Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

OpenWrt VS WireGuard

Compare OpenWrt VS WireGuard and see what are their differences

OpenWrt logo OpenWrt

OpenWrt is an open-source firmware based on Linux for wireless routers

WireGuard logo WireGuard

Fast, Modern, Secure VPN Tunnel
  • OpenWrt Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-14
  • WireGuard Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-10-24

OpenWrt videos

Upgrading Your Home Router to OpenWRT and Why It Is Worth It

More videos:

  • Review - Playing with OpenWrt Wireless Settings
  • Review - Make Your TP-LINK Router into a High Power Router with OpenWrt

WireGuard videos

WireGuard Overview

More videos:

  • Review - What is WireGuard? Should You Use it? Best VPN for WireGuard?
  • Review - OpenVPN vs WireGuard vs IKEv2 vs PPTP - Which is the Best VPN Protocol to use in 2020?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to OpenWrt and WireGuard)
Operating Systems
100 100%
0% 0
VPN
0 0%
100% 100
Linux
100 100%
0% 0
Security & Privacy
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using OpenWrt and WireGuard. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare OpenWrt and WireGuard

OpenWrt Reviews

Best pfSense Software Alternatives and Competitors
Both pfSense and OpenWRT are formidable and versatile alternatives for network administration software. While OpenWRT is designed for embedded devices such as routers, Pfsense focuses on firewalls and routing functions that are more complex. Pfsense is more user-friendly, while OpenWRT provides more configuration options. Both are supported by thriving online communities...
The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
OpenWrt also offers a range of advanced networking configurations, including support for Quality of Service (QoS), network address translation (NAT), and virtual LAN (VLAN) tagging. These features make OpenWrt an attractive option for businesses and organizations that require more advanced networking capabilities. The open-source nature of OpenWrt means that users can...
Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023
Unlike IPFire, OpenWRT has a large number of optional packages in its repository. As a result, you can configure this OS in countless different ways. Most importantly, OpenWRT has drivers for all hardware supported by Linux. This means that almost all Wireless hardware is supported, making it the most versatile OS for creating Access Points.
Source: teklager.se
Top 7 pfSense Alternatives
OpenWRT is made primarily to replace the software on existing routers, but it can also run on x86 (PCs, server hardware, VMs) machines. It is a very mature OS and has some of the best Wi-Fi support around, unlike a lot of other router software options. It has a pretty good GUI and a ton of add-on packages.
7 Best Router Firmware | Open Source | 2022
OpenWrt Project is a Linux based alternative open source firmware for routers in 2022 and embedded systems. And it is one of the best Open Source Firmware that offers you an utterly writable filesystem along with package management. It allows for full customization and lets you customize the device for any application.
Source: viralhax.com

WireGuard Reviews

Best Top 20 OpenVPN Alternatives (Pros and Cons)
Wireguard is a VPN alternative that is under development. Yet it is faster and carefully designed when compared to other similar products.
6 Types of VPN Protocols, Compared: Which is the Best to Use?
In essence, every VPN has to strengthen WireGuard’s wobbly privacy to benefit from its speed and security. That’s why we recommend using WireGuard-based protocols only if they come from reputable VPN providers. NordVPN, for example, fixes WireGuard’s privacy issues with the so-called “double NAT system” (network address translation). This allows them to establish secure...
Source: vpnoverview.com
OpenVPN vs WireGuard: Which protocol is best?
WireGuard was not designed to obfuscate user traffic to this degree, and only supports UDP. This means that a simple, standalone WireGuard connection is easy to detect. However, as WireGuard is so extensible, most VPN providers have added their own obfuscation methods on top. The efficacy of these varies, but we’ve seen services with WireGuard support that even work in...
The 10 Best Open Source VPN Apps
In addition to using the latest encryption techniques, Mullvad is based on some of the VPN protocols in WireGuard and OpenVPN. So, users will be able to decide for themselves which VPN client to opt for. Also, you can find Mullvad on Windows, macOS, and Linux-based systems, as well as Android and iOS. There is no paid version of Mullvad, either, so you need not worry about...
WireGuard vs OpenVPN
WireGuard was designed for speed and security. It was not specifically designed for people like us, who look to their VPN service for both security and privacy. However, in order to give users the benefits of WireGuard, VPN services have come up with WireGuard solutions that add strong privacy protections without sacrificing what makes WireGuard special. Here’s the problem:

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OpenWrt seems to be a lot more popular than WireGuard. While we know about 103 links to OpenWrt, we've tracked only 9 mentions of WireGuard. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

OpenWrt mentions (103)

  • Recommendation for a wifi router with L2TP or other VPN server support?
    If your current router supports a custom firmware like openWRT then you could do this without having to buy a new one. Source: 5 months ago
  • OpenWrt Site Account Creation
    Unfortunately, I can't create an account via Github on the openwrt site. Source: 8 months ago
  • openwrt.org not loading
    Anyone else having trouble reaching openwrt.org right now? I can't get the forums, main page or downloads. I've done plenty of troubleshooting and there isn't anything else on my network having trouble reaching anything else on the internet. Source: 9 months ago
  • Things just got a little weird, my current network is down, I'm a newb trying to start from the ground up and I found out I actually have another (newer) wifi router.... what to do?
    On the router. openwrt.org has lots of great documentation that lays out exactly what you're looking for and then some. Source: 11 months ago
  • As of June 2023, what is the best router that I could buy specifically for ease of use with all things pi-hole related
    Is the Verizon one a combined modem/router? If you want to add your own router, you might have to call them and ask them to put it into bridged mode. I like OpenWRT because it gives you a lot of customization options. I've just been running it on an old TP-Link Archer C7 for the past 5 years or so and I haven't had any issues, but that's ancient hardware now. Source: 11 months ago
View more

WireGuard mentions (9)

  • Remote access from work/corporate network
    Wireguard. Wireguard uses UDP only and runs TCP sockets over UDP. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Central reverse-proxy ssh access?
    Look at Wireguard. I know you don't want Yet Another VPN running alongside your IPSec, but it's less VPN and more encrypted point-to-point UDP. You can set it up on any port you wish, including common ports that might be open on an outbound smart firewall not doing deep packet inspection. That way, it can stay out of the way of your existing IPSec deployment. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Official /r/rust "Who's Hiring" thread for job-seekers and job-offerers [Rust 1.69]
    We use Elixir/Erlang for our control plane, and Rust for our data plane, built on the excellent WireGuard® tunneling protocol. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Globally distributed Elixir over Tailscale
    Both products are based off Wireguard which is available for all new linux distributions. https://wireguard.com . I'm not saying OP's solution is wrong, just curious what the advantages are. Other than potentially simpler client setup, what are the advantages of paying for tailscale. With the opensource tailscale, I'm not sure if you get access to an api you can use to look up the hosts. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Whisper: wraps any Go io.ReadWriter in a secure tunnel using Ed25519/X25519
    Noise Protocol Framework (used by Wireguard). Source: about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing OpenWrt and WireGuard, you can also consider the following products

pfSense - pfSense is a free and open source firewall and router that also features unified threat management, load balancing, multi WAN, and more

OpenVPN - OpenVPN - The Open Source VPN

MikroTik RouterOS - The main product of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating system known as MikroTik RouterOS.

ZeroTier - Extremely simple P2P Encrypted VPN

OPNsense - OPNsense® you next open source firewall. Free Download. High-end Security Made Easy™. Offers Intrusion Prevention, Captive Portal, Traffic Shaping and more.

ProtonVPN - ProtonVPN is a security focused FREE VPN service, developed by CERN and MIT scientists. Use the web anonymously, unblock websites & encrypt your connection.