Home VPN on Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP32 or a router: compared

Want to open your home files, cameras or NAS from a café, a hotel or the other side of the world, safely? A home VPN does exactly that: it builds an encrypted tunnel from your phone or laptop straight into your own network. So which board should run it? The short answer: a Raspberry Pi 5 if you like to tinker, or a GL.iNet router with WireGuard built in if you want it working in ten minutes. ESP32 and classic Arduino boards can’t do the job.

Why it matters: a home VPN costs almost nothing, since it runs on a few watts, and it keeps your private devices off the open internet. Here’s how every board compares, based on published tests and official specifications. We did not build these ourselves.

What is a VPN, and what is it for?

A VPN (virtual private network) is an encrypted tunnel between your phone or laptop and another network. Everything that travels through it is scrambled, so nobody on the way can read it. There are two kinds:

A home VPN, the subject of this comparison: the tunnel ends in your own house. You use it to open your NAS, cameras or computer from anywhere, and to browse safely through your home connection on public Wi-Fi.
A worldwide VPN service: the tunnel ends in a company’s server, in the country you choose. You use it to browse as if you were in that country, to reach services from other countries and to keep your browsing private.

Diagram: a phone on café Wi-Fi reaches home through an encrypted tunnel to the router and a board, which opens the NAS, cameras and PC; below, the direct WireGuard route with an open port and the Tailscale route through a relay when the operator uses CGNAT. — How a home VPN works, and the two ways to reach it · Illustration by DIGITAL WOXTER TECHNEWS.

Every board, head to head

Board	Difficulty	WireGuard speed (tested)	Idle power	Rating
Raspberry Pi 5		About 800 Mbps*	2.4-3.3 W	+++ Best for makers
GL.iNet Flint 2 router		834-888 Mbps as a server	No idle figure (under 20 W max)	+++ Easiest, built in
Raspberry Pi 4		About 500 Mbps*	No reliable figure	++ Great if you already have one
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W		None found over Wi-Fi	0.5-0.6 W	+ A tiny VPN for a few phones
Intel N100 mini PC		None found between two machines	10.5-12 W	+ Overkill unless it is also your firewall
Arduino UNO Q / Ventuno Q		None found	None found	− Maybe, not proven
ESP32		5-15 Mbps as a tiny router	–	−− Client only, for one gadget
Classic Arduino (UNO R4)	–	–	–	−− Can’t: no Linux

* Pi figures are one user’s real-world tests on the Raspberry Pi forums (May 2024). A synthetic test on one board, collected by the OpenWrt WireGuard database, gives 2.6 Gbps for the Pi 5 and about 1 Gbps for the Pi 4, but both boards have Gigabit ports, so the cable stops them near 940 Mbps anyway. Flint 2 figures are CNX Software’s test (January 2024). Power: Pi 5 and Zero 2 W from Jeff Geerling and CNX Software, N100 from ServeTheHome. “None found” means nobody we could find has measured it, so we won’t guess. Rating: +++ best · ++ very good · + works · − not proven · −− can’t do it. Difficulty: easy · moderate · difficult · expert. Ratings and difficulty are our own judgement from the tests and specifications.

For a home VPN, speed matters less than you’d think: you’re limited by your home upload speed and by the network you’re on. Even 100 Mbps is plenty to watch your home cameras or open files.

Why ESP32 and classic Arduino can’t do it

A classic Arduino like the UNO R4 WiFi is a microcontroller: a 48 MHz chip with 32 kB of memory and no operating system. A VPN server needs Linux, a full network system and far more memory.

The ESP32 is cleverer. Libraries such as esp_wireguard let it connect out to a WireGuard server, which is handy for one sensor that needs to report home securely. But it’s a client, not a server, and the ESP32 NAT router project says to expect 5-15 Mbps for a handful of devices, and that it’s no replacement for a real router.

Arduino’s newer boards run Linux, so they’re a different story. The UNO Q has no Ethernet port, and the only report we found is a user who couldn’t get WireGuard working without breaking the system. The Ventuno Q has 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and 16 GB of memory, so it could probably do it, but it’s a premium AI board and nobody has tested it as a VPN.

Close-up of an Espressif ESP-WROOM-32 module on a blue board. — An ESP32 module: great for one gadget, too small to be a VPN server · Photo: Brian Krent, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Three ways to run a home VPN

1. Tailscale (easiest). Install it on your board and your phone, sign in, done. Tailscale uses WireGuard encryption and finds its way through most home routers on its own, so you don’t need to open any ports. Its free Personal plan now covers up to 6 users and unlimited devices for non-commercial use, after a pricing change in April 2026. Turn your Pi into an exit node and all your traffic goes out through home, which is useful on hotel Wi-Fi.

A Raspberry Pi OS terminal installing Tailscale, enabling IP forwarding and running tailscale up --advertise-exit-node. — Example: setting up Tailscale as an exit node on Raspberry Pi OS (commands from Tailscale's docs, output shortened) · Illustration by DIGITAL WOXTER TECHNEWS.

A small grey GL.iNet travel router next to a white security camera on a hotel desk. — A GL.iNet travel router in a hotel room: your own safe network while away · Photo: Tony Webster, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

2. wg-easy (a web page for WireGuard). wg-easy runs WireGuard with a simple admin page where you add a phone by scanning a QR code. It’s actively developed, with version 15.5 out in October 2026. You’ll need to forward one port on your router (UDP 51820 by default).

3. PiVPN (the classic). For years the go-to script for Pi VPNs. Its makers announced its end in April 2024, then kept it going on a best-effort basis, with the latest release in September 2025. It still works, but we’d start a new build with Tailscale or wg-easy.

A blue text-menu screen on Raspberry Pi OS asking which VPN to install, with WireGuard selected and OpenVPN as the other option. — Example of a menu-based installer, like PiVPN's: pick WireGuard and press Ok (drawing; exact screens vary by version) · Illustration by DIGITAL WOXTER TECHNEWS.

	Tailscale	wg-easy	PiVPN
Setup time	About 15 minutes	About 1 hour	About 1 hour
Difficulty
Open a port on your router?	No	Yes	Yes
Works behind CGNAT?	Usually	No	No
Depends on a company?	Yes, for sign-in	No	No
Best for	Beginners	Full control	Existing setups

Setup time and difficulty are our own estimates for a first-timer. Difficulty: easy · moderate · difficult · expert.

The CGNAT trap: check this first

A classic WireGuard server needs your router to have its own public internet address, so your phone can knock on its door. Many operators now share one address between lots of customers, a system called carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT). Behind CGNAT you can’t open a port at all.

Spain: according to Xataka Móvil and Androidguías, Digi uses CGNAT by default (a public address costs €1 a month with its Conexión Plus), and several smaller operators use it too, while Movistar, Vodafone and O2 did not. Policies change, so ask your operator.
Rest of the EU, South America and Asia: many operators use CGNAT too, most often on mobile and 4G/5G home connections, because public IPv4 addresses have run out. Check with yours before you build.

The fix is simple: use Tailscale, which works behind CGNAT in most cases (it relays the connection when a direct link is impossible), or ask your operator for a public IP.

Build a home VPN or use a worldwide VPN service?

They sound alike, but they do opposite jobs. A home VPN brings you back into your own network. A worldwide VPN service sends your traffic out through the provider’s servers, for privacy on public Wi-Fi or to appear in another country.

	Home VPN on your board	Worldwide VPN service
Reach your NAS, cameras and PC	Yes	Only with extra features, see below
Protect you on public Wi-Fi	Yes, through your home	Yes
Appear in another country	No, only at home	Yes, many countries
Speed limited by your home upload	Yes	No
Cost	The board and a few watts	A subscription

Diagram of three benefits: a globe with location pins to browse from any country, Wi-Fi with a padlock for privacy on any network, and a house wearing a mask to hide your real address. — Three reasons to use a VPN service · Illustration by DIGITAL WOXTER TECHNEWS.

What a VPN service does for you:

Browse from the country you choose. Your traffic leaves through a server in the country you pick, so websites and services see that location. It’s handy when travelling, to reach your bank, your news or the TV services of your own country, or to see a site as it looks elsewhere. Check each service’s terms, as some streaming platforms restrict VPNs.
Keep your browsing private. The owner of the café Wi-Fi, the hotel network or your operator can’t see which sites you visit, only that you’re connected to a VPN.
Hide your real address. The sites you visit see the VPN server’s IP address, not your home’s.

It doesn’t make you invisible: sites still know you when you log in or accept their cookies, and the VPN company itself carries your traffic, so choose one you trust.

Diagram: without a VPN, the Wi-Fi owner or operator sees the sites you visit and websites see your real address; with a VPN service, an encrypted tunnel goes to a server in the country you choose, so the network sees only the VPN and websites see that country. — What a VPN service hides, and what it doesn't · Illustration by DIGITAL WOXTER TECHNEWS.

Many VPN services now use WireGuard too and offer apps for Linux and Raspberry Pi, and GL.iNet routers can connect to several of them directly. Many people use both: a home VPN to reach their own things, and a VPN service for privacy and travel.

Our picks

Easiest: a GL.iNet Flint 2 as your home router, with its WireGuard server switched on or Tailscale (still labelled beta in GL.iNet’s firmware). No extra box, and it was the fastest tested option here.

Best for makers: a Raspberry Pi 5 with 2 GB of memory, a good power supply and a microSD card or small SSD, running Tailscale or wg-easy. The 2 GB model is enough for a VPN and the most frugal at idle. Plug it into your router with a cable, not Wi-Fi.

A real Raspberry Pi 5 board — The Raspberry Pi 5, our pick for makers · Photo: SimonWaldherr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).

Already have a Pi 4? Use it. It’s plenty for a home VPN. A Pi Zero 2 W also works for a couple of phones, but it has no Ethernet port.

Top view of a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board. — The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: tiny and frugal, but Wi-Fi only · Photo: Anil Öztas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Stay safe

Keep the board updated, and never expose its admin page to the internet.
Give each phone or laptop its own key, and delete a key when you lose the device.
A home VPN protects your trip home. It doesn’t make you anonymous online.

Ready to Make? Our home VPN parts list shows exactly what to buy for the Raspberry Pi build, and the easy router alternative.

What happens next

We’ll keep this comparison updated: if someone tests WireGuard on an Arduino Ventuno Q or a measured Pi 5 server result appears from a lab, it goes in the table.