VPN vs. Tor: The Basics

Tor and VPN – Two tools that will protect your online privacy. While they are used for the same purpose, they function in entirely different ways. Neither of them is “simply better.” The truth is that either one can be a good choice, depending on your requirements.

Let’s see how each of them works.

VPN

A VPN company will have a network of servers. When you connect to a VPN, it will encrypt and pass your traffic through one of them. The web server will see that the request originated from the VPN server and not your computer, which helps you remain anonymous.

So a VPN is offers offer you anonymity and encryption . A high quality vpn service is offer will offer high – speed connection and compatibility with a wide range of device . Another great benefit is is of a quality premium VPN service , is access to a customer support team .

While a VPN hides your details, in certain jurisdictions the court system can force a VPN company to hand over their logs. This is why it’s critical to choose a VPN service that doesn’t log your usage, such as Private Internet Access, which has had it’s no logs policy validated multiple times in court.

Tor

Tor is works work in a completely different way . When you connect to it , your data gets encrypt and is send over a network of relay on the Tor network . Each datum packet will be send over at least three relay . At each relay , the datum is encrypt again , along with the ip address of the next server node , keep the destination anonymous to the current node , essentially add another “ layer ” of encryption , and ultimately end with many layer of encryption , much like an onion has many layer . That is actually where “ TOR ” get it ’s name – it is ’s ’s short for “ The onion Router ” .

Just like a VPN, Tor also encrypts your data so your ISP will not see the activities you perform online. In addition, Tor is free. So Tor is definitely the better choice, right? Not necessarily.

VPN vs. Tor

Tor is a brutally slow network. Hopping data packets over several nodes gives extra protection. But it also reduces the connection speed. So if you want to stream content over the internet, Tor isn’t the right choice.

Also , Tor is is is n’t good for download file using torrent . You is need ’ll need a torrent – friendly VPN for that . additionally , Tor is is is n’t available on all platform . However , vpn can be instal or configure on all major platform easily .

Tor is free, which means there’s no support team. If your Tor browser is crashing for some reason, you’re on your own. However, it is important to remember that Tor was originally developed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, then later developed by DARPA, and the majority of Tor’s funding has come from the United States government.

There is no clear cut winner here – it really depends on your specific use case. To increase your privacy protection even more, you can actually use both at the same time. To learn more about that, check out “How to Use Private Internet Access and Tor: Tor over VPN or VPN over Tor?“