MPLS vs SD-WAN: Which Is Best for Multi-Site Businesses?

SD-WAN typically reduces WAN costs by approximately 50% compared to MPLS because it uses commodity internet circuits rather than expensive private networks. For a five-site business paying £2,000 per month for MPLS, SD-WAN can deliver equivalent or better performance for around £1,000 per month, with the added benefit of faster deployment and greater flexibility.

SD-WAN uses application-aware routing to prioritise voice and video traffic across multiple internet connections, providing comparable quality to MPLS for most use cases. UK broadband average download speed is 69.4 Mbps (Ofcom Connected Nations 2024), and SD-WAN can bond multiple circuits for redundancy. For mission-critical voice, pairing SD-WAN with a leased line underlay delivers MPLS-grade performance.

MPLS was designed to route traffic between private data centres, making it less efficient for cloud-first businesses. Cloud applications perform better with direct internet breakout at each site, which SD-WAN enables natively. MPLS remains relevant only for organisations with strict data sovereignty requirements or legacy applications that demand private network transport.

SD-WAN can be deployed at a new site within days using existing internet connectivity, whereas MPLS circuit provisioning typically takes sixty to ninety working days. For rapidly expanding businesses or those opening temporary locations, SD-WAN's agility is a significant operational advantage over the rigid procurement timelines associated with MPLS infrastructure.