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Hillstone E-Series vs OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Hillstone E-Series
Ranking in SSL VPN
11th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (39th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (23rd)
OpenVPN Community Edition -...
Ranking in SSL VPN
9th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 3.9%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is 1.2%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
SSL VPN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey1.2%
Hillstone E-Series3.9%
Other94.9%
SSL VPN
 

Featured Reviews

TahirMahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Zubair Feeds
Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users
We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.
reviewer2783919 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Secure cloud migrations have accelerated as our teams access critical workloads remotely
OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey can be improved by looking forward to recommendations regarding compute sizing, which is necessary. I have seen multiple third-party solutions demanding configurations based on compute and memory aspects. However, what I have learned from OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is that it comes with minimal configuration, but I am always stringent about how many client VPN connections it can handle. There has to be some bifurcation regarding this. I have not experienced any access lag so far or any performance issues. I do not see any problems with the configurations or recommendations provided by OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey for 100 or 200 users simultaneously, but I still foresee a need for some recommendations from OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey regarding the number of user connections it can handle given certain configurations.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ransomware protection that the tool offers."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."
"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."
"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."
"Five out of five ROI."
"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients a secure connectivity."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey has made a remarkable compute saving from the perspective when we need secure communication to connect to the AWS cloud tenant and is a quick, efficient solution rather than looking forward to any other solution."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is the best in class client VPN solution that one can opt for."
"We use the solution to connect to our internal infrastructure in our data center."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its stability and user-friendly UI."
 

Cons

"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"The tool only had some memory-related problems."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"The current usage reporting is very basic."
"The product's initial setup phase is not straightforward, making it an area where improvements are required."
"I would like to get less updates from the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."
"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
14%
University
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Hillstone E-Series?
We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. Wh...
What is your primary use case for Hillstone E-Series?
I use the solution in my company for site-to-site VPN, SSL VPNs, URL filtering, IPS, IDS and all the other features which are available in the firewall.
What advice do you have for others considering Hillstone E-Series?
Our company did not use the tool's micro-segmentation features. There were no issues while integrating the tool. I have not used any AI in the tool. I recommend the tool to others. I rate the tool ...
What do you like most about OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
The most valuable features of the solution are its stability and user-friendly UI.
What needs improvement with OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
All we are looking forward to is to know the configuration we have to follow if an N number of concurrent connections is required. For example, if it could have been 20 or 30, then what should be t...
What advice do you have for others considering OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
All we are looking forward to is to know the configuration we have to follow if an N number of concurrent connections is required. For example, if it could have been 20 or 30, then what should be t...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Hillstone E-Series vs. OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.