ZTNA vs VPN: What's the Difference?

Both solutions provide secure remote access, but they do so in very different ways. While Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) encrypt traffic through secure tunnels to corporate networks, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) applies identity- and context-based checks to every connection.

Choosing the right solution isn’t always simple. Many organizations worry about balancing security with performance and cost. It’s understandable—access control, user experience, and regulatory compliance all factor into the decision. This article breaks down the core differences, benefits, and drawbacks of VPNs and ZTNA so you can confidently choose the best approach for your organization.

If you'd like a more detailed background first, you can explore the differences between ZTNA and VPN solutions or start with an introductory guide to VPNs for remote work.

Top Cybersecurity Threats for SMBs

Small businesses face the same threats as large enterprises—often without the same resources. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) identifies the following as the most common cyber risks:

• Phishing: Fraudulent emails trick employees into revealing sensitive information or clicking malicious links.
• Malware and Ransomware: Malicious software can steal data, lock systems, and demand ransom for recovery.
• Spyware: Hidden programs can capture employee credentials and access networks undetected.
  
  

Layered security and risk mitigation strategies are critical, but the right remote access solution plays a major role in protecting your organization.

ZTNA vs. VPN According to NIST

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework focuses on five functions — Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover — that will help you get a high-level understanding of your cyber risk and the security solution you need.

• Identify: Develop the organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.
• Protect: Develop and implement the appropriate safeguards to ensure delivery of critical infrastructure services.
• Detect: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.
• Respond: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to take action regarding a detected cybersecurity event.
• Recover: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services that were impaired due to a cybersecurity event.

Given the biggest threats to business networks, and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Core Functions, the most popular security solutions are VPN, ZTNA, SASE, SSE, and SDP. So what does each solution offer?

What Is a VPN?

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides encrypted tunnels between users and the corporate network over the public internet. This enables remote employees to securely access company resources.

VPNs are familiar, affordable, and compatible with most devices. However, some organizations worry about performance bottlenecks or the complexity of managing multiple VPN connections at scale.

How a VPN Helps with Network Security explains why VPNs remain a critical part of many SMB security strategies.

What Is ZTNA?

ZTNA vs VPN is more about the verification, rather than the perimeter. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) enforces the principle of never trust, always verify. Instead of granting broad access to a network, ZTNA validates every user, device, and context before granting application-specific access.

The 5 pillars of ZTNA are key elements that provide critical decision factors when evaluating secure access solutions. 

What are the 5 pillars of ZTNA?

• Explicit Verification: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) required for all access requests.
• Least Privilege: Users only receive the minimum permissions needed to perform their tasks.
• Assume Breach: Every connection is treated as potentially compromised, reducing lateral movement.

• Micro-Segmentation: Access is restricted to individual applications or services rather than entire networks, containing breaches and preventing threat escalation.

  Continuous Monitoring: Activity is constantly logged and analyzed to detect anomalies in real time, enabling rapid response to suspicious behavior and improving overall threat detection.

By applying these controls, ZTNA can reduce attack surface and improve security posture in cloud-centric environments.

Learn more in ZTNA with CloudConnexa

Security Features: Where VPN vs ZTNA Diverge

Is there anything more secure than a VPN? In some ways, yes. The reality, however, is that most of these solutions do much better with the support of a VPN. It's not either/or. VPNs excel at quickly extending secure access to an entire network. ZTNA focuses on granular, context-aware application access.

It makes sense to consider the risk of every single entry point, especially as remote work scales. VPNs generally rely on network perimeter security, while ZTNA minimizes trust and uses strict segmentation.

ZTNA’s advanced authentication and verification features can improve compliance and security, but VPNs remain a strong fit for certain workflows. Each solution has its own strengths, so your environment and requirements will guide the right choice.

ZTNA, SASE, SSE, and SDP

Newer frameworks such as SASE, SSE, and SDP incorporate ZTNA and expand its capabilities.

What Is SASE?

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) combines ZTNA with other security functions like SWG, CASB, and FWaaS into a single, cloud-delivered service model. This approach is identity-based and ideal for organizations with distributed users.

Learn more about VPN's Role in SASE.

What Is SSE?

Security Service Edge (SSE) is a subset of SASE that focuses solely on the security services (ZTNA, CASB, SWG) without the networking elements. It’s often a cost-effective choice for SMBs seeking security without reworking WAN architecture.

What Is SDP?

Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) hides your infrastructure from discovery and limits access only to verified users. SDP can act as a bridge between VPN and ZTNA and is often open-source, making it attractive to smaller organizations.

Discover how CloudConnexa enables Zero Trust for SMBs.

Practical Implementation: Cost, Scalability, and Compliance

When comparing VPN vs ZTNA, consider not just security but also cost, scalability, and compliance.

Scalability and Performance

As your business grows and remote connections increase, the scalability of your secure access solution becomes critical. VPNs can handle larger user bases, but performance bottlenecks may occur as traffic is funneled through centralized gateways. In contrast, ZTNA solutions are designed to scale dynamically in cloud environments, offering more efficient performance by enforcing policies at the edge.

For managed service providers (MSPs) or organizations managing multiple client environments, advanced ZTNA deployments may offer the flexibility and control needed to scale effectively.

Learn more about advanced ZTNA strategies for MSPs.

Compliance

Compliance is another essential factor in the VPN vs ZTNA comparison. VPNs can support auditing, but they offer limited segmentation, which can make meeting standards like HIPAA and SOC 2 more challenging. ZTNA, with its granular access controls and explicit verification processes, often simplifies compliance requirements.

Regardless of the solution you choose, conducting an internal audit of your access controls is recommended to ensure you meet all necessary compliance benchmarks. For more information, see our SOC 2 and HIPAA adherence announcement.

Learn how to implement a ZTNA framework with CloudConnexa

Selecting the Best Approach for Your Organization

When it comes to selecting the best approach for your organization, it’s essential to weigh your needs for access control, user experience, cost, and compliance. Both VPN and ZTNA — and by extension, SASE — can fit unique environments depending on your priorities and infrastructure.

As a next step, explore strategies for zero trust architecture implementation to elevate your overall cybersecurity posture and identify the framework that best meets your organization’s needs.

VPN and ZTNA both have important roles in modern network security. Your decision should weigh access control needs, user experience, cost & scalability, and compliance requirements; each are essential for your security.

It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed when balancing performance, cost, and regulatory demands. Consider an internal discussion with stakeholders on migration feasibility and user training. You can also explore strategies for zero trust architecture implementation to strengthen your overall security posture.

Why CloudConnexa?

CloudConnexa is designed to give businesses the best of both worlds: the familiarity and secure tunneling capabilities of VPN technology, combined with the granular access control and zero trust principles found in ZTNA and SDP. It eliminates the need to manage multiple separate solutions and simplifies administration with a single cloud-delivered platform.

With CloudConnexa, organizations can:

• Scale secure connections up or down based on concurrent usage without worrying about per-user licensing.
• Apply context-aware policies to users, devices, and applications, making it easier to enforce zero trust across remote workers and branch offices.
• Reduce complexity by leveraging built-in DNS-based content filtering, device identity verification, and smart routing for performance optimization.
• Ensure compliance with HIPAA, SOC 2, and other regulatory standards with integrated auditing and logging tools.
  
  

By merging these capabilities, CloudConnexa is an ideal option for small and mid-sized businesses that want to enhance security without introducing additional management overhead.

Fortunately, you don’t have to choose just one approach. CloudConnexa combines the benefits of VPN, ZTNA, and SDP in one cost-effective solution.

• CloudConnexa's concurrent connection pricing helps control costs.
• You'll be able to connect remote workers, branch offices, and contractors with ease.
• Featuring built-in DNS-based content filtering, device identity enforcement, and flexible routing, CloudConnexa keeps security strong and performance high.
  
  

HIPAA-compliant VPN and zero trust principles are already integrated, so you can focus on running your business.

Get Started With CloudConnexa

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