OpenVPN Access Server Reviews

We are a solution provider and the OpenVPN Access Server was one of the products that we used for our customers. It is used to create remote desktop connections into the cloud network, where people who are working from home can share resources with people in the office. When people are working in an office then they have a local network, and OpenVPN expands the network for use externally.

We are no longer using this solution because of complaints raised by our customers about security vulnerabilities. The server is now shut down.

This server allows you to connect to a network that does not have any public IP addresses. You first dial-up the OpenVPN to get onto the network, then directly use the private IP for the local device. Once the connection is made, we can do development work, maintenance, or whatever is required.

The most valuable feature is the remote connection capability.

It is easy to use.

There is support for multi-factor authentication.

We would like to be able to access the parts of the network that belong to other virtual LANs, which is not currently possible. For example, if an organization has different VLANs for sales, developers, and production, then we can only connect and view one of these segments. If you can access sales then you will have visibility of that particular subnet and not be able to see the developer VLAN resources.

The security needs to be improved because it was a complaint that our customers had. I'm not sure exactly what the specific issue is, other than they told us that it was not compliant with their organizational policies.

It is not possible to scale this solution horizontally, which is something that should be improved. They could allow multiple instances to run in different zones, synchronizing with each using a round-robin scheduler.

It would be great if they added intrusion prevention and detection (IPS/IDS) features. If they had these then there would be less need to use other products, such as firewalls. It would allow everything to run under one umbrella with centralized control.

We were using OpenVPN for about one year and we migrated away from it about three months ago.

Horizontally, this solution is definitely not scalable. Vertically, it is possible but there will be some downtime. Scaling requires that we stop the server, upscale it, select a different instance, and then restart it. The downtime is approximately five minutes.

I have been in contact with technical support and the experience was good. They have knowledgeable people.

We have migrated to Fortinet because of security vulnerabilities.

The initial setup is easy. Once we go to the marketplace for the license, we can install and start using it. This involves selecting an image, then selecting a VM, and deploying on that. You then install the certificate and create the users. Creating users is also easy to do.

 One person is enough for this task and it will take between 15 and 30 minutes to deploy.

Our in-house team deploys OpenVPN for our customers. After the deployment is complete, users will log in, download their profile, and then they can connect.

Before migrating to Fortinet, we looked at other vendors including Cisco. We found that based on the sizing we needed, the pricing of Cisco AnyConnect was not as competitive.

Personally, I have not found any differences between these products that affect what I need to do.

Personally, I like this product and our decision to shut down the server is in response to decisions made by our customers. I have not found any issues with it, myself.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

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. 

1. Easy to set up.
2. Clients for multiple platforms
3. It runs on Linux.
4. It allows for two-factor authentication. 

This makes it very easy to administer if it is running on a Linux server where you can do everything over CLI or a web-based interface. Some software only has clients for MAC and Windows, which is annoying. Two-factor authentication allows us to not force frequent password changes.

There was one annoying feature where we had to disable and enable the user. I cannot remember what it was exactly, but I think it was for a password lockout. It would be nice if there was a checkbox, or something, in the web interface to allow you to unlock a user whose password was locked. 

No issues. It is solid as a rock.

Never.

I do not think we ever had to use technical support. I mainly found answers on the web forums.

No.

It was already set up when I got there. 

However, I have set up OpenVPN elsewhere. The initial setup is very straightforward as long as you understand something about the way the OS works, and how the networking and certificates work.

Not applicable.

It is good stuff.

I use OpenVPN Access Server for my private network area and analytics. It makes it easier to log into my network.

I like that it's free.

It could be faster. It could also be more stable.

I have been using OpenVPN Access Server for three years.

It could be more stable.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give stability a seven.

The initial setup is a bit complicated, but it's not an issue if you Google it.

I implemented this solution by myself. 

OpenVPN Access Server is free and open source.

I would tell potential users that OpenVPN Access Server is best for small businesses.

In our country, there is a problem with accessing some sites. Therefore, we need to use OpenVPN. We also use it to access our server.

The solution is very easy to use. It's very direct. It always just works when we need it to. The performance is good. 

The solution is stable.

It can scale well.

The initial setup is fast and easy.

The interface could be a little bit better in future iterations. 

I can't remember how long I've used the solution. It's likely been around six years. 

The solution offers good performance. It is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It makes access simple. 

The product can scale well. 

We have 40 or 50 people using the product at this time. 

As remote work increases, we likely will expand usage. 

We haven't needed any additional support so far. 

We did not previously use any other services similar to this product. 

It is easy to set up. It just works right away. 

It takes a very short amount of time to deploy it. I found the process to be quite fast. We deployed in minutes, as I recall. 

A company would only need one person to handle the deployment process. 

We did not need any outside assistance or support for the implementation process. 

I'm unsure of the exact licensing costs. 

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. 

I'd recommend this product to other users and companies. 

I would rate the solution eight out of ten. 

Our primary use case was to give mobile knowledge workers a secure connection across the Internet to our LAN, whether by laptop, mobile tablet or smart phone.

It allowed people to remotely access files from their mobile devices. It was so easy for end-users to use that they were able to work more efficiently no matter where they were, whether at a client’s campus, home, traveling – wherever they had a device and internet access.

This open-source solution provided the easiest UX for our end-users and had the greatest interoperability with all the operating systems we used, including but not limited to: iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, and Linux.

The upgrade path from older versions was more difficult than we wanted to tackle, so we ran an older version of the software for longer than I wanted. Patching, updating, and migrating to newer versions was a problem for us. That said, we were on a rather old version that I inherited yet it worked rock solid.

No issues.

We more than doubled our staff at my previous company and our OpenVPN appliance handled it well.

Tech support wasn’t needed during my 5 years administrating OpenVPN.

OpenVPN was already implemented when I took over the IT department. I do know that there was also a Cisco VPN product in place, but it was finicky and many of our end-users had issues with the Cisco VPN. At the time, it also didn’t work on mobile devices and the required ports were blocked by certain ISPs (like some hotel internet connections, cellular providers, etc.)

In-house expertise.

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 didn’t purchase OpenVPN, but I have evaluated other products for other departments I managed at other companies. Cisco and Fortinet are the two I remember off hand.

We did not use this product on AWS. We hosted the server on our network.

My advice would be, if OpenVPN fits your environment and needs, it’s a great solution. Do it.

The primary use case for me is to encrypt my traffic to the Internet and protect my privacy on my home network.

One of the valuable features of OpenVPN is that it is free. I have set the default routes to the VPN server so that all traffic is encrypted.

One area for improvement in OpenVPN is the ability to selectively terminate connections. If the program could list active connections and provide an option to delete or kill them, it would be a useful feature. This would save users the trouble of having to restart the entire program each time they need to terminate a connection.

I’ve been working with OpenVPN for two years now.

It is a stable product.

The initial setup is straightforward.

You do not need a professional team to deploy the solution. I did it myself and it took around half an hour.

You don’t need to buy anything to use OpenVPN. But if you want access to the enterprise version, you need to buy a license for that.

OpenVPN's usage depends on the network preferences and deployment complexity.

I would rate it a seven out of ten.

Interoffice connections. We had offices in India and the US. To connect both of them to the same environment, we were using OpenVPN for that. It was so we could maintain a file store, exchange files and documents securely through our own proprietary mechanism, instead of having to rely on Dropbox and the like. 

Interoperability between different offices. We didn't have to keep exchanging documents via email and other tech. We were able to maintain a common file store because of the complete VPN setup we had using OpenVPN.

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.

Some of the issues we faced were things like, if someone's key is not working, or if we had to remove someone's permission from it, or maybe an employee left the company and we had to take their key out. That seemed a little bit more complicated than it had to be.

Also, 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.

We did not encounter any stability issues in our scope.

Our use case was less complex than most. We did not come across any issues with scalability.

I usually found support online, so I didn't have to use tech support.

We started off with OpenVPN when we were evaluating what we could use for our needs and we ended up with OpenVPN. I have used other VPN solutions at other offices, but in the cases that I've dealt with, OpenVPN was the choice.

If we had to create something for someone who was not necessarily tech savvy, I had to set that up on their computer, I had to write "read me's" and other things so that they could install their client and then connect to the VPN by themselves. So it was hard to set up for people who are not tech savvy. I had to actively provide assistance and walk them through the whole process.

The product's pricing is good value, definitely. It is one of the best features, I would say.

Evaluate the product before seeing which type of licensing is good for you. I think there is a good evaluation method available for OpenVPN, so you can just evaluate if it meets your needs. Then go forward with the right licensing policy.

OpenVPN is a good option for kick-starting any kind of interoperability between offices. It doesn't have a huge setup time, so it's a quick way to start experimenting with how the organization would work with its VPN requirements. Even if your requirements are very small, it's a very convenient to start off with this solution.

I rate it at eight out of 10 because it gives value for what it provides. You need technical know-how to get started on it, but it is also very swift. It has all the right features but it's technically challenging if you're not tech savvy. Providing clients with keys is not that straightforward.

I have an accounting office and I am using OpenVPN to access customer networks. I am an accountant, so I installed a PSN for all my clients and they allow me to access their networks and accounting server to do the closing of accounting every month. I use OpenVPN to access the networks.

I would like to see continued advanced security implementation.

I have been using OpenVPN Access Server for the past five years.

The stability is very reliable in my experience.

I have found that OpenVPN Access Server is scalable.

I have not had to contact technical support at this point.

The setup is straightforward and deployed in less than an hour.

The price point is fantastic since it is free.

I would rate OpenVPN Access Server a nine out of ten.