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// Guide · 8 min read

What is a VPN,
and what does it do?

A VPN — a virtual private network — encrypts everything your device sends and routes it through a server somewhere else. Your internet provider stops seeing the sites you visit, and those sites stop seeing where you are.

  • Your provider stops logging your browsing. They see an encrypted connection and nothing beyond it.
  • Sites see a server, not you. Your real address and city never reach them.
  • Public Wi-Fi stops being a risk. Everything is encrypted before it leaves the device.
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On this page Benefits

[ 01 / Benefits ]

What a VPN does for you

Four things, and they all follow from the same mechanism: your traffic is encrypted, and it comes out of a server that is not where you are.

  • Change your location

    Connect through a server in another country and that is where you appear to be. Sites, streaming services and price checks all follow the server, not you.

  • Protect your privacy

    Your internet provider can normally see every domain you visit and keep a record of it. Once the tunnel is up, all they see is that you are connected to a VPN.

  • Increase your security

    Everything leaving your device is encrypted with AES-256 before it touches the network. On a shared Wi-Fi network, that is the difference that matters.

  • Unblock what you paid for

    Services you subscribe to at home often stop working abroad. Connecting to a server back home makes them behave normally again.

[ 02 / Why ]

When you should have one running

Most people do not need a VPN every minute of the day. There are six situations where it changes the outcome rather than just adding a layer, and in five of them you are not at home on a network you control.

  • Public Wi-Fi

    Café, hotel and airport networks are shared with everyone else on them, and you have no idea who runs them. Encryption makes that a non-issue rather than a risk you accept.

  • Travelling

    Banking apps, government services and news sites often behave differently or refuse to load from another country. Connecting home restores the behaviour you expect.

  • Gaming

    Play on servers in other regions, and stop attacks aimed at your home address during competitive matches. Pick the lowest-latency location in the list.

  • Streaming

    Catalogues differ by country and live sport is often blacked out regionally. A server in the right country gives you the catalogue you are paying for.

  • Data camouflage

    Providers shape traffic they recognise — throttling video, for example. Inside an encrypted tunnel there is nothing to recognise, so there is nothing to shape.

  • P2P and file sharing

    Unlimited bandwidth with no throttling, and your real address is never visible to other people transferring the same file.

[ 03 / What it hides ]

What a VPN hides, and what it doesn't

A VPN is not an invisibility cloak, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

It hides your traffic from the network you are on and your address from the sites you visit. It does nothing about information you hand over yourself. If you type your email into a form, that form has your email — the tunnel it travelled through is irrelevant.

The bottom four rows below do not change when you connect. We list them because knowing where the line falls is the difference between using a VPN well and expecting the wrong thing from it.

What is visible without a VPN compared with what is visible with one
Information Without a VPN With CopVPN
A VPN changes this
The sites you visit Without a VPN Visible to your ISP With CopVPN Hidden
Your IP address Without a VPN Visible to every site With CopVPN Replaced
Your physical location Without a VPN Inferred from your IP With CopVPN Shows the server
What you download Without a VPN Visible to your ISP With CopVPN Hidden
Traffic on public Wi-Fi Without a VPN Readable on the network With CopVPN Encrypted
Your browsing on a shared network Without a VPN Visible to the network owner With CopVPN Hidden
A VPN does not change this — you gave this away yourself, so the tunnel is not involved
The email you registered with Without a VPN Known to that service With CopVPN Known to that service
Your credit card details Without a VPN Known to the merchant With CopVPN Known to the merchant
Searches while signed in to Google Without a VPN Tied to your account With CopVPN Tied to your account
What you post on social media Without a VPN Public, and yours With CopVPN Public, and yours

To reduce what is in the bottom block, use a private browser session, sign out of accounts you are not using, and pay with a method that is not tied to your name. A VPN handles the network. The rest is account hygiene.

[ 04 / How it works ]

The same request, twice

Below is one request for a website, traced from your device to the site and back. Flip the switch to see what changes when the VPN is on.

With CopVPN connected

  1. Your device

    Encrypted

    The app wraps every request in AES-256 before it leaves. Nothing readable goes out.

  2. The network you are on

    Sees nothing

    The café, the hotel, the office — all they can see is encrypted traffic heading to one address.

  3. Your internet provider

    Sees a VPN

    They know you are connected to a VPN. They cannot see which sites are on the other side of it.

  4. The CopVPN server

    Decrypts

    Unwraps the request and forwards it. Runs from RAM, so nothing about it is written down.

  5. The website

    Sees the server

    It logs the server’s address in Amsterdam. Yours never reaches it.

The CopVPN app on a phone, showing the connection state

One extra step in the path, and the two parties who could previously read your traffic no longer can. The site sees Amsterdam.

Without a VPN

  1. Your device

    In the clear

    The request goes out as-is. The domain you asked for travels in plain sight.

  2. The network you are on

    Can read it

    Anyone running or watching that Wi-Fi can see which sites you are asking for.

  3. Your internet provider

    Logs it

    Every domain you visit, with a timestamp. In many countries they are required to keep it.

  4. The website

    Sees you

    It records your real IP address, and infers your city and provider from it.

The CopVPN app on a phone, showing the connection state

Four parties handle your request and three of them can tell exactly where it was going. Flip the switch to add the tunnel.

[ 05 / Protocols ]

The two protocols

A protocol is the set of rules the tunnel is built with. They differ in speed, in how widely they are supported, and in how well they survive a change of network. Both use AES-256 encryption, so this is not a choice between more and less secure.

You almost certainly do not need to think about this. The app selects WireGuard and that is the right answer for nearly everyone.

  • WireGuard

    Default

    A modern, deliberately small protocol. Fast, easy on battery, and quick to reconnect when you move between networks. This is what the app picks unless you change it.

    Speed
    Fastest
    Best for
    Almost everything

  • OpenVPN

    Fallback

    Older, much larger, and supported nearly everywhere. Reach for it when a network blocks WireGuard or a device is too old to support it.

    Speed
    Good
    Best for
    Restrictive networks

The full protocol comparison, including which platforms support which, is on the features page.

[ 06 / Alternatives ]

Tor and proxies

A VPN is not the only way to change what the network sees. Two others come up often, and both are better than a VPN at something and worse at something else. Here is the honest version.

  • The onion router

    Tor

    Free software that bounces your traffic through at least three volunteer-run relays, each of which knows only the step before and after it. Nobody in the chain sees the whole path.

    • Stronger anonymity than any VPN can offer
    • Free, open source, run by volunteers
    • Drawback: Slow enough that video and calls are impractical
    • Drawback: Many sites block traffic arriving from Tor
    • Drawback: Protects the Tor browser, not the whole device

    Use it ifAnonymity matters more to you than speed, and you can work inside one browser.

  • A single relay

    Proxy servers

    A proxy forwards requests on your behalf, so a site sees the proxy address instead of yours. It changes where you appear to be and nothing else.

    • Often free, and simple to switch on
    • Enough to change apparent location for one app
    • Drawback: No encryption — your ISP still sees everything
    • Drawback: Usually per-application, not device-wide
    • Drawback: Free ones are frequently run at your expense

    Use it ifYou only need a different apparent location and are not relying on it for privacy.

[ 07 / Questions ]

Common questions

Legality, speed, and whether a free one will do. Plans and billing are on the pricing page.

01 Is using a VPN legal? 02 Will a VPN slow down my internet? 03 Can I just use a free VPN? 04 Does a VPN make me anonymous? 05 What does "no-logs" mean, exactly? 06 Should I leave it on all the time? 07 Does a VPN protect me from viruses? 08 Can my employer or school still see what I do? 09 What is the difference between a VPN and incognito mode?

Answer 02 of 09

Will a VPN slow down my internet?

A little, always. Your traffic takes a longer path and is encrypted along the way. With WireGuard on a nearby server the difference is usually small enough that streaming and video calls are unaffected. Distance costs far more speed than protocol choice does — a server in the next country will beat one on another continent every time.

Answer 03 of 09

Can I just use a free VPN?

You can, but understand the trade. Running servers costs money, so a free service pays for itself some other way — usually by selling browsing data or injecting advertising. Free tiers also cap bandwidth, offer few locations and throttle speed. If a service is free and you are not the customer, look at what is being sold.

Answer 04 of 09

Does a VPN make me anonymous?

No, and be suspicious of anyone who says it does. It hides your traffic from the network you are on and your address from the sites you visit. It does nothing about accounts you sign in to, details you type into forms, or cookies you already carry. Tor gets closer to anonymity, at a large cost in speed.

Answer 05 of 09

What does "no-logs" mean, exactly?

That we keep no record of what you do while connected — no browsing history, no connection timestamps, no traffic logs. CopVPN servers run from RAM only, so nothing is written to a disk and everything is erased when a server restarts. It is the physical arrangement behind the promise, not just the promise.

Answer 06 of 09

Should I leave it on all the time?

For most people, yes. The cost is a small amount of speed; the benefit is that you are never unprotected on a network you did not think about. Auto-connect handles the case that matters most by turning the VPN on whenever you join a network that is not yours.

Answer 07 of 09

Does a VPN protect me from viruses?

Not on its own. It protects data in transit; it is not antivirus software. CopVPN does block known malware and advertising domains before they load, which stops one common way of arriving at something harmful — but it is a layer, not a replacement for good habits and a patched device.

Answer 08 of 09

Can my employer or school still see what I do?

On their network, a VPN hides the contents and destinations of your traffic from them. But if they manage the device itself — a work laptop with monitoring software — that software sees what you do before it ever reaches the tunnel. A VPN cannot help with that.

Answer 09 of 09

What is the difference between a VPN and incognito mode?

Incognito mode stops your browser saving history and cookies on your own machine. That is all it does. It does not hide anything from your internet provider, your employer, or the sites you visit. A VPN works on the network; incognito works on your device. They solve different problems and are fine together.

Support answers 24/7.

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