Consumer-facing VPN services and remote desktop applications are designed for distinct purposes.
A VPN provides a secure connection to the internet that allows you to gain online privacy and protects your data from being snooped on by local network providers, ISPs, and government agencies. It also protects your data against hackers. In addition, a VPN allows you to bypass local restrictions by giving you a remote IP address.
A remote desktop application lets you connect to a secondary computer remotely via the internet. This allows you to make use of that PC’s data and resources, including the programs installed on the remote machine.
Because data must pass over the internet from the remote computer to your local PC, we consider it good opsec to use a remote desktop application alongside a secure VPN. This encrypts the data passing between you and the remote PC, which removes the potential for any important data to be intercepted in transit.