No, while both are tunnels for transporting data, a VPN is an encrypted connection that hides your sensitive information. Additionally, a VPN grants you access without requiring a specific key each time you want to make a connection, while port forwarding requires you to enter the credentials to enter the port. It’s important to keep your data encrypted when sharing via a method like port forwarding. This allows you to protect your local and public-facing IP addresses, so hackers don’t label you as an easy target.