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What is not in the published price

Every figure here is a floor. Four costs sit outside the per-user price we compute with: optional add-ons, taxes, device and machine limits, and the work of moving.

Only the first is published by anyone in this dataset, and it is deliberately excluded from the arithmetic.

The per-user price plus the minimum plus the required fixed charge is the honest core of what these products cost. It is not the invoice. Here is the rest, and why none of it is in our numbers.

1. Optional add-ons

Several vendors sell a dedicated IP, an extra gateway or a static address as an optional extra: PureVPN lists a static IP per member as an add-on; GoodAccess prices a dedicated gateway alongside its plans.

Optional charges are shown in the tables and left out of every computed figure. The line is whether the vendor says the charge is required for that plan. NordLayer's dedicated-IP server is required on Core and Premium, so it is counted; a static IP you may or may not want is not.

That rule is arbitrary in one direction and had to be: counting optional extras would let us inflate any vendor we liked less, and ignoring required ones would flatter the ones with the largest fixed fees.

2. Taxes

Not one vendor in this dataset publishes what tax adds to the invoice. US sales tax varies by state, EU and UK VAT by country, and a global vendor cannot print one figure that is true everywhere.

So no figure here includes tax, and the size of the omission is not estimated. If you are in the UK, assume 20 percent on top of a sterling figure unless the vendor says otherwise; if you are in the US, it depends on your state.

3. Devices, machines and connections

The unit is not always the person. ZeroTier's plans include a device count and charge for machines beyond it; NetBird includes machines per user and prices additional ones; several vendors cap connections rather than people.

A per-user price with a device limit behind it is a different product from one without, and a single laptop-plus-phone user can consume two of whatever is being counted. Where a vendor publishes the included count, it is in the row. Where the limit is what actually binds, the article on units is the one to read.

4. The work of moving

Nobody prices it and everybody pays it. Rolling out a remote-access product means enrolling devices, rebuilding routes and access rules, and getting people to install a client. Leaving means doing it again.

That work is why a small monthly saving rarely justifies a switch, and it is the honest reason this site does not tell readers to move. The alternatives pages show what the cheaper options cost; whether the gap covers a week of somebody's attention is a calculation only you can complete.

So how wrong is the number?

Only ever wrong in one direction: your invoice will be higher than our figure, never lower.

Take the cheapest published US plan at ten users and add tax, plus an add-on if you need a static address, plus whatever your own time is worth during rollout. The ranking survives all of it, because the same omissions apply to every row. The absolute figure does not, and we say so on every page that carries one.

What that means for a shortlist

  1. Use the ranking at your real team size to get to three or four vendors.
  2. On those, check whether a dedicated IP or gateway is required or optional for the plan you want.
  3. Check the device or machine limit against how many devices your people actually carry.
  4. Add tax at your local rate.
  5. Then compare, on your own numbers.

Step 1 is the tedious part across 24 vendors. Steps 2 to 4 are quick once the list is short, and they are the steps nobody can do for you from published data.

Who this is not for

If you want one number for a budget line, this page will disappoint you and so will the rest of the site. We publish a floor and call it a floor.

It is also not for people whose decision is about security posture rather than money. Device coverage, identity integration and how the product fails when the network does are all reasonable grounds to pay more, and none of them appear in our arithmetic.

Questions people ask

Why not estimate tax? Because the figure would sit in the same type as figures that carry a URL and a date. One invented number costs more credibility than it adds precision, and the reader loses the ability to tell which is which.

Why count required fixed charges but not optional ones? Because a required charge is part of the price of that plan and an optional one is a decision. The tables show both so you can disagree with where we drew the line.

Do any vendors publish an all-in figure? None here, in the sense of a price including tax and any add-ons your setup needs. Several publish a clear per-user price and a clear minimum, which is the part they control.

Sources

Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.