Digital privacy and security is a dynamic sector that constantly evolves to keep up with new online threats and technologies. The best VPN services, for instance, regularly add new features to offer the best way to access a free and secure web. However, there are times when getting rid of unused tools achieves better results.
This is why Mullvad VPN has decided to say goodbye to the OpenVPN encryption protocol. In this way, the provider explains, developers can focus all their energy on improving the service around WireGuard in the future.
The removal of OpenVPN has now begun and is set to be completed by January 15, 2026, or earlier.
Mullvad OpenVPN will be gone by 2026
A VPN protocol is a set of instructions a VPN and server use to establish a connection and communicate. It defines all the aspects of how your connection works, including the encryption method used, server and app identification processes, and so on. All of today's top VPNs offer a few options to choose from, with OpenVPN and WireGuard being the most common and secure.
As Jan Jonsson, CEO at Mullvad, told me, less than 7% of Mullvad users currently use OpenVPN. The team expects this number to drop even further in the coming year. Despite this, 28% of Mullvad VPN servers use OpenVPN.
"For obvious reasons, it would be better to convert these servers to WireGuard servers," Jonsson told me. "Focusing on one protocol will free resources in terms of servers, but also allow our developers and operational team to develop solutions for WireGuard instead of maintaining a service that fewer and fewer people are using."
We are removing support for OpenVPN on the 15th January 2026.Read more here: https://t.co/I2b9LNExwTNovember 8, 2024
As of November 8, 2024, the provider officially kicked off the process of removing OpenVPN from its service. The process is expected to be completed by January 2026 at the latest.
Mullvad's Android and iPhone VPN apps already support only WireGuard at the time of writing. So, the transition will only affect desktop clients, namely Mac, Linux, and Windows.
If you're using a router VPN or third-party app based on OpenVPN, the provider "strongly advises" migrating to WireGuard. You can find instructions on how to use WireGuard on Mullvad's website.
Is WireGuard the future?
As mentioned earlier, WireGuard and OpenVPN are the most common VPN protocols. The latter was first released more than 20 years ago but is still widely used due to its reliability and secure reputation For instance, many services offer VPN obfuscation – the technology that makes your VPN connections look like normal traffic – via this protocol.
WireGuard is relatively new to the market, with the first version launched at the end of 2016. Fully open-source, WireGuard is a faster and lighter protocol thanks, primarily, to the fact that it's composed of fewer lines of code. Developers describe it as generally more secure and faster – and our tests confirm that the fastest VPN speeds were achieved when using WireGuard.
Mullvad understood WireGuard's potential since the beginning. Back in 2017, co-founder Fredrik Strömberg wrote a blog post to explain why, in his view, "WireGuard is the future" for VPN security. "Our intention is to make WireGuard our default VPN protocol. We encourage others to do likewise," wrote Strömberg at the time. Now, that moment seems to have come.
The removal of OpenVPN has now begun and it is set to be completed by January 15, 2026 or earlier.
As Jonsson explains, OpenVPN isn't "outdated," but WireGuard is more beneficial for several reasons. Its simple design, for example, makes it easier for developers to integrate new features. WireGuard is also so-called "cryptographically opinionated," which means that it supports only one cryptographic suite.
"Supporting multiple suites, so-called 'cipher agility,' may sound more optimal, but history has shown that this introduces unnecessary complexity and leads to security vulnerabilities," Jonsson told me. "The WireGuard protocol design, however, allows for changing to a new suite should there ever be a problem."
The provider has been building up to this moment over the years, so the removal of OpenVPN should not affect your experience too much.
Let's take its VPN obfuscation techniques, for example. Mullvad has been using Shadowsocks obfuscation since 2019 as a default setting for its OpenVPN protocol to help users bypass firewalls and censorship. Last month, the provider extended Shadowsocks support to the WireGuard protocol.
"We will offer WireGuard, WireGuard over TCP, WireGuard over Shadowsocks, and other solutions," Jonsson told me. "We are doing this because we believe it will be better for all our users and to allocate even more resources to help improve connectivity using WireGuard."
