Feature	WireGuard	OpenVPN
First release	2016 (stable 2020)	2001
Code size	~4,000 lines	~70,000+ lines (OpenSSL alone is 500k)
Speed	Fastest (often 2–3× faster)	Fast, but 20–40 % slower than WireGuard
CPU usage	Extremely low (ChaCha20-Poly1305)	Higher (AES-NI + OpenSSL overhead)
Cryptography	Modern, fixed: Curve25519, ChaCha20, Poly1305	Flexible: RSA/ECDSA, AES-GCM, HMAC-SHA…
Mobile battery	Best (1–2 % per hour when idle)	3–5 % per hour
Connection time	< 1 second (even on 4G)	3–8 seconds
Roaming (Wi-Fi ↔ 4G)	Seamless, zero re-auth	Usually drops, needs reconnect
NAT / Firewall	Built-in keep-alive, works everywhere	Needs UDP hole-punching or TCP 443 tricks
Config complexity	5-line config file	50+ lines + certificates
Audit status	4 independent audits (2020-2024)	Multiple audits, but huge attack surface
Platform support	Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, routers	Same + legacy (Windows XP, etc.)
TCP mode	No native TCP (use udp2raw/glorytun)	Yes (OpenVPN over TCP 443)
Stealth / censorship	Detectable by DPI	Harder to detect when run over TCP 443
Enterprise features	No RADIUS, LDAP, 2FA (yet)	Full: RADIUS, PAM, client certs, scripts
Commercial adoption	Mullvad, Azire, IVPN, Surfshark, PIA, Nord (NordLynx), Cloudflare WARP	Every legacy provider, Cisco AnyConnect, Palo Alto GlobalProtect

Real-World Numbers (i9-13900K, 1 Gbps fiber)

Speed test (Amsterdam → Stockholm)
WireGuard:   940 Mbps down / 920 Mbps up
OpenVPN AES-256-GCM:  620 Mbps down / 590 Mbps up
OpenVPN ChaCha20:  510 Mbps

When to Choose Which?

Pick WireGuard if you want:

• Phones & tablets (battery + instant reconnect)
• Maximum speed (gaming, 4K streaming)
• Simple setup (road-warriors, homelab)
• Modern crypto only

Pick OpenVPN if you need:

• Corporate RADIUS / LDAP / MFA
• Run over TCP 443 to beat DPI (China, Iran)
• Client certificates + revocation lists
• Legacy devices (old routers, Windows 7)

Quick TL;DR

2025 verdict:
WireGuard wins 9/10 use-cases.
Only keep OpenVPN for strict enterprise policy or heavy censorship environments.

Want a one-liner config example for each?

WireGuard (wg0.conf)

[Interface]
PrivateKey = UJ...o=
Address = 10.0.0.2/32
DNS = 1.1.1.1

[Peer]
PublicKey = HI...Q=
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0
Endpoint = nl1.vpn.example:51820

OpenVPN (client.ovpn)

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote de1.vpn.example 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
remote-cert-tls server
cipher AES-256-GCM
auth SHA512
keysize 256
verb 3
<ca>…</ca>
<cert>…</cert>
<key>…</key>

Copy-paste → connect in 3 seconds (WireGuard) vs 15 seconds (OpenVPN).

Need help migrating your current OpenVPN server to WireGuard in 10 min? Just say the word.