As surveillance and a culture focused on public sharing of one’s life online become increasingly prevalent, so does the need to push back. Individuals and organizations concerned with maintaining their digital privacy can do so with VPNs and proxies, but which is better and why? Join us as we examine their differences, similarities, and use cases.
How Do VPNs and Proxies Work?
Since both tools alter how you connect to the internet, let’s briefly discuss the default connection before diving into the specifics. Apart from securing the hardware, authentication, and bandwidth needed for internet access, your internet service provider assigns a public internet protocol (IP) address to connecting devices. A web server you make requests from sees and can track your uniquely identifiable IP address by default. That means your ISP, anyone who might be monitoring your network, and advertisers who track your online movements via third-party cookies all know exactly which sites you visit.
Both VPNs and proxies anonymize your traffic by posing as intermediaries.
When you use a proxy, the website requests you make travel to a proxy server first. The server logs and passes them on to the requested site’s servers using its IP address. The website processes the request and sends its response to the proxy server, which relays it back to you. Only the proxy server knows your IP address, while the site you access sees the proxy’s address instead. Besides anonymizing your connection, IP masking lets you bypass bothersome geographical restrictions.
What about VPNs?
The core IP masking principle holds true for VPNs as well. However, there are two key differences. Proxies are limited to web traffic and applications specifically configured to use them. Meanwhile, VPNs encompass your entire internet connection and are beneficial for browsing the web, streaming shows, or gaming.
Most importantly, VPNs employ end-to-end encryption for extra security.
Using a proxy might increase privacy, but it does nothing to protect your traffic. Connecting through a vulnerable network like public Wi-Fi with an active proxy still leaves you vulnerable to monitoring and man-in-the-middle attacks. Conversely, a VPN’s encrypted tunnel scrambles any data you send or receive, making it unreadable to anyone who might intercept it. Your ISP and potential snoops see you’re connected to a VPN server; they can’t see your traffic.
Should You Use VPNs or Proxies?
Both privacy tools have merits, so it depends on your use case.
Proxy Use Cases
Several proxy types are frequently used in business and education. For example, reverse proxies filter and distribute incoming traffic, ensuring that external requests don’t reach internal networks directly and protecting them from DDoS attacks.
Marketing, R&D, and business intelligence departments depend on residential and rotating proxies. The former use real residential IP addresses, which lets marketers see how users in different countries experience their websites and combat ad fraud. The latter rotates IP addresses, which makes web scraping for sentiment analysis, price comparison, and trend prediction more viable. Parents and educational institutions use transparent proxies to provide a mostly unaltered online experience while disabling access to harmful and inappropriate websites.
VPN Use Cases
There are more VPN protocols than types, but a focus on security as well as privacy makes VPNs more universal.
Corporate VPNs are invaluable for protecting network security in today’s dynamic work landscape. On the one hand, they provide a secure means for remote employees to connect to company networks and exchange data from anywhere without compromising its integrity. On the other hand, their site-to-site variant allows for secure communication between two or more internal networks, e.g., between corporate HQ and a daughter office.
Furthermore, using both desktop and mobile VPN versions, individuals can protect themselves thoroughly. This way, they ensure safe and anonymous browsing, as well as access to geo-restricted content no matter which device they connect to internet with.
How to Choose a Good VPN or Proxy?
Reliable VPNs and proxies share many desirable features. Both should have high uptimes and impact connection speed as little as possible. They should be easy to use and have excellent global server coverage. You’ll also want a VPN or proxy with excellent reviews by real customers and responsive customer support. While free options exist for both, we strongly advise against them. Rather than enforce anonymity, many free VPNs and proxies sell your internet activity. Paid options have a reputation to uphold and are more trustworthy. Plus, you can frequently get subscriptions at sizable discounts.
As for specifics, make sure that the VPN provider you choose uses the best possible encryption algorithms and security protocols. It should also enforce a no-logs policy. The best proxy providers support a variety of proxy types, have generous data caps, and offer specific features that improve use cases like scraping.
Conclusion
VPNs and proxies are both invaluable tools for maintaining one’s privacy in a digital landscape that’s becoming increasingly hostile towards it. Now that you understand the specifics better, your ideal choice is within reach.