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Hillstone E-Series vs OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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 (19th)
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 September 2026, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 4.7%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is 3.0%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
SSL VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey3.0%
Hillstone E-Series4.7%
Other92.3%
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.
Abhishek Saini - PeerSpot reviewer
Professional Services Engineer at Next7 IT
Standardized remote access has boosted secure client support and improved team coordination
OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is very flexible, but there are features that would significantly improve day-to-day operations, especially in MSPs. The biggest improvement I would see is better centralized management, easier routing and network virtualization, more advanced built-in monitoring and reporting, simplified certificate lifecycle management, and stronger integrations with identity providers. One thing we often wish for is something similar to enterprise VPN dashboards where we can instantly see who is connected, which routes are active, failed authentication attempts, and tunnel health. Overall, the core VPN engine itself is solid, but most frustrations are really around management, visibility, scalability, and operational convenience rather than the tunnel functionality itself. The biggest friction point with OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is usually around configuration complexity and troubleshooting, especially in more complex client networks. I encounter issues whenever there are routing and subnet issues, DNS resolution problems, certificates and client configuration management challenges, limited centralized management in the community edition, or documentation dependency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Five out of five ROI."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ransomware protection that the tool offers."
"If an organization is not looking for a web proxy, it's a very, very good product."
"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."
"With Hillstone, TCO and ROI are very good, it's an easy sale."
"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"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."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey has a noticeable impact on both operational efficiency and security in day-to-day support work."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is the best in class client VPN solution that one can opt for."
"The best features that OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey offers are precisely the simplicity of the configuration, the speed with which we can complete this configuration, and also the scalability."
"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."
"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."
"Overall, we use OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey to protect internal infrastructure, support secure remote work, reduce public exposure, and improve access governance."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey has positively impacted my organization by satisfying my use cases because all four of us are working from different places and logging in from different IPs, which could be suspicious."
 

Cons

"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"The tool needs to improve its price."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"The tool only had some memory-related problems."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"The current usage reporting is very basic. I would like to be able to access more granular data."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey can be improved by looking forward to recommendations regarding compute sizing, which is necessary."
"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."
"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 with easier setup, a built-in web dashboard, better user management, and strong reporting."
"Regarding reliability, I have faced downtime and connection issues approximately once every two months."
"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."
"The product's initial setup phase is not straightforward, making it an area where improvements are required."
"OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey needs one improvement for larger organizations, as its VPN configuration may be a bit challenging."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"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."
"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."
"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
24%
Comms Service Provider
17%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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 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. Currently, OpenVPN Community Edition -...
What advice do you have for others considering OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey?
I purchased OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey through the AWS Marketplace. My advice for others looking into using OpenVPN Community Edition - powered by TurnKey is that if you really ...
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: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.