# OpenZiti vs VPN for geo-restricted sites

**URL:** <https://openziti.discourse.group/t/openziti-vs-vpn-for-geo-restricted-sites/2193>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [March 4, 2024, 12:21am UTC](https://openziti.discourse.group/t/openziti-vs-vpn-for-geo-restricted-sites/2193 "2024-03-04T00:21:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![heartcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@heartcoder](https://openziti.discourse.group/u/heartcoder)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 12:21am UTC](https://openziti.discourse.group/t/openziti-vs-vpn-for-geo-restricted-sites/2193/1 "2024-03-04T00:21:31Z")

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Hi everyone, I would like your advice getting this point out of the way before diving deeply into OpenZiti docs.

With VPN, I can access Geo-blocked sites like GitLab and Atlassian production because the VPN will change my IP location to its location.  
Will OpenZiti cover this point for clients as VPN replacement?

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**Author:** ![TheLumberjack](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/openziti.discourse.group/thelumberjack/32/113_2.png) [@TheLumberjack](https://openziti.discourse.group/u/TheLumberjack)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 12:29am UTC](https://openziti.discourse.group/t/openziti-vs-vpn-for-geo-restricted-sites/2193/2 "2024-03-04T00:29:07Z")

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Hi @heartcoder, welcome to the community and to OpenZiti.

With OpenZiti you can choose the node or nodes that "host" ("bind" in OpenZiti service policy parlance) a given service. If you configure your overlay to have traffic exit outbound from those nodes to the target service, the origin IP of the traffic will be whatever node the traffic exits from. This is true for any network, your home network, or a vpc from Amazon, etc.

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**Author:** ![heartcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ec9cab/32.png) [@heartcoder](https://openziti.discourse.group/u/heartcoder)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://openziti.discourse.group/t/openziti-vs-vpn-for-geo-restricted-sites/2193/3 "2024-03-04T00:47:35Z")

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thank you for the super fast reply.  
then I will charge into the docs and get into it.

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**Author:** ![michael.quigley](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/openziti.discourse.group/michael.quigley/32/1123_2.png) [@michael.quigley](https://openziti.discourse.group/u/michael.quigley)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2024, 2:07am UTC](https://openziti.discourse.group/t/openziti-vs-vpn-for-geo-restricted-sites/2193/4 "2024-03-06T02:07:55Z")

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You might be interested in taking a look at `zrok`... an open-source product we offer built on top of OpenZiti.

Ironically, I've just released a video demonstrating exactly the functionality you're looking for:

[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/netfoundry/original/2X/1/175bd69ffd2028a175870cd027fcb665ce3bef0e.jpeg "zrok Office Hours: socks Backend") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0dcQGjgQMM)