WireGuard vs VLESS: Understanding the Difference

When it comes to VPNs, many people imagine something unified and universal. But in reality, this abbreviation covers a whole zoo of technologies: WireGuard, VLESS, IPsec, OpenVPN, L2TP, DMVPN, SOCKS, and dozens of other protocols for encrypting and proxying traffic. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of networking technologies that allow bypassing restrictions.

Today, the Keysray team will break down two fundamentally different approaches to circumventing blocks: the classic VPN protocol WireGuard and the proxy protocol VLESS. At first glance, they share the same goal — delivering your traffic to the desired resource while bypassing blocking systems. But their working methods are radically different.

A Bit of Theory: Where Protocols Live

The entire internet is built on the seven-layer OSI model — you can google the details if you're interested. What's important for us to understand is this: WireGuard and VLESS operate on completely different levels of this model.

WireGuard: Working Directly with IP Packets

WireGuard functions at the transport and network layers (L3/L4). This means the protocol interacts directly with IP packets — the basic units of data transmission on the internet.

Let's break it down with an example. When you check server availability with the command ping 8.8.8.8, you're sending and receiving IP packets. Each such packet has a structure:

[IP Header] → [TCP/UDP Header] → [Data]

• IP Header contains sender and receiver addresses
• TCP/UDP Header specifies source and destination ports
• Data is the actual payload

When you connect through WireGuard, the packet structure changes:

[IP Header] → [UDP Header] → [WG Header] → [Encrypted Data]

Here's what's happening:

• In the IP Header, the destination address now points to your WireGuard server
• UDP Header typically contains port 51820 (WireGuard's standard port, though it can be changed)
• WG Header stores information about the handshake — the server handshake and key exchange
• Encrypted Data — your original traffic in protected form

Important note: WireGuard always uses the UDP protocol, which unlike TCP doesn't require confirmation of each packet's delivery. This makes the connection faster but less reliable with poor connection quality.

When analyzing traffic (for example, by DPI systems), only the WireGuard wrapper will be visible, not the content of the transmitted data.

VLESS: Masquerading at the Application Layer

VLESS works completely differently — at the seventh, application layer (L7). Instead of creating a separate tunnel, this protocol uses the masquerading principle: your traffic pretends to be a regular HTTPS connection to a legitimate website.

A regular HTTPS request looks like this:

[TCP Header] → [TLS Header] → [Data]

With VLESS, an intermediate layer is added:

[TCP Header] → [TLS Header] → [VLESS] → [Data]

The trick is that VLESS works on top of an already established TCP connection and TLS encryption. To an outside observer, it looks like a regular HTTPS connection to some Google or other popular service. But in reality, the traffic is being redirected to a blocked resource.

Why WireGuard Gets Blocked While VLESS Still Holds Up

Recently, there's been increasing news about WireGuard and other classic VPN protocols being blocked, while VLESS continues to work. What's the reason?

WireGuard and similar protocols add their unique headers to packets. Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) systems easily recognize these markers and block such traffic. It's like wearing a t-shirt that says "I'm using a VPN" — you can't stay unnoticed.

VLESS has no obvious signature of its own and passes as regular HTTPS traffic, which makes up the lion's share of modern internet traffic. Blocking all HTTPS would essentially mean shutting down the internet.

But it's not all smooth sailing here either. Regulators are gradually learning to distinguish legitimate HTTPS from proxy traffic. Remember the Cloudflare blocking incident, when access was cut off to numerous sites using this CDN platform with TLS encryption. This shows that filtering methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Conclusion: Choosing between WireGuard and VLESS is a choice between speed and stealth. WireGuard is faster and simpler to set up but easier to detect. VLESS is more complex to deploy but better camouflaged as regular traffic. With intensifying blocks, it's useful to have both tools in your arsenal.