4/user/mo; Enterprise $6/user/mo, billed annually
- Business controls:
- SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, per Bitwarden's compliance page
Secure cloud storage
End-to-end encrypted storage means the provider holds files it can't open. The trade-off is collaboration: real-time co-editing with people outside the service is harder than in Google Drive or OneDrive.
Proton Drive + Docs
- Best for:
- Encrypted files plus Docs and Sheets in the same account as your mail
- Skip if:
- You co-edit Office or Google files with clients every day
- Price:
- Free (5 GB); Drive Plus 200 GB $3.99/mo billed yearly; Drive Professional $7.99/user/mo billed yearly (1 TB)
- Business controls:
- Included in Proton Workspace Standard with 1 TB per user
Tresorit
- Best for:
- Teams that want dedicated encrypted file sharing from a Swiss Post company
- Skip if:
- You also want mail and a VPN from the same vendor
- Price:
- Business $19/user/mo billed yearly, 3-user minimum; Professional $27.49/mo for one user
- Business controls:
- End-to-end encrypted, zero-knowledge; SSO on Business
Private communication
Encrypted messaging keeps client conversations off SMS and consumer chat apps. Signal is the strongest free option for conversations; team tools add the admin control Signal doesn't have.
Signal
- Best for:
- Free end-to-end encrypted chats and calls with clients and contractors
- Skip if:
- You need admin control, central accounts or message archiving for compliance
- Price:
- Free (run by a nonprofit)
- Business controls:
- No admin console or central account management; each phone registers with its own number
Wire
- Best for:
- Small businesses that want encrypted team messaging with an admin console
- Skip if:
- You have more than 100 people (SMB plan limit)
- Price:
- Free up to 5 people; SMB €7.45/person/mo billed annually
- Business controls:
- Admin console on all tiers; SSO and SCIM on SMB
Element
- Best for:
- Organisations that want self-hosted, Matrix-based messaging they control
- Skip if:
- You're a small team without IT help: Enterprise pricing starts at 100 users
- Price:
- Self-hosted Community edition (AGPL, non-professional use); Enterprise per seat from 100 users, no public price
- Business controls:
- Admin interface; self-hosted and air-gapped options
VPNs at a glance
Five VPNs, side by side
The short version of the full comparison. Listed alphabetically, not ranked. Entry plan means each provider's cheapest paid tier.
| Provider | Free plan | Devices | Jurisdiction | Latest no-logs or infrastructure audit | Entry plan: first term → renewal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 ExpressVPN | No (3-day trial in the mobile apps) | 10 on Basic (12 and 14 on higher plans) | British Virgin Islands | KPMG, published June 25, 2025 | $74.85 for 15 months → $99.95/yr |
 Mullvad | No | 5 | Sweden | Cure53 infrastructure audit, June 2024 | €5/mo on any term, no renewal increase |
 NordVPN | No (only Meshnet is free) | 10 | Panama | Deloitte, report issued Dec 12, 2025 | $65.88 for 12 months → $139.08/yr |
 Proton VPN | Yes: 1 device, servers in 10 countries | 10 (1 on Free) | Switzerland | Securitum, 2026 report (fifth annual) | $53.88 for 12 months → $83.88/yr |
 Surfshark | No (7-day trial on 1- and 2-year plans) | Unlimited | Netherlands | Deloitte, 2025 (report inside user accounts) | $50.85 for 15 months → $79/yr |
- Free plan
- No (3-day trial in the mobile apps)
- Devices
- 10 on Basic (12 and 14 on higher plans)
- Jurisdiction
- British Virgin Islands
- Latest no-logs or infrastructure audit
- KPMG, published June 25, 2025
- Entry plan: first term → renewal
- $74.85 for 15 months → $99.95/yr
- Free plan
- No
- Devices
- 5
- Jurisdiction
- Sweden
- Latest no-logs or infrastructure audit
- Cure53 infrastructure audit, June 2024
- Entry plan: first term → renewal
- €5/mo on any term, no renewal increase
- Free plan
- No (only Meshnet is free)
- Devices
- 10
- Jurisdiction
- Panama
- Latest no-logs or infrastructure audit
- Deloitte, report issued Dec 12, 2025
- Entry plan: first term → renewal
- $65.88 for 12 months → $139.08/yr
- Free plan
- Yes: 1 device, servers in 10 countries
- Devices
- 10 (1 on Free)
- Jurisdiction
- Switzerland
- Latest no-logs or infrastructure audit
- Securitum, 2026 report (fifth annual)
- Entry plan: first term → renewal
- $53.88 for 12 months → $83.88/yr
- Free plan
- No (7-day trial on 1- and 2-year plans)
- Devices
- Unlimited
- Jurisdiction
- Netherlands
- Latest no-logs or infrastructure audit
- Deloitte, 2025 (report inside user accounts)
- Entry plan: first term → renewal
- $50.85 for 15 months → $79/yr
Prices in USD (Mullvad in EUR), excluding tax, from each vendor's pricing page on October 15, 2026. NordLayer is a business product and is covered separately in the full guide.
Read this first
What a VPN protects, and what it doesn't
A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel from your device to the VPN provider's server. Your internet provider and anyone on the same Wi-Fi see that you're connected to a VPN, not which sites you visit, and websites see the VPN server's IP address instead of yours.
That's useful, and limited. You're moving trust from your internet provider to the VPN provider, which is why jurisdiction, logging policy and independent audits matter more than server counts.
- A VPN doesn't make you anonymous. Accounts you sign in to, cookies and browser fingerprinting still identify you.
- It doesn't stop phishing or account takeovers. Built-in blockers reduce exposure to known bad domains, but they're one layer of protection, not complete protection.
- It doesn't make a business compliant with GDPR, HIPAA or any other rule. Compliance depends on your contracts, data handling and processes; a vendor's certifications help, but they don't transfer to you.
- A no-logs audit checks the provider's systems at a point in time or over a short period. It's evidence about practices, not a guarantee.
The stack
How the five layers fit together
Think of each layer as covering one way business data leaks. The VPN protects how you connect. Encrypted email and calendar protect what you send and when you meet. The password manager protects how you sign in. Encrypted storage protects what you share. An encrypted messenger protects quick conversations that would otherwise end up in SMS.
You don't need five vendors. Proton's personal plans (Proton Unlimited, Duo, Family) and its business suite, Proton Workspace, bundle the VPN, Mail, Calendar, Pass, Drive and Docs, so the bundled apps aren't separate costs. Signal stays free for messaging, with real limits for business administration that the stack explains.
Buying guide
How to Choose the Right Tool
Start with the leak you're most exposed to. For most small businesses that's passwords, not network traffic: a password manager with shared vaults usually pays off before a VPN does.
Consolidate where it's honest to. One vendor for VPN, email, passwords and files means one bill and one admin console, and bundled products aren't extra costs. Keep a separate tool only where it's clearly better for your work.
Check business controls before you buy for a team: an admin console, the ability to remove a leaver in one place, and SSO if you already use Google or Microsoft sign-in. Consumer accounts shared across a team have none of these.
Read the renewal price, not just the intro price. Every VPN on this page except Mullvad renews its 1- and 2-year plans at a higher yearly price than the intro term.
Treat vendor claims as claims. Look for dated independent audits with a stated scope, and note when a vendor's own pages disagree.
Methodology
How We Evaluate Tools
Official documentation only
Every fact comes from the vendor's own pages or the audit announcement it links to, checked October 15, 2026. We ran no speed tests; speed claims are the vendors'.
Renewal, not just intro price
VPN prices jump after the first term. We list the intro price, the term it covers and the price it renews at, as each vendor states it.
Audits with dates and scope
We name the auditor, the date and what was in scope, and link the announcement. An audit is evidence about practices, not a guarantee.
No scores without a review
Only Proton VPN has a published BestStacked review so far, so this page shows no scores and ranks nobody, to keep the comparison even. Featured or sponsored placement never changes that.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
Official sources and verification dates
Every product, price and audit fact on this page comes from the vendor's own website or the audit announcement it links to. Competitor facts never come from another vendor's comparison page. Prices are in US dollars unless marked, exclude tax, and can vary by country and promotion.
Proton VPN
- Proton VPN pricing (checked )
- Proton VPN free plan (checked )
- Proton VPN features (checked )
- Proton VPN downloads (checked )
- Proton VPN privacy policy (July 30, 2025) (checked )
- Proton VPN no-logs audits (Securitum, 2022–2026) (checked )
- Proton VPN for Business pricing (checked )
- Proton SOC 2 Type II (July 2025) (checked )
Proton Mail, Pass, Drive and Workspace
- Proton Workspace plans (checked )
- Proton for Business (checked )
- Proton Mail Essentials (business) (checked )
- Proton Pass for Business pricing (checked )
- Proton Pass security audits (checked )
- Proton personal plans (checked )
- Proton plans explained (support) (checked )
- Proton Pass pricing (checked )
- Proton Drive pricing (checked )
- Proton Docs (checked )
- Proton Mail encryption explained (checked )
- Proton Mail privacy policy (checked )
- Proton for healthcare (BAA) (checked )
NordVPN and NordLayer
- NordVPN pricing (checked )
- NordVPN features (checked )
- NordVPN downloads (checked )
- NordVPN no-logs policy and audits (checked )
- NordVPN 2025 Deloitte no-logs assurance (checked )
- NordVPN 2025 Cure53 security assessment (checked )
- NordVPN free trial terms (checked )
- NordLayer business VPN (checked )
- NordLayer pricing (checked )
- NordLayer security and compliance (help center) (checked )
Surfshark
- Surfshark pricing (checked )
- Surfshark renewal prices (checked )
- Surfshark features (checked )
- Surfshark trust center (audits) (checked )
- Surfshark privacy policy (Oct 12, 2026) (checked )
- Surfshark free trial (checked )
- Surfshark for Teams (checked )
ExpressVPN
- ExpressVPN pricing (checked )
- ExpressVPN features (checked )
- ExpressVPN trust center (audits) (checked )
- ExpressVPN 2025 KPMG no-logs audit (checked )
- ExpressVPN privacy policy (Oct 2, 2026) (checked )
- ExpressVPN money-back guarantee (checked )
- ExpressVPN for Teams pricing (checked )
Mullvad
- Mullvad pricing (checked )
- Mullvad VPN features (checked )
- Mullvad no-logging policy (checked )
- Mullvad audits (checked )
- Mullvad terms of service (refunds) (checked )
- Mullvad downloads (checked )
Signal, Wire and Element
- Signal (checked )
- Signal: cost to use (checked )
- Signal: can I use Signal for work? (checked )
- Signal: phone-numberless registration (Android beta) (checked )
- Signal: group chats (checked )
- Signal: linked devices (checked )
- Wire pricing (checked )
- Element pricing (checked )
Other tools named
- 1Password business pricing (checked )
- 1Password business security (checked )
- 1Password security (SOC 2) (checked )
- Bitwarden business pricing (checked )
- Bitwarden compliance (checked )
- Tresorit business pricing (checked )
- Google Workspace pricing (checked )
- Google Workspace client-side encryption editions (checked )
- Microsoft 365 business plans (checked )
- Microsoft Double Key Encryption (checked )