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NordLayer vs OpenVPN Access Server comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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

NordLayer
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
23rd
Ranking in ZTNA
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (35th), Network Access Control (NAC) (20th), Internet Security (15th), ZTNA as a Service (24th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (32nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (24th)
OpenVPN Access Server
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
1st
Ranking in ZTNA
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of NordLayer is 2.3%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Access Server is 10.9%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenVPN Access Server10.9%
NordLayer2.3%
Other86.8%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Christophe Derdeyn - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner delaware Singapore at delaware Singapore
A convenient and easy tool with an incredibly high number of dialing points
The solution is convenient and easy. It has an incredibly high number of dialing points for pretty much every single country in the world. It has a few additional security features. It has a function that prevents unsecured access if my connection were to drop for any reason. It’s something I like. It has threat protection features. It can protect my web connection and files against malicious downloads and trackers.
AS
Network operation center engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Secure remote access has protected critical data and now simplifies role-based user management
An area for improvement is the pricing model. The concurrent user licenses get expensive pretty quickly as your organization grows, so more flexible pricing options would be a huge plus. Another area is configurational disconnect. While the admin web UI handles about 90% of what you need, the moment you have to do deep, advanced routing customization, you still have to drop back to the command line interface to make those changes. It would be great to see those deeper configurations completely integrated into the web portal. Lastly, it would be awesome to see native support for newer, lighter protocols through WireGuard built straight into the platform alongside standard OpenVPN for better performance efficiency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is convenient and easy."
"Overall, OpenVPN Access Server has positively impacted our organization by giving us a highly reliable, stable environment for remote work."
"The features I have found to be most valuable are the levels of encryption I can enact and the compression I can apply to improve throughput."
"It can securely do remote product updates... just as if it was on our LAN."
"It allowed people to remotely access files from their mobile devices and was so easy for end-users to use that they were able to work more efficiently no matter where they were, whether at a client’s campus, home, traveling – wherever they had a device and internet access."
"Highly configurable. You can create your own custom client installer and can rebrand the server-side program."
"Its most valuable feature is that it is open source."
"The most valuable feature of OpenVPN is that it is open source. I can do anything with the solution, such as change, build, and collect. Additionally, it is safe to use the solution and there are frequent updates."
"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."
 

Cons

"The tool is not perfectly stable."
"Some advanced networking of OpenVPN Access Server requires Linux network expertise for a person to work on."
"Needs a better GUI."
"The main area for OpenVPN Access Server improvement is its pricing model, as the concurrent user license gets expensive quickly as the organization grows, so more flexible pricing options would be a huge plus for AVIARC."
"The stability of the solution could improve."
"The customer support for OpenVPN Access Server is acceptable, but it could be better."
"From the user experience perspective, OpenVPN Access Server should be more user-friendly in the East Africa market where I am located."
"My impression of the connection speed when using OpenVPN Access Server compared to other VPN solutions is that it is stable and reliable, but it can be resource-heavy compared to newer solutions, handling day-to-day corporate traffic well while experiencing higher CPU utilization and slightly slower connection throughput compared directly to lighter protocols like WireGuard."
"My impression of the connection speed using OpenVPN Access Server is that, compared to other VPN solutions, OpenVPN Access Server is a little bit slow, but it is very safe and always connects."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is an open-source solution, so we don't pay for anything."
"The product offers yearly as well as monthly subscription plans. It has moderate pricing."
"OpenVPN Access Server is free and open source."
"I don't need to pay for its license since it is an open-source tool."
"OpenVPN Access Server was free for students. I don't know if you have to pay for an advanced version."
"OpenVPN Access Server is a cheap corporate solution."
"It is free, you buy support."
"The product's pricing is good value, definitely. It is one of the best features, I would say. Evaluate the product before seeing which type of licensing is good for you. I think there is a good evaluation method available for OpenVPN, so you can just evaluate if it meets your needs. Then go forward with the right licensing policy."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

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How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenVPN Access Server?
The pricing and setup costs for OpenVPN Access Server are on the high side since licenses are not user-dependent but based on the number of connections established. With two free simultaneous conne...
What needs improvement with OpenVPN Access Server?
There are definitely areas for improvement. A broader network level access faces challenges, and the clustering configuration seems insufficient, posing a single point of failure. Moreover, patch m...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenVPN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hostinger, Shutterstock, USMobile, Soundcloud, Calendly, whatagraph.
Verizon, Amazon, Disney, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenVPN, Tailscale, Fortinet and others in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.