Use case · VPN & networking
OpenVPN hosting
OpenVPN is a mature, flexible, highly-configurable VPN protocol, used for years and widely supported. It can run over TCP on common ports to traverse restrictive networks, uses certificate-based authentication, and adapts to many needs. It is heavier than WireGuard but more flexible. Dedicated, EU-hosted infrastructure runs a self-hosted OpenVPN server sovereignly and under your control.
Key points
- OpenVPN is a mature, flexible, highly-configurable VPN protocol.
- It has been used for years and is very widely supported across platforms.
- It can run over TCP on common ports to traverse restrictive networks.
- It uses certificate-based authentication, suited to managed access.
- Self-hosting on EU infrastructure keeps an OpenVPN server sovereign and under your control.
What is OpenVPN, and why choose it?
OpenVPN is a mature, widely-used VPN protocol and software, known for its flexibility, configurability, and long track record, which have made it a mainstay of self-hosted VPNs for many years. It provides the encrypted tunnel a VPN needs, like other protocols, but with a wealth of options and a long history of use across many environments, so it can be adapted to a great range of needs and works almost everywhere. Where newer protocols emphasise simplicity, OpenVPN's strength is its maturity and flexibility — it has been proven over years and can be configured for many situations, including difficult ones.
Hosting an OpenVPN server means running OpenVPN on a server as the VPN, giving a flexible, well-supported, self-hosted VPN under your control. The server provides the OpenVPN endpoint that clients connect to, tunnelling their traffic, and OpenVPN's configurability lets the setup be tailored to the need. This page focuses on OpenVPN specifically and its strengths; the general considerations of running your own VPN are covered on the VPN server page, and WireGuard on its own, while what follows attends to OpenVPN's character — its maturity, flexibility, and particular abilities — and what running it involves.
Maturity and broad support
A key strength of OpenVPN is its maturity and broad support: it has been used and refined over many years, is trusted, and is supported across almost every platform and by a wide ecosystem. Years of use have made OpenVPN well-understood and dependable, with its behaviour proven across countless deployments, so it is a known quantity that many trust for important VPN needs. And it is supported almost everywhere — clients exist for every major operating system, mobile platform, and many routers and devices — so an OpenVPN server can be connected to from nearly anything, which matters for reaching diverse clients.
This maturity and broad support make OpenVPN a safe, capable choice, especially where wide client compatibility or a proven protocol is wanted. An organisation needing to support many kinds of client device, or wanting a long-proven protocol, is well served by OpenVPN's ubiquity and track record. The wide ecosystem also means ample tools, documentation, and expertise. We host OpenVPN servers on infrastructure suited to it, so that an organisation can run a mature, widely-supported VPN reachable from nearly any client — drawing on OpenVPN's years of proven use and broad compatibility, on infrastructure we provide and under the organisation's control.
Flexibility and configurability
OpenVPN is highly flexible and configurable, with many options for how it runs, which lets it be tailored to a wide range of needs — a defining characteristic that distinguishes it from simpler protocols. OpenVPN can be configured in many ways: the transport it uses, the cryptography, the network topology, routing, and much else, so a setup can be adapted precisely to what is needed, whether a straightforward remote-access VPN or a complex arrangement with particular requirements. This configurability is powerful for situations that need it, letting OpenVPN fit needs that a simpler, less configurable protocol could not.
The flexibility means OpenVPN can address requirements other protocols cannot, at the cost of more configuration to manage. Where a setup has particular needs — specific routing, integration with existing systems, unusual network conditions — OpenVPN's options can meet them, though the configurability means more to set up and maintain than a simpler protocol. For those who need this flexibility, it is worth it. We host OpenVPN servers on infrastructure that supports its flexible configurations, so that an organisation can run OpenVPN tailored to its needs — taking advantage of the configurability that lets OpenVPN address requirements simpler protocols cannot, on infrastructure sized for the setup.
Traversing restrictive networks
A particular strength of OpenVPN is its ability to traverse restrictive networks, because it can run over TCP on common ports, making its traffic resemble ordinary secure web traffic that firewalls usually allow. Many restrictive networks block VPNs, but they allow ordinary secure web traffic on its usual port; OpenVPN can be configured to run over TCP on that port, so its traffic looks like the secure web traffic firewalls permit, letting the VPN work where VPNs are otherwise blocked. This ability to get through restrictive firewalls is a notable OpenVPN capability that simpler protocols, which use fixed arrangements, often lack.
This makes OpenVPN valuable where connections must work through restrictive networks — some corporate, institutional, or national networks that block VPNs. For users needing to connect from such networks, OpenVPN's ability to resemble ordinary web traffic can be what makes a VPN connection possible at all, which is a real advantage in those situations. We host OpenVPN servers that can be configured for this — running over TCP on common ports to traverse restrictive networks — so that an organisation whose users must connect through restrictive networks can run a VPN that works where others are blocked, using OpenVPN's ability to resemble the ordinary secure web traffic that firewalls allow.
Certificate-based authentication
OpenVPN commonly uses certificate-based authentication, where a certificate authority issues certificates to the server and clients, which is a strong, managed way to control access suited to organisational use. Rather than only passwords, OpenVPN can authenticate clients by certificates issued from a certificate authority the organisation runs, so only clients with a valid issued certificate can connect, and access can be granted or revoked by managing the certificates. This model gives strong authentication and clear control over who can connect, which suits organisations managing VPN access for their people or systems.
This certificate model, optionally combined with passwords or additional factors, gives layered, manageable authentication for an OpenVPN VPN. The certificates provide strong identity; adding a password or another factor strengthens it further; and managing the certificate authority lets the organisation control access centrally, issuing certificates to authorised clients and revoking them as needed. We host OpenVPN servers on which this certificate-based authentication runs, on secure infrastructure, so that an organisation can control access to its VPN through managed certificates — a strong, controllable authentication model suited to organisational VPN access, on infrastructure that keeps the server and its authentication secure.
OpenVPN or WireGuard?
It is worth being honest about OpenVPN versus WireGuard, since each has clear strengths and the right choice depends on the needs. OpenVPN's strengths are its maturity, flexibility, broad support, and abilities like traversing restrictive networks and certificate-based access — making it excellent where those matter. WireGuard's strengths are speed, leanness, and simplicity, with lower overhead and easier setup — making it an excellent default where those matter most. So neither is simply better: OpenVPN suits flexibility, compatibility, and difficult networks; WireGuard suits speed, efficiency, and simplicity.
The honest guidance is to choose by need. Where you need to traverse restrictive networks, want the broadest client compatibility, need OpenVPN's configurability, or want its certificate-based access model, OpenVPN is the better choice. Where you want the fastest, leanest, simplest VPN and do not need OpenVPN's particular abilities, WireGuard often suits better. We host servers for both, and will not push one over the other; we provide the infrastructure for whichever fits your needs, being clear that OpenVPN's strengths are maturity and flexibility, and WireGuard's are speed and simplicity — so you can choose what actually fits, and we host it either way.
Server needs and use cases
An OpenVPN server needs bandwidth for its traffic and somewhat more compute than WireGuard, since OpenVPN is heavier, so it should be sized with that in mind. As with any VPN, the tunnelled traffic needs bandwidth, so bandwidth sized to the traffic is a main consideration; and OpenVPN's encryption and processing, being heavier than WireGuard's lean design, use more compute per unit of traffic, so an OpenVPN server carrying heavy traffic benefits from capable compute. This makes OpenVPN a little more demanding of the server than WireGuard, though still well within what capable infrastructure provides.
OpenVPN suits several uses, and is particularly used for business remote access, site-to-site links, and connecting through restrictive networks. Its certificate-based access and flexibility suit organisations giving their people secure remote access to internal resources; its configurability suits linking networks; and its ability to traverse restrictive networks suits users who must connect from difficult ones. We provide well-connected infrastructure for OpenVPN servers, with the bandwidth its traffic needs and the compute its heavier processing benefits from, sized to the use, so that a self-hosted OpenVPN VPN serves business remote access, site-to-site links, or connections through restrictive networks well, on infrastructure suited to OpenVPN's demands.
Sovereignty, and where VV Internet Hosting fits
An OpenVPN server carries your traffic and authenticates your access, so where it runs governs that traffic and access, making sovereignty a consideration, as with any VPN. Your traffic passes through the OpenVPN server, and its jurisdiction is where the server is hosted, so where you run your OpenVPN determines the jurisdiction of its operation and any data it handles. VV Internet Hosting is incorporated in the Netherlands, within the EU, so an OpenVPN server hosted with us runs under European jurisdiction and outside the direct reach of the US CLOUD Act, keeping your VPN and its traffic under European law and on infrastructure you control.
We host dedicated infrastructure for self-hosted OpenVPN servers: well-connected servers with the bandwidth OpenVPN's traffic needs and the compute its processing benefits from, secure hosting for its certificate-based authentication, and a dedicated IP you control — in EU datacenters under European jurisdiction. This suits organisations and individuals who want a mature, flexible, self-hosted VPN with OpenVPN, under their control, with European sovereignty, for business remote access, site-to-site links, or connecting through restrictive networks. We are clear about our limits: we provide the infrastructure you run your OpenVPN server on, not a commercial VPN service with many locations and shared IPs for anonymity — for that use, a commercial VPN is the right tool. We are the dedicated, sovereign infrastructure on which you run your own OpenVPN — and if that fits your needs, we can host it well.
Related use cases
See also
Questions
OpenVPN servers, answered plainly
Common questions about hosting for OpenVPN servers.
What are OpenVPN's main strengths?
Its maturity, flexibility, broad support, and particular abilities. OpenVPN has been used and refined over many years, is trusted and supported across almost every platform, is highly configurable so it adapts to many needs, can traverse restrictive networks by running over TCP on common ports, and uses certificate-based authentication suited to managed access. It's excellent where those matter.
How does OpenVPN get through restrictive networks?
By running over TCP on common ports, so its traffic resembles ordinary secure web traffic that firewalls usually allow. Many restrictive networks block VPNs but permit ordinary secure web traffic; OpenVPN configured this way looks like that traffic, letting the VPN work where VPNs are otherwise blocked — an advantage for users connecting from restrictive corporate, institutional, or national networks.
Should I choose OpenVPN or WireGuard?
It depends on your needs. OpenVPN suits flexibility, broad compatibility, traversing restrictive networks, and certificate-based access. WireGuard suits speed, efficiency, and simplicity, with lower overhead and easier setup. Neither is simply better — OpenVPN's strengths are maturity and flexibility, WireGuard's are speed and simplicity. We host both and will help you choose what fits.
Planning OpenVPN servers infrastructure?
We host dedicated, EU-sovereign infrastructure sized to your workload — and we will tell you plainly when something else fits better. Tell us what you're building.