Home/Blog/VPN or proxies? What online sellers actually need
If you sell online, you probably log into more accounts in a day than most people do in a week, often from a café or a train station. Many sellers already pay for proxies for their tools and assume that covers their privacy as well. It does not, and the reason is simple once you see what each one is for.
A proxy is a setting inside an application. You give your software a proxy address, and only that software's traffic goes through it. Sellers use them for automation and monitoring tools, usually buying them from a quality residential proxy provider and assigning them per task.
A VPN works at the level of the whole device. When it is connected, everything your laptop or phone sends, including your browser, email, banking app and chat, goes through an encrypted tunnel to the VPN server before it reaches the wider internet.
That gives a simple rule: your VPN is for you, and your proxies are for your tools.
Both directions of mixing them up cause trouble. If you send your tools through a VPN, they all share one exit address you have little control over. If you route your personal browsing through a proxy pool, your own logins come from addresses that change and that you do not own, which can trigger security checks on your own accounts. Keep the two apart.
Your tools may be well set up, but your own devices are what reach the things that matter: your email inbox, payout accounts, marketplace logins and customer messages.
Public and shared Wi-Fi. Cafés, hotels, airports and co-working spaces all run networks that you do not control. Most sites use HTTPS now, but the network can still see which services you connect to and when, and a badly run hotspot is a poor place to sign into anything that holds money. A VPN encrypts the whole connection between your device and the VPN server, so the local network sees one tunnel and nothing else.
Travelling for work or sourcing. Sellers travel to trade shows, sourcing trips and collection runs, and spend days on unfamiliar networks. A VPN keeps your traffic encrypted on every one of them and lets you access your own subscriptions while travelling.
Your home broadband. Your internet provider can see the domains your devices connect to. A VPN moves your traffic into an encrypted tunnel, so your provider sees a connection to the VPN and not the list of services behind it.
Networks that restrict VPNs. Some workplaces, hotels and networks abroad block standard VPN traffic. A VPN that offers more than one tunnel protocol, including one designed for restrictive networks, keeps you protected when the usual protocol is not allowed.
A VPN protects the connection. It does not protect a reused password. Most account takeovers start with a leaked or guessed password, so the basics matter more than any single tool.
Use a strong, unique password for every account, kept in a password manager. Turn on two factor authentication for email, marketplaces, payment and payout accounts, using an authenticator app where you can. Keep one account per real identity you control, with your own accurate details, and follow each platform's terms, including any limits on purchases or selling. Keep software and apps up to date on every device you sell from.
Your email account matters most, because it is how every other password gets reset. Protect it first.
What the provider keeps. Read the privacy policy, not the headline. Look for a clear statement that the provider keeps no activity logs, meaning no record of the sites you visit or what you do online, and check who the company is and where it is based.
A modern protocol. WireGuard is fast, well studied and light on battery, which matters if your phone is on all day. A second protocol designed for networks that block standard VPN traffic keeps you protected in more places.
A kill switch. If the tunnel drops, your device should stop sending traffic until it reconnects, so nothing slips out unprotected.
Enough devices and honest pricing. Count your laptop, phone, tablet and anything else you sign in from. You should be able to see the price, the device limit and what you get on the pricing page, with no surprises at checkout.
ROOT VPN is a UK VPN run by ROOT VPN LTD. We built it for people who want a straightforward, honest service, and it covers the checklist above.
No activity logs: we do not record the sites you visit or what you do online. WireGuard is the default, one of 4 tunnel protocols, which include REALITY for restrictive networks. The kill switch is built in on Windows and on by default. P2P friendly exits and Tor over VPN are there if you need them.
Free costs £0 with no card and covers 1 device, with unlimited data and the fastest automatic location. Plus is £3.99 a month or £39.99 a year and covers 5 devices, with every location, city choice and streaming mode. Pro is £8.99 a month or £89.99 a year and covers 10 devices, with everything in Plus and priority routes.
Free lets you try ROOT VPN on one device first. Plus covers 5 devices, which is enough for most sellers. Pro suits small teams or anyone with a lot of hardware.
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