We have multiple clients on our VPN, and we do logon for support, backup, and product updates.
QA Engineer/Software Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Allows us to securely do remote product updates, as well as local subnet blocking
Pros and Cons
- "It can securely do remote product updates... just as if it was on our LAN."
- "You can do local subnet blocking."
- "They may have this already, but it would be nice to be able to get more notifications if a site drops unexpectedly."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What is most valuable?
One of the new features of it is you can change the default port. Instead of 1194, like everybody expects, you can change it to whichever port you want to use.
Another thing is that you can do local subnet blocking.
What needs improvement?
They may have this already, but it would be nice to be able to get more notifications if a site drops unexpectedly.
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.
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OpenVPN Access Server
October 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No real issues with stability, but it could be a little faster at times, though there are tweaks for that.
Also, I don't think it's really their issue, but sometimes I think that our sites - our IT departments - might do something to disconnect the connection. We can't always prove that but I think that's what happens. I have developed some scripts that detect that and will re-trigger the service. So that's not really an issue any more.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We had some scalability issues at first but it was our own lack of understanding. We had created just the limited set of clients, before we expanded on that to maximize it to 1000-plus clients on one subnet. That was all our own research and fixing that.
How are customer service and support?
Tech support is very good. They've got such a good product that I've only had to use them once or twice. The other times I have done an internet search and was able to find something that I needed.
How was the initial setup?
It was a little bit complex but now that I've done it a couple times it's pretty straightforward. Looking at everything to begin with was a little bit complex, building the certificates, etc. Since then, we've scripted everything and that makes it much easier.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think it's an exceptional value.
I think the pricing is an exceptional value. I didn't really deal with the licensing issue, but I have heard that if you know that you're going be doing it for at least five years, they do offer a 20% discount.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I don't recall any other options at that time. Somebody else in our office suggested OpenVPN and we went that route and it worked for us.
What other advice do I have?
If you will be creating several client configurations, create a script or some kind of automation for the steps of calling into the template where you can plug in parameters such as the key names and the actual subnet of the address that will be used. Then, in part of the script, do all the packaging of it because it will prevent errors and typos and save lots of time too.
Also, expand on the number of connections right away, and have some reset scripts for each phase, if it goes down, to be able to restart it. It can be difficult to connect to a remote machine if you've lost your connection.
I would rate it a 10 because I don't know of any other features that we're missing and it's so simple and flexible, customizable, that it's a really great product.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Cofounder/CTO and Principal Devops at a tech vendor
Provides privacy and cryptography for my network communication
Pros and Cons
- "Provides privacy and cryptography for my network communication."
- "I would like to see a GUI or Web UI to manage users. Today these features are in the Pro Edition or are done by scripts."
How has it helped my organization?
My entire engineering team can access our infrastructure from anywhere in the world, securely.
What is most valuable?
Privacy and cryptography for my network communication.
What needs improvement?
Maybe provide a GUI or Web UI to manage users. Today these features are in the Pro Edition or are done by scripts.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues with scalability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues with scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
The community is great. We are able to find a lot of documentation on the Web.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Cisco VPN, L2TP/IPsec. OpenVPN is easier to maintain and use, save us time.
How was the initial setup?
Straightforward, a server is installed in a few minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The Pro Edition has a reasonable price per user.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Cisco VPN.
What other advice do I have?
I use it as server and client in AWS. The first reason is to provide a kind of crypted VLAN.
No real advice to give, except to be careful with the traffic in/out on extensive usage.
I rate it 10 out of 10. Simple to install and maintain, easy to find documentation or help in Google.
Try it. It's really fast to PoC and validate this solution.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
OpenVPN Access Server
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about OpenVPN Access Server. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
872,778 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Founder
Highly configurable, you can create your own custom client installer
Pros and Cons
- "It allows our employees to work remotely across Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms."
- "Highly configurable. You can create your own custom client installer and can rebrand the server-side program."
- "Needs a better GUI."
How has it helped my organization?
It allows our employees to work remotely across Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms.
What is most valuable?
Highly configurable. You can create your own custom client installer and can rebrand the server-side program.
What needs improvement?
Better GUI.
Also, we switched more to Cisco AnyConnect due to the Win 10 stability issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were some issues when Windows 10 initially came out. However, after some OpenVPN and Windows 10 patches, it stabilized.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues with scalability.
How is customer service and technical support?
I have never used their technical support.
How was the initial setup?
Relatively straightforward. We just needed to insert the configuration file on each workstation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's open-source.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it eight out of 10 because of its multi-platform capability and stability. It's a solid, free VPN option that fits any platform environment.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Python Developer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Open source and affordable, but configuration wizard would be helpful
Pros and Cons
- "It is open source and therefore affordable for small projects."
- "It could include a configuration wizard so that users who do not follow instructions well can configure a connection."
What is our primary use case?
It was required for a secure network connection.
What is most valuable?
It is open source and therefore affordable for small projects.
What needs improvement?
It could include a configuration wizard so that users who do not follow instructions well can configure a connection.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not scaled service yet.
How are customer service and technical support?
We did not use support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This was our first solution.
How was the initial setup?
It was fine, as long as you followed instructions, but it can seem complex if you do not know what you are doing.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is free, you buy support.
What other advice do I have?
We don't this use solution on AWS. Used it with a different cloud service company. We had to use the standard VPN ports in order for it to work through our cloud service’s firewall.
My advice would be, understand networking and your requirements first.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Linux System Administrator at a media company with 51-200 employees
Two-factor authentication allows us to not force frequent password changes
Pros and Cons
- "It allows us to give access to our office network in a safe and secure way to users, no matter which computing platform they use. "
- "Two-factor authentication allows us to not force frequent password changes."
- "There was one annoying feature where we had to disable and enable the user. I cannot remember what it was exactly, but I think it was for a password lockout. It would be nice if there was a checkbox, or something, in the web interface to allow you to unlock a user whose password was locked."
How has it helped my organization?
It allows us to give access to our office network in a safe and secure way to users, no matter which computing platform they use.
What is most valuable?
- Easy to set up.
- Clients for multiple platforms
- It runs on Linux.
- It allows for two-factor authentication.
This makes it very easy to administer if it is running on a Linux server where you can do everything over CLI or a web-based interface. Some software only has clients for MAC and Windows, which is annoying. Two-factor authentication allows us to not force frequent password changes.
What needs improvement?
There was one annoying feature where we had to disable and enable the user. I cannot remember what it was exactly, but I think it was for a password lockout. It would be nice if there was a checkbox, or something, in the web interface to allow you to unlock a user whose password was locked.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues. It is solid as a rock.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Never.
How are customer service and technical support?
I do not think we ever had to use technical support. I mainly found answers on the web forums.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No.
How was the initial setup?
It was already set up when I got there.
However, I have set up OpenVPN elsewhere. The initial setup is very straightforward as long as you understand something about the way the OS works, and how the networking and certificates work.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Not applicable.
What other advice do I have?
It is good stuff.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Its best features include great documentation, community support, and easy to manage
Pros and Cons
- "It is much easier to scale and troubleshoot compared to regular Windows-based VPN solutions or PPTP daemon."
- "It requires some experience of Linux server configuration to set it up."
What is our primary use case?
I have used this solution for five years (2008-2013) as the company's main business solution, and then, for a year (2017), as a custom solution for secure AWS access.
I was using it on AWS to create secure access to internal VPC services. It is a lightweight, easy to setup solution.
How has it helped my organization?
Several years ago, I was working on a Consumer VPN service provider, and OpenVPN was a great base to provide such services. It is much easier to scale and troubleshoot compared to regular Windows-based VPN solutions or PPTP daemon.
What is most valuable?
- Easy to setup and manage
- Great documentation
- Community support
What needs improvement?
At the moment, I am not working too closely with the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
On a scale of one to 10, I would rate technical support as a nine.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Just regular Windows Server PPTP/L2TP and Linux PPTP. OpenVPN is clearly better than the regular solutions.
How was the initial setup?
50/50 (straightforward/complex). It requires some experience of Linux server configuration. If you are an experienced Linux user, setup is pretty fast and simple.
What other advice do I have?
Enjoy implementing it!
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT DevOps Engineer at Rpc Data
Helps to access remote services
Pros and Cons
- "We use the solution to access remote services."
- "I want the tool to be faster. We have experienced connectivity issues while using OpenVPN and FortiClient."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to access remote services.
What needs improvement?
I want the tool to be faster. We have experienced connectivity issues while using OpenVPN and FortiClient.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable and I would rate it an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is not scalable. We have two users for the product.
How was the initial setup?
The tool's setup is complex. The product's deployment takes 30 minutes to complete. We followed the tool's documentation to complete the setup.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the product an eight out of ten. You need to study the solution's documentation and get familiar with it before implementing the tool in your organization.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Systems Engineer at Nexus Open Systems
Highly stable, secure, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of the OpenVPN Access Server are the ease of use and integration with different platforms, such as Android and Windows. I can use the solution on my desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, the solution is secure."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
We provide support services to customers. For some customers we do remote support, we can log in to their VPN via the OpenVPN Access Server.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the OpenVPN Access Server are the ease of use and integration with different platforms, such as Android and Windows. I can use the solution on my desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, the solution is secure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using OpenVPN Access Server for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability of the OpenVPN Access Server a five out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Proton VPN in parallel to OpenVPN Access Server.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of the OpenVPN Access Server is very easy and it can be done in minutes. 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.
What other advice do I have?
I have been using OpenVPN Access Server a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: October 2025
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