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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
10th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (40th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (20th)
OpenVPN Community Edition -...
Ranking in SSL VPN
5th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 4.6%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is 2.9%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
SSL VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey2.9%
Hillstone E-Series4.6%
Other92.5%
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.
Manmohan Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems India Private Limited
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 most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"With Hillstone, TCO and ROI are very good, it's an easy sale."
"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients secure connectivity from a remote location to their offices or their servers."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"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."
"Overall, we use OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey to protect internal infrastructure, support secure remote work, reduce public exposure, and improve access governance."
"The best features OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey offers are that it is fast while connecting; it takes hardly one or two seconds once we enter our password and the security code."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its stability and user-friendly UI."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey has a noticeable impact on both operational efficiency and security in day-to-day support work."
"We use the solution to connect to our internal infrastructure in our data center."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey has been a reliable solution for secure remote connectivity, working well for organizations looking for a cost-effective VPN solution."
"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."
"Regarding outcomes such as improved productivity, I can say that using OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey, we enhance our development experience and our security experience significantly."
 

Cons

"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"The current usage reporting is very basic. I would like to be able to access more granular data."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"The room for improvement would be the SSL VPN license cost."
"The tool only had some memory-related problems."
"I would like to see an improvement in OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey by adding a feature that shows user activity after connecting to the VPN."
"The biggest friction point with OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is usually around configuration complexity and troubleshooting, especially in more complex client networks."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey can be improved by looking forward to recommendations regarding compute sizing, which is necessary."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey can be improved in overall performance, that is, speed, especially when we are talking about the transmission of a large amount of data."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey can be improved with easier setup, a built-in web dashboard, better user management, and strong reporting."
"I would like to get less updates from the solution."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey needs one improvement for larger organizations, as its VPN configuration may be a bit challenging."
"I find the initial setup and configuration process of OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey very challenging for our organization, as it takes time to load, especially for beginners without an experienced admin."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."
"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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
25%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

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 needs improvement with OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
I find the initial setup and configuration process of OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey very challenging for our organization, as it takes time to load, especially for beginners withou...
What advice do you have for others considering OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
My advice to others looking into using OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is to ensure that team members possess networking and security knowledge before deployment, and that proper pla...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is completely free. There is no pricing, no setup cost, and no licensing. OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is not mainly an AI-based pla...
 

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: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.