What hardware to buy for OpenVPN router in 2020

This article has been last updated on July 28, 2020

At TekLager we sell a lot of open source hardware. Many of our customers value privacy and are fans of various VPN services that protect their identity online. One frequent question we get is "Which router should I buy for VPN?"

Here are our thoughts and recommendations.

OpenVPN router hardware requirements

The most important thing is to buy hardware powerful enough to handle your internet connection without hiccups. There's nothing as frustrating as having a slow, flakey internet connection.

The most important hardware component for VPN speed is CPU. OpenVPN heavily depends on the CPU for encryption/decryption of traffic. Other components such as memory, network interfaces or disk are far less important. 

Here's a checklist for choosing VPN hardware

• CPU must support AES-NI
• OpenVPN software is unable to utilize multi-core CPUs. Make sure the single-thread performance of your CPU is powerful enough to encrypt/decrypt your internet traffic in real time.
• RAM - you must have enough memory for the number of connections you want to maintain. 1GB is a reasonable minimum.
• Disk - OpenVPN doesn't require much space. 4GB should be enough for the system and logs. If you intend to keep logs for a long time, you may consider a larger disk. 
• NICs - if you want to use pfSense, choose network interfaces from Intel. pfSense still doesn't perform great with Realtec Network Interfaces.

Why is AES-NI important for VPN?

AES-NI (AES New Instructions) is a new encryption instruction set, baked right into CPU that dramatically speeds up cryptography tasks such as encryption/decryption for VPN or SSL. AES-NI was initially developed by Intel, but most modern AMD CPUs also support it now. 

If you are looking for VPN hardware in 2020, you must be careful to avoid the low-end CPUs such as Intel J1900 or J1800 that don't support native entryption.

All hardware sold by TekLager has AES-NI support and Intel NICs.

 

Which router Operating System should I use for OpenVPN

Some weeks ago we have written a general comparison of router operating systems, but it didn't mention VPN performance.

There are two major groups of operating systems. 

• BSD-based: pfSense, OPNsense, etc
• Linux-based: OpenWRT, IPFire 

All of these systems work well with OpenVPN. pfSense and OPNSense are easier to set up and administer. OpenWRT is a little harder to set up (you must use command line), but it's about 40% more performant. 

We recommend pfSense and OpenWRT.

 

OpenVPN hardware appliance recommendations

 

APU2D0: Entry-level OpenVPN box

APU is a well known, reliable hardware manufactured by Swiss company PC Engines. APU2, APU3, and APU4 routers are the most popular hardware firewalls we sell at TekLager. There are few versions of APU, starting at entry-level APU2D0, to the latest version of APU4C4.

This is the cheapest dual NIC OpenVPN router we sell but don't be deceived, it's a very capable hardware appliance for home or small office.

Tip: in most applications, this box will perform just as well as the more expensive versions.

TLSense i7 - the gigabit OpenVPN router

TLSense i7 is a really powerful router.