My goals which guide the focus of this comparison page are to find a personal VPN client which :

  • required : works under Windows and Linux
  • required : allow for direct, non-relayed P2P communication between peers
  • required : is easy to install under both (which means it needs to either be packaged under Linux or be a binary)
  • nice to have : has a good GUI under both OSes
Name Supported OS Linux GUI
Windows GUI
Built in DNS
Open Source NAT Traversal Method Linux Packaging Download Linux HowTo
Tinc Win, Linux, Mac :x: :x: :x: :heavy_check_mark: :x:      
None
rpm and deb Win, Linux, Mac [How to install and configure tinc on Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 Linux and CentOS 5]            
Hamachi 2 Win, Linux, Mac :x: Haguichi :heavy_check_mark: :x: :x: They provide a TURN/STUN server rpm and deb Linux, Mac [My Experience Building an Ubuntu Machine#hamachi2]
Hamachi 1 Win, Linux, Mac :x: Haguichi :heavy_check_mark: :x: :x: They provide a TURN/STUN server none Linux Win, Linux, Mac [My Experience Building an Ubuntu Machine#hamachi1]
NeoRouter Win, Linux, Mac, OpenWRT, more :x: NRClientX :heavy_check_mark: :x: :x: You run a TURN/STUN server rpm and deb Win, Linux, Mac, more  
Remobo Win, Linux, Mac :heavy_check_mark: :heavy_check_mark: :heavy_check_mark: :x: They provide a TURN/STUN server
rpm, deb and binaries Win, Linux, Mac  
Wippien using wodVPN Win, Linux   :heavy_check_mark:   :heavy_check_mark: Jabber XMPP binaries Win, Linux  
n2n Win, Linux, OpenWRT :x: :x: n2nEdgeGUI :x: :heavy_check_mark: You run a TURN/STUN server (they call it a super-node)
deb (part of Ubuntu Universe repo) and rpm (scripts to build SRPM in distribution)
Win, Linux  
P2PVPN Win, Linux       :heavy_check_mark:   jar Win, Linux  
Leaf Win, (Linux coming soon?)       :x: They provide a STUN server N/A Win  
OpenVPN + Pwnat Win, Linux
      :heavy_check_mark:   rpm and deb
Win, Linux
 
CloudVPN Win, Linux       :heavy_check_mark:   none Win, Linux  
SocialVPN Win, Linux, Mac       :heavy_check_mark: Jabber XMPP? (Brunet doing DHT) binaries Win, Linux, Mac  
Gbridge Win N/A     :x: Jabber XMPP N/A Win  
Tunngle Win N/A     :x:   N/A Win  
CIPE
              Linux, Win
 
VTun
                 
IPSec
                 
GPVE
                 
VDE
                 

Notes

Hamachi 2

Cons

  • Intermittent inability to establish non-relayed connections
  • Low activity development

NeoRouter

Cons

Remobo

Cons

n2n

Cons

  • Windows binary battles with Win7/Vista UAC
  • Linux Packages have no init scripts to launch supernode or edge as daemon or configuration files
  • Alternative Windows GUI n2nEdgeGUI appears to be running client version 2 whereas there are only linux packages for version 1
  • I haven’t been able to get this to work with (Win7 edge) (CentOS 5 supernode) (Ubuntu 10.10 client)