Openvpn vs wireguard vs Lightway: which VPN protocol to choose in 2025 to avoid flaws and accelerate your connections?
Choosing a VPN service is also choosing the protocol that allows you to secure the connection between your machine and the output server. All have little or prou the same functions: they manage both the encryption of exchanges, the transmission of data in a “tunnel” which they create between your machine and the server and the management of the session. Most VPN software allow you to choose between several different protocols. But how to choose the right one, depending on your use? Here are some keys to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of each VPN protocol.
OpenVPN, will the King Protocol lose its crown?
It is a dinosaur, on a time scale of new technologies! OpenVPN was indeed officially launched in 2001, and has long been the protocol of choice for professionals and individuals. This open source protocol has many advantages. Available on countless platforms, it works as well in TCP mode as in UDP mode, which allows you to favor either a most reliable connection, or the connection speed. It is also considered one of the best secure protocols.
Its great strength is this exceptional longevity: in 24 years, OpenVPN showed that it was an extremely robust and secure protocol. Reverse of the medal: It also suffers today with this long history and the countless revisions of its code, and has become somewhat obese. VPN is indeed a very heavy program (it has at least 500,000 lines of code!), Which penalizes its performance in the face of more modern alternatives like Wireguard and its derivatives.
To lighten their software and increase their performance, some VPN suppliers have also chosen to get rid of them, like Mullvad. The famous Swedish service announced at the end of last year that it would abandon the support of OpenVPN in January 2026 in order to favor Wireguard. Other actors could follow him …
Wireguard, modern and light
It is a young protocol if we compare it to OpenVPN! Inaugurated in 2017, Wireguard has the effect of a bomb. Designed from scratch by a young security researcher, he immediately impressed with his simplicity and performance far superior to those of the protocols that preceded him. It must be said that Jason A. Donefeld, its creator, has done a goldsmith’s work. Faced with the 500,000 openvpn lines, Wireguard holds on only 4000 lines of code! This contributes to its speed, but also to its safety. This simplicity limits potential vulnerabilities, and facilitates the work of those who wish to audit and improve its code.
Wireguard is also based on cryptographic techniques of an excellent level (Chacha20 for encryption, poly1305 for authentication, curve25519 for the exchange of keys, etc.), a cocktail that places it among the best secure protocols on the market.
In use, Wireguard is also a real happiness: the connection is almost instantaneous, the flows generally very high, and the latency extremely low. The fact remains that Wireguard is not perfect: by default, it requires for example the storage of IP addresses of users. VPN suppliers therefore use techniques (double NAT, in particular, as on Nordlynx) in order to avoid storing your real IP address.
Nordlynx, Wireguard in northern sauce
Exclusively available via NordVPN applications, Nordlynx is a modified version of Wireguard for the needs of the famous supplier. Aware of the concerns of confidentiality that Wireguard poses -it requires the storage of the user’s IP address to operate -the NordVPN teams have developed a protocol that corrects these problems. Nordlynx indeed inaugurates a system of double Nat Malin, which attributes to each user session an internal and temporary IP address. The real IP address of the user is treated on an authentication server, separated from the VPN server. Result: it is impossible for NordVPN to link the use of its services to an IP address of one of its users.
For the rest, Nordlynx works in the same way as Wireguard, and therefore benefits from the same performance in terms of flow and latency, as well as the same robust encryption layer.
On the other hand, unlike Wireguard, Nordlynx is not an open source protocol. NordVPN compensates for this relative opacity by a regular independent audit policy in order to demonstrate the security of its infrastructure and guarantee that it does not record data which would allow you to go up to the IP addresses of its customers.
Lightway, the ultralight -expressvpn protocol
Lightway is the fruit of one of the most famous VPN suppliers on the market: ExpressVPN. Originally designed at the dawn of the 2020s, it has a lot in common with Wireguard, in particular its extreme lightness: the main code of Lightway has only 2,000 lines! ExpressVPN has indeed thought of it for smartphones above all. And its small size has many advantages: Lightway is indeed one of the fastest protocols on the market, but also one of the least energy -consuming. Its use on iOS or Android has indeed little impact on the battery of your smartphone.
ExpressVPN continues to actively work on its protocol: Lightway has recently been fully reprogrammed in Rust language, while it was previously coded in C. A way, according to ExpressVPN, to further reduce the risk of security flaw … but which also made it even lighter than before. And ExpressVPN has recently integrated a turbo function, which creates multiple tunnels to improve flow.
Lightway is also an open source and reliable protocol from a security point of view: its encryption is based on Wolfssl, a largely tested library from this point of view. It also includes post-quantic protection by default which protects user data against the potential deciphering of their traffic by quantum computers.
IKEV2/IPSEC, L2TP/IPSEC, SSTP… endangered protocols?
There are many other VPN protocols, but these are used less in the face of Wireguard’s success and proprietary solutions highlighted by certain actors. However, IKEV2 is still supported by certain publishers, especially on Apple platforms, because it natively takes care of them. This protocol has much to envy others in terms of security and speed. Fruit of the joint work of Microsoft and Cisco, it is on the other hand a program with a closed source code, which encourages caution regarding the possible flaws of which he could be the victim.
Like IKEV2, the L2TP protocol also works in tandem with IPSEC. But the latter is much less efficient and to avoid if you want to obtain good flow rates and low latency. Like SSTP, another protocol designed by Microsoft which favors high security to the detriment of speed.
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