WireGuard seems to be one of the best solutions when it comes to VPN protocols. That is why we are going to compare WireGuard here with other, somewhat better known protocols.
To give you an idea, two of the best known VPN protocols, OpenVPN and IPsec, have a code base that is about 10 times longer than that of WireGuard.
WireGuard uses only a few cryptographic standards, which are highly regarded and respected, and offers no choice of alternatives. This makes security and development easier to guarantee.
This article comes to complete the introduction to WireGuard post, which I invite you to go and read if you are looking for a good VPN.
WireGuard vs VPN providers
Many commercial VPN providers have in fact already started to incorporate the WireGuard protocol into their own service. For example, NordVPN has incorporated WireGuard and called it NordLynx. While NordVPN is very good for changing the country of your IP address, your data still goes through their servers first.
If you still trust them (even after that data breach) and are willing to pay them anyway, the service lets you choose whether to use either the OpenVPN protocol or WireGuard.
Setting up a WireGuard connection on your own server means that you will not need to rely on any hardware other than your own. What is more, being free and open source, there is no additional cost to using this technology.
WireGuard vs OpenVPN
A test showed that WireGuard beat OpenVPN in raw speed by about 15% under normal conditions. When OpenVPN was limited to its slower TCP mode, WireGuard was 56% faster. Although the best-case comparison is not a staggering difference, you will certainly feel the increase in speed from WireGuard, especially with large downloads.
OpenVPN and WireGuard are both open source, have very few vulnerabilities and will require additional configuration files to be set up on most devices. The difference is that WireGuard uses far more advanced cryptographic libraries and is much more efficient.
WireGuard vs IPSec / IKEv2
IPSec is also a fast and fairly recent protocol. However, WireGuard has two advantages: its cryptographic primitives can be faster, and it is built into the Linux kernel. Nevertheless, a test showed that IPSec beat WireGuard in one particular situation, whereas WireGuard was consistently faster.
The difference between IKEv2 and WireGuard is that the former is supported by default on most devices. For WireGuard, you will have to install additional files. However, it has an advantage with its more modern cryptographic libraries. Although IKEv2, in its defense, is not very CPU-hungry and is faster in most use cases.
That is the end of this short comparison. We hope this article has helped give you an idea of the potential of WireGuard.
P.S.: once again, do not hesitate to go and take a look at the introduction article for this VPN.
M.B