> Source: https://meetrix.io/blogs/openvpn-vpn-server-gcp/ > Markdown copy of that page. Cite the URL above, not this file. IAM & Security # OpenVPN Server on GCP Marketplace by Meetrix - Deploy a Secure VPN in Minutes [By Shalomi Umeshika](https://meetrix.io/blogs/authors/shalomi-umeshika/) • September 7, 2026 • 8 min read Revised by - ![Portrait of Hiruna Kumara, Senior DevOps Engineer at Meetrix](https://meetrix.io/blog-images/assets/authors/hiruna-kumara.webp)[Hiruna Kumara](https://meetrix.io/blogs/authors/hiruna-kumara/)Senior DevOps Engineer, Meetrix This article was reviewed and refreshed for accuracy. Last reviewed September 2026. ## Secure Remote Access on GCP, Without the Per-Seat Invoice Securing remote access to a private GCP environment usually comes down to two unpleasant options. Pay a commercial business VPN vendor a per-user fee that grows every time someone joins the team, while your connection metadata passes through their infrastructure. Or set up OpenVPN yourself - generating PKI certificates, writing firewall rules, and hoping you locked things down correctly - then hope nobody touches it again until it breaks. The **OpenVPN Server on GCP Marketplace** by Meetrix skips both of those. We packaged a hardened OpenVPN deployment into a single GCP Marketplace listing: server hardened, firewall rules correct, and client certificate generation reduced to one command. Ready to get started? [Launch the Meetrix OpenVPN listing on GCP Marketplace](https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/product/meetrix-public/openvpn-vpn-server?project=meetrix-public). ## What is OpenVPN? [OpenVPN](https://openvpn.net/community-resources/) is an open-source VPN protocol and software suite that builds an encrypted tunnel between a client device and a server, so nobody on the network in between can read or tamper with the traffic. It's one of the most widely deployed VPN technologies around, giving remote employees, contractors, and devices secure access to private networks, internal tools, and cloud resources that aren't exposed to the public internet. If you're weighing it against other self-hosted options, see how it compares in our [OpenVPN vs WireGuard](https://meetrix.io/blogs/openvpn-vs-wireguard/) breakdown. The OpenVPN Community Edition packaged here is free and open-source, with source on [GitHub](https://github.com/OpenVPN/openvpn). No per-seat license, no client cap, no vendor sitting in the middle of your connection. Client apps exist for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android through the official [OpenVPN Connect](https://openvpn.net/client/) app, so your team connects from whatever device they already use. Deploying on AWS instead? Meetrix also packages an [OpenVPN AMI on AWS Marketplace](https://meetrix.io/blogs/openvpn-aws-marketplace/). What Does a Team VPN Actually Cost? Commercial business VPN platforms typically charge $7-10 per user per month. A 40-person remote team pays $3,360-$4,800 a year for VPN access alone, and that number climbs every time the team grows. A self-hosted OpenVPN server on a single small GCP instance runs roughly $15-25 a month in total, whether 5 people connect or 50. ## How Deployment Works Doing this by hand means provisioning a VM, generating PKI certificates, and writing firewall rules on your own. Through the Marketplace, it's four steps - or follow our [Developer Guide](https://meetrix.io/blogs/openvpn-gcp-developer-guide/) for the full walkthrough with screenshots: 1. **Launch from GCP Marketplace** Open the Meetrix OpenVPN listing, pick your region and machine type, and hit Deploy. The vendor-recommended firewall rule comes with only SSH and OpenVPN ports open - nothing else. 2. **Get Your Server IP** Once the deployment finishes, the instance details give you the server's external IP and a ready-to-use SSH command - no hunting through the console. 3. **Generate a Client Profile** SSH into the server and run the built-in `add-client.sh` script. It handles PKI certificate generation and produces a ready-to-use `.ovpn` file in one step. 4. **Connect and You're In** Import the `.ovpn` file into OpenVPN Connect on any device - laptop, phone, doesn't matter - and you're tunneling into your VPC. ## What Meetrix Brings to This Deployment - **We Already Locked Down the Firewall Rules** - The image ships with the correct firewall rules, a hardened base OS, and a tuned OpenVPN install. You're not guessing which ports to open or debugging a raw VM. - **One-Command Client Setup** - The `add-client.sh` script handles PKI certificate generation and produces a working `.ovpn` profile in one step. Most manual OpenVPN setups mean juggling easy-rsa by hand - this skips that entirely. - **No Per-User Licensing** - This is the open-source OpenVPN Community Edition, tuned for GCP. There's no seat-based pricing layered on top, unlike commercial VPN platforms. - **Your Traffic Stays in Your Project** - The server runs entirely inside your own GCP project. No third-party VPN vendor relays, inspects, or logs your team's connections. - **People Who Run VPN Infrastructure for a Living** - If you need help scaling client capacity or hardening things further, you're talking to engineers who deploy secure access infrastructure daily, not a generic helpdesk. ## Who Is OpenVPN on GCP Right For? This deployment suits teams that need reliable, low-cost remote access to GCP resources without routing traffic through a third-party vendor. If what you actually need is a mesh network between devices rather than a single point-to-site VPN server, our [Headscale vs Tailscale](https://meetrix.io/blogs/headscale-vs-tailscale/) comparison covers that alternative shape of problem. OpenVPN on GCP is a strong fit if you're: - A remote or distributed team that needs secure access to private GCP resources without a per-seat bill - A DevOps or platform engineer who wants SSH and internal admin access behind a VPN instead of exposed publicly - A startup replacing a commercial VPN subscription to cut recurring costs - A compliance-focused team that can't route traffic through a third-party vendor's infrastructure - An IT consultancy or MSP that wants an isolated VPN per client engagement - A multi-region team that wants a consistent, low-cost VPN per office instead of one shared commercial plan ## OpenVPN on GCP by Meetrix vs Alternatives | Feature | OpenVPN on GCP by Meetrix | Commercial Business VPN (NordLayer, Perimeter81) | GCP Cloud VPN | Self-Hosted OpenVPN (Manual) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Hosting | Your GCP project, fully self-hosted | Vendor's cloud infrastructure | GCP-managed service in your VPC | Your GCP VM, set up by you | | Data Control | Total - traffic never leaves your project | Vendor relays and can log connections | Total - native GCP service | Total, if you got the config right | | Deployment Time | Minutes via GCP Marketplace | Instant SaaS signup | Hours - tunnel and gateway setup | Hours, more if PKI trips you up | | SSL & Auth | PKI certificates automated via one script | Handled by the vendor | IKEv2/IPsec pre-shared keys or certs | Manual - easy to get wrong | | Pricing Model | GCP compute costs only (~$15-25/month, no per-user fee) | Per-user subscription (~$7-10/user/month) | Per-tunnel-hour plus per-GB billing | GCP compute costs only | | GDPR / Data Residency | Pick your GCP region, data stays put | Vendor's data processing terms apply | Pick your GCP region | On you to configure correctly | | Support | Meetrix engineers, 24/7 | Vendor support tiers | Standard GCP support plans | Community forums, or you fix it yourself | ## Resources [ OpenVPN on GCP - Developer Guide Step-by-step walkthrough of the full deployment: launching the instance, generating client profiles, connecting with OpenVPN Connect, and troubleshooting common issues. Meetrix.IO | Binuka Ranatunga ![OpenVPN on GCP Developer Guide](https://meetrix.io/blog-images/paas-dev-guides/openvpn-gcp/openvpn-devguide-gcp.png)](https://meetrix.io/blogs/openvpn-gcp-developer-guide/) ## Video Guide ## How Teams Use This in Production B2B SaaS | North America 88%cost reduction ### Replacing a Per-Seat VPN Subscription for a Growing Remote Team The problem A 35-person remote-first SaaS company was paying a commercial VPN vendor per seat, and the bill kept climbing every time they hired. Nobody on the team wanted to own a self-hosted VPN, assuming it would mean constant maintenance. What we did We deployed OpenVPN on a single GCP instance inside their existing VPC, generated client profiles for the whole team, and documented the one-command process for onboarding new hires. Monthly VPN costs down 88% Onboarding a new hire takes one command Zero maintenance tickets in 6 months > "We assumed self-hosting a VPN meant someone on our team babysitting a server forever. It's been the opposite - we set it up once and just don't think about it." _Head of IT, B2B SaaS Company, United States_ Financial Services | Europe 100%in-region data control ### Keeping Remote Access Traffic Inside a Required GCP Region The problem A fintech company's compliance policy required all infrastructure, including remote access tooling, to stay within a specific EU region. Commercial VPN vendors couldn't guarantee where their relay traffic actually passed through. What we did We deployed OpenVPN inside their GCP project in the required region, hardened the firewall, and walked their security team through the setup for an internal audit. All VPN traffic stayed in the required region Internal audit passed without follow-up questions No third-party VPN vendor in the data path > "Compliance needed proof our remote access traffic never left the region. With our own OpenVPN server, that's just true by design - we don't have to take anyone's word for it." _Head of Infrastructure, Fintech Company, Ireland_ IT Consultancy | Asia Pacific 9isolated client VPNs ### Giving Every Client Engagement Its Own Isolated VPN The problem An IT consultancy needed separate, isolated VPN access for nine different client engagements. Putting everyone on one shared commercial VPN plan made access control messy and raised questions from clients about data isolation. What we did We deployed a dedicated OpenVPN instance per client engagement on GCP, each with its own firewall rules and certificate set, so client environments never overlapped. 9 isolated client VPNs running independently No shared infrastructure between client accounts New client VPN spun up same-day > "Clients ask hard questions about access isolation now, and we actually have a clean answer - separate VPN, separate project, no overlap." _Founder, IT Consultancy, Australia_ ## Frequently Asked Questions What is OpenVPN and how is it different from GCP's own Cloud VPN? OpenVPN is an open-source VPN protocol you run yourself, giving remote users and devices encrypted access into your network. GCP's Cloud VPN is built for connecting two networks together, like a site-to-site tunnel, not for giving individual remote users their own VPN client. If you need people, not networks, to connect securely, OpenVPN is the better fit. Do I need to know networking to set this up? Not really. The image handles the firewall rules and OpenVPN configuration for you. You'll use SSH once to run the client-generation script, but day-to-day, adding a new team member just means running one command and sending them a file. Can multiple people connect to the same OpenVPN server at once? Yes. Each person gets their own client certificate and profile, generated through the add-client.sh script. There's no hard cap on connections built into OpenVPN itself - the real limit is how much bandwidth and CPU your chosen machine type can handle. What happens if I need to revoke someone's access? You revoke their certificate on the server, and their .ovpn file stops working immediately. No vendor support ticket required - it's a command you run yourself, which matters when someone leaves the team and you don't want to wait on anyone else's process. Do I need a special GCP VPN client, or does the regular OpenVPN client work? The regular OpenVPN client works - GCP doesn't have its own client app for this. Install OpenVPN Connect on your device, import the .ovpn profile the server generates, and connect. There's nothing GCP-specific to install beyond the instance itself. ## Get Your OpenVPN Server Running on GCP Stop paying per seat just to give your team secure access. Deploy OpenVPN on Google Cloud in minutes, set up by people who actually run VPN infrastructure for a living. 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