It was developed by Microsoft back in the mid 90s and was actually integrated in Windows 95. PPTP stands for Point-to-Point Tunnelling and is actually the very first VPN protocol that ever existed. It’s time to have a closer look at the most important ones so we can get a better understanding of how they are different and to try and find which is the best VPN protocol. IPSec – not very fast, but offers good security and stabilityĪs you can see, VPN security protocols differ from one another in regards to a couple of aspects.WireGuard – good speed and security, not the most stable option out there.OpenVPN – also a good option over all, good balance between speed, security and stability.IKEv2 – good all-rounder, offering good overall performance.SSTP – favors security over speed, but offers just as much stability like OpenVPN.L2TP – a balanced protocol, stable, but not offering top performance.PPTP – clearly favoring speed over security and relatively stable.What are the most popular VPN protocols?īefore going into too much detail about each, allow me to enumerate a couple of the most commonly used protocols and some of their most important characteristics, making a brief VPN protocol comparison.
They are the blueprint standing at the heart of a VPN, determining exactly how the private network will be created and encrypted. While some favor speed over security, others have been built to work the other way around and some have found a pretty good balance between the two.Īs you can see, VPN protocols are basically the DNA of a VPN. There are several types of protocols for VPN, each different in its way and each created with something else in mind. While the perfect VPN protocol hasn’t been invented yet, it’s important to know that some have come pretty close. 2 What are the most popular VPN protocols?īy their technical definition, VPN protocols are sets of rules that determine how exactly a VPN will form the encryption tunnel through which your data will travel to and from your device.