Hashing vs Encryption: Exploring the Key Differences

June 12, 2025 By Janne Smith No Comments 7 minutes

With loads of data saved online, the risks of losing it are endless. Your personal details, financial records, business data, and others are stored online. Without adequate data protection, your data is always on the brink of theft.

This is where hashing and encryption play their role. Both aim to protect data from black hats. However, they’re often simultaneously used for data protection. But the hashing vs encryption differences are quite distinct.

Note: FastestVPN features a military-grade, AES 256-bit encryption for unmatched network security online. Connecting to the VPN server encrypts your network traffic when browsing the web.

What Is Hashing?

Hashing converts your data into a fixed-length value via a hash function. For instance, hashing converts your password into a hashed value, which is challenging to decipher for any individual.

Unlike encryption, hashing is difficult to decode because it’s a one-way process. For example, if a business plans to protect its data, it’ll implement hashing algorithms. This ensures that the hashed data is private even if there’s a potential data breach. Hashing is widely used to:

• Protect passwords
• Verify the file integrity
• Ensure no data changes

For example, if you’ve to send a file to your friend, you’ll first generate a hash value based on the file’s contents. You’ll then send the file and its hash value to your friend. Once received, your friend will use the hash function to calculate the hash value from the received file. If the calculated value is the same, the file is safe to open.

How Hashing Works

Here’s a breakdown of how hashing works. Start with any data, for example, a hello or an entire document. The data is processed with a hash function, like SHA-256. It runs a complex series of calculations. As an output, you see a unique string of characters representing your original input. No matter how large the input is, the hash value will be the same length.

What Are the Common Hashing Algorithms

The same hashing algorithm won’t work for every situation. Here are the common ones:

1. MD5

This is the oldest and most commonly used hashing algorithm. It produces a 128-bit hash volume, which you’ll see as a 32-character hexadecimal number. It was designed for fast processing and simple checksum tasks, such as verifying file integrity. However, it is now considered outdated and not recommended for security-related purposes.

2. Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)

SHA was developed by the U.S. NSA as the successor of MD5. It generates a 160-bit hash value, i.e., 40 characters in hexadecimal. However, advances in computing power and cryptographic research revealed SHA’s vulnerabilities. As a result, SHA-2 and SHA-3 stepped in.

3. Bcrypt

Bycrypt includes a salt, i.e., a random string added to the password before hashing. This prevents hackers from using precomputed tables to crack the hashes. Brcrypt is intentionally slow to take more time and computing power to calculate each hash. It automatically adjusts its computational difficulty over time to stay strong against advancing tech.

What Is Encryption

Data encryption scrambles data and ciphers it into gibberish that only an intended recipient can decrypt. Unlike hashing, it’s a two-way process; data is encrypted and, the recipient decrypts it.

Hashing is primarily for data protection, whereas encryption protocols encrypt online network traffic as well. For example, when you connect to FastestVPN, all your online browsing activities are encrypted via a military-grade AES 256-encryption protocol.

How Encryption Works

Encryption is the process of converting readable data (plaintext) into an unreadable format (ciphertext), which only authorized people can read. For example, you send a secret message to someone, and you don’t want anyone else to read it. So, you scramble the message, and only the recipient has the key to decipher the message and read it.

There are 4 key components of encryption:

• Plaintext: The original readable data, like a message, file, or password.
• Encryption Algorithm: A set of mathematical functions to convert plaintext into ciphertext.
• Key: A secret value that encrypts and decrypts data.
• Ciphertext: Scrambled texts that look like letters and numbers. It’s useless without the decryption key.

What Are the Common Encryption Algorithms?

Encryption algorithms are the techniques that turn data into unreadable code. These are the common algorithms used to protect sensitive information:

1. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

AES is the most widely used encryption algorithm. It supports key lengths of:

• 128 bits
• 192 bits
• 256 bits

AES is used in messaging apps supporting file encryption, governments, and VPNs, like FastestVPN.

2. DES (Data Encryption Standard)

DES is among the earliest encryption algorithms. It uses a 56-bit key, which is now considered too short and vulnerable to modern attacks. Due to this, DES isn’t a recommended encryption algorithm for secure apps.

3. 3DES (Triple DES)

3DES is an enhanced version of DES that addresses the vulnerabilities of the previous algorithm. It’s the same as DES, but it applies the algorithm thrice. It’s slower, and now various modern systems are replacing AES with 3DES for enhanced security.

4. Blowfish

Blowfish is an efficient and flexible encryption algorithm that leverages variable-length keys. It is often used in software apps. However, it’s considered outdated, and various other algorithms stand as its successors.

5. ChaCha20

ChaCha is a newer algorithm designed to be secure and efficient, even on low-powered devices, such as mobile phones. It’s used in modern protocols, like TLS. Various experts call it an alternative to AES in some cases.

Hashing vs Encryption: Exploring the Differences

Hashing and encryption are for data protection. However, both work and protect data in different ways. Here are the key differences between hashing vs encryption:

Is Hashing Safer Than Encryption?

Neither is winning. Both aim to protect data in different ways. However, the use can be different. While data encryption protects data by converting plain text into ciphertext, hashing features a key with a fixed value.

When to Use Hashing vs Encryption

Hashing is safer when you need to store passwords, verify changes in files, or when you don’t need to retrieve the original data. For example, websites hash passwords before storing them. Even the site itself doesn’t know your actual password. This makes hashing safer because the data is one-way and it can’t be reversed.

Encryption is safer when you need to protect sensitive information, like emails, files, and other data, while having the ability to decrypt the original content. Plus, confidentiality is the priority. For example, WhatsApp features end-to-end encryption to keep your conversations private.

For hashing vs encryption, the former isn’t safer because it’s useful for certain tasks. Both have their own strengths. And, some systems use both hashing and encryption, depending on the use.

Final Note

While hashing works as a lock to your door only, encryption conceals everyone who comes and goes through your gate. Both are safe to use. However, finding out which one is the best depends on your requirements.