WireGuard Reviews

by Karnol233

Dear this app Developers,

I've just downloaded this app for iOS on my iPhone X. I found that it could not connect correctly. When I checked the log, I found "Failed to send handshake initiation", "no route to host" error messages.

When I further checked the problem, I found that there is no Wireless Setting option in the this app settings page in the iOS settings. I understand that this setting will only appear in iOS devices with Cellular sold in China. Under normal circumstances, China region devices will pop up the user permission to use data when an app first runs or requests to access internet (You can select: off / WLAN Only / WLAN & Cellular Data), but this app does not pop up this alert when it first runs, so the Wireless setting option does not appear in the iOS settings, it results in this app can never use any network (WLAN and Cellular Data).

To solve this problem, I'm eagerly recommending that you add a "Import tunnel from url" option (or any option that can trigger internet access request from WireGuard ). It will not just function as a new method to import tunnel, but it will also trigger internet access request when used which will trigger the pop-up asking permission to access internet.

Please, please, please take this into your consideration! I'm looking forward to getting this app connected on my iPhone and I believe many people have the same issue.

Thank you so much!

by Lesterw1

The worse part about WireGuard is there is no way to tell is the VPN is connected. You slide a switch and simply hope. The switch will happily show Green even if it is not fully connected. Also the log page does not work. It instantly disappeared when you open it - so good luck trying to see it.

When it does connect, it seems to work great. But for the zero feedback on connection status and the inability to view the log page, 1 star.

by The Brain Of J

Now the on-demand functionality is totally broken. I leave my personal Wi-Fi network and in the old days this app would connect automatically, but now, nothing. If I manually connect, it doesn’t disconnect when I get back to my home Wi-Fi even though it’s listed on ‘except this ssid’.

These issues took this app from something that worked smoothly and seamlessly in the background to something that is annoying and doesn’t behave like it should.

by Jason@PH

this app works well on my phone, except for it’s primary purpose…which in my case is on demand (automatic) connection to my VPN. This has been broken for some time and I have waited since COVID began for an update to address this. But so far, nothing has been fixed.

Judging by all the posts on forums, I’m far from the only person to have this problem.

Please update WireGuard to address automatic connections using iOS 14 or higher! It would then be a five star app…

by TheOfficeScranton

I’d like my VPN to be on all the time, but for some reason, it keeps disconnecting every so often. So I have to set reminders every couple of hours to make sure it’s still connected to my VPN’s server. Not sure why.

Once this issue is fixed I’ll be bumping it up a star or two, but for the time being, it’s not very user friendly or convenient that I have to check in on it every hour or so to make sure it’s still connected.

by HeloHead

[UPDATE2] After two months usage I must confess I'm still impressed. With that said i do have one concern and thats excessive data usage. For the past several years ive been averaging less then 1 GB a month. Since installing this app my cellular data usage has exploded. Last month my cellular usage exceeded 5GB and this month its on track to exceed 7GB. Currently i have no explanation as i have not installed any new apps or changed my cellular behavior. My only recourse is to go back to Open VPN and see if my data usage goes back to normal.

[UPDATE] After a month of usage i must confess WireGuard & protocol has exceeded all my expectations. To date It has NEVER failed to smoothly transition between wifi and cellular. Ive never had to reboot and performance is predictable based on which VPN server i choose. Im now so confident of its ability i finally removed my OpenVPN client.

As a long term (2+ years) OpenVPN user i must confess i tired of all the issues related to transitioning between cellular & wifi. Those days are now in the past.

Simple, reliable and trust worthy is what i expect of VPN software and thus far this app has delivered. Thus far i am extremely impressed.

by Buddy63737

I just want to connect to a private this app server but not use it as a proxy. WireGuard mistakenly assumes that I want to use it for a proxy. I already use private internet access for proxy, and they’re supposed to be able to coexist, but enabling one disables the other. But when this app is enabled, it doesn’t try to use the this app server as a proxy, the internet works just fine. It’s a strange bug. I hope it gets fixed. Then I’d give this app 5 stars because it does work otherwise.

by ❤ 

This client is super solid! Very fast connect time and reliable throughout the day switching between networks. The only problem is it’s a big drain on my battery.

Overnight with low battery mode on, airplane mode with WiFi enabled, it used 25% of the battery in 8 hours. Uninstalled and went back to an IPSec tunnel and battery drain was single digit percent for the same time frame.

by Ipodchrish

WireGuard seems to have gotten spottier in iOS 16. Can’t seem to view the log as it will disappear after loading it. Seems to fail at connecting sometimes where there weren’t any problems in iOS 15. Hopefully gets addressed quickly.

Otherwise this app is a fantastic, free solution for simple VPNs. Would recommend.

by Spirit2220

I set up the this app VPN to connect on Wi-Fi and Cellular. When I switch from Wi-Fi to cellular manually it connects to the VPN on LTE but does not do a handshake. I have to toggle the VPN off and back on for it to work. When I switch from LTE to a Wi-Fi network that I have the VPN set to NOT connect to when on this particular Wi-Fi network it will keep it on LTE until I go turn the VPN off myself. This is happens in iOS 14.4 and 14.5 beta 2.
Not sure if it is iOS or the this app app or both.

by Carlin.S

I love the automatic VPN when on wifi and being able to exclude certain networks, like my home wifi.

What I don't like is that it's difficult to update my VPN IP address. My VPN IP sometimes changes weekly and pasting it into the tiny text box with the port number in it is difficult. iOS often doesn't show the paste dialog; I have to carefully only delete the IP portion; I have to double-tap in a tiny space after removing the old IP.

There should be a button to directly read the IP address from clipboard. Or better yet, a service I can point DNSomatic at to automatically update it.

I also wish it would offer to disable the VPN of its unable to connect after 30-60 seconds.

by Sharknado2K

this app is ideal for people who want to set up their own VPN infrastructure rather than trusting someone else’s. Much, much simpler than IPSec or OpenVPN, and very fast.

I like that WireGuard can be configured to auto connect on WiFi, cellular, or both. And that you can whitelist or blacklist WiFi SSIDs.

However, since upgrading to iOS 13, I’ve found the VPN periodically stalls, preventing any traffic at all. I can get it going again by restarting the tunnel. Not sure if this is a bug in WireGuard or in iOS 13, but it’s pretty frustrating. This wasn’t a problem in iOS 12.x.

by Tmatthews14

WireGuard does a great job building and establishing a this app VPN. Functionally it works great.

The UI could use some help. I’d love to see an easier way to view connection status, connection details, and easier ability to view logs (that aren’t hidden on the Settings page).

Lastly, integration with Shortcuts would be amazing to be able to automate the VPN connection outside of the this app app.

by Carsonise

Been using this for a few months now and it works great and is very reliable. Haven’t had problems with it.

Is it possible to make the on demand tunnels easier to enable or Disable without having to “edit” the profile? Would it also be possible make that available from the phone settings like other VPN providers are able to do?

I get that it may not be possible to add that in for the phone’s settings app due to being able to specify the tunnels for cellular or SSID but just being able to switch those on or off with as few steps as possible would be great.

Additionally, when switching off the on-demand tunnels for SSID’s, would it be possible for the previously added SSIDs be retained and not lost when the WiFi tunnel is turned back on?

Other than that, great work!!

by Leeii15

I love this app as it is very fast and easy to use. One feature that I would like to see is the ability to prevent users from opening WireGuard to make changes to the settings using a passcode lock. Mainly being is that I have family devices that I want to ensure the VPN is connected when they are outside of the network which can be obtained with settings but it doesn’t prevent users from going into WireGuard and making changes to prevent the VPN from connecting.

by Dbgbxavh U

When connecting on iPhone, it was just a couple of clicks, but on Linux, the default guide on the website kept giving me errors and I had to find help on other websites. I did not appreciate the fact that this app itself was wrong when it came to connecting on Linux. Other than that, low power and extremely fast protocol.

by Jtgamer715

Using this to connect to PiHole server. Works great.

I would like to see a feature added. Can you add a lock pin for parental control. I want to force my kids to use the vpn when away from home. A pin to restrict access to turn off the vpn or edit config files would make this perfect.

by Npburns224

I would like to see the ability to enable On-Demand concurrently on multiple profiles.
I’d like to route my traffic through a split-tunnel when on a trusted WiFi network or cellular connection and through a full-tunnel when on an untrusted WiFi network.

by Neiporliang

I hope it can support turning off or opening a configuration file in a shortcut, so that you can automatically turn on this app when you leave home and turn off this app on the specified network (such as at home).

by Wornoutcamel

As proven by my own experience—Absolutely the single best app for using your this app VPN protocol profiles. The connection is stable and stays connected for days to the tunnel through multiple hops on and off of cellular to and from WiFi networks.

It is open source, well supported and absolutely brilliant. This is an incredible asset and wonderfully executed. To all those involved in bringing WireGuard and this app to iOS, thank you!

I am an advocate of using VPNs and the OpenVPN protocol and the OpenVPN Connect app for iOS, however, the release of WireGuard changes everything. While WireGuard is not the first this app app in the AppStore, it is the only one I would ever trust—as it was created with the same transparency and openness as the this app protocol itself.

by Hooverhiker

This is not so much a this app problem as it is an Apple problem, but all VPN apps in iOS are vulnerable to the tunnel breaking during auto-update of the VPN app itself.

VPN APPS SHOULD NOT AUTO-UPDATE!!!!! How does iOS not have auto-updates configurable per app? VPN apps should NOT AUTO-UPDATE WHILE IN USE WITHOUT USER APPROVAL! VPN auto-update breaks the tunnel even while actively in use, unless iOS is keeping the tunnel alive while removing the VPN GUI indicator from the status bar... What the h3ll Apple?!??

by TrekWiz

WireGuard was working great when I disconnected from my WiFi when I had prior versions of iOS; I had it set to automatically connect to the VPN and it did this seamlessly. After the iOS upgrade to iOS 15, this doesn’t automatically connect anymore and I have manually connect using the VPN button in my iPhone settings. I also have to manually disconnect from the VPN when I connect to my home WiFi. I don’t see any WiFi SSIDs show up on the list of WiFi network to exclude. I removed WireGuard and reinstalled the latest version but this did not solve it. This is probably not the developers fault, but I hope they can fix it. It’s a fantastic app, otherwise.

by Preston Lanier

Works great but desperately needs Apple Shortcut support so that users can automatically enable a this app profile based upon conditions. For example, I would like to be able to set up a Shortcut that enables my this app profile when I am on any wireless network but my home network. Otherwise, thanks for the great app and protocol.

by Jacobnoori

I’ve been using WireGuard to establish a connection with my this app server at home and today it really sealed the deal for me. I’ve never had issues with instability or dropped connections so I was already impressed but I found out today that you can also do on demand connections with granular control and that blew my socks off. At this time, Apple’s Shortcuts app doesn’t even have the same functionality with any kind of VPN native to the phone. this app protocol and the iOS app are both ahead of the game.

by Scooterscotty69

At less than 5MB WireGuard allows me to use a free this app VPN connection from ProtonVPN while also using NextDNS as my DNS to block trackers, ads, websites and more. It’s the perfect solution, and I use it on my MacBook as well to combine the power of ProtonVPN with NextDNS in a tiny app that runs flawlessly with on-demand always running. The simplicity and lightweight of WireGuard makes it such a simple solution that I don’t even need ProtonVPN or NextDNS installed on my devices. Cheers to the developer of this open source project! Free and open source is the way to go for privacy!

by Nobodyhome44

I’ve been through the weeds with vpns such as open, but hands down, this app is where it’s at. For anyone having issues check your network interface settings: they depend upon your network routers because this works at the IP layer. If you understand Linux networking layers, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Rock solid; keep up the good work team!

by Jmac93427

What can I say that hasn’t been said? I’ve been running this app for a couple of years now, initially on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ alongside PiHole. I migrated everything seamlessly over to a Raspberry Pi 4 that’s running several other apps simultaneously. I’ve never EVER had a problem with this app. Solid as a rock. Stable. Dependable. Zero complaints. 100% recommended.

by Xizts

I have used a variety of different protocols for VPN to my home but this app has been the most stable and provided the best speeds. WireGuard barely touches my battery and it’s convenient to have the on demand feature to connect to my VPN when I am on untrusted WiFi networks. this app is simply the best.

by Chris(topher)

I’ve been using this app on my Mac to connect to my home server while away and it’s been working well. I’ve only just now installed it on my iPad to do the same when I’m away without my Mac. I wanted to also install it on my Vision Pro but I’m disappointed to find that this iPad app is not enabled or available for download on the Vision Pro right now.

Please make whatever change necessary to at least allow your iPad or iPhone version to run on Vision Pro as many other iPad/iPhone apps do. I understand that there are other this app-conpatible apps available in compatibility mode on Vision Pro so I’ll resort to that if need be but I thought I should at least ask you guys to make yours available. Thanks!