VPN and remote-access security for a distributed team

A VPN for a distributed business team serves a different purpose depending on which problem it's solving: encrypting traffic on public networks while traveling, or connecting team members securely to shared internal resources, and the two use cases point toward different products.

NordVPN and ExpressVPN are both consumer-oriented VPNs built mainly for the first case: encrypting a connection on a hotel or airport network, or accessing a service that's geographically restricted. Both have comparable reliability and speed by most independent testing, with pricing that favors longer subscription commitments over month-to-month. Tailscale solves the second case instead, creating a private network between a team's own devices and servers rather than routing traffic through a third-party VPN provider, useful for a team that needs to access shared internal tools rather than browse the public internet anonymously.

A team member traveling and connecting from public networks is served by NordVPN or ExpressVPN. A team that needs its own members and servers securely connected to each other, regardless of location, needs Tailscale instead, the two solve different problems and a team may reasonably use both.