Proxy vs. VPN: What’s the difference and which one should you use?

Around 4 in 10 Americans are concerned about their personal information being sold or stolen. If that includes you, and you’re weighing up VPNs and proxies as an internet privacy and security solution, there’s a clear winner: a VPN from a trusted brand.

Proxies may mask your IP address for basic privacy, but they lack the ironclad encryption, security protocols, and other advanced privacy features that make VPNs a far superior choice for protecting your data and masking your online activities.

What is a proxy?

A proxy is an internet server that handles internet requests on your behalf. By acting as a middleman, proxies hide your IP address behind their own, helping to hide your identity and location from websites and other third parties.

By spoofing your IP address to change your virtual location, proxies can also allow you to access certain sites or content that are geo-restricted or blocked on a particular network. Likewise, organizations often use proxies to optimize traffic management and enable remote access to certain resources.

Here are some of the main types of proxies, each serving distinct purposes for personal or organizational use:

• HTTP proxies: Route HTTP (web) traffic through an intermediary server, helping to filter content, or bypass regional restrictions.
• SOCKS5 proxies: Work with any type of traffic (HTTP, FTP, P2P) making it suitable for torrenting, online gaming, or applications that require versatile protocols.
• Transparent proxies: Redirect traffic without modifying data, so institutions often use them at the router level to filter content without hiding the user’s IP, and restrict access to certain content.

How do proxies work?

Proxy servers act as mediators between your device and the internet, forwarding requests for web content and returning responses from web servers.

Imagine a busy office where employees need to send and receive packages. Instead of each person going directly to the post office, there’s a dedicated mailroom in the building. In this analogy, the mailroom represents the proxy server, efficiently handling all communications between employees and the outside world (the internet).

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how proxies work:

1. Proxy connection: Your device establishes a connection to a proxy server.
2. Request sent: Your data request is sent to the proxy instead of directly to the website server.
3. Request forwarded by proxy: The proxy receives your request and sends an identical request to the intended web server.
4. Server response: The web server responds to the proxy, which receives the data.
5. Response forwarded by proxy: The proxy server routes the data back to your device.

By relaying data this way, proxies hide your IP address, which helps to hide your identity and web activities from some third parties.

What is a VPN?

A virtual private network (VPN) is a network privacy tool that encrypts your internet connection and routes your traffic through a secure server, hiding your IP address, search history, and other online activities — even on public Wi-Fi.

These core benefits of a VPN help anonymize your online behavior, hiding your online activities even from your ISP. VPNs also protect your data from man-in-the-middle attacks and other hacking techniques, as well as helping bypass content restrictions.

Top-quality VPN services like Norton VPN also include additional enhanced privacy and performance features such as kill switches, split tunneling, and no-log policies, to provide flexible yet watertight internet privacy. Get Norton VPN on all your favorite devices today so your online activity remains private, as it should.

How does a VPN work?

A VPN works by creating a secure, encrypted tunnel for your internet data. Unlike a proxy, which only hides your IP address, a VPN encrypts your data before it’s transmitted, helping secure and obscure everything you do online.

Here’s how a VPN works, step by step:

1. VPN connection: A VPN protocol establishes a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the VPN server.
2. Data encryption: All of your internet data is encrypted before it leaves your device, making it unreadable to anyone who tries to intercept it.
3. VPN server routing: The encrypted data travels to the VPN server where it’s decrypted before being forwarded to an internet server under a virtual IP address.
4. Data response: Data is returned to the VPN server from the internet server, and is encrypted.
5. Data decryption: The encrypted data is forwarded to your device, where it’s unscrambled by your VPN app.

The process might sound complex — and it is! But VPN services make it simple. All you need to do is open your VPN app, select a server location, and click connect. The VPN then works silently in the background, keeping your online activity private.

VPN vs. proxy: 5 key differences

The main difference between VPNs and proxies is the level of security and privacy they provide. VPNs encrypt all internet traffic, securing all the data you send and receive on your device, while proxies only mask your IP address for specific apps or websites. Below, we explore five key differences — security, speed, encryption, privacy policies, and cost.

1. Information security

VPNs provide powerful information security by encrypting all internet traffic, making it unreadable to unauthorized third parties. This helps ensure that sensitive data, like passwords or financial information, remains secure. And, unlike other information security tools like secure messaging apps, the best VPNs also offer added protections such as kill switches, which further enhance security.

Proxies simply mask your IP address by routing traffic through an intermediary server, leaving your data unencrypted and vulnerable to interception. Without additional robust security measures — such as using a secure DNS — proxies are unable to protect sensitive information, and shouldn’t be used for private online activities such as mobile banking.

2. Coverage

Proxies are usually configured for individual apps or browsers but don’t cover the rest of your device’s internet activity. This means internet data from other applications such as email clients, games, or messaging apps do not benefit from any of the limited privacy advantages offered by a proxy.

In contrast, VPNs deliver system-wide protection by encrypting all internet traffic across apps, browsers, and background services, ensuring no data leaves your device unprotected. VPN safety coverage also extends to supporting a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and even routers, offering seamless protection across your entire network.

3. Speed of connections

Both VPNs and proxies can slow down your internet connection by adding extra steps to the data transfer process. But because they don’t use encryption algorithms, proxies require less data than VPNs, which can make them quicker, especially for single-site browsing or streaming. The same also applies to your ping speed when gaming.

VPN speeds depend on several factors including the specific protocol being used, overall server load, and the user’s physical distance to the VPN server. But, in general, top-performing VPNs offer data transfer speeds that are imperceptibly slower than standard internet connections.

With an extensive global server network and a range of protocols to choose from — including the speed-optimized Wireguard protocol — Norton VPN ranks #1 for performance, with upload speeds nearly twice as fast as the average VPN.

4. Online privacy

Proxies offer basic online privacy by masking your IP address, making it harder to trace your location or identity. However, they don’t encrypt your internet traffic, leaving your online activities visible to your ISP and exposed to hackers, trackers, and other snoops.

VPNs, on the other hand, provide robust privacy protection by encrypting your entire internet connection. This not only helps stop anyone from monitoring your online activity but also makes it harder to trace your virtual IP back to your real IP. And, unlike proxies, no-log VPNs offer additional privacy safeguards against data breaches, and even law enforcement investigations.

5. Price

Most proxy servers are free to use. And, while there are also some free VPNs available, they often have limited features, weaker privacy and security, bandwidth caps, and fewer server locations. They may also log or even sell user data. A premium VPN service costs extra but offers much stronger privacy, security, reliability, and functionality compared to free or lower-tier VPNs or proxies.

VPN or proxy server: which should you choose?

When deciding between a VPN and a proxy, the data encryption and more robust security protocols of VPNs make them the superior choice for privacy and security. But a proxy server can still be a useful tool if all you want to do is use it to change your virtual location and access non-sensitive data.

Here’s an at-a-glance comparison to help you decide whether a VPN or proxy is right for you:

For some use cases, a proxy may be the better option for its simplicity, faster setup, and lighter resource usage. But any time you connect to the internet to share sensitive information, or if want to keep your activity private, you should use a VPN from a trusted provider for maximum protection.

Secure your internet connection with a VPN

Almost anything a proxy can do, a VPN can do better.

Whether you're browsing, streaming, or shopping, Norton VPN masks your IP address and encrypts your internet connection, keeping your data safer from hackers and trackers. Unlock ultimate internet privacy today, with a wide range of global server locations, kill-switch and split-tunneling features, and a strict no-logs policy.

FAQs

Do you need a proxy if you have a VPN?

No, you don’t need a proxy if you already have a VPN. On top of the many security and privacy benefits of using a VPN, your IP address is hidden from web servers, and you can customize your virtual IP address location. Connecting to a proxy on top of a VPN wouldn’t offer additional advantages, but it would likely cause reduced download speeds.

Are free VPNs safe?

Some free VPNs are safe to use, but they’re typically not as secure as paid options. Many free VPNs lack strong encryption, have weak security protocols, and collect and sell your data. For better privacy and security, faster connection speeds, and a full range of server options, use a premium VPN service from a trusted brand.

Is a free proxy safe?

Many free public proxies are not safe to use. These “free” services often monetize your activity by logging your browsing activity and injecting ads into your web traffic. It's better to use a reliable paid proxy service or — better yet — a VPN for truly secure and private browsing.

Is a proxy server illegal?

A proxy server itself is not illegal. It’s simply a tool that reroutes internet traffic, often used for bypassing geo-restrictions. However, using a proxy server to engage in illegal activities, such as accessing banned content or committing other cybercrimes, is against the law. Always ensure you’re using proxies within legal boundaries.

Is a VPN better than a proxy server?

Yes, a VPN is generally better than a proxy server. While both can mask your IP address, a VPN offers stronger security by encrypting all your internet traffic, protecting your data from hackers and surveillance. A proxy server, on the other hand, only reroutes specific traffic, leaving your connection vulnerable. For comprehensive privacy and security, a VPN is the best choice.