Frequently Asked Questions

Our Access Server fixed license key system has been around for more than a decade. In that time, we have not increased our price per connection by more than 10% over that same period. In 10 years, we’ve had the opportunity to serve SMBs around the world, and the feedback we received was that our fixed license key system had many limitations.

We listened to our customers and got to work on developing something that would benefit and scale along with your businesses. In 2016, on Amazon AWS we created a new tiered licensing system that solved many of the reported limitations. This has been in use successfully for 5 years now. The pricing for that is the same for the subscription system now. Meaning we haven’t changed that pricing for 5 years straight. But there were still some features our customers wanted from our software licensing system that even tiered wasn’t able to answer.

So we got back to work again on making an even better system that is more cost-effective and more flexible than the two systems we had before, and on top of that would work outside of Amazon AWS as well. For two years, we’ve been developing the Access Server Portal which now offers subscriptions, our answer to our customers’ requests for a more flexible and scalable solution. It is priced the same as our Amazon AWS tiered solution.

The fixed license key system still has a place, but only for installations that are in high-security environments where no Internet access for online software licensing activation is possible. In all other regards, the fixed license key system has become superseded by the subscription licensing system, and we recommend all customers switch to that. To reduce confusion we have aligned the pricing on fixed license keys, Amazon AWS tiered, and subscriptions, to now all be the same price level we introduced 5 years ago.

OpenVPN serves many use cases and does so extremely well. We have a long history in the field of security, with the first OpenVPN 1.0 release made in the year 2002. This makes OpenVPN the primary choice for many VPN providers.

OpenVPN Inc. funds our open source project and supports our community to ensure people have free access to secure connectivity, and we take pride in our community and the enormously widespread use of OpenVPN across the industry.

Also, you can still configure our open source OpenVPN project for free. We talk about the differences between our commercial product Access Server and free version here.

The Access Server Subscription Model is designed to help growing businesses. It is a hassle-free way to manage secure access to your VPN with monthly and yearly subscriptions.

Saving from dynamic scaling

• With Access Server subscriptions, you do not need to overprovision to account for unexpected surges in VPN use.

• You can simply adjust the number of VPN connections as needed.

Saving from multi-server setups

• A subscription can be shared among multiple servers. They share available connections from that pool of allowed connections.

• If you run a cluster or multiple Access Servers, you won’t need to provision each server with its own software license - they can just share the one you have.

• If for example you have 3 servers that each only need to serve 5 connections, then you can just buy a subscription for 15 connections and you’re done.

• With the old fixed license key system you’d need 3 keys for 5 connections, which is obviously less efficient and not cost-effective.

Saving from volume tiers

• An overwhelming majority of our customers asked for volume discounts on annual plans.

• We introduced this possibility with subscriptions.

When volume tiers and dynamic scaling are combined, as well as the benefits of sharing a subscription on multiple servers, the financial benefits grow further, as do the scenarios where this could be critical to the speed and efficiency in which you react to any unforeseen circumstance.

While we raised pricing of fixed license keys to align it with our existing tiered system, we did our best to notify you ahead of the change so that you could take advantage of pre-increase pricing. We’ve also made sure to apply a significant discount for our smallest customers who would be most impacted. You can access your discount by logging into your account here. https://myaccount.openvpn.com/product-select

There’s a cost to making sure we deliver the best product and best service, which includes free 24/7 support from technical staff and from our customer success team when it comes to meeting your account management needs. This support comes free of charge - it is included with your software license. Our company, OpenVPN Inc. also funds our open source community to make sure people who need access to secure connectivity continue to get that service for free, and that we drive the product to an extremely high standard of security and functionality by enabling the open source community to develop the best possible VPN solution We are currently driving a series of interesting software developments that will greatly increase performance of OpenVPN in the coming months and years, and we ensure that this becomes available to all. We also actively participate in the open source community forums and assist the community in answering and advising users.

But we contribute yet more. We created and developed the first and only official OpenVPN client for the iOS platform. And we now have a line-up of OpenVPN Connect for macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS, all very modern clients that supports connectivity not only to our commercial software products but also to open source OpenVPN servers. This client is available completely free of charge and is developed and maintained by the OpenVPN Inc. company and made available to everyone free of charge.

Our commercial product Access Server is what we charge for, and the new pricing reflects the most economical in the industry and enhanced security features. Access Server still comes with two free lifetime connections when you activate your subscription.

Unless you need an offline activation, subscription is the way to go. As you scale the number of VPN connections you need, the cost per connection goes down. Our Access Server Lead Johan Draaisma put together this video for you which goes over the many features of subscriptions.

Use Cases

The best way to see the benefit of subscriptions over fixed licenses is to see subscriptions in action. Here are three use cases for you:

1. A business using VMs or AWS instances: With fixed licenses, every time the VM or instance changes, you have to contact support to reissue a license. With a Subscription, all you have to do is launch a new server and use the exact same Subscription.

2. A business using autoscaling: With a Subscription, there are no more set VPN connection tiers. You can purchase the exact number of connections you need. You can also share one subscription across all of your servers rather than purchasing one hardware-locked license for each server. Plus, subscriptions allow you to increase and decrease connections at will to account for situations such as a surge in employees working from home.

3. A business with high availability setup: With multiple servers running, either in UCARP failover or as a cluster, each server requires a fixed license for your needs. With a Subscription, they can all share the same purchased Subscription, which simplifies licensing.

Absolutely. If you currently have license keys, you can access them in the navigation bar via the tab labeled 'License Keys'. You can still manage your account under our new interface.

If you have OpenVPN Access Server 2.8.1 or newer you don't have to change anything - you just activate the subscription and you're done!

If your Access Server is currently a version older than 2.8.1, you would need to upgrade your Access Server first in order to use a subscription. The upgrade process itself is fairly straight-forward and retains all your current user account settings, certificates, access control rules, authentication settings, and so on. The way the Access Server functions will not change when you switch to using a subscription. Upgrading your Access Server using our guide will ensure your settings remain intact, and our technical support is standing by on our support ticket system to assist you should you need assistance upgrading your server.

Yes, it is still possible to purchase License Keys, although we recommend that you use Subscriptions instead.

However, if you are in a situation where your Access Server does not have Internet access and is unable to reach our licensing servers, then the License Keys offer a solution. That system of licensing is less flexible, but it does allow for offline activation. This means Internet access is not required for your Access Server to be licensed for a number of VPN connections.

You can make the switch immediately – just ensure that you upgrade to Access Server 2.8.1 or higher.

Detailed instructions on how to upgrade can be found in this documentation.

After upgrading, purchase a subscription for the needed number of VPN connections (remember that you can replace all your license keys with a single subscription) and enter the subscription Activation Key in the Access Server's Administration Portal. Any existing License keys will be substituted with the new subscription.

Submit a ticket to Sales Department (found within the Support Center) to have a Customer Success Representative cancel any licenses you no longer require. We will credit your account with any unused funds.

No. We tested switching a live Access Server with multiple active connections from a fixed license key to a subscription activation and it caused no disruptions or disconnections at all. However, we prefer to be safe and advise you to make these changes during a scheduled maintenance window.

Please submit a ticket to the Access Server Support Department in our support center,and a member of our team will be happy to assist you.

For immediate information, see the following resources:

Quick Start Guide

Detailed Billing Documentation

Troubleshooting software licensing options

For more assistance, please navigate to "Support Center" on the navigation bar, and toggle to "Submit a Ticket".

For technical assistance, submit a ticket to: Access Server [24x7 support]

For business and payment related queries, submit a ticket to: Sales Department

OpenVPN Access Server can be licensed in 3 ways: subscription, fixed license key, and AWS tiered.

We recommend the Subscription system available on our Access Server portal. Once you’re logged in to the portal, click on ‘Subscription’. You can create a free subscription without any obligations that allows two simultaneous connections. Activate this on your server and test it out. When you need more connections you can convert the subscription into a paid one at any time. From the portal, you simply choose the higher number of connections and complete the purchase process. The pricing will be clearly explained for either the monthly or yearly terms. The size of your subscription can be adjusted at any time. You have the flexibility to scale up or down at will.

If your Access Server is in a highly secure environment and does not have Internet access, you will need to select the fixed license key option instead. With this, you purchase a yearly term. The key can be activated without Internet access. Contact support for help with our offline activation procedure.

The AWS tiered system is available through Amazon AWS. From the AWS Marketplace you’ll find options to purchase a pre-defined number of connected devices. These are licensed and billed through your Amazon AWS account. You have the choice between hourly or yearly billing, depending on the software contract you choose.

We accept all major credit cards and Paypal.

If purchasing by credit card is not viable for your company or you are in need of offline payments, please reach out to us for alternative payment methods.

You can find pricing information on our subscription pricing page. The previous fixed licensing model will have its price adjusted to match this. Rather than separate pricing tables there will be just one pricing method, making things simpler to understand. As of January 2021, the price will be the same whether you choose a fixed license key or a subscription. Note that fixed license keys are not available at monthly pricing, only in annual pricing. Subscriptions are available in monthly or annual pricing.

OpenVPN Access Server includes technical support and all future software upgrades.

There are no hidden fees or surprise charges—what you see is what you get. It’s not always easy to find up-front pricing with other solutions. On top of that, you get free support using our support ticketing system. Here’s a comparison of how our product pricing compares to other VPN providers. OpenVPN Access Server is still the most economical choice, especially considering the new volume discount model: the per connection price decreases as you buy more connections.