paperboat
Sign in Install

Paperboat vs Enterprise VPN

Zscaler Private Access, Palo Alto Prisma Access, Cisco Secure Client (AnyConnect) and OpenVPN Access Server connect employees to a company network with central policy. Paperboat connects you to your own machines and lets you work on them.

Checked against Enterprise VPN's own documentation and pricing, November 2026. Sources are listed under the table.

Choose Enterprise VPN when

  • Your company needs every employee on the corporate network with central policy and compliance.
  • Your security team already runs one of these.

Choose Paperboat when

  • You're a developer or small team who wants your own machines, not a corporate network.
  • You want one install per machine and a sign-in, without a gateway to run.

Where they differ

A company network, or your machines

An enterprise VPN or ZTNA product puts employees inside the company network, with policy run by IT.

Paperboat is for the machines you work on: your laptop, a server, a box under a desk. It doesn't route a network.

Nothing to run

These products need gateways, connectors or a cloud tenant set up and maintained by someone.

Paperboat is one install per machine and a sign-in. There is no network, gateway or proxy to plan, and nothing to keep running besides the machines themselves.

Working on the machine

Once connected to a VPN, you still bring your own SSH, tmux and file copying.

Paperboat terminals run on the machine and keep running when your laptop sleeps or the network drops. When you come back, from the same computer, another one or a browser, you see what happened while you were away, and you can let someone watch or type along.

Paperboat
$ pb devbox

Public links

VPNs keep things private by design.

pb preview gives a port a public HTTPS link in one command, and pb tunnel keeps a permanent address with your own domain, on every plan.

Paperboat
$ pb preview 3000

Feature by feature

Every answer in the Enterprise VPN column carries a number that links to the page of theirs that says it. Put a second tool beside it

Paperboat
Enterprise VPN

Terminals

A shell on your machine that you can leave and come back to.

Keeps running when you disconnect
Yes, sessions keep running on the machine
No 1
Shows the output you missed
Yes, replays what you missed on reconnect
No 1
From a browser
Yes, in the web console
Some, as browser access to apps 1
Share a live session
Yes, view-only or interactive, by invite
No 1

Remote commands

Run one command on another machine and get its output and exit code.

Run a command on another machine
Yes, pb exec, with exit codes
No; SSH once connected 2

SSH

Use ssh and the tools built on it, without managing keys or opening ports.

Keys handled for you
Yes, keys and host trust handled
No 2
ssh, scp, sftp and rsync
Yes, pb ssh, scp, sftp, rsync and plain ssh
Your own SSH once connected 2
VS Code Remote-SSH
Yes, through generated SSH host names
Your own SSH once connected 2

Files

Send a file to a machine without setting anything up.

Send files to a machine
Yes, pb send, resumes if interrupted
No 2
An inbox for received files
Yes, an Inbox on each machine
No 2

Environment variables

The secrets your programs need, delivered to the machine that runs them.

End-to-end encrypted variables
Yes, end-to-end encrypted
No 2
Where they are available
Terminals, pb exec, scripts, plain SSH and VS Code
n/a

Config sync

The same settings on every machine, from a repository you control.

Settings from a Git repository
Yes, from your Git repository
No 2

Previews

A public link to a port on your machine, for as long as you need it.

Public link in one command
Yes, pb preview 3000
No 2
See and replay requests
Yes, inspect and replay, in pb and the console
No 2

Tunnels

A public address for a service that stays the same.

Permanent addresses
Yes, names that stay
No 2
Your own domains
Yes, on every plan
No 2
Protocols
HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, WebSocket, raw TCP
n/a

Private network

Your machines reach each other's ports without exposing them.

Machines reach each other
TCP ports and private names; not a full network
Into the company network 3

Encryption

Who could read your traffic on the way.

Between your own devices
End to end; direct when possible
To the gateway or the vendor's cloud 1
Public links
TLS ends at Paperboat's edge
n/a

Teams and access

Working with other people, and deciding who may do what.

Members and roles
Yes, five roles; SSO and SCIM from 10 seats
Through your identity provider 1
Access rules, groups and tags
Yes, a policy file with groups, tags and deny rules
Yes, detailed central policy 3
Tokens for automation
Yes, scoped API tokens that expire
Varies by vendor 1

Self-hosting

Which parts you can run on your own servers.

Run it yourself
Relays and tunnel servers
OpenVPN AS and Cisco gateways; Zscaler and Prisma are cloud 2

Platforms

Where it runs.

Operating systems
Linux, macOS and Windows; no mobile apps
Desktop and mobile clients 4

Pricing

How you pay, and what is free.

How you pay
By relay and edge bandwidth; Team per seat
By quote; OpenVPN AS per connection 5
Free plan
Every feature for personal use, 5 GB a month
OpenVPN AS: 2 connections 5

Sources

What each product does, from its own documentation, as of November 2026. “No” means its documentation describes no such feature. Found something out of date? The other product's page wins; tell us and we fix ours.

Enterprise VPN

  1. www.zscaler.com/products-and-solutions/zscaler-private-access
  2. openvpn.net/access-server/
  3. www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/access
  4. www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/security/secure-client/index.html
  5. openvpn.net/access-server/pricing/

Pricing

Enterprise VPN

  • Zscaler, Prisma Access, Cisco: by quote
  • OpenVPN Access Server: free for 2 connections, then $7 per connection a month

openvpn.net/access-server/pricing/, November 2026

Paperboat

  • Free: $0, every feature for personal use, 5 GB of relay and edge bandwidth a month
  • Pro: $8 a month or $80 a year, 100 GB
  • Team: $15 per seat a month or $150 a year, 100 GB per seat; 14-day trial
  • Direct traffic between your machines is never counted

Paperboat pricing in full

Switching

  1. Install Paperboat on each machine with the one-line installer and sign in.
  2. Use Paperboat for your own development machines; keep the VPN for company systems that require it.

Questions

Can I use Paperboat while connected to a company VPN?

Usually yes: Paperboat makes outbound connections and uses relays when direct paths are blocked.

Other comparisons

Start with the machine in front of you

Install Paperboat here, then on a second machine. Free for personal use, no card needed.

$ curl -fsSL https://get.pprbt.dev/install | bash
> irm https://get.pprbt.dev/install.ps1 | iex
View install script View install script