VPN vs. Proxies: What's the Difference?

What is a VPN?

A Virtual Private Network, commonly referred to as a VPN, is a tool designed to establish a secure and encrypted connection between your device and the internet.

That's it. Despite what many VPN providers like to tell you, VPNs are not privacy tools.

Sure, there is a certain level of privacy that comes from using a VPN, since they hide your IP address. But they are not a dedicated privacy tool, nor do they make you anonymous online. VPNs have been over-blowing their privacy for years.

Now we've got that off our chest, let's continue!

How do VPNs work?

VPNs work by routing your internet traffic through a server located in a remote location, effectively hiding your IP address and making it seem as though you are browsing from the location of the server.

To explain the process, let's break down the key components of a VPN:

1. Encryption: VPNs use encryption protocols to scramble your internet traffic, making it indecipherable to prying eyes. This ensures that your data remains secure and private.
2. IP Masking: Your real IP address is concealed when using a VPN, and you are assigned the IP address of the VPN server.
3. Tunneling: VPNs establish a secure tunnel between your device and the server, preventing any potential eavesdropping on your internet activities.
4. Location Spoofing: By choosing a server location, you can appear as if you are browsing from a different country.
5. Security Protocols: Various security protocols, such as OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP, are used to ensure data integrity and confidentiality.

What is a Proxy?

A proxy server is an intermediary server that acts as a gateway between your device and the internet. When you connect to a website using a proxy, your requests are first sent to the proxy server, which then forwards them to the target website. They hide your IP address in the same way, but again, just like VPNs, a proxy is not a privacy tool.

There are different types of proxies each serving different purposes.

HTTP Proxy: Also known as web proxies, HTTP proxies primarily handle web traffic. They are designed to process HTTP requests and responses. They are often employed to bypass content restrictions and access blocked websites. You would likely use this type of proxy to unblock social media sites at work or a school.

SOCKS Proxy: SOCKS (Socket Secure) proxies are more versatile than HTTP proxies. They can handle various types of internet traffic, including TCP and UDP connections. This makes them suitable for a broader range of applications. SOCKS proxies are often used for tasks like online gaming, file sharing, and accessing services that require non-HTTP protocols.

Transparent Proxy: Transparent proxies are intermediaries that do not require client configuration. They operate at the network level and transparently intercept and redirect traffic without the client's knowledge. These proxies are often used by ISPs and businesses to enforce web usage policies, filter content, and optimize network traffic.

How does a proxy work?

As we mentioned already, proxies work by acting as intermediaries between clients and destination servers.

Here's a basic rundown of how proxies do what they do:

1. Client Sends a Request: When you want to access a website or a service on the internet, your request is sent to the proxy server instead of directly to the destination server.
2. Proxy Evaluates the Request: The proxy server receives your request and evaluates it. Depending on the type of proxy and its configuration, it can perform various tasks, such as content filtering, access control, or traffic optimization. The proxy can also determine whether to allow or deny your request based on predefined rules.
3. Connection to Destination Server: Once the proxy approves your request, it acts as a middleman by establishing a connection to the destination server on your behalf. The destination server is the server hosting the website or service you want to access.
4. Request Forwarding: The proxy forwards your original request to the destination server. To the destination server, it appears as if the request is coming from the proxy server, not from your device.
5. Response from Destination Server: The destination server processes your request and sends a response back to the proxy server. This response contains the requested content or data.
6. Proxy Receives and Filters Data: The proxy server receives the response from the destination server and can apply additional filtering, caching, or other processing as configured. For example, it can cache web pages to speed up subsequent requests or filter out certain types of content.
7. Client Receives Data: Finally, the proxy server forwards the response from the destination server to your device. From your perspective, it appears as if the response is coming directly from the proxy server, which acts as an intermediary between you and the destination server.

Similarities and Differences

To make a comparison, let's look at how VPNs and proxies match up or differ in the areas of security, privacy, and speed. We'll also take a look at how they compare when it comes to streaming and bypassing geolocation restrictions.

Security

VPNs are designed to provide a secure and encrypted tunnel for your internet traffic. VPNs do offer protection against man-in-the-middle attacks and packet sniffers at the ISP level. Proxies, on the other hand, tend to lack robust encryption by default.

The encryption of a VPN safeguards your data from potential eavesdropping, making it a better choice for transmitting sensitive information, such as personal data or financial transactions.

Privacy

VPNs mask your IP address and encrypt your traffic which does add a layer of privacy to your browsing experience. However, VPNs do not make you completely anonymous, and the level of privacy offered will depend on the provider, its privacy, and logging policies. More on this below.

Proxies can hide your IP address too, but without the encryption, they can't offer the same level of data protection as VPNs.

Now, back to what VPNs can see and log.

VPN providers can see the name you signed up with, your IP address, billing details, and even your browsing history. Although many will claim to have a zero-log policy, this is very rarely the case in reality. VPN providers have been known to fake audits.

And should that VPN provider or their servers be located in a country with strict surveillance or data retention laws, then everything you do or send over the internet and your identity could be handed over to law enforcement.

It's also worth pointing out that neither VPNs nor proxies are capable of protecting you from the most invasive tracking on the internet, browser fingerprinting. So, no matter what you use, websites will still be able to track and make a profile for you.

If you want to avoid browser fingerprinting, then you'll need a dedicated privacy tool such as Hoody.

Speed

Using the internet with either a VPN or a proxy can result in a certain amount of lag since they are rerouting your requests via a remote server. But, proxies don't have the encryption protocols to deal with which can make them the faster option, at least for smaller data packets.

That said, how slow or fast a VPN or proxy is will depend on how many people are using the same server.

Free proxies or free VPNs tend to attract a lot of traffic, which can considerably slow connection speed. You can get around this by paying for premium service.

Less traffic means less lag.

Streaming content and bypassing geolocation restrictions

Both VPNs and proxies can mask your real IP address and replace it with their server IP address. This allows you to appear as if you're accessing content from a different region and bypass geolocation restrictions.

Many of the popular streaming sites such as Netflix have ways of detecting the use of VPNs and proxies and if they do, they will block the content.

Image source: screenshot from Netflix

The other issue is the latency.

Although the lack of encryption on proxies can lead to faster connections, the download speed largely depends on the quality and capacity of the proxy server you're using.

VPNs can lag due to the encryption processes happening, but premium services with optimized servers can provide a better streaming experience with minimal buffering.

Which one offers the better browsing solution?

Determining whether VPNs or proxies are better depends on your specific needs and priorities. Both technologies serve distinct purposes, and what may give a better browsing experience for one individual may not be the same for another.

VPNs are generally the more secure option but if you're not transmitting sensitive data and speed is of the essence, then a proxy might suffice.

If privacy is your number one priority then VPNs do have the added benefit of the encryption to keep whatever you send private, but they are not a dedicated privacy tool.

If your online privacy is of huge importance and you want an anonymous browsing experience, then a dedicated privacy tool will be the best option.

For example, Hoody has released its Bulletproof Proxy which combines the best of both worlds.

Unlike traditional SOCKS5 proxies, Hoody Proxies are custom-made for unmatched speeds and enhanced privacy through multi-hop on every request and best-in-class encryption.

Plus, unlike VPNs, Hoody servers run entirely disk-less on RAM so there is technically no way to keep logs of user activity.

With Hoody Proxies you don't need to choose between privacy and speed!

Read more here: Where are VPNs Banned or Restricted & What to Use Instead.