VPN vs Proxy Server Explained

When you want to increase your privacy and stop being tracked by the sites you access to avoid certain restrictions, you will often hear that you should use a VPN. But you should know that a rising alternative is available that has many advantages that a VPN lacks – proxies. You can see more and more controversy between a VPN and a so-called proxy server. Multiple points of view can be invoked to highlight the supremacy of one or the other.

Different comparisons are not blameless for establishing some sort of misconceptions that are often used to make the point on behalf of the advocated side. We will try to dispel these misconceptions and determine the differences between proxies and VPNs and what all the buzz is about.

What do they do?

The first thing to clear everything up is to comprehend the basic idea of how these servers work.

VPN is a Virtual Private Network. It is an intermediary server that allows you to access the internet without exposing your identity. It uses a different IP address that covers all the users of a VPN. It also enables accessing restricted content that is only available to users of this private network.

Proxy is also an intermediary server that works in the same fashion. The difference is that it uses much more IP addresses to cover its clients and grant them their privacy.

Both servers work by changing your IP address and using their own so that anyone who receives your requests online will see only the server’s IP address but not your original one. If your IP was blocked, now you can bypass that block.

It also means that if your new IP address provided by the server indicates a location in a different country, you can circumvent geo-restrictions on the content online.

Safety concerns

One of the key questions that are being disputed here is about the safety and which one provides a better service to grant one. The answer to these questions depends on what you need.

It is often claimed that proxies don’t use HTTPS encryption and leave their clients open to any data leaks or external threats. That would make VPNs an overwhelmingly better alternative.

But that is not the case. There are free-of-charge proxy services that, in most cases, should be avoided because they are usually not safe. When you buy the service from a trusted brand, you receive a high-quality product that is completely safe.

Of course, VPN has the edge over most proxies in terms of encryption because it encrypts all your data. Including your background that is routed through its servers necessarily.

On the other hand, SSL proxies are a type of proxy server that provides full SSL encryption that has no drawbacks and can serve equally well as far as encryption is concerned.

However, if your safety needs are primarily based on avoiding surveillance and bypassing IP bans, the story goes even further from thinking a VPN has an advantage here.

One IP address versus multiple IPs

As mentioned before, a proxy server uses multiple IP addresses to cover all the users. When you use a VPN that allows you to connect to the internet with a different IP address, you are left all alone again once it gets blocked. In other words, it provides only one security layer in terms of avoiding blocks.

The proxy server does not have this issue. Multiple IP addresses allow you to change from one to another at the same moment you get blocked. Therefore, you bypass all the blocks despite new attempts to block you again.

It also means that you will:

• Stop any kind of surveillance based on your IP address,
• Make IP bans irrelevant to you,
• Enable yourself to imitate multiple internet users.

All these advantages will help you become virtually impossible to be blocked. Proxies can rotate your IP addresses so that your different requests will resemble distinct users. That will stop tracking your IP because there will be no such thing as your IP any longer. Different requests can be traced, but no link between them can be found.

Suppose you need to access certain geo-restricted content. In that case, you will also win with proxies because you will be able to indicate many more locations on your IP and bypass different blocks in different countries to either access content meant only for the users of a specific country or to access something that is blocked only for the users from a particular country.

Different usability

Probably an essential difference between a VPN and a proxy server is in their applicability.

Since VPN encrypts all your data and allows internal resources to be shared for the users of this network only, it is better applied for communication and sharing data inside the company where not too many users are accessing the network.

But if you plan to go outside your safe network and want to scrape the web, snoop around your competitors, use automation software for data mining, or buy items in big volumes, a VPN will not be helpful for you.

Any of the listed activities will require you to completely mask your identity and make it untraceable, with an ability to avoid IP bans and bypass them when you get blocked.

With different IPs, you will be able to do that. However, if you have only one IP provided by a VPN, your VPN will be blocked, and your work will have to end there. Not to mention, your co-users of a VPN can get blocked, too, thus compromising your access since you are sharing the same IP of a VPN with other users of that network.

Final thoughts

The bottom line is that VPNs and proxy servers serve the same purpose: to hide your identity but on a different scale. That makes a VPN more beneficial for the internal work in a company and a proxy for any kind of external extensive business activity online.