Is VPN as a service just a VPN someone else runs for you?
Summary
Mostly, yes. VPNaaS means the provider runs the servers and the upkeep, but vendors attach the label to two quite different things: remote access for your own staff, and a VPN you build into your product for your customers. The clearest difference from running your own VPN shows up on the bill, which may count concurrent connections, hours, or seats depending on who operates what.
Two products share the name
Proton sells "VPN as a Service" to companies that want to put a VPN inside their own app. Its page names mobile carriers, SaaS platforms and enterprise partners as the buyers, and pitches it as a way to give users privacy "without handling servers, encryption, or compliance yourself." It offers fixed IP addresses in 20+ countries and dedicated servers in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. There's no public price; you request a demo or contact sales.
OpenVPN's CloudConnexa is the other kind. It connects a company's own people to private apps, SaaS tools and the internet, "delivered as a service," and it supports both the IPsec and OpenVPN protocols.
If a vendor says VPNaaS, the first thing to find out is which of these two it means. A procurement team shopping for staff remote access has no use for a VPN meant to be built into somebody else's app.
What you still run yourself
OpenVPN Access Server is the self-hosted version of the same idea. OpenVPN describes "multiple choices for you to self-host Access Server": install it on Linux, run it as a virtual appliance or container, or put it on a public cloud such as AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft's. Keeping that server configured and patched is your job.
AWS Client VPN sits at the other end. AWS calls it a managed service that removes "the operational burden of deploying and maintaining third-party remote access VPN solutions," and says it scales with the number of connected users without manual work.
How each model is billed
- Access Server counts concurrent connections. You can register as many users and devices as you like, but only the number you subscribe to can be connected at once. Two connections are free to try.
- AWS Client VPN charges by the hour for each subnet association on the endpoint and for each active connection, and the public IPv4 addresses used for the tunnels are billed at the standard rate.
- CloudConnexa charges by the seat, and its admin portal splits used seats between users and connectors. The free Starter plan includes 5 seats.
Only the last of these comes close to a per-user price, and even there connectors take seats alongside people. The other two turn into a monthly figure only after you decide how many people connect at the same time, or for how many hours.
Where zero trust fits
VPNaaS is about who operates the VPN. ZTNA is about how access is granted: who can reach which application. The two overlap in products like CloudConnexa, which markets itself as "Zero Trust Made Easy," but one term doesn't imply the other. Our overview of VPN services covers what ZTNA means, and ZTNA pricing has its own page.
Sources
- https://proton.me/business/vpn/vpnaas
- https://openvpn.net/cloud-vpn/
- https://openvpn.net/access-server/
- https://openvpn.net/access-server/pricing/
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpn/latest/clientvpn-admin/what-is.html
- https://aws.amazon.com/vpn/pricing/
- https://openvpn.net/cloud-vpn/pricing/
- https://openvpn.net/cloud-docs/owner/status/check-the-number-of-available-and-used-subscribed-seats.html
Related on this site
- Per user, per device, or per server — the unit is not the same everywhere
- ZTNA pricing: what zero-trust network access costs per user
- Every business VPN vendor here, and what a user costs
- What do you actually get from a VPN service, and how is a business VPN different?
- What does AWS actually charge for a VPN?
- Is OpenVPN free, or do you have to pay for it?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Published September 28, 2026. The facts above come from the vendor and standards pages listed under Sources. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.