If you've used the best VPN services, you've probably heard terms like OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, and Lightway. These are all protocols that VPNs use to encrypt and forward your traffic from one location to another. For more information on the purpose of the protocols, see our article How VPNs Work.

Here we outline whether OpenVPN still has what it takes to compete with its newer rivals after 20 years of history, what aspects of OpenVPN are starting to show their age, and why they shouldn't be dismissed so quickly.

At its core, OpenVPN was designed to be a secure VPN system right out of the box, and that remains true today: it encrypts data using OpenSSL and supports both UDP and TCP, making it highly flexible for users. Compared to WireGuard, OpenVPN's code may be more complex and longer, but VPN providers do not have to patch privacy issues before they can be used securely.

This means that no matter which VPN provider you use, you have access to the same well-known, tried and tested OpenVPN features; implementations such as NordVPN's NordLynx are not open source, so WireGuard and its variations and we do not know how well the changes to the code have been made.

With its comprehensive functionality comes somewhat bloated code, and compared to more modern protocols, OpenVPN quite simply cannot keep up. In our previous tests, we saw OpenVPN speeds improved by providers like ExpressVPN, but if you are looking for a really fast VPN, a more modern and streamlined protocol will give you the best results.

To get the best speed out of OpenVPN, we recommend using UDP instead of TCP, which is more reliable thanks to the fact that TCP data packets are tracked and retransmitted if not received, but by eliminating this error checking, UDP is much better if you want to maintain a fast connection for gaming or streaming.

Also, the big consumer VPNs invest huge amounts of money in their server networks, eliminating potential bottlenecks. This means that if you want to get the best speeds with OpenVPN, you will almost certainly get better results by signing up for a consumer VPN service rather than setting up your own server.

Along with substandard speeds, OpenVPN also has problems when changing networks. For example, if you are using a mobile VPN on your home Wi-Fi and start using mobile data when you are away from home, OpenVPN will probably have to disconnect and reconnect.

This is why most top Android VPN and iPhone VPN providers have traditionally used IKEv2/IPsec, but next-generation protocols like Lightway and WireGuard, especially with unstable or changeable connections They are designed as mobile-first to avoid the problems that OpenVPN causes.

We spoke with Peter Membrey, chief architect of ExpressVPN and leader of the Lightway project. 'OpenVPN has been on the ExpressVPN platform for a long time. It is reliable, stable, open source, and well tested. "OpenVPN has been on the ExpressVPN platform for a long time. 20 years ago, when OpenVPN was first built, VPNs were used primarily on desktops, with much slower Internet connections than they are today. This is why we need a newer protocol built for a mobile-first, always-connected world."

Some protocols are open source at their core - the Catapult Hydra protocol developed by Hotspot Shield is one notable exception - but that does not mean they are all the same in terms of transparency .

Take WireGuard for example. The basic code is completely open source, which is great, but when it comes to applying it to VPNs, there are privacy issues.

IVPN, for example, was concerned that WireGuard would record connection IPs indefinitely, so they created a custom solution for their own servers. Other providers do something similar, but I have not seen these patches open sourced.

So, while both Surfshark and NordVPN support WireGuard, they use different solutions to this privacy issue. Which is best? There is no way to know.

For OpenVPN, the situation is much simpler. The code is older, longer, and perhaps a bit clunkier, but there are no proprietary patches required to achieve the basics of privacy. When you use it, there is no secret about how it works; you can use it to do whatever you want.

OpenVPN and WireGuard are not the only open source protocols.

When it comes to core functionality, OpenVPN offers the widest range of options; protocols like Lightway and WireGuard have stripped down their code to offer lightning speed, but it comes at the expense of some features. [For example, WireGuard is UDP-only, which improves speed but is not necessarily an ideal choice in situations where all packets need to reach their target, such as sending files or e-mail.

In short, for the majority of users looking for a Netflix VPN to access blocked content and stay relatively private online, OpenVPN certainly has competition from younger bucks, but the open source reliability and every available For those seeking niche features, OpenVPN may still be the protocol of choice.