Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) vs OpenVPN Access Server: which wins in 2026?
Head-to-head on the facts that decide the purchase: real prices in the provider's own unit, minimum, KYC, proof, payment and terms - every number sourced in the linked reviews.
The most credible self-hosting on-ramp in the VPN space, built by and for people inside the censorship: the app is free and open source, you connect it to your own $5 VPS over SSH and it deploys the server for you, so your traffic never touches an Amnezia-operated machine. Its signature AmneziaWG protocol is the WireGuard cryptographic core with a serious anti-DPI layer (dynamic headers, randomized packet sizes, QUIC/DNS mimicry), and version 3.1 was rushed out after Russia's June-July 2026 hybrid attack - mass IP blocking, DDoS, and phishing against the team - that knocked the service around for a month and a half. The honesty ledger cuts both ways: security audits by 7ASecurity in 2022/2024/2025 and open code, but also a corporate structure that has drifted from Portugal (IP holder) to Estonia (operations) to a Cyprus-registered entity per today's footer, no public ledger of funding beyond donations and its paid services, self-hosting advocates calling the setup wizard opaque, and an open GitHub issue (since Aug 2024) documenting AmneziaWG being DPI-detected on Russian mobile networks. It is a censorship tool first; as an anonymity or streaming product it is the wrong category.
The incumbent of self-hosted business VPNs, and still a safe pick in 2026 - with one honest fork in the road. Access Server is the polished, supported way to run OpenVPN on your own hardware: web admin UI, one-click client provisioning, MFA, SAML/RADIUS/LDAP, clustering and now DCO kernel acceleration, with a genuinely usable free tier of 2 simultaneous connections (verified live 2026-11-03). The community edition underneath is the same GPLv2 protocol with no connection limit but no UI - and r/OpenVPN threads still open with users confused about exactly this split, which the company could document better. The audit record is unusually strong for 25-year-old C code: Quarkslab 2017, Trail of Bits 2022-2023 (no significant flaws), and a 2026 SRLabs audit of 2.7 release candidates that found 18 issues including one critical unauthenticated-DoS logic inversion - fixed before release, which is the system working, but a reminder that 'audited since 2017' is not 'bug-free'. Costs scale per connection and get 'stupid expensive' for medium-sized teams by community consensus, Pritunl and WireGuard/Headscale are the usual escapes, and OpenVPN remains trivially detectable by DPI - this is a remote-access tool, not an anti-censorship tool.
Short answer: Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) wins overall (6.2/10 vs 4.7/10). OpenVPN Access Server is the better pick if you care most about honest value. Facts checked 2026-11-03.
The facts
 Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) |  OpenVPN Access Server | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score (0-10) | 6.2 | 4.7 |
| Privacy & proof | ||
| Logging claim | 'If you use the AmneziaVPN app for a self-hosted VPN, we do not collect any data about… | You are the operator: Access Server runs on your own Linux host, VM, Docker container or… |
| Logging evidence | independently audited | no logging claim at all |
| Audits | 7ASecurity 2024, 7ASecurity 2022, 7ASecurity 2025 | SRLabs (Security Research Labs), sponsored by Sovereign Tech… moreSRLabs (Security Research Labs), sponsored by Sovereign Tech Agency and Open Technology Fund 2026, Trail of Bits 2023, QuarksLab, coordinated by OSTIF (funded by a 33-company coalition) 2017, Dr Matthew Green (Johns Hopkins), commissioned by Private Internet Access 2016 |
| Jurisdiction | Cyprus (EUPHORIATECH LIMITED, Nicosia, reg HE 484287 per sit… moreCyprus (EUPHORIATECH LIMITED, Nicosia, reg HE 484287 per site footer, verified 2026-11-02; IP rights in Portugal with Amnezia LDA, ops in Estonia) - for self-hosted users the operative jurisdiction is wherever their own VPS is hosted | United States - OpenVPN Inc., Pleasanton, California (about… moreUnited States - OpenVPN Inc., Pleasanton, California (about page fetched 2026-11-03); a Five Eyes member country |
| Owner | unknown | unknown |
| Money | ||
| Intro price | $5 /mo | $7 /mo |
| Renewal price | not published | $7/mo |
| Anonymous payment | unknown | fiat |
| Account | ||
| Personal info | none | email account required |
| Kind | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Facts checked | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
Score breakdown
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) leads on privacy & logging (+5), security (+4), censorship resistance (+2) · OpenVPN Access Server leads on honest value (+4.5).
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) at a glance
++ What holds up
- Self-hosted mode is free, GPL-3.0 open source, and requires no account - your traffic goes only to your own VPS (GitHub README + FAQ, fetched 2026-11-02)
- AmneziaWG is documented in unusual technical depth, protocol mechanism by mechanism, with the WireGuard crypto core unchanged (docs.amnezia.org)
- Survived the largest state attack in its history (summer 2026: IP/subnet blocking, DDoS, API probing, phishing) and published a candid postmortem with compensation to subscribers
- Built and battle-tested where it matters: Russia, Iran, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, China are the actual user base, and an HN user confirmed the setup scripts were 'above board' on a throwaway VPS
- Free tier in genuinely censored countries (Instagram/Facebook/X access) and a Civil Rights Defenders partnership giving free Premium to journalists and activists
- Independent 7ASecurity security audits of clients and protocols in 2022, 2024 and 2025
-- What to watch
- You own the failure modes: a single-user VPS is trivial to block, and Iranian/Russian authorities block hoster IP ranges wholesale - community threads show constant server-hopping
- AmneziaWG has been detected by DPI before (open GitHub issue #1010 since Aug 2024, Russian MTS) and the project itself admits each protocol version is a temporary answer in an arms race
- Corporate opacity: operator entity is a small Cyprus company (EUPHORIATECH LIMITED) per the site footer, while the 2025 TorrentFreak answers named a Portugal IP holder and Estonia operator - jurisdiction depends on which page you read
- No public accounting of funding beyond donations (Patreon/crypto) and revenue from Premium/Hosting/Business - reviewers and community threads raise the question and get no ledger
- Setup wizard hands the app your VPS SSH credentials and historically hid its server scripts; HN users found buggy UI and a server private key embedded in exported config JSON (2025-12)
- Weak OpenWrt packaging (community-maintained packages), Premium torrenting limited to Netherlands and Switzerland with no port forwarding, and Amnezia Free is speed-capped at 8 Mbps without YouTube
- Useless during full internet shutdowns - Amnezia itself says so for Iran-style whitelists, where only satellite or mesh links work
OpenVPN Access Server at a glance
++ What holds up
- Free forever for 2 simultaneous connections with every feature enabled, no card required (live pricing page 2026-11-03)
- Working web admin console out of the box - the most complete UI among self-hosted options by a distance (Meetrix 2026 comparison), and HN users report 10-minute DigitalOcean deployments
- Unusually deep audit history for VPN server code: Quarkslab/OSTIF 2017, Matthew Green crypto review 2016/2017, Trail of Bits 2022-2023, SRLabs 2026 - all with public reports
- Enterprise auth stack on every tier: PAM, LDAP, RADIUS, SAML/SSO, TOTP MFA, certificate auth, device registration (live feature table)
- One subscription covers clustered high-availability nodes; per-connection (not per-user) licensing, connections added or removed with prorated credit (2022 pricing page, fetched via Wayback)
-- What to watch
- Connection-based pricing adds up fast: $7/connection/month billed yearly (calculator verified live 2026-11-03); HN in 2021 already called it 'around $50 a month for more than 2 clients' and r/OpenVPN users call medium-size scaling 'stupid expensive'
- Access Server itself is closed source - the GPLv2 open-source part is the community edition daemon; no access-server repo exists in the OpenVPN GitHub org (checked via GitHub API 2026-11-03)
- OpenVPN is trivially detected and blocked by DPI; no obfuscation layer beyond TCP-443 disguise (Wikipedia + r/selfhosted thread, fetched 2026-11-03)
- The 2026 SRLabs audit found 18 issues in 2.7 release candidates including a critical unauthenticated DoS introduced in May 2022 that survived two prior audits and years of oss-fuzz
- Subscription activation requires reaching OpenVPN licensing servers - a dependency for airgapped-ish setups unless on the Free plan (support docs describe licensing-server connectivity troubleshooting)
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or OpenVPN Access Server?
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) is cheaper at $5 /mo versus $7 /mo.
Which has better logging evidence, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or OpenVPN Access Server?
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) has the stronger logging evidence; OpenVPN Access Server makes no no-logs claim at all.
Which renewal price is honest, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or OpenVPN Access Server?
OpenVPN Access Server documents renewal at $7/mo; Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) is free - no renewal price exists.
Which needs less KYC, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or OpenVPN Access Server?
At least one provider does not document its KYC policy - treat it as unknown, not as "no KYC".
Which has the longer track record?
OpenVPN Access Server has the longer track record (since 2002).
Scores and facts: meta-reviews with dated sources - Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) · OpenVPN Access Server. Method: how we verify. More: all providers compared · all head-to-heads.