VPN Replacement Guide: How to Choose the Right VPN Alternative

VPNs are not going away overnight, but their days as the default choice for secure remote access are numbered. Businesses are looking for a VPN replacement because legacy VPNs can be complex to manage, backhaul traffic through central gateways, and give users broader network access than they need.

These problems become harder to manage as employees connect from offices, homes, hotels, and public Wi-Fi, while apps sit across private networks and the cloud. IT teams and MSPs must support this mix without adding infrastructure or headcount.

The right VPN alternative depends on what you use your VPN for: securing access to private apps, protecting internet traffic, enforcing security and content policies, or combining all three. Once you define that job, you can choose the right mix of remote access and traffic protection without overcomplicating your stack.

The problem with legacy VPNs

Legacy VPNs encrypt traffic, route connections, and grant network access. As remote work and cloud use expand, relying on one VPN deployment for all three creates operational complexity, avoidable latency, and flat-network risk.

Complexity that outgrows IT capacity

Each VPN client must be installed, updated, and supported across Windows, macOS, mobile devices, and different versions. IT also maintains authentication settings, firewall rules, permissions, and split-tunnel configurations.

Exceptions multiply quickly. Giving a contractor access to one internal application may require changes to the VPN, identity provider, firewall, and access-control policies. A conflict with one operating system or client may need another one-off rule for IT to document, test, and maintain.

For internal IT teams, that means more tickets and a greater risk of inconsistent policies. MSPs repeat the work across customers with different networks, applications, operating systems, and inherited configurations. As customization grows, troubleshooting takes longer, and routine updates become harder to apply consistently.

Backhaul latency

A full-tunnel VPN sends all user traffic through a central gateway, including traffic for cloud applications and public websites. A remote employee opening a cloud collaboration platform may send traffic to the corporate network before it reaches the provider. The response takes the same indirect route back.

This backhaul adds latency to application sessions and video calls, consumes bandwidth, and can overload VPN gateways. It also makes remote work dependent on infrastructure that plays no part in delivering the application.

Split tunneling can send selected traffic directly to the internet, but it adds routing decisions, exceptions, and policies for IT to maintain. For organizations that rely heavily on cloud services, routing every session through the corporate network adds cost and delay without improving access.

Flat-network risk

Many legacy VPNs authenticate a user and place their device on a network segment. The user may need one private application but gain visibility of several systems behind the same network boundary.

If their credentials are stolen or their device is compromised, an attacker inherits that reach. Weak segmentation, outdated permissions, or a configuration error can provide a path to other systems. The attacker may then move laterally using access the VPN has already granted, with no VPN exploit required.

Segmentation and least-privilege policies reduce this exposure, but require careful design, maintenance, and enforcement. Smaller IT teams and MSPs may struggle to keep every permission current. Granting access only to the application a user needs limits the systems exposed if an account or device is compromised.

Why legacy VPNs are falling short now

Many legacy VPNs were designed for occasional remote access. Hybrid work has turned full-tunnel use into an everyday traffic pattern. Backhauling cloud and public internet traffic increases bandwidth use, latency, gateway load, and support demand. An outage or rushed patch can interrupt access for every remote user on that gateway.

Attackers increasingly target VPN concentrators. Their internet-facing position and connection to the corporate network make unpatched or unsupported appliances valuable entry points. CISA has documented threat actors exploiting VPN appliance vulnerabilities to gain access, implant web shells, and harvest stored credentials. Organizations must patch, monitor, and harden the VPN as a high-value part of their attack surface.

MSPs face both pressures across dozens of client environments, each with its own appliance, software version, identity setup, permissions, and split-tunnel policy. Technicians must keep every deployment patched and available while resolving connectivity problems and maintaining client-specific exceptions. This work is difficult to standardize or automate. As the client base grows, ticket volumes and technician time erode margins and may force the MSP to add headcount. Continuous tunnels and customer-specific network access are difficult to scale with a lean team.

What modern policy-driven access looks like

Modern access separates the jobs that legacy VPNs bundle together. Private-application access, encrypted internet traffic, and security-policy enforcement can use different controls, so each connection follows the route and policies its destination requires.

ZTNA vs. VPN for private application access

Policy-driven access evaluates each request for a specific application or resource. Identity, role, device posture, location, and resource sensitivity determine whether access is allowed.

A successful login establishes identity; policy grants access only to approved resources.

The connection to that resource is encrypted without placing the device on a broader network segment. This follows the principles of zero-trust network access, where trust is repeatedly verified, and access is limited to what the user needs.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Zero Trust Architecture states that physical or network location should not create implicit trust. It focuses protection on users, assets, and resources rather than the network perimeter. If an account or device is compromised, the attacker does not automatically inherit access to every system within reach.

Selective tunneling

Selective tunneling sends designated private-network traffic through an encrypted tunnel. Cloud applications and public internet traffic connect directly to their destinations, avoiding the latency and gateway load caused by backhauling every connection.

Direct traffic still needs consistent threat and content controls. DNSFilter’s Roaming Clients apply DNS-layer filtering to managed devices on and off the corporate network. They embed device identity in DNS requests, allowing teams to enforce granular policies and maintain visibility wherever users connect.

Private-application access remains under the control of the policy-driven access platform. DNSFilter protects the direct internet traffic that no longer passes through the corporate gateway.

Continuous policy enforcement

Legacy VPNs generally grant network access when a session begins and maintain it until the user disconnects. Policy-driven access can continue evaluating identity, account status, device posture, resource sensitivity, and other risk signals throughout the session.

Access can be restricted or revoked when an account is disabled, a device falls out of compliance, or a request no longer meets policy. This reduces standing access and the time available to misuse compromised credentials.

A modern access stack may combine policy-driven private-application access with device-level DNS filtering. Each control handles the traffic it is designed to protect, keeping private access narrow and internet traffic protected.

VPN alternatives solve different jobs. Confirm whether each product provides private-application access, internet-traffic encryption, DNS-layer filtering, or a defined combination.

What to look for in a VPN alternative

If you are deciding how to replace a legacy VPN, start by documenting which traffic needs private access, which can connect directly, and which security policies must follow users off-network. A strong VPN alternative should limit access to approved resources, route traffic efficiently, enforce policy continuously, and simplify remote-user management.

Use these criteria to evaluate the available options:

• Coverage for the required use cases: Confirm whether the product provides private-application access, internet-traffic encryption, DNS-layer protection, or a defined combination.
• Identity-aware access control: Look for policies based on identity, role, group, and requested resource. Private access should be granted at the application or resource level.
• Selective tunneling by default: Private-network traffic should use a protected tunnel while SaaS and public internet traffic take a direct path. Check how easily administrators can create rules without accumulating one-off exceptions.
• Device posture checks: Verify that the platform can evaluate operating-system version, device encryption, endpoint protection, and management status before and during access.
• Centralized policy management: Administrators should be able to manage policies across sites, users, and roaming devices. MSPs should also look for multi-tenant controls, templates, and bulk updates.
• A minimal client footprint: Prefer a lightweight client that can be deployed and updated through existing MDM or RMM tools and coexist with other security tools.
• Protection beyond the office: When evaluating a VPN alternative for hybrid and remote teams, check that security and content policies can follow users across home networks, public Wi-Fi, and other off-network locations.
• Operational visibility: Look for reporting that connects policy decisions and traffic activity to users and devices, avoiding searches across disconnected tools.
• Practical MSP scalability: Evaluate onboarding, tenant management, delegated administration, reporting, support requirements, and technician time.

A security service edge (SSE) architecture is broader than a VPN replacement, combining capabilities such as ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and FWaaS. Organizations with narrower requirements can use focused tools if management and policy enforcement remain consistent.

How DNSFilter approaches protection beyond the VPN

DNSFilter already provides an always-on, low-complexity protection layer for users wherever they work. Roaming Clients extend AI-powered DNS-layer threat and content filtering to managed devices on and off the corporate network. Policies follow users across offices, homes, hotels, and public Wi-Fi without requiring a connection to a legacy VPN.

We block malicious domains before a connection is made, helping prevent phishing, malware, and other threats from reaching the device. IT teams and MSPs can manage policies centrally, view the status of roaming devices, and apply updates across distributed environments from the DNSFilter dashboard.

DNSFilter extends protection beyond the DNS layer with SecureTransit, which encrypts internet traffic before it leaves the device. Admins manage SecureTransit alongside their existing DNSFilter deployment, giving roaming users added privacy on public and untrusted networks without needing to deploy or manage another tool.

Together, Roaming Clients and SecureTransit provide a practical route beyond the legacy VPN model: consistent threat and content protection for roaming users, with encrypted internet transport managed through the same platform.

Protect users wherever work happens

See how DNSFilter helps IT teams and MSPs apply consistent DNS-layer threat and content policies across sites and roaming devices. Request a demo to explore how DNSFilter can support your wider VPN replacement strategy without adding more complexity to your stack.

FAQs

Are VPNs being replaced, or is VPN dead?

Yes, businesses are replacing or supplementing legacy VPNs, but VPN technology is not dead. Encrypted tunnels still have valid uses, while policy-driven tools increasingly handle private-application access, direct internet traffic, and off-network protection separately.

What can replace a VPN for remote access?

A VPN may be replaced or supplemented by zero trust network access for private applications, DNS-layer protection for roaming users, or modern encrypted transport for internet traffic. The right approach depends on the function the existing VPN performs.

What is split tunneling or selective tunneling?

Selective tunneling, also called split tunneling, sends designated traffic through an encrypted tunnel while allowing other traffic to connect directly to its destination. This reduces backhaul by reserving the tunnel for traffic that needs private-network access.

Is ZTNA better than a VPN?

For private-application access, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is generally better suited than a legacy VPN because it grants access to specific resources using identity, device posture, and policy. Internet-traffic encryption and DNS-layer threat protection require their own controls.