VPN and proxy services appear to do exactly the same thing from an outside perspective redirecting your web traffic to secure servers in order to hide your identity online. However, there are some significant differences between these two services to take into consideration when deciding which one is best for you.
The major difference between a VPN and a proxy is that the latter does not encrypt any data. This means that data sent through the proxy may be accessed and used by a threat actor to track your behaviour. A premium VPN service however employs high-quality encryption to ensure that data transmitted through its servers is unreadable by hackers.
VPNs safeguard users from malicious threats such as malware, phishing and other kinds of attacks. To stop these attacks from occurring it is essential that a premium VPN service will monitor and regularly update their systems. This is contrary to free proxies that often utilize outdated systems that are vulnerable to attacks of this kind.
VPNs are also more user-friendly. Download the VPN app and connect to the server of your choice. This is different from proxy services that require you to enter a specific IP address and port number into the application. Additionally, proxies tend to be flooded with traffic from other users, which could cause performance to be slowed. However, most premium VPNs address this issue by providing fast and stable connections.