Why WireGuard? An Explainer in Simple Terms

Imagine you have a secret message that you want to send to your friend who lives far away. You want to make sure that nobody else can read this secret message, and you also want it to arrive quickly and safely. WireGuard is the magical, invisible envelope that you can put your message in to keep it secret and protected while it travels to your friend's house.

Once the message is placed into the envelope, WireGuard uses a spell called encryption to scramble it up. If anyone tries to peek inside the envelope while it's on its way to your friend, all they would see is a bunch of random letters and numbers.

Now, to make sure that your secret message gets to your friend quickly and safely, WireGuard also has a special way of sending it. Instead of using the regular roads that everyone else uses, WireGuard creates a secret, invisible tunnel that goes directly from your house to your friend's house. This tunnel is like a super-fast highway that only you and your friend can use, and it makes sure that your message gets to your friend in no time at all.

When your friend receives the magical WireGuard envelope, they can easily open it and read your secret message. That's because they have the secret spell to unscramble the message, turning it back into something they can understand. You gave your friend the spell, and they also gave you a spell which can open their messages.

So that’s WireGuard, but there are plenty of other options to send secret messages. There’s OpenVPN, Tinc, and SrongSwan, to name a few. So why would you choose WireGuard, what makes it so special?

Here's why WireGuard is better than those “Older Ways:”

Simplicity: WireGuard a simple little envelope. You put in your message, send it, and open it with a spell. Anyone can learn to use it! Even your friend who never learned magic. The Older Ways, by contrast, can be quite complicated. They have a long series of incantations you must utter, and you have to create your own envelope, which takes time and can be quite confusing. This often leads to mistakes and other problems.

Speed: WireGuard’s invisible tunnel is like the hyperloop, with no wind resistance and magnetic levitation. It was designed using all the latest and greatest technology to transmit messages at maximum speed. The Older Ways are like old-school locomotives. They chug along reliably, but they take their time, using technology from long ago.

Security: There are many nefarious people out there who have found ways to counter many spells. They have learned to unscramble many messages and capture envelopes. Luckily, WireGuard is built using state-of-the art spell and materials, making it much more secure than the Older Ways.

Lightweight: WireGuard’s envelope weighs almost nothing. This means you can send many messages without being weighed down, and leaving your hands free for other activities. The Older Ways put messages into bulky boxes. They take up lots of space, and require more work to send.

To sum it up, WireGuard is a better option for sending your secret messages because it's simpler, faster, more secure, and lightweight. It's like upgrading from old, bulky packages to  sleek, modern envelopes.