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Cloak vs Shadowsocks: catalog facts
Cloak	Shadowsocks
Free Free and open source under the GPL-3.0 licence.	Free Free and open source; you supply your own server.
Self-hosted, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Self-hosted
Server is hard to tell apart from a normal web server, even under active probing Works in front of OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, Tor and other TCP or UDP proxies	Lightweight with low CPU and bandwidth use Clients and servers for most platforms, including routers
Not a standalone proxy; needs a separate proxy program behind it Requires running and configuring your own server	A proxy rather than a full VPN Split across many separate implementations of varying quality
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Downloadable app, Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.