OpenVPN vs Wireguard

[Rob1985]

Hi.

My device: Asus AX88U Pro running latest stock firmware
My base internet speed: 500Mbps symetrical Download/Upload.

I would like to know, whether OpenVPN or Wireguard is better for me personally and my use case.

I want to have my two TVs which use Chromecast with Google TV stick to be using VPN client (VPN Fusion) through the router - because using native android VPN app on them, the speeds are really bad.
Without VPN, just using the WIFI, my TVs get about 100Mbps download which is sufficient enough for my needs. When I tested both OpenVPN and Wireguard, they both also get me 100Mbps - so no change in this aspect.

However when researching implentations of these VPN protocols, I found many threads where users were stating that just running Wireguard alone, was slowing down their entire network. A lot of these, were old threads, where Nat Acceleration and Hardware Acceleration was disabled for the whole network if using Wireguard - later apparently there was a bypass made, so only devices connected to Wireguard client would have those disabled, while the rest of the network would have them enabled. OpenVPN as far as I read, uses Nat Acceleration and Hardware Acceleration natively so no change at all.
I tried to do some tests, having Wireguard or OpenVPN enabled, as far as I could tell, I saw no real difference to rest of my network - my comptuters, phones, all acting normal, speeds same as always - maxed out if nothing is being used, or shared if other devices are using so all normal.

Of course my own testing methodology is suboptimal as I don't know how to do it properly, so I wanted to asks the experts here. I also care about not having any IP/DNS leaks (with both wireguard and openvpn I saw no leaks), want to have lowest ping possible (with both protocols using Mullvad, ping was the same), stability, and also I don't want to be stressing the CPU of the router out. I actually plugged a WATT meter to the router, on idle with or without either protocol or both just enabled, always 9.3w - if I download something using wifi, with VPN disabled or enabled for either OpenVPN or Wireguard, power draw would increase to range of 13.7w-14.2w so stress wise seems similar?

Does anyone also know if wireguard client has a kill switch? I know openvpn does because the mullvad server I was using once went down for a day, so all my devices configured to it would not work - unsure if the same would happen with wireguard or if it would switch to my base internet (which I don't want).

1. Which protocol offers more stability for my network? I have two TVs which will be streaming at once 4K content, multiple mobile phones being used, three gaming computers which might also be streaming/downloading. I care about ping, no packet loss, stable speed.
2. Which protocol is safer? I don't want to have any IP/DNS leaks, and I don't want my router to be disabling some important features like nat acceleration/hardware aes for other interfaces (unless the bypass is sufficient).
3. Which protocol has less CPU overhead - less stress on the router itself?
4. What protocol do you recommend I use and why?

Sorry for the long read, I tried to keep it as short as possible which explaining my usage. Thank you for anyone who takes their time to read and assist me in advance.

Kind regards.

 

[bennor]

I would like to know, whether OpenVPN or Wireguard is better for me personally and my use case.

Welcome. Because each person's environment and use case is different, what works best for one person may not work best for you.

Try both and see which works best for your environment and use case.

If you haven't done so already, use the forum search feature. There are a number of past discussions on OpenVPN and WireGuard and which one works best for that person. WireGuard is supposed to be faster than OpenVPN, but again its subject to environment and use case.

In my use case I typically see better speeds with the WireGuard VPN Server when compared to the OpenVPN Server. YMMV

 

[Rob1985]

Sadly I do not know objectively what works better for me. On the surface I don’t see any difference but of course under the hood, there’s a lot of code and the protocols do work differently.

This is why I would like to know from a technical viewpoint which would be better.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Sadly I do not know objectively what works better for me. On the surface I don’t see any difference but of course under the hood, there’s a lot of code and the protocols do work differently.

This is why I would like to know from a technical viewpoint which would be better.

WG seems to be more stable on my router than OpenVPN. Speed is always better using WG . With WG clients I often get download speeds of 500 - 600 Mbps. A Open VPN client typically is in the range of 150 - 180 Mbps.

In your case TVs connecting probably have just 100 Mbps Ethernet ports and Wifi also probably can't do even 100 Mbps which is fine because a 4K stream won't even download at 50 Mbps.

With your router neither type of client will put that great of a load on your processor so as previously stated the choice is yours.

 

[Net Noob]

Hi rob,

I heard a few months ago that mullvad is actually deprecating OpenVPN in favour of Wireguard. They will stop using OpenVPN from January 2026. It might be wise for you to focus your efforts on Wireguard.

I recently swapped from OpenVPN to Wireguard for use with mullvad. Personally, I don't like OpenVPN at all, it is a pain in the beehind to get decent speeds out of it. For your use case, it would be more than fine though.

There is one thing which concerns me about Wireguard. OpenVPN although old uses more robust / better cyphers for encryption compared to Wireguard. I can't find the damn thread where I read that! But in reality, I dont think it actually matters at all. Might be worth checking out.

Noob.

 

[Rob1985]

Ah you’re right I’ve just seen the article, sad. I also have surfshark sub so might use their openvpn.

I was doing a lot of tests yesterday, so my TVs can pull almost 300down/up (via chromecast dongles), if I keep wifi at 80mhz but I usually stick to 40mhz as it seems more stable drop-wise so speeds usually go to 150-180Mbps (I guess penetration issues?).

I read before that openvpn can only do 200Mbps, and I thought that was per device limit but I was wrong, it’s for all devices combined - even at 40Mhz, doing tests and both TVs pulling about 100Mbps at once which seems good enough - I tried steaming a 60GB file at once on both and no freezes or lag of any kind.

I was testing wireguard too, of course faster speeds, but I am a little worried and not trusting about its implementations and possible issues. When I was switching profiles on VPN Fusion - activating OpenVPN, testing TV, deactivating, then Wireguard on, there was a point where with Wireguard being on, my base IP was actually used - I wasn’t testing for that, and I haven’t tried to replicate it as I just turned my TV dongle off/on and Wireguard off/on to fix it, but it did make me a little paranoid.

I might look into wireguard again at later date.