WireGuard® is a new VPN protocol that uses state-of-the-art cryptography

Encryption & security

WireGuard is an opinionated VPN protocol which means that it's not possible to use any other ciphers than the included combination. As such, WireGuard uses ChaCha20 for symmetric encryption, Curve25519 for Elliptic curve key agreement, BLAKE2s for hashing and HKDF for key derivation.

There are no known major vulnerabilities and WireGuard is considered secure. WireGuard supports Perfect Forward Secrecy.

Perfect forward secrecy means that the encryption key used to encrypt and decrypt data is changed automatically and regularly. If the encryption key is compromised, it exposes only a small portion of the user's sensitive data.

OVPN's implementation of WireGuard rotates encryption keys automatically, ensuring consistent and constant security.

WireGuard's code base is substantially smaller than other VPN protocols and thus enables easier audits.

Speed

The speed & latency depends on which device WireGuard is run on, as well as how users' internet providers peer with OVPN's internet providers. Our VPN servers have the processing power to encrypt up to 4000 Mbit/s using WireGuard which is 2x the speed of OpenVPN.

The increased throughput in WireGuard can be explained due to the modern encryption protocols it employs coupled with its ability to make full use of the processor through multithreading. Reaching speeds over 100 Mbit/s should not be an issue on computers, phones and routers.

WireGuard combined with our premium networking partners allows OVPN to provide our customers with fast speeds and low latencies.

Stability

WireGuard is very stable and supports a variety of different operating systems. WireGuard works only over UDP.

As WireGuard only works over UDP, firewalls and restrictive networks are able to restrict the protocol. It's not common practice, but as an example, Chinese users will most likely not be able to use WireGuard as there are no obfuscation protocols implemented as of yet.

WireGuard has roaming built-in which results in a seamless experience on cellphones when switching frin a Wi-Fi network to mobile data (4G). Connections to VPN servers happen instantly, whereas OpenVPN can take several seconds.

Using WireGuard on phones is a drastically better experience than using OpenVPN, as connections when moving between networks happen instantly. Another huge benefit is that the modern encryption protocols used are more battery efficient.

User experience

OpenVPN works well on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and a bunch of other operating systems. It is, however, not included in any operating system releases and therefore requires manual installation.

Installation only takes a few minutes. The default software has improved over the years and is quite user friendly. OVPN has released a custom desktop client that makes OpenVPN super easy to use, together with several other security enhancements.

Even using the default WireGuard app for Android or iOS is very simple. We don't see any reason as to why a user would prefer using OpenVPN over WireGuard on phones.

Privacy

WireGuard is not built with anonymity in mind. But the same goes for OpenVPN, which is why OVPN has made several changes to ensure the integrity of our customers when they connect to our OpenVPN servers.

We have performed several tweaks in our WireGuard implementation to ensure that our customers can experience optimal privacy.

Active development

WireGuard is still under active development and we're excited to see what's next.