Have you ever considered protecting your internet connection and personal data on the web? Lots of VPN services can provide a certain level of protection. Your security is guaranteed by VPN encryption protocols implemented by the VPN service. And each VPN protocol has its advantages and disadvantages. VPN active protocols can have different speeds, capabilities, security and privacy vulnerabilities.
Depending on the platform you use and your personal purposes, the solution really does matter. There are some pretty substantial differences even between the best VPN active protocols you are suggested.
Fortunately, it is not too hard to find the differences. With our detailed VPN protocol comparison, you will easily choose the right VPN encryption protocol and optimize your web experience. IPSec vs OpenVPN vs WireGuard? Choose the best one!
| Best choice | ||||||
| Feature | TLS | L2TP/IPSec | KeepSolid Wise | IKEv2 | OpenVPN | WireGuard |
Speed |
Medium | Medium | Medium | Good | Medium | Good |
Encryption |
Medium | Good | Good | Good | Medium | Good |
Security |
Medium | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Setup |
Easy | Medium | Easy | Medium | Difficult/Easy | Easy |
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is among the most commonly adopted cryptographic protocols nowadays. Its predecessor, SSL, protects your connection to the server any time you connect to a HTTPS website. While TLS itself is technically not a VPN protocol, it is used for similar purposes in some VPNs, including VPN Unlimited.
Medium
TLS is commonly considered to be quite mediocre in terms of speed along with L2TP. For TLS, this characteristic depends on the actual VPN protocol used (if any), and on the encryption added. So it can’t be named the fastest VPN protocol.
Medium
TLS doesn’t provide any encryption on its own but supports a variety of encryption methods. For instance, in VPN Unlimited it is accomplished with AES-256 encryption. The same encryption is implemented in L2TP/IPSec, KeepSolid Wise, IKEv2, OpenVPN, and Wireguard.
Medium
TLS offers better protection than SSL does, but still nothing to get excited about. Looking for a safer option? Consider IPSec, IKEv2, or WireGuard.
Easy
Configuring a TLS VPN is generally easier than most of its counterparts. With VPN Unlimited you don’t even have to manually configure your VPN tunneling protocols.
L2TP, a.k.a. Layer 2 Tunnel Protocol, is a time-tested VPN protocol. L2TP itself doesn’t provide strong security, so most often it is combined with IPSec protocol to protect users’ connection. In this case, it’s referred to as L2TP/IPSec. It’s often used for accessing the internet when privacy and security are required.
Medium
This protocol encapsulates data twice, somewhat slowing down the connection. In many cases, you won’t even notice this, but for more speed-sensitive services like streaming, this can be a problem. For this purpose, it is better to choose IKEv2.
Good
L2TP encryption uses the standardized IPSec protocol either the 3DES or AES encryption algorithm. A 256-bit key will be used for encryption.
Good
L2TP/IPSec is free of any major vulnerabilities. There are some concerns over how secure it actually is, considering that the NSA who helped develop IPSec could potentially compromise or weaken it. But the general consensus is that this protocol is secure.
Medium
L2TP/IPSec is supported by most desktop and mobile devices. However, since L2TP uses port 500, which is easily blocked by firewalls, configuring this protocol to circumvent firewalls will be more complicated.
KeepSolid Wise is a proprietary protocol available exclusively in VPN Unlimited. It was designed with a single purpose in mind - to hide your VPN connection in networks that block VPNs. This makes it perfect for use in school or corporate networks, as well as in countries that ban VPNs. Based around OpenVPN, KeepSolid Wise builds on its VPN masking capabilities.
Medium
Same as OpenVPN, KeepSolid Wise will perform fast enough for most needs and purposes, but will probably not suit more speed-sensitive services. If speed is a high-priority criterion, it is better to consider IKEv2 or Wireguard protocols.
Good
KeepSolid Wise is our proprietary VPN active protocol that further develops the ideas behind OpenVPN. KeepSolid Wise uses 256-bit encryption.
Good
This protocol provides pretty much the same level of protection as OpenVPN, that is - high enough. KeepSolid Wise VPN protocol is also a highly secure encryption protocol quite difficult to track.
Easy
Since KeepSolid Wise is solely available in VPN Unlimited, all you need to do to configure it is install our VPN and enable it in the settings. Of course, using this protocol on any other VPN is impossible for obvious reasons.
IKEv2, a.k.a. Internet Key Exchange version 2, is a protocol that fixes the issues of its first iteration called IKE. Among the most prominent improvements are better security, stability (reconnects whenever the connection drops out), and mobile support. This makes IKEv2 especially appealing for VPNs on mobile devices. It’s also notable for being one of the few protocols that support Blackberry devices.
Good
The effective message exchange system of IKEv2 makes it one of the fastest VPN protocols.
Good
IKEv2 supports the most leading 256-bit encryption that makes this VPN encryption protocol well-protected against brute-force attacks.
Good
This VPN encryption protocol supports secure AES encryption and employs the IPSec suite. For extra protection, IKEv2 also uses server certificate authentication (to perform any actions, it will first verify the requestor’s identity).
Medium
IKEv2 is easy to configure on the supported devices. The caveat is, it’s not as widely supported as most other protocols on this list.
OpenVPN is a relatively young open-source active protocol. One of its biggest advantages is that it supports a variety of encryption types and ports, and is highly configurable. Many VPN tunneling protocols are built around this one. OpenVPN is also quite difficult to detect and block, which makes it useful in networks that restrict VPNs.
Medium
OpenVPN is about as fast as L2TP, that is - not too fast. Good for most purposes, not the best for video streaming or high-speed online gaming.
Medium
While OpenVPN supports 256-encryption, which is considered optimal, it also can work with more outdated 128-bit encryption.
Good
OpenVPN uses an OpenSSL-based security protocol to ensure strong data protection. Encryption algorithms that it supports, including AES and Blowfish, are also deemed secure enough.
Difficult / Easy
Difficult if setting it up manually. Easy if using a VPN client such as VPN Unlimited, where the provider has already taken care of the difficult parts, and where no manual configuration is needed.
Wireguard is one of the youngest VPN protocols (still in beta). Its developers are set to improve on the other existing active protocols in terms of security, speed, and ease of setup. Wireguard is still pretty rare, so VPN Unlimited is one of the few VPN providers that support it.
Good
Wireguard is much lighter than most active protocols, and runs from the Linux kernel. This allows to avoid any notable lags and speed drops even despite applying strong encryption.
Good
WireGuard uses 256-bit encryption. This VPN active protocol implements encrypted VPN, and it aims to improve the performance speed, protect from attacks and upgrade the total web experience.
Good
WireGuard uses top-notch cryptography, is easy to audit for breaches and vulnerabilities thanks to lighter code, and handles network management with cryptokey routing.
Good
Configuring this protocol is simple. And even though WireGuard is still not widely implemented, we wouldn’t consider this such an issue as opposed to the similar problem with IKEv2, because WireGuard is still in development. We’re certain that, given time, it will become pretty common.
“OpenVPN” is a registered trademark of OpenVPN Inc.
“WireGuard” is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.
If you want to learn more about the best VPN active protocols, follow the links:
