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OpenVPN Access Server vs Tailscale 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
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Tailscale
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
14th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of OpenVPN Access Server is 13.3%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tailscale is 4.8%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenVPN Access Server13.3%
Tailscale4.8%
Other81.9%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Emmanuel Chebukati - PeerSpot reviewer
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Secure remote access has protected diverse users while access controls provide precise permissions
The user interface of OpenVPN Access Server is good but can be improved. I would prefer to see it become more intuitive. I use Twingate as an alternative, and in Twingate, you see resources, while in OpenVPN Access Server, those would be IP addresses. You get to see dashboards and access views of who can access a particular resource or subnet. You can see who can access what resources from the user view, but you can also see the reverse, which is which resource can be accessed by what users. That reverse view would be a nice addition to have in a dashboard. Additionally, access logs associated with that resource would be helpful, so it would be beneficial to have different views for the same content. Beyond the positive aspects, I would like to see improvements in OpenVPN Access Server. Twingate offers a different approach to the same problem by moving more towards resource-specific resources and fine-grained zero-trust access, as opposed to entire subnets and entire networks. I would prefer to see views on resources. In the same way that we can define subnets, perhaps we could have views that describe what this particular subnet does and what this particular resource does. Then we can assign those resources and subnets to individual users and groups. It is more about granularizing the resources that can be accessed rather than simply bundling them under subnets or a list of subnets, which is the current approach. Apart from that, I would like to see UI enhancements in OpenVPN Access Server in the future. Making it more modern would be beneficial.
reviewer2811270 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Secure access has simplified hybrid connectivity and has unified multi-cluster workflows
I would say that in terms of Tailscale, if I have so many tailnets I need to connect to, there are some issues in the login process that need a little bit of attention from the Tailscale team. Sometimes, you would probably need to restart your entire system for it to connect. As a DevOps as a Service engineer, I have so many clients that are using Tailscale, and I would need to connect to maybe five different tailnets because they are different clients. Client A might have a Tailscale, Client B, Client C, and so on. When changing between tailnets, sometimes it hangs. Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system. This is a bit of a headache in that aspect. However, I believe if you are just using a particular tailnet, just one, then it is quite easy and there won't be any headache. For me, I think it can be improved in the aspect of having multiple tailnets to connect to. A good refresh on the Tailscale side and the backend side to refresh the connection anytime there is a new connection to be made would be helpful. Instead of needing to restart the system, it should be able to refresh itself. The connection side and connecting to multiple Tailscale instances can be problematic, and sometimes you have to restart your system when switching between them. The ACL sometimes is like another language on its own entirely. It is fine, but they need to make it in a YAML format instead of the current format because it is quite new and something you have to go and study. If they can make it like a YAML format, that would be better. Aside from the switching which I mentioned and the fact that you have to relearn their ACL, if the ACL could be in a YAML format instead of JSON format, that would be beneficial. I don't think there is much they can do about the switching of tailnets, but if they can have a YAML format of the ACL, that would be good. Every other thing is a ten out of ten. The connection-wise is easy to set up and easy to install. It is good to have things connected all together from on-premises, from so many environments, and even exit nodes as well. It is good overall. The pricing, I think Tailscale can be a little bit on the higher side. It is not for teams with just small users. If you want to set it up for small users and a small startup, I don't think you can afford it and might need to go to other open-source alternatives. It is good for teams that have maybe fifty plus users or one hundred users. In terms of pricing, I would say it is on the higher side, but it is worth it. The price is worth the functionality. As a user, I would say it is more on the higher side, but based on its functionality, it is worth the price.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The compatibility with almost any Linux operating system, and how easy it is to write scripts and generate keys for people to use and log in. I found it easy to deploy quickly."
"The most valuable feature is that I can access my local network remotely and avoid doing all the port forwarding and redirections, and so on."
"​It allows us to give access to our office network in a safe and secure way to users, no matter which computing platform they use. ​"
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"You can do local subnet blocking."
"Provides privacy and cryptography for my network communication."
"We use the solution to access remote services."
"The main benefits that I have seen from using OpenVPN Access Server are that it is simple, easy, and secure."
"Tailscale has been helping my organization a lot, primarily for security, as I do not have to open up any port in my router, which is really helpful."
"I have been using it every day since June 2025, and it has never given me a problem."
"With Tailscale, I set it up and forget it because it just works, allowing me to avoid worrying about the whole VPN aspect of my home network architecture."
"Tailscale has really helped in terms of security because users can be in another part of the world and, instead of them connecting to the company environment through the local network there, they can switch on their Tailscale and once they switch on their Tailscale, they don't have to connect over their internet; they just go through Tailscale to access company infrastructures."
"For my organization, we use Tailscale for our database as a secure way to access our VPC, and it is an easy, lightweight, and very useful way for everyone to connect and disconnect with a very nice UI."
"Tailscale has positively impacted my organization by making the previously unusable doorbell with the cloud solution fast and reliable for remote access."
"Tailscale is a very solid framework and is very useful for smaller companies if they want to start out or even bigger companies who want to have a robust network of devices that they want to manage."
"The security is valuable, as there are many providers available, but Tailscale fulfills the requirements that we had, allowing us to access and expose internal apps without exposing them to the general internet."
 

Cons

"Everything in OpenVPN Access Server is very good, but the price is expensive."
"Needs a better GUI."
"One improvement I would like to see in OpenVPN is better adaptability in certain geographical areas."
"The interface could be a little bit better in future iterations."
"Regarding scalability, I find OpenVPN Access Server scalable with some caveats. However, sometimes your license disappears or gets wiped out when you scale the infrastructure, which can be quite annoying and requires reaching out to support to get set up again."
"The server configuration file needs to be improved, it's the biggest problem in the configuration process."
"I think right now the GUI part of it is locked out behind the pay wall. It could use something that gives it a very basic, minimal, graphic interface for logging in, for the community version. That would probably be a good step forward."
"The stability had room for improvement."
"Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options."
"However, I think improvements could be made in the support for UI clients, especially on Linux machines."
"I feel the speed of the control servers are a bit too slow."
"I think Tailscale can be improved by enhancing the free side of things."
"I initially got introduced to Tailscale in high school when I needed access to services running on my server, but due to deep packet inspection being in place, I could not use Tailscale."
"One thing I want Tailscale to improve is their user interface for Arch Linux, which is one of the devices I have that I installed Tailscale on, but they do not have the native package with full features, a capability I really want them to develop."
"Currently, if Tailscale goes down, our services are not operable."
"Sometimes you might need to restart your entire system for it to connect."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"OpenVPN Access Server is free and open source."
"The solution was free of charge."
"The Pro Edition has a reasonable price per user."
"The price point is fantastic since it is free."
"At one point I had to purchase addition connection licenses. I was very pleased with the pricing and licensing; so much easier than navigating the confusing jungle of Microsoft and Cisco licensing and pricing. That alone made the product a delight to manage."
"I would say the product's pricing is a good value. I would recommend to other companies to implement it. I've seen other software, in tandem with the service, to be very expensive."
"The solution is free of cost."
"One of the valuable features of OpenVPN is that it is free for a single user."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Media Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
 

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 do you like most about OpenVPN Access Server?
OpenVPN Access Server is a simple and easy-to-use solution that I can use myself without anybody's help.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenVPN Access Server?
I find it not cost-effective. It is not worth the money from a pricing perspective. However, it is a good investment for security and company information security. It is a good investment overall.
What needs improvement with Tailscale?
Regarding how Tailscale can be improved, I think for free users, there are some limited options. However, we have a paid policy, so we pay Tailscale every month. At some point, we may want to host ...
What is your primary use case for Tailscale?
We have been using Tailscale for about four or five months, and we have been using it from the beginning. For our main use case, we use Tailscale because it creates a peer-to-peer VPN mesh where we...
What advice do you have for others considering Tailscale?
My advice to others looking into using Tailscale is that if there is a use case where you want to secure your private EC2 instances, the workflows, your Git repositories, and sensitive data, Docker...
 

Also Known As

OpenVPN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Verizon, Amazon, Disney, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung
Bamboo Health, Duolingo, Shiguredo, Instacart, Corelight, Machinify, Bolt, Mercari, Cobalt, Yugabyte, Jasper, VersaBank, Zego, Gini and Finter
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenVPN, Fortinet, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN. Updated: February 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.