Perimeter 81 VPN Review – Legit Business VPN?

We are back with another VPN review but this one is little different than the previous ones which we had reviewed here earlier…Perimeter 81 is a “Business VPN” and The award-winning service provided by Perimeter 81 can be used by IT Managers, CTOs, CIOs, CISOs, and Compliance Managers from businesses of all sizes and industry sectors. The client base of Perimeter 81 includes Fortune 500 companies as well as SMBs.

Perimeter 81 is actually among the top Business/corporate VPNs. High-quality security, dedicated servers, quick speeds with up to 1,000 Mbps!, simple user management, round-the-clock customer support, network-based split tunnelling, and many other business-oriented features are all available with Perimeter 81.

Read this Perimeter 81 VPN review to know what makes Perimeter 81 so great and what kind of drawbacks it might have.

Perimeter 81 at a glance :

Features & benefits of Perimeter 81

Just like a standard VPN, Perimeter 81 will conceal the user's real IP address, encrypt all internet traffic, and unblock a variety of geo-restricted websites and content. However, its main objective is to safeguard your business, and it has a number of unique features you might not be familiar with.

In fact, Perimeter is one of the best Business VPNs currently available in the market with some great features.Its features consist of:

1.   Dedicated IPs and servers
2.   Connecting cloud apps (Azure, Google Cloud)
3.   Accessing business web apps safely
4.   Streamlined user management
5.   Posture Check (verification of the device's security and integrity)
6.   Always-On VPN (automatic connection)
7.   Split tunnelling based on the network
8.   Device and user monitoring
9.   Easy Integration with 3rd-party providers.
10. Secure Web Gateway

Here, we'll go through a few of the main features of Perimeter 81 in more detail.

Dedicated servers with dedicated IPs

Your staff members are the only ones who can access your company's internal network thanks to dedicated servers and IP addresses. To put it another way, no one will be able to access these resources if they are not connected to the dedicated VPN server, hence preventing unauthorised access to your sensitive data.

It is especially helpful when several staff work from home, as this makes it much simpler for hackers to steal your valuable company data.

Two-factor Authentication

A VPN account has an additional layer of security thanks to two-factor authentication. Additionally, you should use every layer of protection you can when it comes to businesses.

When utilising Perimeter 81, there are several possible approaches to implement 2FA. Your employees may verify their identity when logging into their accounts by receiving a special security code via SMS or push notification, inputting the distinctive Google Authenticator number sequence, or utilising the incredibly handy Duo Security app.

Split Tunneling 

Split tunnelling is undoubtedly a term you've heard if you know anything about VPNs. Typically, you can choose which websites and apps should use the VPN connection using this feature.

However, Perimeter 81's split tunnelling function operates somewhat differently. You are given the option to choose which subnets you want to use the VPN tunnel for rather than specific programmes and websites.

Secure Web Gateway

Perimeter 81 has incorporated a web filtering tool that prevents employees from visiting harmful websites and infecting office devices in order to secure the sensitive data of the firm. By placing some restrictions on non-business-related content, however, productivity rises along with employee safety and awareness.

By using the same admin panel that has been used to distribute users with other management tools, an admin can implement web filter rules to achieve these objectives. There, an administrator can disable access for other users to a certain category (such as gaming or streaming platforms). On the other hand, bypass rules can be added, allowing select users to ignore some web filtering restrictions.

Device Posture Check

A nifty little tool called Device Posture Check (DCP) will make sure that your staff can only connect to the organization's network using secure devices.

You have a lot of freedom from the feature because you get to select what constitutes a secure device. For instance, you can restrict access to machines that run a particular antivirus product, are encrypted to the specified level, or possess the necessary authentication certificates. Additionally, you can create profiles for various device groups.

User management

Even though Perimeter 81 has a lot of features, managing users can become rather simple. Of course, if you have at least some expertise with corporate VPNs, it will be much easier for you to adapt to the platform.

The ability to form user groups and give them various permissions is useful in our opinion. You may, for instance, deny certain user groups access to particular websites. Additionally, you can ban domains, content types, and IP addresses. Even domains might be excluded from banned categories.

It's quite simple to add additional users to Perimeter 81 because it's a cloud-based service. To invite a new member, you only need to include their email address. You can also upload a.csv file containing up to 100 email addresses as an alternative.

Additionally, the users' VPN clients' settings can be modified. You can, for instance:

1. Deactivate both private and public VPN servers
   
2. Activate the Always-On VPN function
   
3. Enforce Automatic updates
   
4. Activate the kill switch.
   
5. Enable two-factor authentication
   
6. Set the default protocol for different OS systems
   
7. Reset user passwords

Perimeter 81 offers you a great deal of flexibility when it comes to handling user accounts overall.

Is Perimeter 81 secure?

Yes, Perimeter 81 is one of the safest VPN service providers available in the market. This cloud-based service encrypts your internet traffic and other data using the AES-256 cypher, like most other quality providers. This type of encryption is utilised by both the military and banks and is impenetrable to a brute-force attack.

It's also comforting to know that nobody, not even the cloud provider, has access to your data.

The best tunnelling methods are all provided by Perimeter 81. You have a choice of three:

WireGuard. This open-source protocol offers the best speeds in the sector by fusing security and efficiency.

OpenVPN. The stability and security of this tunnelling protocol are prioritised. Due to its flexibility and fast speeds, the vast majority of VPN services employ it.

IKEv2. The stability of this protocol makes it ideal for usage with portable devices (as users tend to shift between wifi and mobile data when using a smartphone). Additionally, it is very safe and fast.

Naturally, a VPN's privacy policy is very important as well. In this situation, Perimeter 81 monitors specific data to guarantee a smooth experience for your business. 

Here is the type of data that it records:

Admin actions: (inviting members, changing permissions, etc.)
Team member behaviour: (connection timestamps, location of the device at the time of the connection, etc.)
Payment information: (your name and address and the last four digits of your credit card number)
On their web page, Perimeter 81 provides a link to their complete privacy statement.

Speed performance

Perimeter 81 is a very speedy VPN service. It actually competes favourably with the fastest VPN programmes currently available.

Given that it provides WireGuard, this is not unexpected. Let's examine the performance outcomes when this tunnelling protocol is utilised:

Baseline: 1 ms, 300 Mbps download, and 300 Mbps upload.

As you can see, especially with the private gateway, the speeds are rather good (UK). In this instance, the download speed only dropped by 2.7%. Surprisingly, the upload speed was essentially the same as the speed of my internet connection when it wasn't using a VPN.

The situation with shared servers was also rather good; frequently, I was only left with more over two thirds of my initial download speed. 

When comparing WireGuard's performance to that of other tunnelling protocols, it's important to note that IKEv2 performed almost as well. Its download speeds were constantly fast, decreasing by only 10%. The upload rates, on the other hand, were a little slower, giving me less than half of my initial speed.

All things considered, if your internet connection permits it, Perimeter 81 should be able to offer the 1,000 Mbps speed it has promised.

Perimeter 81 Pricing and Plans:

Given that Perimeter 81 is a business VPN rather than a personal one, its pricing structure might not be exactly what you're used to.

First off, there is a minimum number of users, and depending on the plan you select, each user has a different cost:

• Essentials: min. 5 users, min. $8 per user
  
• Premium: min. 10 users, min. $12 per user
  
• Premium Plus: min. 20 users, min. $16 per user
  
• Enterprise: min. 50 users, no fixed pricing

When purchasing Perimeter 81, you have the option of paying for a monthly subscription or purchasing the VPN for an entire year, which makes the subscription slightly less expensive.  

The monthly prices and the minimum cost for obtaining the service for one month are shown below:

Essentials: $8/month per user, $40 per gateway $1,060/year