A VPN network is a set of different technologies and services. Traffic must be encrypted, information must be transmitted, the user must be identified, and so on. For all this, various methods are used, called protocols. Many VPN applications and operating systems allow the user to choose the desired Protocol. But which is better? Let's just say that protocols can't be "good" or "bad". They are simply different, and are chosen based on needs.

The following protocols are most common in VPN networks: OpenVPN, L2TP, IKEv2, and PPTP.