Short answer VPN no, cloud yes. That is, if the VPN server is on your network and you are not simply forwarding ports to an external VPN. If your choices are VPN vs cloud, I would recommend cloud as it is satisfying to be able to type in a URL and go to your site instead of having to go through VPN weirdness. If you keep sensitive data on your server then a VPN is definitely better (again, the local kind). I personally just forward 80 and 443 and use nginx to control what domains everything is on.