What is the difference between OVPN and Wireguard?

OpenVPN and WireGuard are both virtual private network (VPN) protocols, but they have some key differences. OpenVPN is an open-source software application that implements virtual private network (VPN) techniques for creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations. OpenVPN has been around for a while and it’s one of the most widely […]

Posted - January 23, 2023

Categories:

Connection Cybersecurity How-To VPN

OpenVPN and WireGuard are both virtual private network (VPN) protocols, but they have some key differences.

OpenVPN is an open-source software application that implements virtual private network (VPN) techniques for creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations. OpenVPN has been around for a while and it's one of the most widely used VPN protocols. It's considered to be a very secure and reliable protocol, and it supports a wide range of encryption methods and authentication methods.

WireGuard, on the other hand, is a relatively new VPN protocol that was first released in 2018. It was designed to be a simpler and more secure alternative to existing VPN protocols such as OpenVPN and IPSec. WireGuard is a relatively new protocol, but it's considered to be very fast and lightweight as it uses a smaller codebase compared to OpenVPN. Additionally, WireGuard uses modern cryptographic protocols which are considered to be more secure than the ones used by OpenVPN.

Another key difference between OpenVPN and WireGuard is the way they handle connections. OpenVPN uses a traditional client-server model, where the client establishes a connection to the server and then uses the server as a gateway to the internet. WireGuard, on the other hand, uses a peer-to-peer model, where each client can directly connect to other clients without the need for a central server. This makes it more scalable and efficient.

Overall, OpenVPN is a more established and feature-rich VPN protocol with a lot of options to configure and tune your VPN. WireGuard is a newer, simpler and more efficient protocol which is considered to be more secure than OpenVPN. The choice of protocol will depend on the requirements and use-cases of the user.