WireGuard: Was it worth the wait?

Update: You can now use WireGuard on all our apps. The protocol can also be set up manually on Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows.

The WireGuard protocol has been around since 2019 and was the most requested feature by our users over the past two years. But instead of jumping ship while the protocol was still in its infancy, we waited.

The reason for that is that the protocol was still new and required massive improvements before it could even be considered a feature for our over 3 million privacy-oriented users. We wanted to deliver you a feature that met our high standards, as opposed to one possibly rife with teething issues.

This is why we waited until the protocol was sufficiently stable like it is today.

We are committed to providing the best experience for our users and taking their asks and concerns seriously. And so, we take huge pride in the fact that we have been able to deliver something as amazing as the WireGuard protocol to our users.

WireGuard goes live on PureVPN

The WireGuard VPN protocol is a new open-source technology that has recently gained attention due to its high levels of security and low memory usage. WireGuard accomplishes this by using modern cryptographic standards, such as perfect forward secrecy, allowedIPs, pre-shared keys, and cutting-edge algorithms like the ChaCha20Poly1305 stream cipher and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).

Despite the fact that it’s relatively new in the protocol playing field, WireGuard has already found its place among top-tier security technology. Trustgrid, for example, uses it as an encryption protocol to secure communications with their devices. 

How does it stand against OpenVPN – the industry’s leading protocol?

WireGuard operates without the need for large PKI directories, so its memory footprint is kept to a minimum. This makes it an especially good choice for low-powered IoT devices, which typically have limited RAM. Furthermore, WireGuard is developing a UDP version that will allow it to be used with “dumber” devices like sensors.

Moreover, WireGuard’s relatively simple configuration coupled with Split Tunneling makes it more accessible to users who may have difficulty configuring OpenVPN or IPSec. Further, WireGuard is much faster than OpenVPN and IPSec because its header-only design eliminates the need for a round-trip time for each message.

High performance, lightweight, and stealth

The WireGuard protocol has several features that make it particularly useful in combating censorship and blocking. Its lightweight code, for example, is especially advantageous because it makes it more difficult for censoring firewalls to detect and block VPN traffic. 

Its stealth mode option allows users to connect to authenticated gateways, which are some of the most popular VPN protocols used globally. One of the design principles of WireGuard arose from a kernel rootkit project, which means it doesn’t respond to unauthenticated packets. It prevents scanners from detecting services and responds to incoming data packets with proper crypto. Furthermore, when neither the client nor the server has any data to exchange, both peers become silent. 

WireGuard is a modern VPN protocol that is different from most other VPN protocols. It is light in weight and highly efficient in nature. Compared to other VPN protocols like IKEv2 and OpenVPN that have 600,000 and 400,000 lines of code, WireGuard only comes with 4,000 lines of code, which is 100x lighter than its competitors and is, therefore, easier to implement.

The best part about the WireGuard protocol is the speed it offers. As per tests conducted by PureVPN, there is equal to or less than 10% speed degradation while using the protocol on PureVPN applications. This is a big deal considering that most encrypted protocols have high levels of speed degradation of around 30-50%. This doesn’t happen on WireGuard, which makes it one of the fastest protocols around.

Another highlight of using WireGuard is that it offers top-tier encrypted security without sacrificing the VPN speed at all. It’s the perfect protocol for any privacy-oriented user who wants fast VPN speeds while ensuring data encryption on the web.

PureVPN gets an upgrade in security and speed

We understand that our users want faster speeds. The best VPNs are always judged on the speed that they offer to their users. To get the best speeds, a VPN has to ensure that there is minimal speed degradation when the user is connected to the VPN network.

We have made major efforts in the past few months to improve the speed of our VPN network. In 2019, we upgraded a big part of our server network by adding 10 Gbps capable servers. In September 2021, we made bigger upgrades to our network by adding 20 Gbps capable servers in key locations across the US, and in Europe.

Good news for existing PureVPN subscribers: you can easily turn on WireGuard from the Settings menu. Here’s how:

We also made an effort to remove a large chunk of virtual servers from our network in order to ensure better speeds than ever. The only virtual servers that remain in our network are the ones where it is almost impossible to set up a physical server.

Now, with the introduction of the WireGuard protocol, we are able to guarantee even faster speeds to our users considering that there is minimal speed degradation.

Customer-centricity is at the core of PureVPN’s vision and values. We’re happy that we were able to deliver on our commitment to offering fast VPN speeds to our users.

If you haven’t tried WireGuard yet, we suggest that you get on it. You can try using WireGuard on our PureVPN Windows, Android, iOS, or macOS applications and witness the improvement in speeds while using our service for yourself.

Furthermore, you can now set up WireGuard connections manually. Don’t know how? Check out our step-by-step guides on configuring WireGuard on our Support Center.

What lies ahead

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue working on enhancing your experience with WireGuard. Plus, WireGuard will soon become the default protocol for all our users.

If you have any feedback to share on your experience with PureVPN’s WireGuard protocol, please let us know on our Ideas Forum.