WireGuard vs OpenVPN: Choose your Best-suited VPN Protocol

Highlights:

• VPNs provide several benefits for individuals and businesses. VPNs enable safe, anonymous Internet connections.
• Open VPN, which has been a fan favorite for over two decades, WireGuard, a new competitor on the market, is creating ripples in the VPN sector.

The word “virtual private network” (VPN) may seem frightening, but these gadgets are more user-friendly than you may expect. There are several benefits to utilizing a VPN, whether for an individual or a huge organization. VPNs employ technologies to provide an anonymous and secure Internet connection.

It is imperative that we defend ourselves online in the modern day. OpenVPN and WireGuard are the area’s most widely used VPN protocols. In contrast to OpenVPN, which has been a fan favorite for over two decades, WireGuard, a new competitor on the market, is creating ripples in the VPN sector.

However, the question afloat is, which one is better? Here is an article detailing WireGuard vs. OpenVPN that aims to give you the answer.

According to Security, the Asia-Pacific area is the VPN industry’s fastest-growing market. This market is anticipated to expand by 16% from 2020 to 2027, two percentage points more than the expansion of the global population.

How effective are VPNs?

During certain time intervals, VPN use increases. When previous President Donald Trump ordered a ban on TikTok, consumer interest in VPNs soared by 74% on average. Additionally, interest surged by 78% after the Olympics were postponed and by 55% when Trump withdrew his vacation plan. As the danger of internet restrictions and stay-at-home orders grew, individuals spent more time online and utilized VPNs than ever before.

You may conceal your IP address and secure internet data using VPN technology. And this is accomplished via a remote server. How does this server function? When you transmit internet traffic through our server, it is encrypted and, as a result, unreadable by anybody who desires to access it.

Without a VPN, everyone from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to government authorities and cybercriminals may read your data. There is no question that your internet data is valuable to someone, regardless of their intentions. Consequently, VPNs have grown so widespread in the present day.

However, many protocols are available, such as Open VPN and WireGuard. So, let’s explore; how does this work? Which is better, WireGuard or OpenVPN?

While a significant portion of this revenue comes from the commercial VPN industry, the consumer VPN market is projected to be worth USD 834 million by 2024. (Source: Grand View Research)

What is OpenVPN?

James Yonan created OpenVPN in 2001. Due to its flexibility, reliability, and capacity to bypass firewalls and restricted networks, it has been the gold standard connection type for the past two decades.

OpenVPN establishes a secure tunnel between two connection points so data may be securely sent back and forth. This technology is used chiefly for VPNs and transfers data over TCP or UDP.

The finest VPN service providers utilize it, including ExpressVPN, SurfShark, CyberGhost, and NordVPN. In terms of pricing, OpenVPN might be completely free. This is the situation if only one or two secure connections are required—most reputable VPN providers offer a flat rate or a monthly membership fee.

OpenVPN is compatible with most operating systems, including Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux. OpenVPN can be rather sluggish by today’s standards. Therefore, there may be better options than OpenVPN if you demand consistently fast Internet connections.

This does not imply that OpenVPN is a poor security option. This protocol can keep your data extraordinarily secure and out of the hands of unauthorized parties.

What is WireGuard?

OpenVPN is significantly older than WireGuard. WireGuard was created by Jason Donenfeld in May of 2021 and debuted in the VPN industry. Free and distributed under the GPLv2 license.

WireGuard’s primary advantage is that it is substantially quicker and more efficient than most competing protocols while preserving high data security. WireGuard is in development and still needs to be wholly integrated with systems such as OpenBSD and FreeBSD, despite its fast acceptance.

Compared to OpenVPN, WireGuard has significantly less code. While OpenVPN has around 70,000 lines of code, WireGuard only contains 5,000. It employs efficient cryptographic protocols such as BLAKE2, Poly1305, ChaCha20, and Curve25199 and is also open-source software. In addition, it uses TUN drivers by default, which manage traffic routing, encryption, and logic, such as split tunneling.

OpenVPN vs WireGuard: Take Your Call

Remember that neither OpenVPN nor WireGuard can ensure your online security 100% of the time. A competent attacker might access your data in several novel and inventive methods, but the usage of VPN protocol makes this process difficult.

A few considerations will help you choose between OpenVPN and WireGuard. The moment has come to compare them! Below, we’ve compared WireGuard vs. OpenVPN in several critical operational areas and emphasized the differences.

OpenVPN vs. WireGuard speed

You should be aware that your introductory internet rates will limit the speed of your VPN connection. Additionally, each VPN service has a unique configuration. When the discussion emerges about OpenVPN vs. WireGuard speed, then without any doubt, WireGuard dominates OpenVPN on the performance front.

WireGuard is intended for high-speed applications. It creates a connection in 100 milliseconds, compared to 8 milliseconds for OpenVPN. In several testing, WireGuard was 58% quicker than OpenVPN. In optimum conditions, its speed exceeded 500 Mbps.

Several factors contribute to WireGuard’s lightning-fast delivery. Its code base was far more simplified, with around 4,000 lines. OpenVPN has approximately 70,000 lines of code after more than two decades of development. WireGuard supports multithreading, allowing it to handle data simultaneously using several CPU cores.

Conclusion: WireGuard is faster than OpenVPN.

OpenVPN vs WireGuard security

OpenVPN vs. WireGuard are comparably suited, but for distinct reasons. OpenVPN has an advantage over WireGuard due to its versatility in supporting numerous encryption schemes. However, this same flexibility comes with additional complexity and implementation hazards, which might have the opposite impact and result in vulnerabilities.

Below is the table highlighting the features of both

WireGuard offers benefits over OpenVPN, despite its long history and vast developer community. WireGuard has fewer vulnerabilities than OpenVPN because security experts accept its contemporary encryption algorithms. It has a smaller attack surface than OpenVPN since it employs less code. More crucially, if a weakness is detected in any encryption or algorithm, all endpoints must update instantly, preventing anybody from using the compromised WireGuard code.

WireGuard vs. OpenVPN: Encryption

Encryption is a crucial component of VPN systems. When comparing OpenVPN vs. WireGuard encryption, it is essential to realize that OpenVPN employs various encryption techniques courtesy of the OpenSSL library.

OpenVPN may utilize any authentication technique and encryption cipher without modifying the code. WireGuard uses a restricted variety of ciphers and algorithms, and it is required to update the device’s code if any are identified as unsafe.

OpenVPN is the superior alternative since it uses OpenSSL libraries for authentication. And OpenSSL libraries have existed for decades. WireGuard, in contrast, employs ChaCha 20 for authentication.

In addition, OpenVPN employs RSA and AES for its data and control channels. Consequently, passwords and encryption keys are less susceptible to attack. However, OpenVPN has a huge code base, which provides hackers with a broad attack surface. And WireGuard contains less code, making it less complicated and presenting a smaller attack surface.

Point taken: If you’re new to VPN protocols, you should test OpenVPN’s encryption, but if you prefer more streamlined code, WireGuard is the superior choice.

WireGuard vs OpenVPN: Mobility

It is typical for internet users to switch between mobile and wifi networks when using their mobile devices. A protocol should facilitate a seamless and efficient transfer.

In the case of mobility, WireGuard is the victor. As WiringGuard efficiently handles network switching. But OpenVPN doesn’t enable a seamless transition. When changing networks while using OpenVPN, several people disconnect and rejoin.

In the matchup between WireGuard vs. OpenVPN, though, WireGuard is superior because its stateless structure allows it to adapt to frequent network changes.

Conclusion: WireGaurd is the ideal choice.

Conclusions on the WireGuard vs OpenVPN

OpenVPN and WireGuard are complimentary since each VPN protocol excels in a particular area where the other falls short. WireGuard and OpenVPN have distinct distinctions. One protocol may be more suitable for you due to differences in encryption ciphers, code lengths, cost, and more. Before selecting, examining what you hope to achieve with your VPN is essential.

The preceding information will assist you in deciding whether WireGuard or OpenVPN is superior.