Proxy vs VPN vs Tor: What's the Difference
Proxies (HTTP/SOCKS), VPNs, and Tor can all change your exit IP, but they work differently, offer different levels of anonymity, and are detected with different ease.
This site's risk score and IP type detection flag proxy / VPN / Tor exits, helping you understand whether an IP is "clean."
Proxy
Forwards only application-layer traffic (HTTP/SOCKS) and is flexible to configure; shared proxies are widely detected and carry high risk scores.
VPN
Builds an encrypted tunnel at the system level that applies to all traffic; commercial VPN ranges are often flagged as datacenter / VPN.
Tor
Multi-hop onion routing with the strongest anonymity, but its exit nodes are publicly listed and almost always blocked by fraud controls.
FAQ
- Which is least likely to be flagged?
- None beats a native residential IP. All three have exit IPs that are easily detected, and Tor exit nodes are almost always blocked.
- Can this site tell whether I'm using a proxy or a VPN?
- When risk sources are configured, it flags proxy / vpn / tor; otherwise it relies on signals like IP type and blocklist status to help judge.
Want to check a specific IP? Enter it on thehome pageto see its full details: location, IP type, risk score, blocklist status and more.
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