Difference between a Proxy and a VPN?

While both of these technologies will keep you anonymous by hiding your IP address, they work in slightly different ways. A torrent proxy only filters your Bittorrent traffic, so it is not a fully anonymous connection tool. An anonymous VPN will protect your entire Internet connection, disguising your use of everything from utorrent to email to basic web browsing by establishing a virtual network via our servers to reroute all your traffic.

Proxy – Think of a proxy server as a filter. You have control over proxy settings, which only affect your torrent client (utorrent, bittorrent, vuze, ect) or program that supports socks5 proxies. When you download and seed torrents or browsing the web, all your torrent traffic is routed via the anonymous proxy server and directly to you. This means that peers in the torrent swarm will not see your IP address, but rather the IP address of  proxy server. When using a torrent proxy, you get all the benefits of torrenting and the proxy server, including security, speed, geographic location, and an anonymous IP.

Anonymous VPN – Unlike a torrent proxy, which only secures your torrent client, VPN (Virtual Private Network) encrypted tunneling encrypts 100% all your internet access, effectively replacing your local ISP routing for all applications. With a fully anonymous proxy VPN server, you will enjoy enhanced security, and speed regardless of geographic location. This protects not only your torrent downloads but also all other online activity on programs such as your web browser, email, and any other third party applications that connect to the web. You’ll also get faster connections and military grade encryption when using a VPN . And your VPN can easily be connected or disconnected with just one mouse click.

An anonymous proxy for torrenting protects your torrent traffic only; whereas a VPN will work with all internet based services and applications routing everything through a secure connection to disguise your personal information and keep you secure.

Anonymous Torrent Proxy vs Anonymous VPN – Service Comparison

Proxy

Anonymous VPN

Encryption
Encrypted SSH tunnel
256-bit

Supported Systems
Windows, Mac,, Linux
Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

Compatibility
Bittorrent, utorrent, vuze, deluge, bitcomet
Works for all torrent clients/Web browsers

Security
Tunnels torrent client traffic ONLY
Full Protection: Torrent Traffic, Web Browsing, Email, Third Party Program

Speed
Fast speeds because of lower security.
Offers highest performance with security. Reliable on high-latency connections.

Setup
Easy to set up because it is already built-in to your torrent client. (utorrent. bittorrent)
Easy to set up with software.

Stability
Stable, performs well on any network.
Provides the best stability and reliability. Performs well behind wireless routers, on Wi-Fi hotspots and on networks with poor reliability.

Conclusion
A Torrent Proxy is easy to set up and provides fast speeds. It is a good choice if you only want to protect yourself downloading torrents.
A VPN provides the best performance and highest security for torrents and web browsing. We recommend PPTP or OpenVPN for desktop computers including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux