Perimeter 81 VPN Review 2024: Good Corporate VPN?

Our Score
8.8
GREAT
Ranked 7th from 84 VPNs
Ranked 7th from 84 VPNs
Updated on: February 26, 2024
Fact Checked by Hazel Shaw
Tim Mocan
Tim Mocan
Published on: February 26, 2024

Perimeter 81 Review: Quick Expert Summary

Perimeter 81 is a corporate VPN intended to be used by businesses, not regular online users. If you’re mainly interested in getting a VPN for streaming, torrenting, gaming, or just secure web browsing, I recommend looking into a commercial VPN instead — I’d start with ExpressVPN, which is the best VPN on the market right now.

Perimeter 81 is a really good corporate VPN — it’s very secure, it’s simple to set up and also easy to use for employees, it provides pretty fast speeds on most server locations, and it has very good customer support. And the VPN also allows file sharing on all of its servers, which can prove useful if anyone in your company quickly needs to torrent legal software or documents.

In addition to industry-standard security features, Perimeter 81 also has:

  • DNS leak protection — Prevents DNS leaks that could compromise employees’ online data.
  • Device Posture Check — Establish requirements that employee devices must meet to connect to the company’s network.
  • Multi-factor authentication — Require all employees to verify each login attempt with a text message, push notification, or time-sensitive code.
  • Split-tunneling — Choose if specific networks can bypass Perimeter 81’s VPN tunneling.
  • Web Security — Blacklist malicious websites or any other types of sites your network admins consider to be risky.
  • And more…

There are only a few things I’d like Perimeter 81 to improve. I’d mostly like it if it would provide access to servers in more countries (right now, it only has servers in 20+ countries). Also, the VPN doesn’t consistently work in restrictive countries like China, which could be an issue for businesses that have employees in those locations. The VPN also doesn’t work with top sites like Netflix and Disney+, though that’s not a huge drawback — unless your business model involves using a VPN with those platforms.

Perimeter 81 has 4 tier-based subscriptions with monthly and yearly plans. It also allows 5 per user connections per user account and lets you set up an unlimited number of user accounts — so you could potentially connect an unlimited number of devices, which is great for large companies. The provider also backs all purchases with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

🏅Overall Rank #7 out of 84 VPNs
🌍 Servers 500+
📱 Number of Devices Unlimited
💸 Starting Price $8.00 / month
🎁Free Plan
💰 Money-Back Guarantee 30 days

Try Perimeter 81 — 30 Days Risk-Free

Perimeter 81 Full Review

I spent a few weeks testing Perimeter 81 to see how it compares to other top VPNs. Overall, I can safely say it’s a great corporate VPN, so it’s ideal for businesses — people looking for a commercial VPN for streaming, gaming, browsing, and more, should try out ExpressVPN or Private Internet Access instead.

Perimeter 81 provides very good VPN security, but it’s much more than that — it’s excellent for securing company-wide networks because it provides you with ways to make sure compromised employee devices can’t connect to your network.

And I also like how user-friendly the provider’s apps are — your employees won’t have a hard time getting used to them because they’re really minimalistic.

Perimeter 81 Features

Perimeter 81 Features

Perimeter 81 comes with the following industry-standard security features:

  • 256-bit AES encryption — Employes the same level of encryption that the military uses to make your data unreadable.
  • No-logs policy — Perimeter 81 doesn’t log users’ browsing traffic. It does keep IP logs, but only the workspace admins have access to that information, so Perimeter 81 won’t be able to see it.
  • Kill switch — Shuts down all web access if the VPN connection drops to prevent data leaks. The kill switch is available on all devices, and you can enable/disable it in the admin account dashboard.

Perimeter 81 supports multiple VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, and WireGuard. I’m really happy to see this since all of these protocols provide very good security and fast speeds (WireGuard is the fastest).

The VPN also comes with DNS leak protection, though it’s missing WebRTC and IPv6 leak protection (competitors like ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access have full leak protection). I ran 10+ leak tests while connected to Perimeter 81 and never experienced any leaks.

Also, Perimeter 81 doesn’t have certain advanced security features that other top VPNs have. It lacks RAM-only servers (save all data to the RAM, so every reset wipes all data) and perfect forward secrecy, which changes the encryption key for each VPN session to prevent hackers from compromising past or future keys.

That said, the VPN comes with other corporate-specific advanced security features. For example, it provides Device Posture Check (DPC), which allows you to set rules employees’ devices must meet to be able to connect to your network — like the presence of a specific antivirus or authorization file on the device. And you can configure DPC to perform checks prior to the connection and every 20, 40, and 60 minutes after.

Also, the provider supports multi-factor authentication for your employees. For maximum security, you can set up the feature to require employees to authenticate each login attempt with a text message, push notification, or a time-sensitive code generated by Google Authenticator.

The provider also supports Tor (The Onion Router) traffic on all of its servers. So if anyone in your company needs to access the dark web for work-related reasons, they can first secure their connection with Perimeter 81, so that the Tor network doesn’t accidentally compromise their privacy.

In addition to all of that, Perimeter 81 also has other extras in its web app:

  • Split-tunneling. Allows you to choose if all data is tunneled through Perimeter 81 or if specific networks don’t use the VPN connection.
  • Firewall. Allows you to manage outbound and inbound network traffic and also to control how data flows between users and groups. For example, you could provide a specific group of users within your company with access to just a certain part of your network.
  • Web Security. Lets you filter websites — like preventing employees from accidentally accessing malicious or risky sites. You can also specify which sites and services (like automatic online updates) are allowed to bypass the web filtering rules.

Perimeter 81 Privacy & Security

Perimeter 81 has a pretty good no-logs policy. It doesn’t log web traffic — and while it does keep IP logs, only the workspace admin has access to them, not Perimeter 81. The provider’s support reps told me the IP logs are necessary for security reasons. In addition, the VPN also logs email addresses (for signup and communication), connection timestamps, bandwidth usage, and other admin workspace actions, like logging into the platform or changing policies.

I think Perimeter 81’s no-logs policy is pretty standard for a corporate VPN. But if you’re worried about the IP logs, I’d recommend trying out ExpressVPN or Private Internet Access instead — they both don’t keep any logs, and their no-logs policies have also been independently audited.

Perimeter 81 Privacy & Security

Perimeter 81 is headquartered in Israel, which is outside the jurisdiction of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances (a group of countries that share surveillance data with each other).

Overall, Perimeter 81 provides good privacy — it doesn’t log users’ web browsing, just their IP addresses (but only the workspace admins have access to that data). Also, the company isn’t located in a 5/9/14 Eyes country.

Perimeter 81 Speed & Performance

I ran speed tests on servers in 10+ countries to determine Perimeter 81’s average speeds. I generally maintained fast speeds on all servers, though I did experience noticeable slowdowns on very distant servers.

I started with a test without using the VPN to see my baseline speeds:

Perimeter 81 Speed & Performance

Then, I connected to a nearby server in Germany. The slowdown was barely noticeable, as most sites I visited loaded instantly, HD videos loaded instantly and there was no buffering, and 4K videos took just 2 seconds to load and there was only minor buffering when I skipped through them. Also, my Zoom calls never dropped or lagged.

Next, I connected to a distant server in the US. My speeds went down a bit, but they were still pretty good — sites continued to load instantly, HD videos took around 2 seconds to load but didn’t buffer, 4K videos loaded in around 4 seconds, and my Zoom calls continued to be smooth.

Perimeter 81 Speed & Performance

Finally, I connected to a very distant server in Japan. I experienced bigger slowdowns, but my speeds were still pretty good — websites took around 2 seconds to load, HD videos loaded in 3 seconds, and it took me around 10 minutes to download a 2 GB file.

Overall, Perimeter 81 maintains good speeds across all of its servers. Still, you might experience more noticeable slowdowns on very distant servers — if you’re concerned about that, I recommend trying out ExpressVPN instead since it’s the fastest VPN on the market.

Perimeter 81 Servers & IP Addresses

Perimeter 81 has 500+ servers (called “gateways”) in 20+ countries. The servers are evenly spread out across the globe, so it should be relatively easy to deploy a server that’s near your company’s real location to get the fastest speeds. That said, if the number of locations is just too small for you, I’d try out ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN instead since they both have servers in 100+ countries.

But you won’t get access to all servers at once — you can only deploy one server per license, no matter which plan you have. To use more servers, you need to add additional licenses to your subscription.

All of Perimeter 81’s servers allow file sharing, which is pretty good. This comes in handy if anyone on your team needs to quickly torrent legal files for work.

Also, every server comes with a dedicated IP address for free. This is an IP address that’s only assigned to you. Dedicated IPs are useful because they let you access sites that block shared VPN IPs (like banking sites) and avoid reCAPTCHAs when using search engines to do market research.

Overall, Perimeter 81 has a good server network. Its number of countries isn’t too impressive, but it covers most parts of the world. Also, all servers allow torrenting and come with free dedicated IP addresses.

Perimeter 81 Streaming & Torrenting

Perimeter 81 is decent for streaming, but it’s not that great. My colleagues in the US and UK ran tests and confirmed it works with BBC iPlayer and Max, but it doesn’t work with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+.

If you’re mainly interested in streaming, I’d go with ExpressVPN — it works with 100+ streaming apps, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+.

Perimeter 81 Streaming & Torrenting

But Perimeter 81 is pretty good for torrenting since it allows P2P traffic on all of its servers. The reps have told me that they have received cease and desist letters due to this, but this shouldn’t interfere with the P2P support you get. The VPN also works well with top P2P clients like uTorrent and Deluge.

That said, I think there are better P2P VPNs out there. For example, Private Internet Access also allows torrenting on all servers and works with popular P2P apps, but it also has port forwarding (connect to more peers for faster speeds) and SOCKS5 proxy support, which changes your IP address but doesn’t use encryption to provide even faster downloads.

Overall, Perimeter 81 isn’t great for streaming, but it’s good for torrenting. It doesn’t support most top streaming sites, but it allows torrenting on all servers and works with top P2P apps.

Perimeter 81 Bypassing Censorship

Perimeter 81 only maybe works in restrictive countries like China and Saudi Arabia — this was confirmed to me by 5+ support reps. If you need a VPN that can access the web in restrictive regions without any issues, I recommend checking out ExpressVPN.

Perimeter 81 Bypassing Censorship

Perimeter 81 Plans & Pricing

Perimeter 81 has 4 tier-based subscriptions with monthly and yearly plans. The provider allows 5 per user connections per user account, but it doesn’t set a limit on how many user accounts you add — so if you work for a large company that has enough funds, you could connect an unlimited number of devices.

The Essentials plan costs $8.00 / month and requires a minimum of 10 users. It provides access to almost all VPN features and is enough for most small companies.

The Premium plan costs $12.00 / month and requires a minimum of 10 users. It adds access to a cloud firewall (10 policies), DPC and the option to set 3 profiles, DNS filtering, and the Always-on VPN tool.

The Premium Plus plan costs $16.00 / month and requires a minimum of 20 users. It adds 20 DPC profiles, the Disable Sign-Out feature, and lets you set up to 100 cloud firewall policies.

The Enterprise plan has custom pricing and requires a minimum of 50 users. It allows you to set up unlimited cloud firewall policies and DPC profiles and provides access to 24/7 phone support.

Perimeter 81 accepts several payment methods, including credit/debit cards, PayPal, and wire transfers. And it also backs all purchases with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Perimeter 81 Ease of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps

Perimeter 81 has apps for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chromebook. The provider also supports manual router setups on several router models. And it also has a web app that admins can use to set up networks and enforce different security policies.

Installing its apps is pretty straightforward — it shouldn’t take you more than 2–3 minutes to do it. In case you use a central desktop management for your company’s devices, you can also opt to remotely install the apps on the devices your employees use, so that they don’t have to do it themselves.

Android + iOS

Perimeter 81 Ease of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps

Perimeter 81’s iOS and Android apps are pretty much alike. They both come with the same protocols (OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, and WireGuard) and share the same design.

I actually like the design a lot because it’s minimalistic and looks really sleek — plus, I think it’s great that all options come with helpful explanations, so that you never feel lost using the app. All of that makes the apps very beginner-friendly, so even employees who have never used a VPN before won’t have any trouble getting used to Perimeter 81.

Overall, Perimeter 81 has really good iOS and Android apps — they share the same settings and VPN protocols, and their design is very intuitive.

Windows/Mac (Desktop)

Perimeter 81 Ease of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps

The Windows and macOS apps look the same as the mobile apps. This makes it very easy to switch between the mobile and desktop apps, which is helpful if your employees use different devices throughout the day. Also, the interface is extremely simple to navigate — you can instantly connect to the network with one click, and it doesn’t take more than 5 seconds to find and connect to other deployed networks.

And both desktop apps come with the same protocols: OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, and WireGuard. You can also configure the apps to connect on launch, which ensures that employees don’t accidentally access your network via unsecured public Wi-Fi without first encrypting their traffic.

Overall, I think Perimeter 81’s desktop apps are really good — they’re easy to navigate and really secure as well.

Web App

Perimeter 81 Ease of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps

The provider’s web app is where you manage all of your networks and security policies. It has a very clean design, which makes it simple to sift through and enable/disable different features and settings. You also have a dashboard that provides access to relevant insights, like how much bandwidth employees use and what type of devices are used to connect to your company’s network.

I especially like that every setting and feature comes with helpful explanations. I rarely had to reach out to customer support since the explanations helped me understand how each tool works.

Overall, Perimeter 81’s web app is very good — it has a sleek design, provides tons of useful insights, and makes it very simple to enable and change different security policies.

Perimeter 81 Apps: Is Perimeter 81 Easy to Use?

Perimeter 81 has really good mobile and desktop apps. I can’t really pick a favorite app since all of them share a very similar design, so they’re all really user-friendly. Plus, you get access to the same protocols and settings across all of the provider’s apps. And there’s also a web app that’s very easy to use and simple to navigate.

Android iOS Windows macOS Linux Chromebook
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Kill Switch
Split-Tunneling
DNS leak protection
Device Posture Check (DPC)
Multi-factor authentication
Web Security

Perimeter 81 Customer Support

Perimeter 81 Customer Support

I’m really happy with Perimeter 81’s customer support — you get access to a helpful support library, 24/7 live chat and phone support, and pretty good email support.

The support library provides access to many useful guides, including a few frequently asked questions (FAQs), some troubleshooting tips, and tons of in-depth step-by-step tutorials that include screenshots, animated GIFs, and videos.

I tested the provider’s live chat support multiple times, and I always had a really great experience. I was usually connected to a support rep in less than 10 seconds, and they always provided me with helpful answers.

Perimeter 81 Customer Support

I also like how you can provide support agents with access to your environment. This is helpful for quickly troubleshooting network issues — I tried it out when I first installed the Windows app and wasn’t able to connect to the network I set up, and a support rep solved my issues in just 10 minutes. And doing this doesn’t compromise your network’s security since you can always revoke a support agent’s access to your environment.

I also tested the provider’s email support and had a good experience. I usually received a reply in less than 24 hours, which is really great. Plus, the replies were always informative and helpful.

Perimeter 81 provides phone support but only on the Enterprise plan. Also, it only provides phone support in the US, the UK, and India. I asked my colleague in the US to test the provider’s phone support, and he had a good experience — a support agent answered his call in under 2 minutes and was able to answer all of his questions.

Overall, Perimeter 81 provides very good customer support — it has a really helpful support library and provides 24/7 live chat support, 24/7 phone support (only on the Enterprise plan), and responsive email support.

Is Perimeter 81 a Good Corporate VPN in 2024?

Perimeter 81 is a great cybersecurity solution for pretty much any type of business. It provides very strong security, it’s easy to use, it has really good speeds, it provides great customer support, and it even allows file sharing across all of its servers.

On top of essential VPN security features, the provider also has other perks, such as DNS leak protection, DPC (to ensure only secured devices access your network), multi-factor authentication, split-tunneling, and a tool that stops employees from accidentally interacting with malicious sites.

Perimeter 81 is overall really good, but there are a few things it could improve — it only has servers in 20+ countries, and it only maybe works in restrictive countries like China. Also, it doesn’t work with popular streaming sites like Netflix, but that shouldn’t be a huge drawback unless you need to access those kinds of sites via a VPN for work.

The provider has 4 tier-based subscriptions that all come with monthly and yearly plans. You get 5 per user connections per user account but can set up an unlimited number of user accounts. And Perimeter 81 backs all purchases with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Perimeter 81 a VPN?

Perimeter 81 provides access to a VPN, but it’s more than that — think of it as a corporate cybersecurity platform. In addition to providing access to a very secure VPN, it also comes with other zero trust network security features, such as the ability to authenticate users and their devices (to make sure they’re not compromised) before they connect to your network.

Is Perimeter 81 Free?

No, the provider doesn’t have a free plan. Instead, it comes with 4 tier-based subscriptions whose prices start at $8.00 / month. It also backs all purchases with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free to see if it’s right for your company.

There really aren’t any free corporate VPNs out there. And if you do find one, I’d suggest avoiding it — it will likely have slow speeds, buggy apps, and poor security (which could compromise your company’s network).

Does Perimeter 81 work with Netflix?

No — my colleagues ran multiple tests and weren’t able to watch Netflix while connected to Perimeter 81. It’s also not good for Amazon Prime and Disney+, but it works with Max and BBC iPlayer.

That said, Perimeter 81 is a corporate VPN, so its main focus is not streaming. If you only want to use a VPN for streaming Netflix, consider getting a commercial VPN instead — I personally recommend ExpressVPN since it works with Netflix and 100+ other streaming apps.

Can you torrent with Perimeter 81?

Yes, as Perimeter 81 allows P2P traffic on all of its servers. It also works well with top P2P apps like uTorrent and Deluge, and provides good security for torrenting as well.

Is Perimeter 81 safe?

Yes, Perimeter 81 provides great security features. Its VPN comes with all essential VPN security features, including 256-bit AES encryption, a no-logs policy, DNS leak protection, and a kill switch. And the provider also has other advanced features, including multi-factor authentication (requires all employees to validate each login attempt) and a way to ensure that only secured employee devices connect to your company’s network.

Perimeter 81 Products & Pricing

Essentials 12-month plan
$8.00 / month
Premium 12-month plan
$12.00 / month
Premium Plus 12-month plan
$16.00 / month
Bottom Line

Perimeter 81 is a really good corporate VPN — it’s really secure, simple to set up and use, and fast. And it also provides great customer support and allows file sharing on all servers. Plus, it has all essential VPN security features and also comes with more security perks, including DNS leak protection, DPC, multi-factor authentication, and a way to blacklist malicious and inappropriate sites. However, the provider only has servers in 20+ countries, and it can’t reliably access the web in restrictive regions like China and Indonesia. It also doesn’t work with some top streaming sites. Perimeter 81 has 4 tier-based subscriptions, allows 5 per user connections per user and unlimited users, and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans.

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About the Author
Tim Mocan
Tim Mocan
Senior Writer

About the Author

Tim Mocan is a Senior Writer at SafetyDetectives. He has 5+ years of experience researching and writing about cybersecurity topics, and he specializes in VPNs. Prior to joining SafetyDetectives, he worked as a contributor for other VPN review websites and as a content writer for several VPN providers. Throughout his freelance writing career, he has also covered other niches, including SEO, digital marketing, customer loyalty, home improvement, and health and rehab. Outside of work, Tim loves to spend his time traveling, playing video games, binging anime, and using VPNs (yes, really!).

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