The difference in all the different types of vpns

VPN
1

I have been going in circles about the different vpn offerings and I am really confused. What is the difference between Openvpn vs something like nordvpn. Is it just the mobile offering and faster speed that you are paying for?

If someone guide me on what would be best for my home setup that would be great!

2

Nordvpn is provided that provides service for you.
They probably use OpenVPN or wire guard under the hood.

OpenVPN is protocol, you can setup OpenVPN server to selfhost this VPN with said protocol.

3

Wrong sub, better ask on /r/homenetworking. Anyway, different VPN mean different things because marketing has hijacked the term VPN. If you talk about NordVPN, you talk about a service provider that offers you a VPN connection to surf the internet via their servers and pick a country where you want to exit. VPN as the original acronym, just means virtual private network, and there are many protocols you can run yourself. The difference is, one is a commercial offering, the other is just a protocol, both using the same acronym thanks to marketing.

4

Thanks for the response. Is there an advantage of using a provider vs just hosting myself? Just wanna know if I would be better off paying for a service or not.

5

And what you need VPN for?
Because that’s most important part.

6

Well I started this whole journey with seeing if I should setup a torrenting client, which lead to looking at vpns and now Im just totally going in circles haha

7

So you want a VPN for torrents?
In that case you should get a VPN provider, because you probably don’t want your IP to leak.
If you’d host your own VPN, you’d be exposing your IP which is tied to you. Generally for handy things you don’t want to use your own IP.
If you need VPN provider suggestion, go with mullvad VPN, there are no string attached, you get as much privacy as it gets, and you are not spied by some shady VPN company like Nord

Your own VPN is fine if you want to, for example have access from internet to your local network securely, or if you want route all your traffic through your network (and use things like pihole with it) etc.

8

thanks for taking the time to answer! really helpful