The Best VPN Alternative

Proven But Limited Business VPN Alternatives

Likely, those searching for the best VPN alternative will be frustrated because the results might not immediately make sense. So let’s start by explaining the best VPN alternatives for businesses since some people get a bit confused about whether or not they can apply to individuals.

See, businesses don’t use VPNs in the same way as you and I. Mainly they’re interested in securely tunneling in remote access for satellite offices and work-from-home employees. So they aren’t focused on visiting random sites on the Internet or downloading random files… they want to emulate sitting in the office and being on the local network.

The best VPN alternatives to accomplish this are Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). Both are great, having some pros and cons but superior to traditional VPN setups for most multi-campus businesses. And if you encounter something called Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), this is a tangent that also likely doesn’t apply to you.

All of these methods require specialized hardware and software, target specific internal and external resources (like public Cloud, edge networks, etc.), and don’t serve the same purpose as a home VPN. Don’t get me wrong: They’re great for what they do. But they won’t be a viable VPN alternative for individual users.

A lot of top search results will talk about SASE and SD-WAN with certain keywords. Don’t let this frustrate you. There are viable alternatives for you out there, they just require a bit more digging. Read on!

Proxy Servers And Smart DNS - Not Real Alternatives

Sometimes the solution to a problem is to simplify. Sadly, in the case of finding the best VPN alternative, this just doesn’t work.

Proxy servers are much simpler and more lightweight than a VPN setup. They can hide your IP address and make it look like your traffic is coming from another country, letting you access geo-restricted or censored content.

What’s the problem then? Proxy servers lack encryption. They aren’t really secure. In fact, one common scam is to set up a proxy server and scrape all of the traffic passing through it for personal information and authentication details.

Another issue is that proxies function on a protocol-by-protocol, application-by-application basis. They aren’t a great ‘blanket’ a solution that you put on your system and then just forget about.

Finally, proxy servers don’t block device or browser fingerprinting. They are lousy privacy tools. If anything, they expose your traffic to more third parties, for very little benefit.

Another alternative that gets thrown around is smart DNS. But in practice, this is even more limited than proxy servers: Smart DNS doesn’t hide your IP address, it doesn’t encrypt your data, and all it does is let you access geo-restricted content. Needless to say, it’s completely ineffective against device and web browser fingerprinting.

Peer-To-Peer Traffic Relay

Can you trust your neighbor? What if your neighbor was the one who handled encrypted messages for you? Is that safe? Is it private?

Peer-to-peer traffic relay programs bring up all of these questions and more. The general weakness of these is that there’s no way to stop whoever is running the overhead for these networks from collecting your personal information.

In fact, the most popular peer-to-peer relays don’t even pretend to protect your privacy. Here’s an example from Lantern’s terms of service, where they detail who they share user information:

‘With vendors, consultants, marketing partners, and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf.’

In essence, you trade the general advertisers tracking you on the Internet with advertisers specific to that service. You also agree to be logged. What exactly do peer-to-peer relays like Lantern collect? According to their ToS:

‘Device Information: We may collect information about your mobile device, including, for example, the hardware model, operating system and version, software and file names and versions, preferred language, unique device identifier, advertising identifiers, serial number, device motion information, and mobile network information.

Log Information: When you interact with the Services, we collect server logs, which may include information like device IP address, access dates and times, app features or pages viewed, app crashes and other system activity, type of browser, and the third-party site or service you were using before interacting with our Services.’

In short, peer-to-peer relays aren’t a privacy tool. They may be a useful utility in a pinch, but they aren’t stop you from being tracked. There are better options.

Tor And Other Open Multi-Node Relays

Most people know the Tor browser for its ability to access the Dark Web using the Onion protocol. The problem with this, of course, is that the vast majority of websites aren’t on the Dark Web. And using Onion routing can be incredibly slow.

But Tor does have clearnet relay technology. It works similarly, bouncing all traffic through the entry node, an intermediary, and an exit node. That way the node accepting your traffic has no direct knowledge of the node that makes requests on your behalf. This shields your real IP address provides a layer of encryption and allows you to get around most types of area-specific censorship.

The problem with open multi-node relays is that they’re slow. Networks like this simply don’t function without volunteer hardware and software, and often they aren’t exactly operating on top-of-the-line gear. Add in the relative uncertainty of bouncing your network traffic around geographically imprecise nodes, and you can understand the speed issues that you are likely to encounter.

But the other issue is that browser fingerprinting and user experience tracking are both still possible through Tor. There are some settings that can help obfuscate browser fingerprints, but they tend to break websites if cranked up to levels that actually matter.

Private Multi-Node Relays With Virtualization

So the next logical step would be to make those multi-node relays available on fast, private networks that don’t require volunteers. This would be the best of both worlds. One could make use of dedicated hardware in key data centers around the world while enjoying the security of an Onion-like node relay system.

But in order to prevent device and browser fingerprinting, the service would also need to provide uncorrelated tab-by-tab and app-by-app browser virtualization. So every time a new app or browser tab is opened, a remote virtual browser does the actual work and then injects the results back into the user’s system.

That provides a full abstraction layer. Browser and device fingerprinting would only happen on the virtual machine doing the browsing, and that could be randomized for every new session.

In Q2 of 2022, there’s only one app that does this: Hoody. It calls the technique ‘Phantom Browsing’.

Hoody’s fully encrypted Phantom Browsing (and future apps that adopt private multi-node relays with full virtualization) is the best VPN alternative. It hides your IP address and provides access to geo-restricted content, of course. Because it already multi-fires requests in order to evade censorship, it can also find the fastest route to grab website and app information, or download files. This means that the experience can be up to three times faster than alternatives. That’s the benefit of using an entirely private network when relaying your traffic.

It also gets rid of the major privacy weakness for VPNs and proxies: It eliminates the current generation of the user interface, browser, and device fingerprinting. Even things like exact browser size, click and hover timing, and operating system type is obscured. That sends advertisers, government snoops, and hackers back to the drawing board if they want to use device, browser, or UX fingerprinting methods.

With additional tools for Torrenting specific files and a no-log policy that includes never asking for your E-mail address or true name, it’s fairly easy to crown the Hoody app as the winner of this particular competition. Nothing else offers this combination of speed, privacy, and security.

Summing It All Up

There is a lot of jargon out there, and some of it only applies to business VPNs whose goals and resources are very different from home users. Hopefully, we’ve cleared all of that up.

As to the VPN alternatives available prior to 2022, they all failed in one way or another: None of them fully addressed device and browser fingerprinting, lack of speed was often a factor, and many of them were simply missing core features like encryption and no-log guarantees.

In 2022, Hoody is the clear winner across the board, and easily takes the title of Best VPN Alternative.