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How to Start a VPN Business?

2 points by mickelclark ↗ HN
Is it worth investing in a vpn business nowadays? I doubt it would be very profitable. Maybe if it were 5–10 years ago and you were getting in the business while it was young, sure it could’ve been a great opportunity. But today there are hundreds of different VPN providers, and very few are well known today. Unless you could get a ton of funding and then provide something much better than other providers, you can’t really compete with paid VPNs. What do you guys say?

2 comments

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easytiger
You would just need to provide something reliable that works and then most of your spend would likely be on marketing.

It's no coincidence than major VPN providers market absolutely everywhere at all times. Their ad spend must be enormous.

oriettaxx
I would say the same (I have direct experience :)

I think too many are just offering plain VPN services, while (still my idea) there is a HUGE need for expertise inside companies for highly customized VPN setup:

what I did for all my 3 customers is distribute servers in the cloud, wherever they want to, and connect them all with VPN: before with ordinary VPN (a mess), then with the great Softether VPN, but then wireguard really changed everything!! I suppose you want to start the VPN business 'cause you know wireguard, love it's simplicity and potentials, and want to "expand" its use: for some server you just need fast connection, for other you just want storage...

Here 2 typical cases where a customized VPN/wireguard setup will really make life easier for many companies:

1. move on-premised "intranet" services (so servers) in the cloud, distributed regionally (I am thinking of the much cheaper Hetzner, now in US too, than AWS of course): your services are guaranteed to stay private (intranet) and all your users have wireguard on to access them: this way you can also protect user's navigation in the web with a customized DNS server, of course.

2. the same as above but with on-premises backups: protect your backups too from ransomware, but at the same time you have your backups already in the cloud and not in a huge storage in your office: ask your customer: did you ever simulate the time needed to upload your backup to a new server in the cloud?

I do really think wireguard is revolutionary: you can very easy built "intranet" with all the benefits of the cloud, and nowadays with so many people working from home, how can you give them access to your data without a vpn?