What is the difference between relay nodes and direct nodes?

Relay (transit) nodes send traffic to a relay inside mainland China first, then forward it toward overseas destinations over dedicated or optimized backhaul. That path is often more predictable than raw public-internet crossings, which can mean better stability and higher peak performance for cross-border use. Building and operating relays costs more, so relay plans may differ from plain direct routes in pricing or lineup.

Direct nodes rely more on the public internet, connecting straight to overseas servers. Cross-border public paths may see packet loss, throttling, or intermittent blocking in some regions or hours. Even when a route works, speeds can plunge at busy times. If you are in mainland China and need reliability, relay lines are usually the safer choice.

5UF is among the few providers that can offer lawful mainland relay capacity alongside standard options. We also tune routing for selected sites and services. Example: some Hong Kong nodes may not work well with OpenAI ChatGPT over a plain path, but with relay and routing optimization, Hong Kong and similar regions can reach those AI services more reliably. If a specific AI site or service fails for you, contact support so we can prioritize routing fixes.

Available nodes depend on the app and the list on our site; plans differ in node types and counts. See your subscription details for what applies to you.