There are several ways to hide your IP address from the websites you visit, and they are not interchangeable. Each method makes a different trade-off between privacy, speed, cost, and convenience. This guide walks through the five approaches that actually work, so you can pick the right one for your situation.

Quick Comparison

1. VPN — The Default Recommendation for Most People

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) routes your entire device’s traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a server in another location. Every site you visit sees the VPN’s IP, not yours. Your ISP sees encrypted traffic going to one VPN server, not the actual websites.

Why most people should start here: it’s fast, encrypted, works for everything (browsers, apps, games, streaming), and the good ones cost less than a coffee a month.

What to look for:

• Audited no-logs policy (independent third-party audit, not marketing copy)
• Kill switch and DNS leak protection built in
• Servers in countries that matter to you (for streaming, for example)
• Based outside surveillance alliances if you care about that

What to avoid: free VPNs. Running a VPN service costs real money. If the user isn’t paying, the traffic is the product — many free VPNs have been caught selling browsing data or injecting ads.

2. Tor Browser — Maximum Anonymity, With Trade-offs

Tor routes your traffic through three random volunteer-run nodes around the world, encrypted between each hop. The exit node sees the request but not where it came from; the entry node sees you but not where you’re going.

For anyone needing serious anonymity (journalists, activists, sensitive research), Tor is the strongest practical option, and it’s free.

The downsides are real:

• Slow — typically 1-5 Mbps because traffic goes through three random hops
• Many sites break — banks, streaming services, and Cloudflare-protected sites often block or challenge Tor users
• Doesn’t hide that you use Tor — your ISP can see you’re connecting to the Tor network, even if not what you’re doing on it
• Bad fit for streaming, gaming, large downloads

Good for: occasional sensitive browsing. Bad for: daily replacement of normal internet use.

3. Web or SOCKS Proxy — Lightweight But Limited

A proxy forwards your traffic through another server, so the destination sees the proxy’s IP. Unlike VPNs, proxies usually only handle one app or browser tab, and most don’t encrypt your traffic — your ISP still sees what you’re doing.

Free public proxies (the kind you find on “proxy list” sites) are almost always:

• Slow and unreliable (random people host them, often without permission)
• Logged or worse — sometimes set up specifically to harvest credentials
• Already blocked by serious sites

Paid SOCKS5 proxies from reputable providers are a legitimate option for specific use cases (one app needs a different region, you want to test a site as if from another country) but rarely the right choice for general privacy.

4. Mobile Hotspot — A Different IP, Same Cost as Your Data Plan

Tethering your computer to your phone’s mobile data gives you a different public IP than your home WiFi — your carrier’s IP, not your ISP’s. It’s instantly useful for:

• Bypassing IP-based bans from your home network
• Testing how a site looks for mobile users
• Quick privacy when you don’t want home browsing tied to home IP

But your carrier sees everything, and depending on the country, mobile data can be logged just as thoroughly as home internet. It hides your IP from the website, not from your carrier.

5. Public WiFi — Free, But Don’t Trust It

A coffee shop, library, or airport WiFi gives you a different IP — the venue’s IP. The website sees that, not yours.

The serious problem: you’re trusting whoever runs the WiFi to handle your traffic honestly. Most public WiFi is poorly secured, and even with HTTPS protecting your data in transit, a malicious operator can:

• See every domain you visit
• Run captive portal pages that pretend to be login screens
• Redirect HTTP traffic to malicious pages

If you use public WiFi to hide your IP, layer a VPN on top. The VPN protects you from the WiFi operator, and the WiFi gives you an IP you wouldn’t have at home.

What to Pick

• Daily use, normal browsing: Reputable paid VPN.
• Sensitive research, journalism, dissent: Tor Browser.
• One specific site or app needs a different country: Paid SOCKS5 proxy in that country.
• You need a different IP for an hour: Mobile hotspot.
• You’re at a cafe and need privacy: VPN over the cafe WiFi.

Verify your choice actually works by checking your IP on MyIPInfo before and after — if the IP didn’t change, neither did your privacy.