All three hide your IP address from the sites you visit, but they do it differently and protect against different things. The right one depends on whom you are trying to hide from.
At a glance
| VPN | Proxy | Tor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hides your IP from websites | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Encrypts your traffic | Yes, whole device | Usually no | Yes, within Tor |
| Hides activity from your ISP | Yes (it sees only the VPN) | Only if the proxy is encrypted | Yes (it sees Tor use) |
| Who you must trust | The VPN company | The proxy operator | Spread across volunteer relays |
| Speed | Fast | Fast | Slow |
| Covers | All apps | Only configured apps | Tor Browser (or Tor-routed apps) |
| Typical cost | Paid | Free or paid | Free |
VPN
A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel from your device to a VPN server, and everything leaves from that server. It protects you on public Wi-Fi, hides your activity from your ISP and changes your apparent location. The catch: the VPN company can see your traffic, so you are trusting its no-logs claims. Independent audits and a record of court cases that showed it had nothing to hand over are the best evidence.
Proxy
A proxy relays requests for a single app or browser. It is good for changing location quickly or for scraping jobs, but it normally does not encrypt traffic, and free proxies are frequently abused to inject ads or harvest data. Do not use a proxy for anything sensitive.
Tor
Tor sends traffic through three volunteer relays with layered encryption, so no one relay knows both the sender and destination. It offers the strongest protection against identification, but speeds are low, some sites block exit nodes, and you must use Tor Browser correctly (no logging in to personal accounts and no extra extensions) or you can defeat the point. Tor does not encrypt traffic from the exit relay to the website unless the site uses HTTPS.
Which should you choose?
- Everyday privacy, public Wi-Fi, streaming: a reputable VPN.
- Maximum anonymity, such as for journalists or at-risk users: Tor Browser, on its own.
- Quick location change for one app: a proxy, accepting its limits.
Whichever you pick, verify it. Check your address on the home page and run the DNS and WebRTC leak tests, since any of the three can leak. None of them stops browser fingerprinting, except Tor Browser, which is built to resist it.