We've reached out to the individual vendors to confirm their Chrome extensions function as proxies. We confirmed all the services listed here (with one exception) only encrypt browser traffic. For more on the topic, you can read our explainer, VPNs vs. But it's not a VPN and shouldn't be mistaken for one.

If you're only concerned about unblocking online content or adding additional privacy to your web browsing, a proxy is fine. Rerouting your traffic can also unblock some websites and sometimes let you access streaming content from other countries.Īll the other web traffic generated by your machine-from apps, the OS itself, everything-travels as usual. This keeps your ISP from seeing what you're up to (and they can see a lot) and makes you harder to track online by hiding your IP address. In the case of a Chrome extension, only the browser traffic is encrypted and routed. While a VPN uses a VPN protocol to encrypt all the traffic coming off your device and route it through a VPN server, a proxy can only encrypt and route the traffic from one app at a time. It's more likely it's an encrypted proxy. With exceedingly rare exceptions, a Chrome browser extension from a VPN service is not actually a VPN. Most Chrome Browser VPNs (Probably) Aren't VPNs Not all these extensions are as powerful as their sibling apps, however, and almost none of them work the same as true VPNs-they function differently and only protect your browser's traffic. Most VPN services provide apps for just about every platform, and many provide extensions for Google's Chrome browser. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions.

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