Ivanti Connect Secure vs OpenVPN Access Server comparison

Ivanti and OpenVPN are both solutions in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category. Ivanti is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.3, while OpenVPN is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9. Ivanti holds a 5.2% mindshare in EIV, compared to OpenVPN’s 13.3% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Ivanti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of OpenVPN users who would recommend it.

Ivanti Connect Secure

Read 29 Ivanti Connect Secure reviews

3,911 Views
3,207 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

OpenVPN Access Server

Read 57 OpenVPN Access Server reviews

7,471 Views
7,172 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Ivanti Connect Secure

OpenVPN Access Server

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Ivanti Connect Secure and OpenVPN Access Server are VPN solutions that compete in providing secure remote access. OpenVPN Access Server appears to have an upper hand due to its robust feature set and flexibility, which justifies its costs.

Features: Ivanti Connect Secure offers advanced security measures, seamless application-based access, and robust access control capabilities. OpenVPN Access Server provides flexibility, scalability, and multi-device support, making it appealing for organizations seeking comprehensive VPN functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Ivanti Connect Secure could enhance ease of deployment and reduce complexity for smaller organizations. Enhancing user-friendliness and integrating more seamlessly with non-proprietary systems might also be beneficial. OpenVPN Access Server could improve its pricing model and increase ease of use for users unfamiliar with VPN setups. Better integration options with existing enterprise solutions could enhance its offering.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenVPN Access Server offers straightforward deployment with high-quality customer service, appealing to organizations without dedicated IT resources. Ivanti Connect Secure requires a more complex deployment process, aligning better with larger companies equipped with IT teams for setup and support.

Pricing and ROI: Ivanti Connect Secure has a higher initial setup cost but offers long-term ROI due to its durability in demanding environments. OpenVPN Access Server promises better upfront value with lower setup costs, providing quick ROI for businesses seeking efficient, scalable solutions without a hefty initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Ivanti Connect Secure vs. OpenVPN Access Server Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure vs. OpenVPN Access Server

March 2026

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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

Ivanti Connect Secure

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

SSL VPN (3rd)

OpenVPN Access Server

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Ivanti Connect Secure is 5.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Access Server is 13.3%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
OpenVPN Access Server	13.3%
Ivanti Connect Secure	5.2%
Other	81.5%

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

Featured Reviews

Kaushlendra Singh

Manager - IT Infrastructure and Network at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides secure and simple remote access but needs improved reporting capabilities

Ivanti Connect Secure is simple and secure, making it valuable for our organization. Ivanti Connect Secure's access control feature provides global protect, which allows country-wise blocking. There are many access controls available, and policies can be created on a host basis and on the MAC address of assets that will connect. Firewall versions and OS versions can be defined, and only devices meeting these criteria can connect to the VPN. These features are effective, along with MFA. Ivanti Connect Secure is a client-based, agent-based solution, so if the agent is installed, users are able to connect to the network. Ivanti Connect Secure utilizes identity-based LDAP authentication. Ivanti Connect Secure is very effective for remote access for remote workers.

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Emmanuel Chebukati

DevSecOps Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Secure remote access has protected diverse users while access controls provide precise permissions

The user interface of OpenVPN Access Server is good but can be improved. I would prefer to see it become more intuitive. I use Twingate as an alternative, and in Twingate, you see resources, while in OpenVPN Access Server, those would be IP addresses. You get to see dashboards and access views of who can access a particular resource or subnet. You can see who can access what resources from the user view, but you can also see the reverse, which is which resource can be accessed by what users. That reverse view would be a nice addition to have in a dashboard. Additionally, access logs associated with that resource would be helpful, so it would be beneficial to have different views for the same content. Beyond the positive aspects, I would like to see improvements in OpenVPN Access Server. Twingate offers a different approach to the same problem by moving more towards resource-specific resources and fine-grained zero-trust access, as opposed to entire subnets and entire networks. I would prefer to see views on resources. In the same way that we can define subnets, perhaps we could have views that describe what this particular subnet does and what this particular resource does. Then we can assign those resources and subnets to individual users and groups. It is more about granularizing the resources that can be accessed rather than simply bundling them under subnets or a list of subnets, which is the current approach. Apart from that, I would like to see UI enhancements in OpenVPN Access Server in the future. Making it more modern would be beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is customer-friendly, it is quite easy for our users to connect, and there is also the flexibility of the features."

"I can safely say this is one of the best solutions I have seen for VPN access. It can achieve what other vendors may not be able to. This product will train you about exactly what an SSL should be. You can leverage it to do whatever you wish, the way you wish to do it. This is the solution if you want a perfectly scalable product for your enterprise that can help your mobile users and integrate with the latest technologies."

"From an end-user perspective, the setup phase is easy."

"The product is easy to use."

"My company decided to use Pulse Connect Secure because it had all the required security features, it was easy to connect to it, and it's a standard solution in the market."

"The solution helps with principal decisions. It also helps with the security and configuration of many technologies."

"What I like the most about Pulse Connect Secure is that it's user-friendly; it's easy to use, you just need to connect, and that's it."

"The most valuable features of the solution are reliability and uptime."

More Ivanti Connect Secure pros

"It can securely do remote product updates, push out product updates; just like on our LAN, it's a virtual private network and we just push across our updates."

"It was very easy to set up users."

"The most valuable features of OpenVPN are its ease of use, client familiarity, end-user familiarity, operating system integration, and price points."

"I like that it's free."

"Once you set it up correctly, it works and continues to work reliably."

"It is open-source and free to use."

"The best thing is that it is open source and free of cost."

More OpenVPN Access Server pros

Cons

"Pulse Connect Secure could improve by having better integration with NAC solutions, such as Cisco ClearPass integration with Pulse Connect Secure. Additionally, they need better integration with Microsoft Azure AD and Azure Authenticator."

"At the moment, Pulse Connect Secure is a pretty good solution, and I don't see any issues with it. Currently, I'm not aware of a new or additional feature that's needed in Pulse Connect Secure, but it would be good if the team could look at how the speed of connection could be increased. Though it's quite seamless and I didn't face any problem with the speed, it would be better to improve the speed and keep going forward, especially as the industry's changing and people would love connections to be a lot faster."

"Pulse Connect Secure could improve the reporting, it is lacking in detail and should take the report automatically."

"We need to know how many live active users there are and we can't. We even updated the server, however, we still can't see the proper level of live connections. Right now, it's showing as 300 users and my customer does not have that many users in his organization."

"It could be more user-friendly and not as complicated as it is right now."

"The most valuable features of Pulse Connect Secure are the user-friendly connection and interconnecting."

"I would like the solution to be more secure and compatible. It also needs to improve integration with other systems."

More Ivanti Connect Secure cons

"The connections could be faster and more stable."

"It would be nice with all these features, if they could send some examples of each one; just small sample scripts to look at and say, "Oh okay, I could expand on this." That would help us a lot."

"Open VPN Access Server could be more user-friendly."

"I want the tool to be faster. We have experienced connectivity issues while using OpenVPN and FortiClient."

"They may have this already, but it would be nice to be able to get more notifications if a site drops unexpectedly."

"The solution should provide a faster connection, and its security could be improved."

"The upgrade path from older versions was more difficult than we wanted to tackle, so we ran an older version of the software for longer than I wanted."

"There could be an easier way to set up the solution. However, if you use the provided information that comes with the solution there should not be a problem."

More OpenVPN Access Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price a six to seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"The price of Pulse Connect Secure is expensive."

"Pulse Connect Secure is relatively cost-effective."

"The cost of the product is high, but worth it because of the utility and great product support."

"The pricing is quite nominal. We pay on a yearly basis."

"The pricing for Pulse Connect Secure is not low and not high, so it's good. It's a six out of ten for me, price-wise."

"A license is required for you to use Pulse Connect Secure, but I'm not aware of how much it costs."

"I don't need to pay for its license since it is an open-source tool."

"OpenVPN is an open-source solution. If the solution is used for personal use it is free. For non-personal use, the solution can be expensive."

"OpenVPN Access Server was free for students. I don't know if you have to pay for an advanced version."

"Begin with the community version and upgrade to paid one if the need arises."

"OpenVPN Access Server is free and open source."

"The solution is free of cost."

"I would say the product's pricing is a good value. I would recommend to other companies to implement it. I've seen other software, in tandem with the service, to be very expensive."

"One of the valuable features of OpenVPN is that it is free for a single user."

More OpenVPN Access Server pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

University

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	16

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pulse Connect Secure?

Ivanti has always been known to be pricey, making it a rather high-cost solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pulse Connect Secure?

The reporting capabilities of Ivanti Connect Secure are not strong; the format is simple, and obtaining a detailed report is difficult and requires manual work. Regarding points for improvement, th...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Pulse Connect Secure?

Ivanti Connect Secure is used for both applications and for the RDP of our server.

See all answers

How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?

Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...

See all answers

What do you like most about OpenVPN Access Server?

OpenVPN Access Server is a simple and easy-to-use solution that I can use myself without anybody's help.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenVPN Access Server?

I find it not cost-effective. It is not worth the money from a pricing perspective. However, it is a good investment for security and company information security. It is a good investment overall.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 8% of the time

Ivanti Secure Access vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 7% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 6% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 6% of the time

More Ivanti Connect Secure Competitors

Fortinet FortiClient vs OpenVPN Access Server

Compared 15% of the time

Check Point Remote Access VPN vs OpenVPN Access Server

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway vs OpenVPN Access Server

Compared 6% of the time

SonicWall Netextender vs OpenVPN Access Server

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs OpenVPN Access Server

Compared 5% of the time

More OpenVPN Access Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure

March 2026

Download Ivanti Connect Secure product report

Buyer's Guide

OpenVPN Access Server

March 2026

Download OpenVPN Access Server product report

Also Known As

Pulse Connect Secure

OpenVPN

Overview

Ivanti Connect Secure provides a seamless, cost-effective SSL VPN solution for remote and mobile users from any web-enabled device to corporate resources— anytime, anywhere.

Ivanti

OpenVPN Access Server Enterprise provides secure, scalable remote access with strong encryption and cross-platform compatibility, leveraging open-source flexibility for cost-effectiveness. It's ideal for connecting remote workers, maintaining privacy, and securing network communications.

OpenVPN Access Server Enterprise is renowned for its ease of setup and adaptability, supporting Linux and different operating systems, which ensures robust security and seamless integration across network scenarios. With features like two-factor authentication and customizable installers, it emphasizes privacy and remote connectivity. While it offers robust documentation and community support, there are challenges with user management due to the lack of a simple GUI. Users note stability issues under heavy traffic, and improvements in security features and configuration automation are desired. Despite these areas for enhancement, it remains a reliable choice for secure remote access.

What are the key features?

Easy Setup: Hassle-free installation process facilitates quick deployment
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Supports Linux and different operating systems for widespread utility
Strong Encryption: Secures data with advanced encryption technologies
Two-Factor Authentication: Enhances security through additional authentication layer
Customizable Installers: Allows personalized installation process to suit organizational preferences

What benefits and ROI should users seek?

Cost-Effectiveness: Open-source nature reduces licensing costs
User-Friendliness: Comprehensive documentation and community support ease the implementation
Scalability: Adapts to growing connectivity and bandwidth needs
Enhanced Security: Provides secure access to network resources and data

In industries such as finance and healthcare, OpenVPN Access Server Enterprise secures sensitive data while enabling remote access across LANs and VPCs. It's utilized for encrypted traffic protection, facilitating site-to-site VPNs, and connecting mobile workers securely, thus maintaining data integrity in interoffice communications and IoT platforms.

OpenVPN

Sample Customers

Axcient, Baloise Group, Cygate, Catholic University of America, Datec Inc, Revlon, Santa Monica Networks, 7-Eleven

Verizon, Amazon, Disney, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure vs. OpenVPN Access Server

March 2026

Free Report: Ivanti Connect Secure vs. OpenVPN Access Server

Find out what your peers are saying about Ivanti Connect Secure vs. OpenVPN Access Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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