Which VPN Protocol Should You Use?
WireGuard
WireGuard is a next-generation VPN protocol designed for simplicity, performance, and strong encryption. It uses lean, modern cryptography and is optimized for speed and low overhead.
- Speed: Offers excellent throughput and low latency, making it ideal for high-speed connections.
- Efficiency: Minimal CPU usage, even on lower-end systems.
- Reliability: Fast to connect and reconnect, with stable performance on most networks.
- Limitation: WireGuard uses UDP only, which may be blocked on very restricted or corporate networks.
OpenVPN (with DCO)
OpenVPN is a well-established, flexible VPN protocol that is widely supported and highly configurable. Our implementation uses the latest version (2.6+) with Data Channel Offload (DCO), which significantly improves performance by processing encrypted traffic more efficiently within the kernel.
- Compatibility: Works well across a wide range of networks and firewalls.
- Protocol flexibility: Supports both
UDPandTCP, allowing fallback on restrictive networks. - Encryption: Uses industry-standard AES-256-GCM with elliptic curve authentication (secp521r1).
- Tradeoff: Slightly slower than WireGuard in some scenarios, but extremely stable and robust.
Our Recommendation
Here’s a quick guide to help you choose based on your situation:
| Use Case | Recommended Protocol |
|---|---|
| Maximum speed and lowest latency |
|
| Highly restricted or firewalled networks |
|
| General browsing and daily use |
|
| Connection issues or protocol filtering |
|
You can easily switch between protocols at any time within our application. For most users, we recommend starting with WireGuard for the best performance. If you encounter issues connecting, try switching to OpenVPN for better compatibility.