WireGuard vs OpenVPN: Which VPN Protocol Should UK Users Choose in 2026?

The VPN protocol your service uses has a significant impact on your connection speed, security, and reliability. In 2026, the two dominant protocols are WireGuard and OpenVPN, and understanding the differences between them helps you make informed decisions about your VPN configuration.

What Is a VPN Protocol?

A VPN protocol is the set of rules that determines how data is encrypted, transmitted, and received between your device and the VPN server. Think of it as the language that your device and the VPN server use to communicate. Different protocols make different trade-offs between speed, security, and compatibility.

WireGuard: The Modern Contender

WireGuard is a relatively new protocol that has rapidly become the default choice for most premium VPN providers. Developed by Jason Donenfeld and first released in 2018, WireGuard was designed from the ground up to be simpler, faster, and more secure than existing protocols.

WireGuard's Strengths

WireGuard's codebase consists of approximately 4,000 lines of code, compared to OpenVPN's 70,000+. This smaller codebase is easier to audit for security vulnerabilities, reducing the attack surface significantly. WireGuard uses modern cryptographic primitives including ChaCha20 for encryption, Poly1305 for authentication, and Curve25519 for key exchange. These are widely regarded as the best available algorithms.

Speed is where WireGuard truly shines. In our testing, WireGuard consistently delivered 30-50% faster speeds than OpenVPN on the same server and connection. Connection times are also dramatically faster, typically establishing a VPN connection in under a second compared to several seconds for OpenVPN.

WireGuard's Considerations

WireGuard was not originally designed for commercial VPN use. Its default configuration assigns static IP addresses, which could theoretically be used to link sessions together. VPN providers address this through various implementations: NordVPN's NordLynx adds a double NAT system, while other providers implement their own privacy-preserving wrappers.

OpenVPN: The Established Standard

OpenVPN has been the gold standard of VPN protocols for over two decades. It is open source, extensively audited, and supported by virtually every VPN provider and operating system.

OpenVPN's Strengths

OpenVPN's maturity is its greatest asset. It has been scrutinised by security researchers worldwide over many years, and its security properties are well understood. The protocol is highly configurable, supporting multiple encryption algorithms, key sizes, and authentication methods.

OpenVPN can operate over both TCP and UDP, giving it flexibility in different network environments. The TCP mode is particularly useful when connecting from restrictive networks, as it can operate over port 443 (the same port used by HTTPS), making VPN traffic difficult to distinguish from regular web browsing.

OpenVPN's Limitations

The 70,000+ lines of code create a larger attack surface and make comprehensive security auditing more challenging. Performance is measurably slower than WireGuard, with higher CPU usage and longer connection times.

Which Protocol Should UK Users Choose?

For the vast majority of UK users, WireGuard (or a WireGuard-based protocol like NordLynx or Lightway) is the better choice. The speed advantage is significant, the security is robust, and major providers have addressed the original privacy concerns through their implementations.

Use our VPN comparison tool to see which protocols each provider supports and filter by speed scores, which are heavily influenced by protocol performance.

Choose OpenVPN if you are connecting from a restrictive network that blocks VPN protocols, you need maximum configurability for a specific use case, or your device does not support WireGuard. Choose WireGuard if you want the fastest possible speeds, you want quick connection times, you are on a mobile device where battery life matters, or you are streaming, gaming, or downloading large files.

The Future of VPN Protocols

The VPN protocol landscape continues to evolve. NordVPN has enhanced WireGuard with post-quantum encryption, preparing for the era of quantum computing. ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol offers an alternative modern approach. As threats evolve, so will the protocols that protect against them.