Shadowsocks is a free and open-source encryption protocol project, widely used in mainland China to circumvent Internet censorship. It was created in 2012 by a Chinese programmer named "clowwindy", and multiple implementations of the protocol have been made available.

Since we recently implemented this protocol into our windows and android applications, in this article we will shortly cover what Shadowsocks protocol is and where it should be used.

Shadowsocks is an encrypted proxy that was developed to be free, open-source and mainly used by Chinese people to bypass the Great Firewall restrictions. While using it covers your browser traffic, it is almost impossible to be detected and block it. Since internet censorship is increasing every year, Shadowsocks is getting more viable every day.

Shadowsocks should be used as a last resort when the connection using OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPsec cannot be established. No matter if that is a restricted network like school or restricted network country like China. That is because it covers only your browser traffic while using it on our applications. Nonetheless, if unlocking content is the only use for you, Shadowsocks will do just fine!

Shadowsocks as a protocol, which is a proxy, is only capable of redirecting your traffic. Hence to unblock internet content will be its only capability. In perspective, VPN can do a lot more, so if content is the only reason for you to use our services, Shadowsocks could be your choice!