Unlike with Tor, a VPN encrypts all traffic on your operating system. Two examples of this are with NordVPN and Surfshark that offer double-VPN servers. However, like Tor, there are a few multi-hop VPN services, which can route traffic over 2-4 hops. Most VPN providers only route traffic through one hop. Here is an example of protocol selection with Surfshark VPN: Most VPNs allow you to easily select the ideal VPN protocol (and corresponding encryption cipher) directly in the VPN application. WireGuard is also entering the scene, which uses a ChaCha20 cipher. OpenVPN is the most common protocol, usually secured with an AES 256-bit cipher, which is universally considered very secure. VPN: Most VPNs secure traffic via OpenVPN or IPSec protocols with the connection also being encrypted with perfect forward secrecy.

You don’t have this problem with a good VPN. are exposing your traffic and real IP address to the unencrypted internet. This means that documents, torrent clients, updates, etc. This is a huge drawback in comparison to VPNs.īy only encrypting browser traffic, everything else on your operating system remains exposed and could reveal your real IP address and location to third parties. With Tor, encryption only works within the browser. A malicious exit relay could potentially see your data and modify traffic.īy default, traffic with Tor is routed through these three hops before exiting the Tor network circuit. Exit relay – The last relay in the circuit where your traffic exits onto the regular (unencrypted) internet.Guard relay – The first relay in the circuit, which can see your IP address.Traffic is passed through three relays, all of which are encrypted: Tor: Tor uses a layered system of encryption that incorporates perfect forward secrecy. Speed winner: VPN Encryption and security: VPN vs Tor VPNs easily wins the speed category and are much faster than Tor.

Streaming HD videos will also be challenging. This results in sluggish performance and websites being slower to load. Also notice above the latency is very high with the Tor network. With this speed comparison, the VPN was almost 50 times faster than Tor. Tor usually has high latency (ping) and slow speeds under 10 Mbps.

Tor vs vpn