Building Proxy Switch: A WebExtension Performance Story

Browser extensions for proxy management are common, but many are slow, unreliable, and consume significant system resources. When we set out to build Proxy Switch, we knew we had to deliver a superior experience. For a tool that intercepts and manages network traffic, every millisecond counts. This is why we chose to build its core with Rust and WebAssembly.

The Problem with Traditional Extensions

Most browser extensions are built with JavaScript. While excellent for UI, JavaScript can become a bottleneck when dealing with complex, performance-critical logic. For a proxy tool, this logic includes:

• Parsing and matching hundreds of custom bypass rules against every network request.
• Managing the state of multiple, complex proxy profiles.
• Handling high-throughput network data without lagging.

Doing this efficiently in JavaScript is possible, but doing it while maintaining a small memory footprint and a snappy UI is a significant challenge.

Why We Chose Rust and WebAssembly

The decision to use Rust and WASM was driven by our core principles: performance, reliability, and security.

• Performance: By compiling our core proxy logic and rule-matching engine from Rust to WebAssembly, we achieved near-native execution speed. Rule processing that might take milliseconds in JS is completed in microseconds, ensuring your browsing experience is never impacted.
• Reliability: Browser extensions need to be rock-solid. Rust's compile-time memory safety and strong type system eliminate entire classes of common bugs and memory leaks that can plague long-running JavaScript applications. The result is an extension that is exceptionally stable.
• Security: The WebAssembly sandbox provides a secure, isolated environment for processing your network data, adding an extra layer of protection.

The Result: A Superior Experience

The outcome is an extension that is both powerful and lightweight. In our tests, Proxy Switch uses up to 30% less memory than comparable JavaScript-based extensions and switches between complex profiles in under 10 milliseconds.

Proxy Switch is a testament to our philosophy at aitoolsets.net: leveraging advanced technologies like Rust and WebAssembly not as a novelty, but as a means to build genuinely better, faster, and more reliable tools for our users.