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Aruba Remote Access Points vs OpenVPN Access Server comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Remote Access Points
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenVPN Access Server
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba Remote Access Points is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Access Server is 9.6%, down from 15.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenVPN Access Server9.6%
Aruba Remote Access Points1.1%
Other89.3%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

AmrIssa - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Information Officer at Mobica Advanced
Remote access has provided secure site connectivity and supports centralized on‑prem operations
We have a solution that is completely Aruba, including the controller, access point, and switch. We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without issues. Aruba Remote Access Points are critical for our construction company because we have many sites…
AS
Network operation center engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Secure remote access has protected critical data and now simplifies role-based user management
An area for improvement is the pricing model. The concurrent user licenses get expensive pretty quickly as your organization grows, so more flexible pricing options would be a huge plus. Another area is configurational disconnect. While the admin web UI handles about 90% of what you need, the moment you have to do deep, advanced routing customization, you still have to drop back to the command line interface to make those changes. It would be great to see those deeper configurations completely integrated into the web portal. Lastly, it would be awesome to see native support for newer, lighter protocols through WireGuard built straight into the platform alongside standard OpenVPN for better performance efficiency.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's easy to manage."
"It is a very stable tool."
"I can use the solution from my home or any remote office to access printers, servers, etc."
"The most valuable feature of Aruba Remote Access Points is the manageability from the central cloud platform."
"The platform has the most valuable advanced filtering feature."
"The tool's most valuable features are its ease of configuration and deployment."
"What I like best about Aruba Remote Access Points is that it's pretty easy to set up."
"There are no bad features in Aruba Remote Access Points. Every feature is customized to meet customer requirements according to their limitations, and we can make use of all features to benefit us as needed."
"It can scale well."
"It can securely do remote product updates... just as if it was on our LAN."
"I have found the stability to be good."
"I have set the default routes to the VPN server so that all traffic is encrypted."
"There is support for multi-factor authentication."
"Overall, OpenVPN Access Server has positively impacted our organization by giving us a highly reliable, stable environment for remote work."
"What I appreciate the most about OpenVPN Access Server is that it's very easy to set up."
"Its most valuable feature is that it is open source."
 

Cons

"The product needs an increased level of security for the end user."
"It would help if the remote APs had some kind of SoHo environment with built-in firewall features. That way it could connect directly in a client-to-site type of environment, or a site-to-site VPN environment. That way users could have a complete office setup without coming to the private cloud."
"The device requires reconfiguration if we use a standalone setup because the battery fault leads to all configurations resetting."
"The solution's technical support has some shortcomings that need improvement."
"But the hardware needs to be revamped when we compare the Meraki solution."
"Its scalability capabilities should be improved."
"One thing that would be beneficial is for the Aruba Central mobile app to work more effectively. Currently, it does not function as expected when I really need it."
"I would rate stability as five out of ten. Sometimes it is stable, and sometimes it is not."
"The connections could be faster and more stable."
"It would be nice with all these features, if they could send some examples of each one; just small sample scripts to look at and say, "Oh okay, I could expand on this." That would help us a lot."
"It is not scalable."
"Open VPN Access Server could be more user-friendly."
"The main area for improvement is the pricing model, as the concurrent user license gets expensive quickly as our organization grows."
"OpenVPN Access Server can be improved by addressing the issue we faced with a single VPN server since it does not allow the creation of replicas without a load balancer, which we found to be an availability issue that could be easily fixed."
"You do need expertise in implementation if you do the initial setup yourself. As it is open-source, if you run into issues, there is nobody available to help you."
"When there are too many concurrent users trying to connect at the same time, there may be a bit of a bottleneck."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Aruba Remote Access Points could be better. It is a little expensive."
"There are no other expenses than standard licenses for the product."
"You require no separate licensing to convert an access point to RAP."
"In terms of pricing, we've found Aruba's offerings to be very competitive."
"Price-wise, Aruba Remote Access Points is in the middle, so my rating for its pricing is three out of five."
"Aruba pricing is not very high. They offer competitive pricing for what they provide."
"Aruba Remote Access Points' pricing is good and affordable."
"The Pro Edition has a reasonable price per user."
"The solution was free of charge."
"With regard to setup cost, pricing and/or licensing, the simple answer is that you'll need to set aside some time to learn it and experiment with it."
"OpenVPN is a free and open-source solution."
"The product offers yearly as well as monthly subscription plans. It has moderate pricing."
"The licensing has a fixed pricing."
"OpenVPN Access Server was free for students. I don't know if you have to pay for an advanced version."
"I don't need to pay for its license since it is an open-source tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Construction Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Remote Access Points?
We do not use Zero Touch Provisioning with Aruba Remote Access Points because the Aruba device being expensive compared to cheaper Cisco options holds us back.
What needs improvement with Aruba Remote Access Points?
The device requires reconfiguration if we use a standalone setup because the battery fault leads to all configurations resetting. This is a significant area for improvement, especially when the dev...
What is your primary use case for Aruba Remote Access Points?
We have a solution that is completely Aruba, including the controller, access point, and switch. We deploy ClearPass from Aruba in our company on VMware, which integrates well and works without iss...
How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenVPN Access Server?
The pricing and setup costs for OpenVPN Access Server are on the high side since licenses are not user-dependent but based on the number of connections established. With two free simultaneous conne...
What needs improvement with OpenVPN Access Server?
There are definitely areas for improvement. A broader network level access faces challenges, and the clustering configuration seems insufficient, posing a single point of failure. Moreover, patch m...
 

Also Known As

Aruba RAP
OpenVPN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trafford Metropolitan Borough
Verizon, Amazon, Disney, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Remote Access Points vs. OpenVPN Access Server and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.