Forget About Travel Routers and VPNs – Use Your Raspberry Pi as a VPN Router and Get Unbreakable VPN Connectivity with Speedify!
A Raspberry Pi VPN router is one small box in your bag that gives all your devices private, faster internet. A Raspberry Pi running Speedify can be that router.
Speedify is an app that combines Wi-Fi, 4G/5G cellular, Ethernet, Starlink and satellite internet connections into one faster, more reliable connection, and encrypts your traffic like a VPN. On a Raspberry Pi, Speedify merges whatever is available, such as a public Wi-Fi, a phone’s 4G/5G cellular and wired Ethernet, and the Pi shares the result with your laptop and phone. The speed and failover gains need two or more internet connections; with only one, the Pi works as an encrypted VPN router and can be a little slower.
Speedify runs on every device you already use
The build below comes in two parts, combining the internet connections and turning the Pi into a router, leaving you with travel internet that is private, faster, and does not die when the Wi-Fi connection does. Travel is one of several ways to use a Raspberry Pi router.
Raspberry Pi VPN Router Step 1: Combine Internet Connections
Two internet connections are better than one, and more is better still. The point is not switching between them, but using them simultaneously, so the current session stays up. A combined connection helps whenever you need a stable and fast Internet connection, for example for live streaming, online gaming, traveling, day trading, or reporting from the field.
Speedify does this by combining internet connections, a form of link aggregation: using multiple Internet connections simultaneously to increase throughput beyond what a single connection can sustain. Combining connections also makes the connection reliable: if one of the connections should go bad or disconnect, the combined Internet connection stays online over the others.
To combine 2 or more Internet connections on your Raspberry Pi with Speedify for Linux:
- Get a paid Speedify plan, because Speedify for Linux has no free tier: the Individual plan is $89.99 a year, as low as $4.99 a month on a 3-year plan, or $14.99 monthly. Speedify runs on Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or later, and the Raspberry Pi 5, 4 B and 3B+ are tested.
- Install and configure Speedify on Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS: follow the instructions in the Speedify knowledge base.
- Add the internet connections you want to combine. Follow the instructions in the Speedify knowledge base.
Raspberry Pi VPN Router Step 2: Share the Combined Connection
With the connections combined, you can turn the Raspberry Pi into a VPN router for travel or for home. Speedify for Linux includes scripts to share the combined, encrypted connection over Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
- To share the connection over Wi-Fi, set up the Pi as a hotspot: follow the instructions in the Speedify knowledge base. More videos are on the Speedify YouTube channel.
- To share the connection over Ethernet instead, as a wired VPN router, see the steps here.
What Speedify Adds to a Raspberry Pi VPN Router
Unlike a plain VPN script, Speedify gives a Raspberry Pi VPN router 2 features at once:
- the ability to combine 2 or more connections together, splitting traffic across them, with failover when one drops
- secure and private online traffic through VPN-grade encryption.
You get the functions of a regular Raspberry Pi VPN router and more: a travel router that accepts Wi-Fi, 4G/5G cellular and Ethernet connections and handles combining them and setting usage rules, such as a priority and a data cap for each connection.
A Speedify subscription also covers your other devices: the Individual plan runs on up to 5 devices at once, on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
If you would rather not build one, Speedify also runs on routers: OpenWrt 23.05 or later, GL.iNet firmware on listed models, and Powered by Speedify routers such as the Miri X510. A router needs a Speedify Router License.
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Speedify combines Wi-Fi, 4G/5G cellular, Ethernet, Starlink and satellite into one faster, more reliable internet connection. Free to try: 5 GB a month with a free account. No credit card required.
🚀 Speed
Faster uploads and downloads, because Speedify uses all your internet connections at once.
📶 Stability
If one internet connection drops, Speedify moves your traffic to the others in milliseconds.
🔒 Security
AES-256 encryption on every internet connection, on any network you join.
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