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OpenVPN Access Server vs Safe-T Secure Application Access comparison

 

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

OpenVPN Access Server
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
1st
Ranking in ZTNA
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Safe-T Secure Application A...
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
32nd
Ranking in ZTNA
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (34th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of OpenVPN Access Server is 11.7%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Safe-T Secure Application Access is 1.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenVPN Access Server11.7%
Safe-T Secure Application Access1.4%
Other86.9%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

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.
it_user787671 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Engineer
Needs to be easier to configure and to display logs more simply
We use only it for scanning files for viruses. That's the only feature we use in this product It needs to be easier to configure, it should be something that's working well with other sources. It should be something that allows me to see the logs simply. One to three years. Sometimes it doesn't…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"OpenVPN Access Server allows us to establish a secure connection to an IP address that would otherwise be inaccessible without using a VPN."
"The price point is fantastic since it is free."
"We use OpenVPN Access Server to connect from site to site from our data center to our customer site and to dial and access our VPN to our network."
"OpenVPN is a good option for kick-starting any kind of interoperability between offices."
"Open VPN Access Server is fully stable."
"The solution is reliable, easy to use, and open source. It's free at no cost."
"It is a lightweight, easy to setup solution."
"It allows our employees to work remotely across Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms."
"You can easily integrate it and fit the system to your organization's needs, and that's a very huge advantage."
"Safe-T is very good for users because it has a plug-in for Outlook."
"At the end of the day it's really good and really improved."
"If you want a very flexible system that you can easily integrate, and develop interfaces for it or plug-ins to other application environments, it's probably the most flexible"
"It's easy to use over the web. A user who is not in the office can use it and securely insert files."
"If you need a solution for sending big files to customers or for receiving large files from them, this is a very good solution."
"From a technical point of view, products are stable and scalable, and we do appreciate the personal touch the sales engineers (SE) support and development bring, as well as the personal touch of the sales support, the free online, and web-based training."
"Safe-T SDA has allowed my organization to secure my office applications and makes it harder for hackers to be able to hack into my internal office web applications."
 

Cons

"It is not scalable."
"I want the tool to be faster. We have experienced connectivity issues while using OpenVPN and FortiClient."
"I would like to see a GUI or Web UI to manage users. Today these features are in the Pro Edition or are done by scripts."
"If there was a Graphical User Interface to help streamline the configuration, I believe OpenVPN would probably venture more into the non-geek realm as it were."
"Some advanced networking of OpenVPN Access Server requires Linux network expertise for a person to work on."
"There was one annoying feature where we had to disable and enable the user."
"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."
"I would like to see continued advanced security implementation."
"The Outlook agent is not working well for installing it in the entire office."
"When we have something that we want improved, it takes a little bit of time until it can be fixed."
"Better UI. A better UI for the people that manage all the processes of Safe-T. Some of the UI is not as intuitive as you would like it to be."
"One important thing that we haven't found in this product is the ability to provide a read-only view for documents. Also, the ability for the customer to add annotations to these documents."
"The cloud solution is not that great especially with Swiss customers."
"I'm not sure what advice I would give others about this product because I don't like Safe-T."
"In terms of improvement, they need to be much more strict regarding the roadmap, about timelines and when new features will be up in production."
"Setting up Safe-T SDE is very complex. It is not straightforward, and it requires much understanding on the concepts of the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Begin with the community version and upgrade to paid one if the need arises."
"OpenVPN Access Server was free for students. I don't know if you have to pay for an advanced version."
"The product offers yearly as well as monthly subscription plans. It has moderate pricing."
"The Pro Edition has a reasonable price per user."
"The solution was free of charge."
"OpenVPN Access Server is a cheap corporate solution."
"It is an open-source solution, so we don't pay for anything."
"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
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Construction Company
13%
Performing Arts
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise24
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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?
I use it for a client, so I do not have much information regarding the pricing, setup cost, and licensing. But from what I have gathered, the pricing and setup costs are a little more expensive com...
What needs improvement with OpenVPN Access Server?
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 ar...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

OpenVPN
Safe-T SDA, Safe-T, Safe-T Software-Defined Access
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Verizon, Amazon, Disney, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung
Government of Israel, eviCore Healthcore, Glen Imaging, Sarin, LBG, Rollomatic, Boegli-Gravures SA, Banque Heritage, Groupe Minoteries, Temenos, ZEK, RLM Finsbury, Harel Insurance, Meitav Dash
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenVPN Access Server vs. Safe-T Secure Application Access and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.