The four most valuable features found in custom VPN clients are. Many providers also add extra features, most (but not all) of which are very useful. In addition to being easy to set up, as the necessary config files are already in the client. Usually, these are just wrappers over the stock open source OpenVPN code, although some base their clients on SoftEther code, which is similarly open source. Custom VPN ClientĪlmost all VPN providers will happily supply instructions and the configuration files needed for setting up their service using generic ‘stock’ OpenVPN clients, but many of them also provide their own custom clients. If you wish to give it a go, then, you can use the SoftEther VPN client for free - VPNGate. However, it's less widely known and has been tested less for vulnerabilities. SoftEther is also a free open source, cross-platform, multi-protocol VPN client and server. Softether VPNĪnother alternative to OpenVPN is SoftEther. Additional features, bells, and whistles that are usually available in custom VPN software. The more significant problem is that while these clients generally work very well, they lack additional features. Therefore, they are slightly more complicated to set up than custom VPN clients.įortunately, there are plenty of detailed how-to guides available on how to do this, and minimal technical competence is required. Open source OpenVPN clients require configuration files to be downloaded from the VPN provider and imported into the client. The open source DD-WRT and Tomato router firmware also have OpenVPN clients built-in. The ‘official’ FOSS forks of OpenVPN on the major platforms are: Even if the provider does not explicitly support OpenVPN on that platform. These open source VPN clients can use a VPN provider’s standard OpenVPN configuration files to connect via OpenVPN. Therefore, there is very little reason to consider anything else. Generic open source OpenVPN clients are now available on all major platforms. Open source VPN Clientĭespite stiff competition from IKEv2, OpenVPN remains the only battle-tested secure VPN protocol. Something this post-Snowden world has demonstrated time and again is a very foolish thing to do. Therefore, it comes down to a matter of trusting the company involved. With proprietary closed-source code, on the other hand, there is absolutely no way to determine what it contains. While far from being a magic bullet, the fact that open source code is freely available for others to inspect and audit provides the best (and only) protection available against it containing malicious code, NSA backdoors, or who knows what else. As any reader of our website will know, we are huge fans of all things open source.

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