Zero-trust access and business VPN · Comparison
NordLayer vs ZeroTier
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | NordLayer | ZeroTier |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Built-in reachA business VPN with gateways in 40+ countries, a dedicated IP for your team, and SSO, DNS filtering and posture monitoring on one per-user plan. | Saves engineering timeA peer-to-peer virtual network at Layer 2 and Layer 3 for laptops, servers and embedded devices, priced per device rather than per user. |
| Overall score | 6.2Best | 5.2 |
| Free option | Paid only | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $8/user/mo | $18/mo |
| Pricing model | Per seat | Seat + usage |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per user per month, 5-user minimum, plus a dedicated server on Core and Premium | Flat monthly base with included devices, then per device; no per-user fee |
| Free option | No free plan; 14-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase | Personal: free, 10 devices, 1 network, non-commercial only |
| Reference scenario (25 users) | $315/mo on Core ($11 × 25 + $40 server, yearly), $12.60 per user, computed | $179/mo on Scale (100 devices included, 60 used), $7.16 per user, computed |
| Annual vs monthly price | Core $11 yearly or $14 monthly; server $40 or $50 | Monthly prices only |
| Devices per user | 6 simultaneous connections | No per-user limit; devices counted once per organization |
| Okta / Entra ID sign-in | Every plan | Essential and up (OIDC, desktop only) |
| SCIM | Premium; unpriced add-on on Lite and Core | Not offered |
| Device posture | Monitoring on Core, blocking on Premium; SentinelOne and CrowdStrike integrations on every plan | Not offered |
| Network flow logs | Every plan, 60 days | Not offered by the vendor |
| SIEM streaming | CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM; plan not stated | Not offered; webhooks from Essential |
| Self-hosted parts | None | TCP relay; controller under licence or Enterprise |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type 2 (Type I on the pricing page); ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001 "coming soon" |
| HIPAA BAA | Yearly subscriptions, on request | Not stated |
| EU data storage | Not stated | Not stated |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, NordLayer is a managed business VPN with SSO on every plan, a fixed IP and a strong compliance file. The required server raises the per-user cost on Core, and there is no free plan, admin API or Terraform provider. | From its public pages, ZeroTier is a flexible per-device virtual network with an open-source client and a strong rules engine. It does not offer device posture, SCIM or vendor-hosted flow logs, which many zero-trust buyers check for. |
Evidence: NordLayer: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; ZeroTier: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- NordLayerLite$8/user/moBilled yearly; $10 month to month; 5 users minimum
- Shared gateways in 40+ countries
- SSO with Okta, Entra ID, OneLogin, Google and JumpCloud
- Activity reports kept 60 days
- No Virtual Private Gateway
- ZeroTierEssential$18/mo10 devices included, then $2 per device a month; billed monthly
- 10 networks, 5 admins
- API, service accounts and webhooks
- OIDC single sign-on and templated flow rules
- 30-day audit log
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: NordLayer 2026-10-16, ZeroTier 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- NordLayerSelf-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (6.2/10).
- Lowest starter price
- NordLayer$8/user/mo for the Lite (billed yearly) plan.
- Highest overall score
- NordLayer6.2/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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