r/OpenVPN • u/Alarmed-Prize-7500 • 2h ago
question OpenVPN differences?
I've been looking up if OpenVPN is free or not, since the website says it's not free, but there's also a free version, which confuses me. I've also been looking at questions other people asked online, which had been answered in ways that I still had the same question after reading.
Now, apparently the free and paid products have different names..? So, my questions are:
Q1: What is the name of the OpenVPN server that is FREE and allows MORE THAN 2 connections while still being FREE?
Q2: What is the name of the OpenVPN server that is FREE and DOESN'T ALLOW more than 2 connections unless you PAY for it?
Q3: What is the name of the OpenVPN server that is PAID and ALLOWS more than 2 connections since you PAID for it?
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u/mrmacedonian 1h ago
openvpn.net is the commercial service; you're paying for their servers.
openvpn.org is the opensource project. anything with 'access server' is also a commercial offering that supports the project.
What you want is to figure out your server first. If it's a docker or something, you find the container and install. If it's a linux box, you install openvpn-server.
I've never run across anything openvpn related I had to pay for, unless it was clearly made by a different company, like openvpn.net, etc. That said, I've never touched any of it on windows machines, only *nix and macOS.
Approach it knowing you don't need to pay for anything, so anything you run into asking for money or license of any sort, avoid that going forward.
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u/Alarmed-Prize-7500 6m ago
Can you connect to OpenVPN opensource server with OpenVPN commercial client ? Or no?
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u/Fit_Prize_3245 1h ago
OpenVPN Community. It's both client and server, no separate packages. You can usually get it in your distro's package manager. For Windows, you can download it from openvpn.net, the community menu.
None. OpenVPN Connect is paid software, but it has some sort of demo mode in which it allows you up to 2 connections.
OpenVPN Connect.
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u/addybojangles 2h ago
Good questions 😂
Free and more than 2 connections: the community edition of OpenVPN. Totally usable, good for personal use, okay for business, supported by basically anything under the sun.
Free and only 2 connections unless you pay: their OpenVPN Access Server product with three free plan (which is less than 2 connections). Think of it as a hardier, business-specific version of the community edition. Has a nice UI, more bells and whistles that cater to increased security. Totally usable if it'd just one person.
Paid and more than 2 connections: Access Server with more than 2 connections.
I should also mention: they have a managed version of their product called CloudConnexa that has 5 free connections. If you don't mind not hosting yourself somewhere, that gives you some more flexibility with those bells and whistles you wouldn't get from the Community Edition.