What Is Split Tunneling VPN? Discover Why It’s Essential for Privacy and Performance

A VPN is an indispensable tool for online privacy and security, but it’s not needed for everything. For some local services, like transferring funds, you might even have to disconnect your VPN. To get rid of this endless loop of connecting and disconnecting your VPN, software engineers have come up with a solution called split tunneling. Let’s find out how this feature can declutter your online experience. Here are the main benefits of split tunneling:

1. Allowing you to always keep protection on without limiting your access to local services.
2. Giving you seamless access to company files and facilitating homeworking.
3. Saving data and bandwidth, and enhancing your overall transfer speed.
4. Allowing you simultaneous access to local and geo-blocked content.
5. Optimizing your speed for streaming and gaming.

What Is Split Tunneling VPN?

Split tunneling is a feature in VPN apps that allows you to direct the internet traffic on your device to two routes. One route goes to the VPN server, and the other goes directly to your ISP.

The first route is encrypted and has a different IP address than your real IP, and the second route isn’t encrypted, and therefore it’s faster, yet unprotected. In other words, the traffic in the second route bypasses the VPN app.

Various Split Tunneling Methods

You can divide the internet traffic into 2 routes in 4 different ways.

1. App-based: Only traffic from the selected apps bypasses the VPN.
2. URL-based: Only the selected URLs bypass the VPN.
3. Route-based / policy-based: A network administrator creates routes or policies and defines rules as to which routes go to the VPN server and which go to the ISP.

App-based tunneling is the most common method used by popular VPN providers, such as ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and NordVPN. These VPN clients allow you to list some apps and decide whether they go to the VPN server or the ISP.

Normally, the selected apps bypass the VPN client. However, in inverse tunneling, only the traffic from selected apps is encrypted and transferred to the VPN server.

How Split Tunneling Works

Let’s get away from the virtual world and make a real-life analogy. Imagine a police officer standing at a crossroads. You are the police officer’s boss, and you’ve told him that Road A is private and only certain cars can pass it, and all other cars must go to Road B, which is for the public. That’s how split tunneling works.

Road B gets you directly to your ISP out in the open, but Road B leads you to a tunnel with thick walls that do not let through even particles of light. This road is the VPN road, and thanks to the safety measures (encryption), you can’t drive as fast as you do on the ISP road (where there’s no encryption).

The cars in our analogy are data packets from different apps that you’ve listed in your VPN app to either go through the tunnel (VPN) or the public road.

Split Tunneling vs. Full Tunneling: Which to Choose?

Full tunneling means all the internet traffic on your device is encrypted and transferred directly to the VPN server. Split tunneling means only the internet traffic from the selected apps is encrypted.

Full tunneling is recommended for times when you’re dealing with sensitive data, or the device you’re working with contains sensitive files and documents. In these cases, not only do you have to use full tunneling, but you also have to enable the Kill Switch feature, so that if the VPN connection drops, your privacy doesn’t get compromised.

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Split tunneling is ideal for users who need simultaneous access to local websites and apps. For instance, for WhatsApp users in the UAE, split tunneling is bliss. They can select WhatsApp in the split tunneling settings page, and any other app for which they need a VPN. Now, they have access to both local and geo-blocked websites or services.

On a related note:

Best VPN for WhatsApp Calling in the UAE

How to Set Up and Configure Split Tunneling

Configuring split tunnel settings is a straightforward process. You simply hover over the related item on the settings page and list the apps that you want to encrypt via the VPN client. You can also find inverse tunneling, which only encrypts the traffic of the selected apps. Just be very careful not to confuse tunneling with inverse tunneling.

Benefits of Split Tunneling for Ease of Access

When you connect to a VPN server, some speed loss is only normal because of (1) the encryption and the fact that (2) your data passes one extra checkpoint (the VPN server) before it gets to the internet.

However, not everything needs VPN protection. In some instances, a VPN can actually disrupt your access. For instance, when you want to log in to your bank account using the app or the web version, your bank’s security system doesn’t let you in if you’re using a VPN. That’s because the VPN changes your IP to that of the VPN server in a third location, and your bank doesn’t recognize that.

In short, split tunneling allows you to have the best of both worlds. If you’re located in a region where access to some social networks, apps, databases, streaming platforms, websites, and other online content is restricted, you can use split tunneling to access the content without disrupting your access to local services.