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OpenVLAN vs. the alternatives

Honest positioning against the categories buyers usually evaluate us against.

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Balance scale: tangled legacy hardware sinking, light glowing mesh rising

Capability matrix

How the typical options stack up.

Capability	OpenVLAN	Legacy VPN appliance	PAM vault	SASE/SSE suite
Access model	Identity-based, per-user	Network-based, all-or-nothing	Credential vaulting	Identity-based proxy
Encryption	AmneziaWG, end-to-end	IPsec/TLS to concentrator	Varies	TLS to edge
Hardware required	None	Appliances + HA pair	Appliance option	None (vendor edge)
Setup time	Minutes	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks–months
Behind NAT / hotel wifi	Works	Often breaks	N/A	Works
P2P app traffic (SSH, RDP, DB)	Native, direct	Via concentrator	Via broker	TLS apps only
Non-HTTP protocols (gRPC, game servers, IoT)	Full support	Full support	Partial	Limited
Policy as code (GitOps)	ACLs + Terraform	Vendor-specific	Partial	Partial
Pricing transparency	Public, per-user	Quote-based	Quote-based	Quote-based

Detailed comparisons

A dedicated page per alternative.

vs AWS Client VPN

Cloud-locked hub-and-spoke vs any-cloud mesh.

vs Build it yourself

DIY AmneziaWG: what you're really signing up for.

vs Cisco Secure Client

AnyConnect's successor vs identity-based access.

vs Cloudflare Access

Reverse proxy vs network layer.

vs Cloudflare AI Gateway

AI egress control, two models.

vs Cloudflare Mesh

Service connectivity compared.

vs Fortinet

Firewall-attached VPN vs appliance-free.

vs HashiCorp Boundary

Brokered access vs direct peering.

vs Nebula

Self-hosted overlay vs managed mesh.

vs ngrok

Tunnel-as-a-service vs full network.

vs OpenVPN

The classic server vs coordination-layer mesh.

vs GlobalProtect

Panorama-managed VPN vs identity ACLs.

vs Pritunl

Self-hosted panel vs no servers at all.

vs Twingate

Connector ZTNA vs peer-to-peer mesh.

vs ZeroTier

Layer-2 virtual Ethernet vs layer-3 identity.

vs Zscaler

SASE suite vs direct private access.

When we're the wrong fit

Being honest saves everyone time.

Only need consumer VPN privacy

If the goal is hiding your IP for streaming, a consumer VPN is the right tool.

Full SWG / CASB / DLP suite

Teams that need inline DLP on web traffic should evaluate a full SSE suite — or pair one with OpenVLAN.

Air-gapped, no identity provider

No IdP to federated against? We can work, but you lose the identity story that makes us us.

Migrating from any of these?

Migration guide

Step-by-step parallel-run playbook.

Why OpenVLAN

The reasoning, with customer proof.

Architecture review

Free session with a solutions engineer.

Run your own comparison

Every plan starts free — test against your real workloads, not a datasheet.

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