Today’s workforces are operating from vast and varied locations, and not all of them are offices; be they sandy beaches, local coffee shops, or your own garden. This geographically distributed way of working, alongside the fact that applications are no longer confined to on-prem environments, means that organizations need to put serious thought into how they can reduce their attack surface.
As remote work and cloud adoption continue to grow, traditional network security models like VPNs are being re-evaluated. In this article, we compare VPN and Zero Trust approaches, examining how each handles access, security, and scalability in today’s dynamic IT environments.
What is ZTNA? How is it different from a VPN?
The concept of zero trust was designed to mitigate access risks associated with networks, applications and the associated data.
Historically organizations have taken a “castle” mentality to their security strategies. That is concentrating more on the implementation of robust perimeter defenses to block attackers out. This can, however, lead to a false sense of security as this approach gives the impression of impenetrability, but leaves weak points that attackers gleefully exploit.
Zero Trust security is a philosophy for how and when users are permitted to access systems and data. Rather than trusting anything that has made its way into the system (castle), you trust nobody. If someone wants to do something, they have to verify their identity, and prove that they should be there.
Zero Trust security requires strict verification for every user and device on the network before granting them access to data and applications.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network), in contrast, acts like a secure tunnel.
A VPN establishes a digital connection between your computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts your personal data and masks your IP. VPNs are widely used for remote access because they can encrypt data in transit and protect data from interception by malicious actors. With a VPN, the organization is treated like a fortress and the network perimeter acts as the walls protecting internal resources. Once a user authenticates and crosses the VPN “moat,” they are typically granted broad access to the internal network.
VPNs secure data in transit and extend the corporate network to remote users, but assumes that anyone inside the network is trustworthy.
You can listen to our interview with John Kindervag, the man who first came up with the idea of Zero Trust here:
Challenges of Implementing Zero Trust
- Integration and redesign: Moving to a Zero Trust model often requires adjusting or overhauling existing security architectures. This can involve rethinking access policies, reconfiguring systems, and aligning multiple technologies.
- Operational demands: Because Zero Trust relies on continuous verification of user identity and device posture, it can add administrative and monitoring requirements for IT teams.
- Technology readiness: All components of the IT environment must support policy enforcement and validation. If not planned carefully, this can create friction for end users and increase rollout complexity.
Challenges of Implementing VPNs
- Scaling limitations: As organizations add more users, devices, and cloud services, VPN infrastructure may need significant upgrades to handle the increased load.
- Access exposure: VPNs often grant users broad network access once authenticated. Without strong segmentation, this can create security gaps if credentials or devices are compromised.
- Perimeter dependence: VPNs are built on a perimeter-based security model. This works well for extending private networks, but is less effective at protecting against modern threats that bypass or originate inside the perimeter.
How Do They Compare?
Here is a breakdown of how Zero Trust and VPNs compare in various categories:
So, Does Zero Trust Replace VPN?
Yes – kind of.
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) doesn’t directly replace VPNs, but it does address certain limitations, and a lot of organization will be forgoing the use of VPNs in favor of zero trust.
In many organizations, ZTNA is already beginning to replace traditional VPN solutions. According to the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2025 VPN Risk Report, 81% of organizations are adopting or planning to adopt zero trust within the next year, with 65% of organizations planning to replace their VPNs within the year. While this doesn’t mean that VPNs will disappear entirely or that there aren’t circumstances where they are the best solution for the job, this data does support the idea that many organizations are moving away from VPNs toward Zero Trust.
As more organizations move infrastructure to the cloud and support remote or hybrid workforces, the limitations of perimeter-based models like VPNs become more apparent. Companies need secure, flexible solutions that scale across on-premises and cloud environments. Zero Trust meets this need by applying identity-based, granular access controls, making it well-suited to modern, distributed IT environments.
If your organization is looking to implement zero trust you may be contemplating whether you need a VPN, or if it might become a bottleneck in your network architecture that is not supporting your overall security posture. But as tempting as it may be to jump ship and migrate to zero trust right away, it important to make sure you have the appropriate measures in place to do this securely. You’ll need to assess whether all areas of your network, including legacy systems, can support Zero Trust principles, and evaluate how client devices will securely connect to these services.
