Best Proxy Servers

How We Evaluated the Best Proxy Services

Our in-depth evaluation process consists of two parts. During the first phase, we look at different types of proxies. The second phase is reserved for exploring the core features of proxy servers.

Types of Proxy Servers

The most common types of proxies are HTTP, SSL, SOCKS, and web proxy servers.

HTTP Proxy Servers

HTTP proxy servers use a remote server to retrieve data that matches clients’ requests, as they can interpret network traffic. Meanwhile, this type of proxy server doesn’t go through an encrypted connection. This allows the server owner to modify received data, which is why finding the best proxy service is essential.

While some modifications to users’ requests are nothing more than annoying, featuring pop-up ads, others can include malware content.

SSL (HTTPS) Proxy Servers

SSL proxies work in the same way as HTTP proxy servers but come with SSL protection, thus being a more secure option.

SOCKS Proxy Servers

SOCKS proxy servers have a broader scope of uses compared to HTTP proxies. Additionally, they are more secure, but unlike HTTP proxies, SOCKS proxies don’t interpret network traffic.

Web Proxy Servers

Our list of the best proxies features mainly web proxies and for several reasons. These types of proxies are easy to use and don’t require any software downloads. Security-wise, they use either HTTP or HTTPS connections, with the latter scoring additional points in our rankings.

Anonymity Levels

One of the primary purposes of proxy servers is to ensure online anonymity. Based on their selection, users’ internet visibility varies. Here we have transparent, anonymous, and elite proxies.

Transparent Proxies

These are usually used for their caching capabilities. They will use a different IP address to hide your real one, but unlike with the top proxy servers, your IP address will be visible in your request's header tag.

Anonymous Proxies

Anonymous proxies offer a decent level of anonymity. They will not reveal your real IP address when attaching headers to a specific request.

Elite Proxies

The highest level of anonymity comes with elite proxies. Not only do these proxies hide your IP address, but the servers you want to access don’t know you’re using a proxy either.

Proxy vs. VPN Servers

Both proxies and VPNs help users hide their IP address. The best proxy server providers can help you browse the internet anonymously, but their encryption capabilities stretch out to a single web page or app. Meanwhile, VPNs encrypt all your network traffic.

On the other hand, a good proxy server is often faster than VPN services. Still, due to the data encryption of VPNs, they are considered a more reliable and secure option. No wonder many proxy providers often offer VPN services in addition to free and paid proxies.

Essential Features of the Best Proxy Server Service

Here are the key features we look for in proxy services.

Reputation

In the proxy world, reputation is everything. That is even more true for free proxy servers, since why would anyone offer something for free? Reputable proxy providers want to ensure internet freedom and user privacy. They usually rely on ads and donations to financially support the services they offer.

In our search for the best proxy, we looked at the companies’ social media profiles, and feedback on user-review sites. We also tested their services to see if they work.

Ease of Use

One of our criteria for finding good proxies is their ease of use, as no matter how good the service is, if it's too complicated, users won’t be able to explore all of its potential.

Proxy Server Locations

Another essential feature we look for in proxy services is a server location. The best proxies typically give users a vast selection of server locations to choose from. One of the reasons why variety is so important is that the closer a server is to the user’s location, the faster the connection will be.

Data-Logging Policy

How long does a proxy service provider keep your data logs? The shorter this period is, the better. The best option is if the proxy has a no-log policy.

Proxy server sites manage to offer a no-log policy by registering their companies in countries with lax or no data retention laws.

URL & Page Encryption

The best proxy service supports the option of encrypting a requested website URL or even an entire page. The encrypted URL is not shown in plain text, helping protect your privacy. When it comes to pages, proxies encrypt a page before sending it to bypass various web filters. Once the page returns, they decrypt it.

Disabling Scripts & Objects

Another standard option is to disable scripts and objects. Scripts often decrease page load times and can work outside of your proxy’s environment. Disabling them increases both speed and privacy, but may cause some site elements to function improperly.

The best proxy should further allow you to disable objects, which causes the same problems as scripts — slow page loading times and potential loss of anonymity.

Cookie Settings

Managing cookies is another desirable proxy feature. The option to disable cookies can prevent anyone from tracking your browsing activity. If you need to log in to a specific website you accessed through a proxy, you’ll need to enable cookies.

Additional Services & Tools

A good proxy will offer some extra tools in addition to its primary offering. If you look at the best proxy server alternatives, you’ll see that most of them have password generators, DNS, and WebRTC leak tests. Plus, they are highly likely to provide VPN services too.

Pricing

While the price can play a significant role in choosing a proxy service, it’s not the determining factor for us. We look at both the newest proxies and the ones that have been around for a long time to find an effective proxy solution. Many proxies on our list are free, but we’ve also included the paid ones - all while considering industry standards and the features we’ve discussed above.

Best Proxy Server Reviews

Oxylabs

Oxylabs entered the proxy server market in 2015, and today, it’s recognized as one of the top proxies in the industry. The company’s product offer includes a real-time crawler, datacenter, and residential proxies. One of the provider’s many strengths is the wide array of uses it covers. The Oxylabs proxy service can be used for anything from brand protection and market research to sales intelligence and ad verification.

Pros

• An extensive offer of proxies across the world
• A clean and intuitive dashboard
• Offers both datacenter and residential proxies
• A free trial available

Cons

• Somewhat pricey

Features

No list featuring the best paid proxy servers would be complete without Oxylabs. The company offers a free trial, and although accessing its high-performing proxies isn’t free, it’s undoubtedly worth the investment.

Oxylabs has over two million dedicated proxies, all of which are extremely fast since they are not at the disposal of multiple users. These private IPs span over 82 locations. The company guarantees an uptime rate of 99.9% while offering 24/7 support should you come across any issues.

Oxylabs datacenter proxies don’t have a limit on bandwidth and the number of concurrent connections. Another notable feature is the Rotating tool, which can increase success rates. It also minimizes IP bans, ensuring frictionless data collection processes.

One of the things that help Oxylabs rank among the best proxy providers is its residential proxy offer. The number of Oxylabs residential proxies sits at 102 million, which is admirable. The quality is also at a high level, allowing users to bypass CAPTCHAs and avoid IP bans.

We must also mention the Sticky Session feature, which can be customized to change an IP address every ten to 30 minutes. An unlimited number of simultaneous connections, IP whitelisting, and detailed usage statistics are also part of the Oxylabs residential proxy offering.

If you need a data collection tool that fetches information in real-time, Oxylabs has three scraper APIs, including one of the best SERP APIs currently available on the market.

Pricing

As one of the best proxies, Oxylabs offers a simple pricing structure for the supported types of proxies. Datacenter proxies are priced based on the number of IPs, while the price tag goes from $180/month to $6,000 with the Enterprise plan.

The residential proxy pricing is based on the amount of traffic, and the price per GB decreases with the higher-tier plans. Available plans include Stater ($300/month), Business ($600/month), Corporate ($900/month), and Enterprise ($5,000/month).

The SERP Scraper API also comes with four plans, with the prices varying from $99/month to $10,000/month.

Hide.me

One of the biggest names in the proxy arena is Hide.me, widely known for its no-log policy. Apart from being one of the top free proxy service providers, the company also offers SOCKS proxy and is one of the best VPN service providers around.

Pros

• Intuitive web proxy service
• No-log policy
• Three server locations available
• DNS and WebRTC leak tests

Cons

• Some users report being unable to access Netflix

Features

Hide.me’s proxy service is easy to use, and Internet access is all you need to visit blocked sites or surf anonymously. Once you open the website, simply type in the web address you want to visit.

Hide.me is one of the best proxy service options with servers in three locations. You can select a server in Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland.

Customization-wise, the company supports the option to encrypt URLs and pages, remove scripts and objects, and manage cookies. If you plan on logging in to the website you visit, make sure to allow cookies.

To help users browse the internet freely without being limited to a single tab, Hide.me offers Firefox and Chrome browser extensions. The company also holds the title of one of the best VPNs for Chrome.

Pricing

Hide.me offers its web proxy free of charge. As typical of the best proxy server options, the company also offers a free, albeit limited, VPN service. To unlock its full potential and gain access to over 1,800 servers, you can explore Hide.me’s VPN pricing plans.

HMA

HMA offers one of the easiest ways to keep your IP address from prying eyes and enjoy internet privacy. Apart from the proxy service, the company has various other tools on offer, including DNS and WebRTC leak tests, IP identifier, and top-class VPN service.

Pros

• User-friendly proxy service
• Excellent customer support
• Servers in 5 countries
• A free proxy service

Cons

• Stores user data for 30 days

Features

If you’re looking for the best proxy servers, you’ll like what HMA has to offer. You can choose from six servers in five countries. These include New York City and Seattle (US), London (UK), Prague (Czech Republic), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Frankfurt (Germany).

To make sure you browse the internet without privacy concerns, the provider also offers excellent customization options. You can encrypt URLs, enable or disable cookies, and remove scripts. Additionally, you can change your settings after launching the proxy service.

While HMA’s proxy service is on par with the best proxy services, the company’s VPN service might be even better. It offers a wide range of features, including IP shuffle, smart kill switch, and fast servers in 190 countries. HMA’s VPN service has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can take it for a test drive.

Pricing

HMA doesn’t charge any fees for its web proxy service, while the VPN’s lowest pricing is only $3.99/month (with a three-year subscription).

NetNut

NetNut has earned a stellar reputation among users for quickly routing requests through residential IP addresses that are attached to physical devices. What separates one of the fastest proxy servers from other top proxies is that connecting to a target site with NetNut is just a hop away.

Pros

• One of the fastest proxies
• HTTP and HTTPS protocol support
• IP whitelisting authentication available
• Some plans have a dedicated account manager

Cons

• Somewhat pricey
• Lacks SOCKS5 support

Features

One of NetNut's unique selling points is that it offers residential IP addresses which come from Internet Service Providers. If you’ve been looking for a simple way to unlock the internet, NetNut just might be the tool you need. Being one of the best paid proxy servers, NetNut offers unique IP addresses, with users reporting a minimum fail rate at below 1%. The NetNut Chrome extension makes accessing any country simple with the option to choose between static and rotating proxies. The proxy service has a proprietary encryption algorithm, while the number of concurrent connections is unlimited.

The tool integrates with web scraping tools, automation software for social media, and multi-account management tools. The product’s interface is clean, providing insights about bandwidth usage. All these features make NetNut the perfect tool for social media scraping, price comparisons, and market research.

Pricing

Unlike some of the best free proxies we’ve covered so far, NetNut isn’t free. On the plus side, it allows users to test its services on the house. The product’s pricing depends on bandwidth usage and the number of requests per month.

The bandwidth-based plans include:

• Custom ($300/20GB/month)
• Entrepreneur ($475/50GB/month)
• Professional ($700/100GB/month)
• Professional Plus ($1,250/250GB/month)
• Master ($3,500/1TB/month)
• Master Plus (custom price/10TB/month).

The request-based pricing offers three plans:

• Plus ($7,500/50 million requests/month)
• Pro ($12,500/100 million requests/month) and
• Enterprise ($25,000/250 million requests/month).

Scraper API

The days of handling headless browsers, CAPTCHAs, and proxies are gone. One of the best web proxy solutions, Scraper API, handles all of this for you. The proxy server provider boasts processing an enormous number of monthly requests, which currently sits at 5 billion, while the number of businesses that rely on Scraper API to get HTML from websites is 1,500.

Pros

• Automatic IP address rotation
• Customizable IP geolocation
• No bandwidth limits
• Residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies

Cons

• Each request has a limit of 2MB

Features

One of the biggest advantages of Scraper API is the ease of use. The product’s documentation explains everything users need to do to scrape PDFs, images, and other file types from a web page. One of the things you can do with one of the best proxy tools is to scrape web pages containing javascript, with the proxy API rendering it through a headless browser instance.

Geotargeting is another Scraper API functionality. Depending on the plan, users can select the country of origin for their requests. The proxy’s country list includes the US, Canada, France, Mexico, India, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and Germany. We also like that the solution allows users to use the same proxy for multiple requests.

Scraper API further offers an internal pool of mobile and residential IPs, which are used for websites that are difficult to scrape.

Pricing

The proxy API has four premium plans, which allows one of the best proxies to target different audiences. The Hobby plan ($29/month) doesn’t support geotargeting and JS rendering. It offers 250,000 API calls per month and 10 concurrent requests. The Startup plan costs $99/month, raising the number of concurrent requests to 25 and monthly API calls to a million. This package also supports US geotargeting.

The Business plan ($249/month) unlocks all geotargeting options and priority email support. It further supports residential proxies, while the monthly API call count stands at 3,000,000 and concurrent sessions are 50.

Arguably the best proxy server provider also offers the Enterprise plan, which allows for an unlimited number of API calls and concurrent requests, and has custom pricing.

ScrapeOwl

Developers and data scientists can easily collect data from job boards, real estate listings, and ecommerce platforms with ScrapeOwl’s scraping API. Parsing HTML pages is equally intuitive, thanks to the platform’s various API parameters. ScrapeOwl is growing in popularity due to the ease of use that’s at the core of the web scraping API.

Pros

• Automatic proxy rotation
• Supports Javascript rendering
• Excellent customer support
• Competitive pricing

Cons

• No free plan

Features

While we’ve covered some of the best proxy service providers, our list wouldn’t be complete without ScrapeOwl’s scraping API tool. The solution automatically generates an API key upon registration. To see ScrapeOwl in action, all you have to do is add a target URL to your API key. The number of concurring requests ranges from 10 to 25, while API calls go from 250,000 to 1,000,000.

ScrapeOwl further excels in the parsing arena, allowing users to quickly obtain custom elements. They can also set the time ScrapeOwl should wait before extracting the HTML of an element or page.

Holding the title of one of the best web proxy service providers geared towards web scraping and data extraction, ScrapeOwl supports the option of blocking specific page elements, such as images or tracking scripts. Geotargeting and Javascript rendering are on the solution’s feature list, too. Combining all ScrapeOwl’s features with friendly and fast customer support, users get the idea of how powerful this tool is.

Pricing

ScrapeOwl offers three pricing plans, including Startups ($29/month), Businesses ($99/month), and a custom plan. Failed requests don’t count towards the monthly pricing.

Smartproxy

There are quite a few features that make Smartproxy one of the top contenders in the best proxy server service space. The tool offers datacenter and residential proxies, with a pricing plan suitable for businesses of all sizes. Those looking to start their own business can do so with the company’s reseller package and earn a side income.

Pros

• Extensive geotargeting options
• New IP address for every request
• Integrates with SEO and scraping tools
• 3-day money-back guarantee

Cons

• The SOCKS protocol isn’t supported

Features

Smartproxy gives users the option to choose from datacenter and residential proxies. With residential proxies, users get access to over 40 million IP addresses from 195 countries. For city and country-specific geotargeting, Smartproxy, which is for many users the best paid proxy server provider, supports eight locations on a city level, and 1.2 million IPs in the US, 9 million in India, and nearly 105,000 in Japan, among other countries.

The number of datacenter proxies stands at 40,000, and they are located in the US. With these, users can launch sticky sessions of up to 30 minutes. The company uses HTTP and HTTPS protocols, while the guaranteed uptime is 99.99%.

Another benefit of using Smartproxy is that it allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous requests. Authentication methods include IP whitelisting and a username and password.

To get the title of the best proxy server, the solution has to offer top-notch customer service, and Smartproxy brings excellent live chat and email support to the table available 24/7.

Pricing

Smartproxy offers different plans for its datacenter and residential proxies. The datacenter proxy plans include Clever ($50/month), Smart ($100/month), Wise ($200/month), and Genius ($500/month). They offer different traffic limits, ranging from 100GB to 1,000GB. The number of users is also different, starting from one with the entry-tier plan and going up to 10 with the Genius package.

Compared to other top proxy servers, Smartproxy’s pricing is competitive. Residential proxies have four plans: Micro ($75/month), Starter ($200/month), Regular ($400/month), and a custom plan.

Reseller plans include Hustler ($1,000/month), Dealer ($2,250/month), Boss ($4,000/month), and Kingpin ($7,000/month). The number of users is unlimited, while the traffic limits depend on the selected plan.

AstroProxy

If you’re looking for a decent, all-around, and super affordable proxy provider that enables you to design your own packages, then AstroProxy is just what you need. From scraping to social media, sneakers, and SEO auditing, AstroProxy is among the best proxy options out there, giving its users all the features they need and access to all the IPs in their pool so they can stay anonymous and protected while enjoying the World Wide Web.

Pros

• Residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies
• Affordable pricing based on bandwidth
• User friendly and easy to use
• HTTP and SOCKS compatibility
• No logging policy

Cons

• Small number of IPs in the pool
• Not the fastest proxy

Features

Straightforward, and with a user-friendly interface, AstroProxy works just as good as top proxy providers. All you need to do is buy a plan and choose between the types of proxies you will be needing. The beauty of AstroProxy is that it lets you combine various proxy types with geolocation depending on the amount of traffic you will be needing. It uses dynamic proxies and lets you set your own rotation rules and, if needed, integrate them with your software by API. Also, all their proxies are able to work with VPN by default. Just pick the OS, and you’re good to go—no additional settings are required.

You can either use the HTTPS or Socks5 protocol which you can change anytime with a single click at a control panel. What’s more, AstroProxy's proxy services offer you the freedom to discover for yourself which combination of software and protocol is most effective for you depending on your activity, be it SEO campaigns, running web crawlers or parsers, conducting traffic arbitrage or marketing studies. Also, for whatever queries you might have, you’re always welcome to contact their proxy experts via email, Facebook, or Telegram.

Pricing

Affordability is what makes AstroProxy stand out as one of the best proxy providers in its category. This is because AstroProxy doesn’t charge you per month but per bandwidth usage, and for this, prices start as low as $0.34 per 100 MB traffic and $0.26 per port for all three proxy types. However, unlike other major residential proxy networks that boast millions of IP addresses, AstroProxy’s pool, for the time being, is limited to 100,000. In any case, this pre-paid pricing option provides users with budget flexibility, giving them the freedom to decide how much traffic and ports they will need. In other words, AstroProxy may not be able to compete with the fastest proxy server on the market, but it sure is among the most flexible.

Froxy

If you’re looking for the best paid proxy servers, look no further. Froxy’s residential and mobile proxies, available through different plans, can cater to any need. The vendor promises up to 1,000 simultaneous connections at high speeds through a massive network of geolocations and IPs, backed by 24/7 customer support.

Pros

• HTTP and SOCKS support
• 100% whitelisted IPs
• 24/7 customer support
• Automatic rotation

Cons

• The 3-day trial has a 100MB traffic limit
• The trial period is paid

Features

Froxy is super easy to use thanks to its dashboard and 24/7 customer support. With the automatic rotation feature and their wide spectrum of geolocations, you can safely surf the web without being detected.

Whether you choose a residential or mobile proxy, you can forget about blocking and captchas. Froxy’s IP addresses are issued by real internet providers, and you can surf the internet anonymously from just about anywhere. Targeting is done by country, city, and the provider of your choosing, which is another reason Froxy is among the best proxy server choices out there.

Whatever plan you opt for, you will be entering a pool of 8.5+ million IPs from 200+ countries around the world. Mobile proxies cover 3G/4G/LTE. There’s no reason to worry about your connection being unstable because the uptime for both the residential and the mobile proxy is 99.99%.

So, if you’re wondering how you can benefit from using Froxy’s proxies, apart from being safe from unpleasant cyberattacks, Froxy proxies can be super beneficial to your business, and a top choice for ecommerce platforms. Whether you post a lot of adverts or are an SEO or SMM professional, or a blogger, you can use one of the best proxy servers for data scraping, SEO monitoring, price monitoring, market research, or social listening.

Pricing

Froxy’s mobile plans start at $90/month with the Mobile Lite plan that includes 3GB of traffic, and 200 ports, and you can get more traffic at $30/GB. Then comes Mobile Start ($150/month) where you get 5GB of traffic and 400 ports and the same price for more traffic. Mobile Medium is $280/month, which gives you 10GB of traffic, 600 ports, and additional GBs at $28/GB. Mobile Premium comes in at $480/month and gives you 20GB of traffic, 800 ports, and additional GBs at $24/GB. Mobile Elite is $1,100/month with 50GB of traffic, 1,000 ports, and additional GBs at $22/GB. Lastly, we have the Mobile Enterprise plan at $2,000/month, giving you 100GB of traffic, 1,000 ports, and additional GBs at $20/GB.

For those looking for top residential proxies, Froxy’s Residential plans start at $60/month with the Residential Lite plan that includes 5GB of traffic, 200 ports, and additional GBs at $12/GB. The start plan will set you back $150/month. You’ll get 15GB of traffic, 400 ports, and additional GBs at $10/GB. Residential Medium is $450/month, which gives you 50GB of traffic, 600 ports, and additional GBs at $9/month. Residential Premium comes in at $700/month and gives you 100GB of traffic, 800 ports, and additional GBs at $7/GB. Residential Elite costs $1,250/month with 250GB of traffic, 1,000 ports, and additional GBs at $5/GB. Lastly, the Enterprise plan will cost you $2,000 and give you 1TB of traffic, 1,000 ports, and additional GBs at $1.95/GB.

All of Froxy’s plans come with 3+ whitelisted IPs. Every plan has a 3-day trial for $1.99, where you’ll get 100MB of traffic. You can also arrange a consultation with Froxy’s sales team for a custom offer.

How to Choose the Best Proxy Server For You

We’ve reviewed the top proxy services, but we won’t stop here. We also want to help you find the solution that best suits your preferences.

Define Your Needs

The first step is to identify the features you expect from a proxy service. Think about the qualities that define the top proxy choice for you. Is it speed? How important is it for you to have customization options? Once you’re done with this part, you should have a list of favorites.

Decide Between a Free and Paid Proxy

The next and final step in finding the best proxy server is to try the ones with most of the features you’re looking for. While the vast majority of these solutions are free, if the one you need happens to be paid, you will have to make a choice between spending money and going with fewer features.