# shadowsocks vs. VPN

## shadowsocks

An open-sourced socks5-based proxy. It focuses on circumventing traffic restrictions (e.g. gorvernment censorship).

* The packages in Shadowsocks are unencrypted
* It works with multiple TCP connections to have faster speeds
* It doesn't send all the traffic through a server
* It is very difficult to detect and block as it masking the traffic to make it appear as HTTPS

## Virtual Private Network (VPN)

* It is designed for privacy and anonymity.
* VPN encrypts all network traffic as long as it is enabled.

## References

* [shadowsocks](https://github.com/shadowsocks)
* [shadowsocks vs. VPNs — Everything You Need to Know | vpnMentor](https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/shadowsocks-vs-vpns-everything-need-know/)