What is the difference between WireGuard and OpenVPN and IKEv2?

What type of VPN is the most secure?

In a recent survey that went to over 25,000 people about which VPNs they use, we asked people about what VPN type was the most secure: There has been some concerns raised in the press about VPN type being a threat to data security - The Independent.

So, if you are the kind of person who takes privacy very seriously, this survey is for you. Why does all of this matter? Well, there are 4 types of VPN used by organisations and individuals and these types represent each stage of adoption of and confidence in VPN technology. So, you want to be on the earlier adopter, cautious adoption position. If you are in the earlier adoption stage, you are also more likely to know that there are good reasons to be cautious about some VPN providers but you don't know about others. By comparison, the later adopter is likely to be less concerned and may even be happy with a particular provider. If you read the blog post I wrote here, you will know the reason for this difference in confidence. The problem for the early adopters is that although some of the caution is sound, you can't always tell what is good and what isn't just by looking at it. You need to make your choice based on things like reviews from experts who have used the product, performance on certain metrics and support.

So, you want to stay on the cautious adopter path. If that is you, then the way you move up the adopter ladder is by knowing how to sort the good stuff from the bad. What is going to help you do that? The good news is, that I spent much time doing research into this type of information and have collected quite a lot of it for you here. However, I don't think all of it will be easy for you to use in your decision-making process, so that is why I am here to take questions. If you do have a question or just want a brief chat, feel free to drop me a line by visiting. In this article. Adoption Stages. Why it matters. 1) Why is type of VPN so important?

Is OpenVPN better than WireGuard?

OpenVPN vs.

WireGuard: A comparison of two VPN protocols WireGuard was just recently released by Google, in January of 2025, to much fanfare and acclaim. As a result, people are starting to question the need for OpenVPN. We think that this is a good time to revisit the strengths and weaknesses of both of these protocols.

One of the great things about VPNs is that they can be used to provide secure access to an entire network, not just a single device. OpenVPN is a very good choice for this task. It has been in use for many years and there is a large body of literature on how to configure and use it.

But this protocol has some weaknesses that have led to criticism. Some say it is too complicated, others argue that it is not secure enough. Many of these arguments could be put towards WireGuard.

So let's look at how the two protocols stack up. We will compare some of the more prominent features and pros and cons. We will also look at a few scenarios where OpenVPN does not work as well as you may expect. In the end, we will recommend OpenVPN and discuss when to choose the other.

Table of Contents: What is OpenVPN? The OpenVPN Protocol Specification. OpenVPN's biggest weakness is its design. It was originally conceived as a kind of simple VPN protocol. But in fact, it is quite complex, and requires a fair amount of configuration.

OpenVPN works by encrypting traffic sent between the client and the VPN server. To do this, OpenVPN uses a protocol called OpenSLL. OpenSLL is fairly simple; most of the actual encryption takes place in the OpenVPN server. The OpenVPN client and server communicate over TCP port 1194. This makes OpenSLL compatible with all major operating systems and with most VPN servers, which is a definite plus.

Once the OpenSLL protocol is established, the client and server can communicate freely. They can exchange information and establish tunnels (also known as keys or keyslices) that allow the client to authenticate to the server.

OpenSLL encrypts the data and is authenticated through the shared keys that were established when the tunnels were set up.

What is the difference between WireGuard and OpenVPN and IKEv2?

WireGuard, developed by Jason Donenfeld and based on IPsec (IPSec), is a free Open Source IPsec implementation developed specifically for wired networks that can also encrypt the traffic over wireless LANs with good support for IPv6. OpenVPN developed by Chris Kaiser has similar goals and features but does not support WLANs so has been rebranded as OpenConnect. IKEv2 is an IETF standard developed by Cisco. Which are the network tools needed for wire-up? To setup both VPNs, you need: a secure way of creating a secret key and exchanging it between two devices. One or more network routing nodes (eg. A router, switch or firewall) with some form of firewall to allow your network connections into its internal routing network one or more Internet endpoints for the client computers to connect to. On Windows the easiest way to create a secret key would be with Microsoft's BitLocker. An alternative is using an IKEv2 peer by building your own implementation using one or more of: Windows libraries for IKEv2 (not recommended). Open source IPsec libraries (very complex). What does an IKEv2 connection look like when it has successfully passed the initial certificate exchange phase of the protocol? When starting an IKEv2 session, you receive a random nonce and the first server responds with a signature and an encryption method (either RSA, SHA2, CHACHA20 or GCM). This is called pre-master secret exchange. It is used to form the first piece of data needed to create an initial shared secret the pre-master secret. Once this has been formed, authentication has succeeded and the main stream security negotiation begins.

At this stage all of your peers will try and convince you that they're you. You will have received their RANDOMVALUE and a challenge. You will attempt to negotiate a shared secret with them and you will get different values from them, different challenges and will generate a new group key. At this point, you should be using your local keys to form the final authentication vector and the final group key that you will use.