A web proxy is a website that allows you to open other sites through your domain. Web proxies have a number of drawbacks, making it more rational to use a VPN instead. VPN vs proxy is not an easy choice but in this article we will help you make your decision.
All web proxy servers have a common feature: a special field where you write the URL that you want to open anonymously. For example, if you want to open google.com anonymously, you must first open a proxy website (we recommend using the best free sites available), type the address of the destination site in the form, and click the “Go” button.
Why use web proxies?
Since the receiving domain does not register your real IP address, but that of a web proxy, you can visit as many websites as you like through this means, but do not close the browser tab where you run the proxy and open everything there. Therefore, a web proxy allows you to “force” your own IP address for the duration of your Internet session.
Because all web proxies are free for all sites. It is not too expensive to run such a service and it has many drawbacks which we will cover later. For this reason, it is very rare to find a paid web proxy.
The selection of web proxies is huge across all national domains. Some work faster, others not so fast; some have ads, some don’t; so there is a wide variety to choose from.
Disadvantages of web proxy servers
However, most of the users of web proxies have negative comments about them. This is due to a number of reasons:
– Proxies are very slow: a ping takes an average of 250 ms, while a VPN gives you a maximum of 25 ms.
– Web proxies force you to see ads twice: on the proxy site itself and on the destination site you open through the proxy. And you may be forced to watch very sensitive and even adult ads.
– The owners of web proxy servers are unknown and no one can guarantee that your data remains yours after browsing the web through a proxy server.
– Web proxies are very unstable. You can easily lose your connection, and even the site itself can quickly disappear overnight.
– Most proxy servers have limits on the number of megabytes you can download and upload. For example, you will have difficulty uploading your photo album to cloud storage through a proxy due to the 1 Mb per file limit. You won’t even watch YouTube – online videos just don’t run through proxy servers due to high load.
– Cannot use data encryption in web proxy.
– You cannot replace your IP. The proxy will force its IP to you.
– Many secure web proxy servers are blocked in some countries.
Comparison of VPN and proxy
VPN uses encryption to protect your traffic in a different way than proxy servers. A VPN service helps hide your browsing data from your ISP and hackers, especially when using public Wi-Fi.
Proxies should never be used to transfer sensitive data. You cannot trust your security to those who provide free proxies. You don’t know what they use the data they collect on your traffic for.
Good VPNs often cost money, but you can use the free trial if you need to save money.
What should you choose instead of web proxies?
Use a VPN. As you can see now, in this proxy server vs vpn competition, vpn is a real winner.
Whoer.net VPN is free from all the above mentioned drawbacks of a web proxy: works fast, doesn’t slow down, has no ads, works stable, offers IP addresses from different countries, encrypts all traffic in both directions, doesn’t record your actions.
You can also use VPN and proxy together if you need multiple IPs of free proxies,