What hardware to buy for OpenVPN router in 2024

This article has been last updated on January 1, 2024

At TekLager, we sell a lot of open-source hardware. Many of our customers value privacy and are fans of VPN services that protect their online identity. 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 and not knowing if it's due to hardware, the ISP or the VPN provider.

The most important hardware component for VPN speed is the 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. Ensure your CPU's single-thread performance 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. 4GB is a reasonable minimum.
• Disk - OpenVPN doesn't require much space. 16GB 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 Realtek Network Interfaces.

Why is AES-NI important for VPN?

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

If you are looking for VPN hardware in 2024, you must be careful to avoid low-end CPUs such as Intel J1900 or J1800 that don't support native encryption.

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 wrote 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 more complicated to set up (you must use the command line), but it's about 40% more performant. 

We recommend OPNsense and OpenWRT.

 

OpenVPN hardware appliance recommendations

 

TLSense J6412: solid 1Gbps OpenVPN box

J6412 is currently our top recommendation for a VPN router. While we used to recommend APU2 hardware in the past, in 2024, the CPU is no longer competitive. 

In 2023, the J6412 routers were the most popular hardware firewalls we sold at TekLager for VPN. These powerful routers are reasonably inexpensive, allowing memory and SSD extension, making them ideal for most users.

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

TLSense N305L4 - big guns

TLSense N305L4 is a really powerful router.