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Why does every VPN need to rewrite their own client? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
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I've been testing VPN services and somehow every one with a client has written their own. Proton, Windscribe, IVPN, Mullvad, AirVPN, NordVPN, and the list goes on.

Don't these services all do the same thing? Connect to a server to get a list of servers, then use WireGuard or OpenVPN to make a connection, and have some fancy stuff like split tunneling or a killswitch. It should just take configuration by adding profiles per service and it should be possible to use the same client.

What am I missing?

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[–] 4 points 1 month ago*

Just to point out another interesting example that sits on one extreme end of the spectrum.

https://safing.io/ has a whole open source firewall and traffic monitoring gui app and their VPN (SPN) is a small and optional paid feature of that.

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