Best Paid Proxy

13 Best Proxy Server Services for 2021 – Free and Paid

195 locations worldwide
Unlimited proxy connections
Dedicated IPs
Firefox/Chrome extensions
Smartproxy offers one of the best proxy services for both residential and business use. It’s best suited for conducting basic online scrapping tasks such as data harvesting. You get back-connect proxies, anonymous browsing, global connectivity – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
The setup process is straightforward. You have the option of choosing between Firefox and Google Chrome extensions. The dashboard of both is very easy to navigate. All features are well-arranged. Best of all – support is available via chat to help you at all times.
This is a feature-rich proxy service. It has 195 data centers spread across 8 cities worldwide. This enables you to benefit from over 40 million IPs. You can comfortably access geo-blocked services. The service supports simultaneous proxy connections.
Smartproxy provides robust and reliable residential proxies. IPs are assigned to physical devices such as computers and smartphones. That way, internet service providers recognize IP addresses as actual visitors. This lessens the risk of getting blocked. You’ll also find data center proxies that support an unlimited number of concurrent connections. Unlike the former, it’s cheap and comes with a substantial bandwidth allotment.
This proxy service limits IP sessions to a maximum of 30 minutes. A different address is immediately assigned once the allocated time elapses. It prevents users from engaging in abusive behavior.
On the downside, some users complain of slow internet speeds when using this service. But that’s not surprising – there’s no SOCKS5 protocol. Other than that, the pricing starts at $50, which is reasonable. Should it disappoint, you’ll have up to 3 days to claim your money back.
Cloud proxy manager
Website unblocking
Mobile device IPs
Pay-as-you-go plans
Bright Data is one of the best alternatives to free proxy services online. It offers feature-rich tools for gathering information. Over 10, 000+ professionals currently trust this vendor globally.
You’ll be greeted with a neat dashboard. It has a quick walkthrough guide of the available services. Each feature also has a snippet preview.
Moreover, you can manage the online proxy server services from the console. That’s because it offers pay-as-you-go plans (PAYG). Here, bandwidth, IP pool size, and network ports are easy to allocate.
As for the features, it’s a bed of roses.
Data unblocker unlocks websites with toughened anti-crawling technologies. In addition, you get access to over 72 million real-user IPs to enhance its effectiveness. The company also bills you for successful requests only.
The proxy service has a wide range of options. Firstly, it has a search engine crawler. It provides real-time data collection by scrapping Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others.
Secondly, it comes with mobile proxies that use 3G/4G connections. These are assigned to actual mobile carriers from around the world. Furthermore, it comes with over seven million residential IPs.
But that’s not all.
You can use Bright Data’s application programming interface (API) to create custom apps. It’s compatible with Java,, C Sharp (C#), and Shell. Public proxy server providers, on the other hand, don’t offer such a feature.
Proxy management is incredibly flexible. There’s a Google Chrome extension for a start. Installing a custom web server script is a good alternative. You can also use its cloud manager that costs $150/month extra.
The company provides a dedicated account manager for support. While that sounds good, they’re available during business hours only.
But, on a more positive note, it offers a 7-day risk-free trial. Should it impress, you can upgrade from as little as a dollar on PAYG.
Real-time web crawler
Over 100 million IPs
Automatic proxy rotator
24/7 support
Oxylabs ranks highly among the best proxy servers for businesses. It offers global coverage and a pool of over 100 million IPs. Its services are ideal for performing various proxy-driven jobs, e. g. marketing intelligence tasks.
It has a colorful dashboard that’s easy to navigate. You can use it to access statistics of your usage. There are separate sections for billing and ordering new services as well.
You can’t manage proxies from the dashboard. However, Oxylabs’ products plugin well into the software that supports proxies. Oxylabs even offers a Google Chrome extension, which allows users to test the proxies or browse around the internet. Likewise, proxies work well with third-party proxy managers such as FoxyProxy.
You’ll find different types of server proxies for various needs. SOCKS5 Proxy comes in handy for using proxies with custom programs or protocols.
Residential Proxy pools handle bulk scrapping. They provide unlimited simultaneous connections for by-passing IP blocks online. It’s also possible to geo-target locations up to the city level.
You can optimize your business activities using datacenter proxies. For example, datacenter proxies help companies to find markets with counterfeit products. This type of proxy service can also be used for the identification of malicious attacks. Examples include finding viruses in files, identification of phishing links, and locating data breaches published online.
You’ll find a proxy rotator that automates IP switching. It enables you to forget about proxy management while carrying out scraping operations.
What’s more?
Oxylabs Real-Time Crawler can help gather data from websites that employ advanced anti-bot solutions with a higher success rate. The Real-Time Crawler also supports providing already parsed data from select websites.
The downsides?
The high price tag is the only disadvantage. Plans start from $180/month for the cheapest options.
On the upside, customer support is excellent. You can request help via email or live chat 24/7. Its higher tiers even come with a dedicated account manager.
Automatic IP rotation
Time-based sticky IPs
Dedicated 4G mobile proxies
Caching for bandwidth saving
IPRoyal is among the best proxy platforms that has extensive network coverage. It includes top locations such as:
US
UK
China
Germany
And more.
Best of all, it has affordable prices with no minimum requirements.
The vendor takes pride in offering a wide selection of services. Apart from the usual ones, it provides sneaker proxies for lovers of sports shoes. It bypasses restrictions in fashion sites that limit customers from making bulk purchases.
Another notable mention – the 4G mobile proxy. It’s powered by real user devices and residential IPs from cellular networks. The setup boosts trust and reduces the chances of getting banned. So you can do web scraping, competitor research, and complete SEO tasks with confidence.
The company has a pool of over two million IP addresses. And it adds hundreds of new proxy sites daily thanks to the IPRoyal Pawns program. It uses a peer-to-peer (P2P) approach that allows customers to share their bandwidth. In exchange, the vendor pays them for using their internet connections as proxies.
You can use randomize that frequently rotates your IP on autopilot. But sticky is the best option if you want to use one address. It comes with a time limit of 24 hours before it changes. That’s, however, not a guarantee – the system can swap it any time.
SOCKS5 enhances security by using multiple authentication methods to process data. Likewise, there’s HTTPS for end-to-end encryption between your device and the internet.
IPRoyal also claims it uses caching to save bandwidth and supercharge internet speeds. We were able to use less data when testing its proxy network. However, it took ages to load websites and download files. To add salt to injury, the vendor doesn’t have a refund policy. The good news is you can buy its proxy services for as little as $1. 00. The payment options include credit cards and bitcoin.
Offers free unlimited browsing
Support for any browser
BitTorrent client support
Fast ping times
is one of the best free proxy server software on the market. This solution offers a long list of features that you will love – auto-connect, IP leak protection, and BitTorrent support among others. The best thing about it – you’ll experience zero ads by using this product.
So, is it worth it?
is lightweight and easy to set up. All you need to do is install the Google Chrome/Firefox extension. There’s also an in-browser tool available, great for those that don’t like add-ons.
The features side is where it gets interesting. Unlike Smartproxy, gives you SOCKS5 for free. It allows you to enjoy swift response times during gaming and media streaming. Torrent lovers will enjoy the fast peer-to-peer file-sharing that this free proxy server offers. You also get to enjoy limitless bandwidth usage throughout.
has WebRTC in place to shield your IP from leaking. You can use an auto connection to switch between servers. To maximize protection, this vendor doesn’t record any logs of your activity.
This free proxy service lets you choose server locations. Only three regions are supported – Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Of course, nothing is perfect. We couldn’t find the total number of IPs offered. The support team couldn’t tell us anything about it. also doesn’t support multiple connections. But given it’s a free proxy program, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Over 40 million IPs
Rotating sticky IPs
Avoid bot detection
Scalable
ScraperAPI is one of the best proxy sites for web scraping. It has over 40 million IPs from many countries, with a user-friendly scraping tool. It can handle CAPTCHAs and other forms of bot detection, as well as JavaScript.
Proxies automatically rotate in the background. Just enter the URL of any site and you will get the raw HTML in return. If you’d like a more permanent session, you can easily use a static IP as well.
You also get custom header support, automatic retries, and desktop and mobile user agents. In other words, you can make your traffic appear like it’s coming from a computer or a phone.
Nonetheless, it is not as advanced as others, meaning you’ll have to parse the data yourself. Its simplicity and full API access, however, make it ideal for developers with their own scraping solutions. You can even call the API via web browser, as follows:
“yourAPIkey]&url=[URL]”
A seven-day free trial for up to 5, 000 requests lets you see if it’s the right fit. This requires no credit card, so you won’t accidentally get billed.
After the trial expires, you can decide whether to upgrade to one of three well-priced plans or negotiate an Enterprise solution.
The good news is low-volume users can access a free proxy server that permits 1, 000 requests per month. Here’s what the rest of the plans offer:
Hobby: $29/mo – 250, 000 requests, and 10 concurrent threads.
Startup: $99/mo – One million requests, 25 concurrent threads, and US geotargeting.
Business: $249/mo – Three million requests, 50 concurrent threads, 12-country geotargeting, and access to residential proxies.
If you still decide it’s not for you after purchasing a plan, there’s a seven-day money back guarantee.
Although all plans use rotating proxy pools, it is only the business plan that unlocks access to residential IPs.
Its dedicated proxy pools for different types of scraping really stand out. This includes products, search engine results, social media content, and more.
As for customer support, staff are available 24/7 by email or live chat. Business users get priority in the email queue, while Enterprise customers get a dedicated support channel. Everyone has access to documentation and help pages.
To manage your account ScraperAPI provides a web-based dashboard. Here you can access billing and view usage statistics. You’ll also find your API key and lots of useful code for PHP, Node, Ruby, Bash, and Python/Scrapy. A lot of this can be pasted directly into your custom scripts.
To sum up, ScraperAPI is an excellent solution for web scraping. It takes the hassle out of managing proxies by doing all the hard work in the background. Plans are affordable and it gets extra points for providing one of the best free proxy plans on the market.
Affordable pricing plans
Offers ads-free experience
Unlimited bandwidth allocation
Portable KProxy browser
Kproxy is one of the best proxy server options, no matter what budget you have. This solution is great for both novice and expert users that have undemanding web browsing needs.
Let’s check out the features.
The configuration process is fast. You can choose between Google Chrome and Firefox extensions. If you lack either, Kproxy’s proxy browser is readily available. Also, the product is currently compatible with the Kiwi Internet Access App for Android.
Kproxy has a lot to offer in terms of functionality. For starters, it automatically selects a server for you. You also have the option of switching between 5 countries, among which Canada, France, and the USA.
IP leak protection is enabled by default for hiding your location at all times. WebRTC’s protocol also allows you to browse restricted websites easily. But it gets better – this proxy program has a separate plugin for bypassing network filters. This inclusion helps you to access blocked sites by system administrators at work or school.
At times, users can engage in abusive behavior leading to a ban of IPs. Such an incidence usually affects user experience. To avoid that, you can use server management to delist affected regions. You can isolate slow proxies from your network.
Just as, Kproxy gives you limitless bandwidth. But there’s a catch. It limits downloads/uploads to a maximum of 300 megabytes. This means that you can’t use this service to transfer large files.
Another drawback is the limited choice of private proxies on the free plan. But that shouldn’t worry you. From just $10/month, you can enjoy 120+ servers located in North America and Europe. That’s quite a bargain.
Free proxy service
Unlimited bandwidth support
Online proxy browser
IP leak protection
HideMyAss (HMA) is an easy-to-use free proxy server that has basic features for browsing. First-time users will surely appreciate using this solution to browse online anonymously.
Unlike other developers that provide browser extensions, HMA comes with none. It has a simple web-based proxy for accessing online sites. All you need to do is enter a web address and select a preferred server to connect to.
This solution has many great features. The use of bandwidth is unrestricted. You can browse, mine data, and download an unlimited number of files. There are no ads whatsoever.
On the server side, you have a choice of six countries to use, including two regions in the US and one in the UK. But that’s just it. Crucial features such as Kproxy’s IP blocking are missing. You also won’t be able to select a network based on server location.
Security is another area of interest when using dedicated proxy services. HMA offers URL encryption for hiding your IP address. You can also block scripts such as JavaScript used for tracking visitors on websites. You can also disable cookies.
However, it lags behind the competition on various fronts. SOCKS5 for speeding up internet speeds is lacking. This makes the use of demanding services such as gaming and streaming problematic. IP leak protection only does a basic job of shielding your address, so your service provider may still be able to track your online activity.
Overall, this free proxy service works okay in accessing blocked websites online.
Free web-based service
Auto IP selection
Four locations available
Dedicated IP per session
If you’re looking for the best free proxy server, get VPNBook. The service provides dedicated IP and unlimited browsing sessions. As if not enough, there’s a web browser to make it better.
Getting started with this product is easy. Just as HMA, it offers an online proxy browser. You can pick the fastest server for you. You can also select a preferred region from the dropdown list of data centers. During sessions, a sticky bar is always available for swapping websites fast.
VPNBook tops the best proxy server list when it comes to security. It provides SSL browsing by utilizing AES-256bit data encryption. WebRTC is in place to protect your IP from leaking. It also blocks other scripts, which websites use for tracking user activities. To cover one’s tracks, it doesn’t keep your history.
But wait – there’s more.
Finding a solution that’s compatible with all devices is a challenging task. To address this problem, VPNBook loads websites via iFrames. This feature combines HTML and CSS, fitting for all screen sizes. You’ll have a smooth experience browsing from mobile phones.
Whereas other online proxy sites offer dynamic addresses, VPNBook gives you a static one. This lessens interruptions in platforms sensitive to IP changes. The vendor also blacklists people that abuse their servers. In doing so, it preserves the integrity of the service for other users.
On the downside, this product is strictly for personal use. It’s also ad-supported. Apart from the bad side, you can get a premium version for $7. 95/month. It provides support for gaming, VoIP, torrents, and much more.
Lightweight on system resources
Quick links access
Limitless bandwidth support
Fast gigabit connection
When it comes to functionality, ProxySite tops the list of the best free proxy services. This solution is not only feature-rich but also built for performance. Users that need to access blocked websites will greatly appreciate this product.
The setup process is simple. ProxySite comes with a browser-based proxy. It has shortcuts for accessing popular sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. You also have the option of selecting one of 25+ servers between the US and EU.
But it doesn’t end there.
ProxySite comes with proxy configurations. It provides an endless list of custom presets to utilize. With it, you can easily simulate popular browsers, devices, and operating systems. The most notable ones include Blackberry, iPhone, macOS, and Windows 7/10.
Developers are also not left out. There’s a slot for changing the user agent of your browser. This enables you to test websites that you’ve created. It’s also ideal for running custom bots for data mining tasks.
This is the best paid proxy server software for managing cookies. It gives you a list of all the browsing data stored on your device. This allows you to use or selectively delete them before visiting any website. As simple as it sounds, some sites rely on these files to track you. And removing them helps you cover your steps.
Speed is also worth mentioning. ProxySite has a gigabit network that delivers faster connectivity. When combined with SOCKS5, you’ll be able to stream on the fly.
Of course, ProxySite isn’t perfect. During testing, sites such as Google blocked our requests. The user interface of most websites that we visited also appeared distorted.
The pro version that includes a VPN will set you back $9. 99/month. It offers premium security, more servers, and compatibility with most websites.
Supports multiple browsers
Standalone apps for smartphones
Good speed
Servers in 17 countries
Whoer is the best proxy server software for people that have multiple devices. It has an app for Windows, Mac, Linux, web browsers, and smartphones. It’s ideal for families/groups of friends of up to 5 members.
When using Whoer, you’ll find a dedicated application/extension for your favorite device. Once you install, it takes a single click to get started. The free plan only allows you to use one server location. Premium users get to choose from 17 regions.
The browser extensions have WebRTC for protecting you against IP leaks. There’s also a kill switch. When the internet connectivity fails, it will shield your address from being visible. A great reason to put Whoer on our Best Proxy Server list.
Another great addition is end-to-end encryption via SSL. It utilizes a 256-bit file encoding, which secures the connection between your server and device. Whoer’s servers leave no trace of your online activity.
For pro users, internet speeds are blazing fast. You can watch Netflix, play online games, and share torrent files. In comparison, the free version throttles connections to a maximum of 1mb/s. Even though you won’t be able to run heavy tasks, it’s still okay for browsing.
But.
Whoer offers fewer server locations in the US and UK. Similarly, the limitation of bandwidth on the free plan is a turnoff. It’s also impossible to select an IP proxy.
Then again, the free version covers all the important bases. If you like it, you can go pro for $9. 90/month. Whoer has a 30-day unconditional money-back guarantee.
2. 5 million IPs
Mobile VPN
Static and Residential
Extensions for Chrome and Firefox
If you want to buy proxy services, GeoSurf is one of the longest-running providers on the web. The Tel Aviv-based company covers every major city in the world via 2. 5 million IP addresses.
It offers both residential and static IPs. The former is delivered on rotation by an API. Therefore, you can make as many simultaneous requests as needed without being blocked or slowed down.
If you’d prefer a static IP, GeoSurf covers over 130 countries in over 30 designated market areas in the US. They are more prone to identification, though.
Georsurf’s other key feature is a VPN for mobile. VPNs easily allow you to hide behind proxies as you browse or otherwise use the internet. This one complies with Android and iOS and uses numerous protocols, including OpenVPN and PPTP. This feature is limited to 120 locations.
For a proxy site, GeoSurf is certainly pricey. But it comes with a long track record and many extra features.
The starter plan is $450/month for ‘130+ IPs’ and 38GB of traffic. At the top end, you get unlimited IP access for $2, 000/month, and 250GB of traffic. All plans are auto-recurring. Enterprise plans can be negotiated if you contact the team. Due to the price, GeoSurf is more suitable for medium to large businesses than individuals.
The sign-up process is a little labored. First, you must give your name, email, and country, and then a salesperson will arrange a Skype chat. You can’t just buy a plan and get going.
Once you’ve been prodded and chosen a plan, you can manage your account from a web dashboard. Here you can see billing info, traffic usage, and access the gateways.
There are many ways to implement your proxies, including mobile. A toolbar can be added to Chrome and Firefox browsers. You can delete your browser data and switch IPs with just a few clicks.
To set your whole computer behind a proxy, you can use the Desktop VPN – some of the best proxy server software Windows, Mac, and Linux. Users can surf the web with any browser this way, but it also allows you to use other applications.
Meanwhile, developers might connect to the API directly to run scripts and other operations that can benefit from some of the best proxy servers around the globe. All it really lacks is support for SOCKS5 protocol.
Although its service is brilliant, the current incarnation of the website could do with improvement. Many pages have stock text filling up space. Moreover, there are pages for ‘Instagram Proxies’ and ‘Ad Verification Proxies’. This, however, is just marketing for the exact same plans. There are no dedicated proxies for Instagram or ad verification. Nonetheless, you can use GeoSurf for those purposes.
Performance-wise, it provides a lot of unique IPs, but falls short to Bright Data and Smartproxy. It also doesn’t quite match up to the speed of Smartproxy or Oxylabs.
In conclusion, we found their IPs to be clean and plentiful, and the overall infrastructure to be fast and secure. A legally binding agreement that states they don’t pass on your personal info was good to see. In the future, we’d like a clear free trial (you have to ask for a live demo or wait for a special promotion). And, SOCKS support would be nice.
Great scraping tool
Automatic proxy management
Residential proxies available
Lots of plans
Zyte grew as an internal platform for web scraping company ScrapingHub. After using the name Crawlera for over a decade, it’s gone for something a little more inclusive now.
Under the hood, however, it is a continuation of the same rotating proxy network. It’s one of the best proxy sites for bots and scraping. Most importantly, it doesn’t trigger CAPTCHAS or IP bans.
Zyte does not sell users on the number of IPs it has access to or how clean they are. Instead, it applies its own complex rotation system over IPs it rents from other providers. That is to say, you’re buying a robust web scraping tool that utilizes proxies, rather than the proxies/IPs themselves.
The IPs aren’t well suited for other purposes, which is a downside. Furthermore, plans are based around the number of requests.
Two key features make up the Zyte experience. First is a ‘Smart Proxy Manager’ of thousands of data centre IPs from across the world. Everything is rotated automatically in the background. The tool is able to assess your requested site for its load and ban likelihood. Then, it adjusts your request rate to keep you on the green list.
If an IP proxy is blocked, it assesses why and retries with a new IP address.
Second, is the ‘Automatic Extraction’ tool. This saves you using a third-party crawler. Simply enter a URL into the intuitive dashboard and it will pull the data without coding.
Product databases, news articles – there are lots of possibilities. Plus, you can use the Extraction API with your own more advanced methods off the back of Zyte’s infrastructure.
The proxy manager starts from $29/month for up to 50, 000 requests, 50 of which can be concurrent. The $349/month ‘Advanced’ plan supports 2. 5 million monthly requests, 200 of which can be concurrent. Enterprise solutions start at $999.
For automatic data extraction, pricing starts at $60 per 100, 000 requests. The upper limit is 500, 000 requests per month. Alternatively, you can rely on bespoke data services from $450 per month, but you’ll need to speak to a sales rep.
You can try both tools for free for 14 days, with a limit of 10, 000 requests.
Residential proxies are now available, but they’re a paid extra, on top of any other plans you purchase. The smallest plan is $300 per month for 25GB of traffic and access to over 500, 000 IP addresses.
At the other end, you can get 200GB of traffic and priority in the support queue for $1, 000 a month.
Customer support is excellent, albeit tiered. On the cheaper plans you must rely on a ticket, reading the help pages, or asking the community forum. Responses are guaranteed within one business day, but we received a reply within an hour for a test question.
The high-priced plans get priority in the queue, while Enterprise clients have a dedicated account manager.
In short, Zyte is an excellent proxy program for those that need to use many IPs for data mining. You can find better services, however, if you require proxies for other means.
What is a Proxy?
A proxy is an access point that acts as a gateway to the internet. All traffic requests to and from a website are processed by a computer server. This approach protects your real identity from being exposed.
Under typical circumstances, workplaces, schools, and libraries block specific sites from access. Likewise, some websites are geo-restricted. Using a proxy helps you freely access those web pages.
Some of the best private proxy server services offer enhanced security features – SSL encryption, audit logs, firewall, and more. They provide an additional layer of defense between computer systems and outside traffic. This plays a huge role in shielding users/organizations from hackers.
Paid Proxies Versus Free Proxies
Both have upsides and downsides. While the former provides more options, the latter has basic functions to get the job done.
Here are the details.
Pros
Service providers offer free proxy services to you at zero costs. However, vendors enforce restrictions on bandwidth, server resources, and more. Such limitations are usually in place to maintain the quality of service. That way you handle lightweight tasks such as browsing and opening blocked sites. It allows users to test the waters before going pro.
Paid proxies offer more features at a premium price. You can choose between different regions and specific IP addresses. It also guarantees you 99% anonymity and privacy online. You’ll experience fast connections by browsing at full speeds.
Over the years, competition has drastically lowered the cost of these services. A good example is Whoer that charges $9. 90/month with support for up to 5 users. That’s as cheap as a cup of Starbucks coffee.
Cons
The majority of best internet proxy server providers have a zero cost plan in place. But the truth is – there’s nothing as free lunch. Vendors usually use this approach to upsell products and services.
Web browsers store cookies when you visit websites. These are small files that are generated based on user behavior online. When you use free proxies, developers collect and sell this data to third-party advertisers. Vendors such as VPNBook directly serve advertisements to you. In simple terms – you indirectly pay for the service.
The other drawback is related to security. When using free proxy services, your anonymity isn’t guaranteed. IP leaks are bound to happen and this can expose your real identity. However, if you’re an occasional user, that shouldn’t be a matter of concern.
On the flip side, paid proxies aren’t that reliable. Downtimes and server breakdowns can occur at any time. Dealing with them is extremely annoying.
Types of Proxies
There are many proxies available. They mostly differ on essentials such as configuration, software, and functionality.
Here we’ve covered 6 of the most common proxy types:
Shared Proxy
This type of proxy is built on an extensive computer networking infrastructure. It’s normally used to serve several clients at the same time. This allows vendors to split the costs amongst users; hence, make the service affordable. To ensure quality, the majority proxy of service providers utilize load-balancing to handle traffic spikes. It helps to distribute large requests across a web of interlinked data centers. This setup enables users to enjoy a smooth experience all through.
Semi-Dedicated Proxy
This is a type of proxy that combines the benefits of shared and dedicated proxies. It usually allows a maximum of 5 users per server. This grants superior service at budget-friendly prices. However, you risk service interruption due to overloading by a single user. It’s a great option for casual users that need privacy online.
Dedicated Proxy
A dedicated proxy allows a single user to utilize all resources. This solution offers more agility and computing power to the client. It’s also efficient, stable, and secure. The chances of getting your IP banned are minimal. You’ll have greater control over managing your online tasks. All these benefits do come at a high price, though.
Socks5 Proxy
Security is a top priority for people that prefer to be anonymous online. That’s where SOCKS5 proxy comes into the picture. It covers the highest standards of data encryption. It supports protocols such as TCP/UDP layer 4 and SSL layer 7. Using it allows you to transfer coded information over HTTP/HTTPS, SFTP, P2P, and more.
Residential Proxy
If you need the best anonymous proxy server, get a residential proxy. With it, IP addresses get attached to actual devices – smartphones, gaming consoles, or computers. Connections generated by this solution are usually undetectable. The service makes websites give you the greenlight by identifying you as an actual visitor.
Reverse Proxy
A reverse proxy is a computer network that mediates between a web resource and visitors. It usually retrieves information from the source server on behalf of users. This configuration is ideal for organizations that need a high level of security. It’s useful for filtering bad traffic and blocking cyberattacks.
Proxy vs VPN – What is Better?
VPN and proxy do the same task of protecting the identities of users online. While both serve the same purpose, their mode of operation is different.
A proxy program transfers your data across the internet in raw format. This approach increases the likelihood of exposing your real identity.
A VPN provides end-to-end encryption between your device and the remote computer. You

The Best Proxy Server Providers – October 2021 | 99firms

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 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
Hidester
Thanks to the company’s stellar reputation, it found its place at the very top of our rankings. Over the past five years, Hidester has made a name for itself, slowly expanding its vast selection of products. It now offers a web proxy, top-notch VPN service, proxy filter, DNS and WebRTC leak tests, a robust password generator, IP finder tool, and a proxy server list. One of the best web proxy and VPN service providers boasts roughly 1. 7 million visits per month, while the biggest number of Hidester users comes from India, the USA, and Indonesia.
Pros
One of the fastest web proxy services
A user-friendly interface
A Chrome extension available
Servers in the US and Europe
Removes scripts and objects
Cons
Lacks live chat support
Features
Hidestar makes accessing blocked websites and anonymously surfing the internet simple. You don’t need to create an account to use the free proxy. All you have to do is set your preferences, starting with the server location. One of the best proxies on the market currently offers US- and Europe-based servers. A far more extensive server offer is available with Hidester’s VPN service. Other options include removing scripts and objects, managing cookies, and URL encryption.
Another advantage of the platform is that it doesn’t log user data, as the company is registered in Hong Kong, which lacks data retention laws. The vendor further secures all web activity through 128-bit encryption. Hidester’s offering doesn’t end here. The company offers a premium proxy list that includes HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS proxies with different levels of anonymity.
Hidester is the best free proxy and doesn’t charge users for browsing the internet via their proxy service. The premium proxy list comes with a price tag of $24. 90 for a 6-month subscription. The VPN service is budget-friendly, too, offering a 49% discount with a yearly plan. That translates to $3. 99/month, which, compared to the competition, is a great deal.
Another big name in the proxy arena is Being one of the best free proxies, is widely known for its no-log policy. Apart from the outstanding proxy service, the company also offers VPN services and SOCKS proxy.
Intuitive web proxy service
No-log policy
Three server locations available
DNS and WebRTC leak tests
Some users report being unable to access Netflix
’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. 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, offers Firefox and Chrome browser extensions.
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 ’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.
User-friendly proxy service
Excellent customer support
Servers in 5 countries
A free proxy service
Stores user data for 30 days
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.
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).
VPNBook
VPNBook is primarily known as a free VPN service provider, but it is also regarded as one of the top proxies. The web proxy interface is pretty straightforward, and navigating to your desired URL is only a few clicks away.
Free proxy service
Doesn’t require installation
Uses SSL encryption
Four server locations
Keeps connection logs
Lacks customization options
VPNBook launched its free proxy service to help users browse the internet without worrying about their privacy and security threats. What we genuinely appreciate about VPNBook, which is one of the best free proxy services, is that it’s not complicated in any way. All you have to do to access the URL of your choice is to simply type it into the address bar that’s clearly shown on the site.
You can let VPNBook choose a proxy server for you or select one from the dropdown list. Available choices include the UK, the US, Canada, and France. Another perk of using VPNBook proxy is that it uses SSL encryption. On the flip side, the platform lacks the customization options the best proxy services typically offer. That includes the option to remove scripts and objects, disable cookies, and URL encryption.
VPNBook also keeps connection logs, but the comforting aspect of this practice is that the data is kept for only a week and for a good reason — to prevent abusive activities.
The service is free. The company maintains its servers by displaying ads on its site.
FilterBypass
For the 600, 000 or so users that visit the site every month, FilterBypass is among the best proxy options. As the name suggests, FilterBypass specializes in bypassing web filters — all while protecting your anonymity and security online. The provider further claims to be one of the fastest proxies around.
Secure web proxy
Users can delete their cookies manually
Supports URL and page encryption
Allows access to video sites
Keeps logs for a week
FilterBypass is another web proxy on our list, and much like all web proxies, it offers a user-friendly browsing experience. Many users consider it to be the best free proxy server as it excels at unblocking video content. While the available server locations are not shown on the website, the company claims to own proxy servers in the USA.
This proxy provider supports standard customization options, including URL and page encryption, blocking scripts and objects, and enabling or disabling cookies. Users can further see their cookies on the FilterBypass website and delete them simply by ticking off the boxes next to them.
The platform doesn’t allow access to payment providers and ecommerce platforms, which might not be as bad as it sounds. Our advice is not to use proxies for financial transactions. Even the world’s best paid proxy server can accidentally leave sensitive information out in the open.
Much like many other providers we’ve included in our rankings, FilterBypass too is a free proxy service.
KProxy
KProxy is hardly among the newest proxy server alternatives, having been around since 2005. While we know that KProxy is reliable since we analyzed it, the fact that it has survived in a competitive market for a decade and a half is a further testament to its qualities. Offering some of the best paid proxy servers, KProxy has the largest user base in India, the US, and the UK, with around three million users visiting the site monthly.
Ease-to-use proxy
Stellar online reputation
Chrome and Firefox extensions available
Offers premium features with its paid plans
Free service has some limitations
KProxy is an intuitive solution with a clear web interface. All you have to do to start anonymously browsing the internet is to enter the web address on the KProxy website. The provider offers 10 server locations with its free version.
As one of the best, if not the best paid proxy server, KProxy offers premium servers across different countries, including the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, etc. The premium servers are less likely to be banned and are configured for optimal performance. The company also promises not to overload these servers. One of the rare things about KProxy is that you can hide the proxy menu on the website you access through this service. That way, it doesn’t block a part of your screen, and you can see the entire page. Click the hat icon in the left corner, and the menu will appear again.
KProxy ranks among the best proxy server software, allowing its users to download the KProxy agent to their PC. Browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome are also on the table. The service even supports the Kiwi browser, so Android users can easily use KProxy on their devices.
This proxy’s downsides include the lack of customization options, such as the option to block objects, and limited usage of the free proxy service, with up to three hours sessions permitted. After that period, you have to wait for half an hour to continue using the service.
KProxy is one of the best proxies that offers both free and paid proxies. The paid service includes premium servers, unlimited usage, and downloads, and has no ads. The pricing is available for 10, 30, and 180 days at $5, $10, and $30, respectively.
4everproxy
4everproxy is a widely used proxy service known for its video streaming and unblocking capabilities. They have been in the market for 12 years, with the highest number of users from India, the UK, and Russia. Like many of the best free proxy server options, 4everproxy includes a top-notch VPN service without bandwidth limits and data logs.
Easily unblocks videos
Supports various customization options
A solid choice of server locations
User data stored for seven days
The intuitive interface will help you get access to your favorite sites in minutes. 4everproxy gives you the choice of 11 server locations and 21 IP locations. The service automatically suggests the nearest server to you for higher speed, but you can always change it manually. Being one of the best proxy server providers, 4everproxy offers fast proxy servers — hands down.
Customization options available with this service include the option to remove scripts and page titles, disable or enable cookies, and encrypt pages. 4everproxy further supports permanent URLs, which you can use to share the content viewed through the web proxy service.
4everproxy web proxy is free to use. If you want to test the provider’s VPN service, the pricing starts at $3. 95/user/month.
ProxFree
Another reputable service that got a spot in our table is ProxFree. The provider entered the proxy waters in 2011. This free proxy server vendor has an excellent online reputation, with thousands of users worldwide. Let’s see what one of the best proxy servers vendors has to offer.
Free web proxy service
Supports a variety of customization options
Easy-to-use service
A wide choice of US and EU servers
Features a lot of ads
ProxFree is a user-friendly proxy service that can be used without an account. The service allows you to choose whether you want to enable or disable SSL encryption for each site you want to visit.
One of the most impressive things about ProxFree is its number of server locations. You can choose any of the 15 locations in the US, and another 10 in Europe. Apart from the top proxy servers, ProxFree offers a rich selection of customization options. That includes cookie management, the option to remove objects, scripts, and page titles.
Another exciting thing about this web proxy is that the company has been working on a new project, noBlock, which clears the path for new proxy technology. The website is still a work-in-progress, but you can test it. Expect the occasional issues, though.
Using ProxFree comes without any charges.
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.
One of the fastest proxies
HTTP and HTTPS protocol support
IP whitelisting authentication available
Some plans have a dedicated account manager
Somewhat pricey
Lacks SOCKS5 support
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 company 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.
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 company 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.
Automatic IP address rotation
Customizable IP geolocation
No bandwidth limits
Residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies
Each request has a limit of 2MB
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.
The proxy API has four premium plans, which allows one of the top 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.
The Enterprise plan, which allows for an unlimited number of API calls and concurrent requests, has custom pricing. With the coupon code 99FIRMS10, users get 10% off this proxy service.
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.
Automatic proxy rotation
Supports Javascript rendering
Competitive pricing
No free plan
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.
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.
Extensive geotargeting options
New IP address for every request
Integrates with SEO and scraping tools
3-day money-back guarantee
The SOCKS protocol isn’t supported
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 proxies, 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.
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.
Residential proxies have four plans: Micro ($75/month), Starter ($200/month), Regular ($400/month), and a custom plan. Compared to other top proxy servers, Smartproxy’s pricing is competitive.
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.
GeoSurf
GeoSurf ranks well on the list of top proxy and VPN providers, offering mobile and desktop VPN, and residential proxies. The company has a special focus on helping its clients manage Instagram accounts and verify ads. The pool of over two million IPs help GeoSurf rank among the best proxy service providers.
Ease-to-use proxy tool
Supports static and residential IPs
Detailed bandwidth usage statistics
Proxy locations in more than 170 cities
The vendor doesn’t offer mobile IPs
If you don’t want to leave a digital footprint, GeoSurf can help you access the internet anonymously regardless of whether you opt for the company’s residential or datacenter proxies. Looking at the provider’s core strengths, the choice of IPs comes atop the list. Users aren’t thrilled that much about the vendor’s number of IPs, although it’s a decent quantity. They are, however, enthusiastic about server distribution. GeoSurf’s top proxy servers, the residential ones, are available in all countries and cities in the world. Meanwhile, datacenter proxies span 130 locations.
The sticky session functionality allows users to use the same IP for one, 10, and up to 30 minutes. It is also possible to change the IP with every new request. The tool is coder-friendly, meaning that for most programming languages you use, you’ll find GeoSurf code examples.
The company further offers dedicated customer service, supports IP whitelisting and user-password authentication, and poses no limits on the number of IPs, requests, locations, and sessions. The Chrome and Firefox browser extension is also available with GeoSurf, which contributes to its ranking as one of the best web proxy providers.
The lowest-priced plan, Starter, costs $450/month, including 38GB/month and access to clean residential proxies in 130 countries. Buying extra gigabytes is $12/month, slightly less with the Professional plan, i. e., $10/month/GB. The Professional plan supports the same features, but the monthly traffic limit is 90GB. The price tag for this package is $900/month. The Plus plan allows up to 250GB for $2, 000/month, further supporting unlimited access IPs. The top-tier plan, Enterprise, has special pricing and offers up to 2TB of traffic per month.
DSLRoot
During our search for the best proxy server service, DSLRoot caught our attention with its mobile proxy offering and high-speed service. The intuitive interface is a breath of fresh air, allowing everyone to easily and anonymously access the internet.
US-focused mobile proxy service
15-second auto-refresh
Clean user dashboard
Simple pricing
Limited free trial
One of the biggest advantages of DSLRoot is that people can start using US residential IPs in a matter of minutes. After signing up for an account and selecting a plan, all users have to do is install the DSLRoot software. This makes the product one of the best proxy server software for many. It supports 70 locations and 24 cities.
The vendor guarantees high-speed service, while changing IPs takes a single click. Users can quickly check their IP details, including the state and city it’s coming from, and the number of users currently using the IP. It’s also possible to sort IPs by type, including 4G, DSL, and cable. Thanks to DSLRoot’s API, businesses can incorporate the software into their own solution. Another plus is that customer support is available 24/7.
The company has a simple pricing structure which depends on the length of use. The free trial meanwhile allows users to test one the software for an hour and access two locations. All paid plans support unlimited locations, while the cost ranges from $50/week to $1, 750/year.
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.
An extensive offer of proxies across the world
A clean and intuitive dashboard
Offers both datacenter and residential proxies
A free trial available
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 to 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 proxies’ 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’ Real-Time Crawler is the right solution for that.
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

Best proxy of 2021: free and paid services | TechRadar

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The best proxy service providers allow an easy option to protect your privacy online. Effectively, a proxy serves as a gateway between you and the internet, so when using a proxy server the details of the websites you visit and other online history is saved to that server, rather than to your allows for a degree of anonymous surfing, with the caveat that proxy servers will often save at least some details. This means a full investigation of the server records may make it possible to personally identify ever, this is unlikely to be a problem for most people, and proxy servers otherwise provide a useful if basic way to avoid the extensive advertiser tracking and routine privacy intrusions that are now commonplace note that a lot of proxy server providers also provide paid-for VPN services, because VPN (Virtual Private Network) can offer better security and privacy than a proxy service alone. In which case, it may be worth considering getting a free VPN or pay for one of the best premium services instead. If you’re not sure whether a proxy server will be better, check out our guide Proxy servers vs VPN: Why VPNs are better. In the meantime, here we’ll feature the best proxy services, free and paid-for, which will overlap with some VPN services. Exclusive discount specialGet an exclusive discount with SmartProxy, active for three Residential Proxies Micro, Starter and Regular plans. With this discount, you will save 15% from the overall Deal(Image credit: Smartproxy)1. SmartproxyAffordable proxies for most use casesSpecificationsCoverage: Over 195 locations IP addresses: over 40 millionReasons to buy+Unlimited threads+Browser extensions+Mobile IPsReasons to avoid-Restricted geotargetingYou can get both residential and data center proxies from Smartproxy. Its pool of over 40 million rotating residential IPs comes from desktop and mobile devices and is shared between all the users. While this can be disadvantageous as you can get flagged IPs, the provider ensures its quick rotation policy ensures its proxies don’t get banned. Smartproxy limits plans by bandwidth but allows you to run an unlimited number of concurrent threads. You can select the proxy you want to use from a list of backconnect gateway servers in your dashboard. By default, Smartproxy displays all the different gateways for the countries and cities that it supports. You can however filter down the proxies based on a couple of useful parameters such as the location, and the type of session (rotating or sticky). Depending on these, the dashboard will show the appropriate proxy gateway that you can then use in your apps and you plan to use the proxy to browse the web, Smartproxy also has extensions for both Chrome and Firefox. You can use the extension to again narrow down the location and type of proxy you want and even choose the authentication our full Smartproxy review. (Image credit: Bright Data)2. Bright DataExpensive but feature richSpecificationsCoverage: All countries and citiesIP addresses: Over 72 millionReasons to buy+Huge pool+Mobile IPs+Detailed targeting optionsReasons to avoid-Complex pricing mechanismThe first that strikes you about Bright Data (formerly Luminati) is its huge proxy pool of over 72 millions IPs. The service offers all kinds of proxies. In addition to rotating residential IPs, the service also offers static ones, which are a group of 6 to 100 residential addresses for your exclusive use that haven’t been previously used with your target domain. Bright Data also sells mobile IPs that cost more than the usual residential IPs but are more resilient and will work on particularly difficult to please you have very specific targeting requirements, you’ll appreciate Bright Data’s support for ASN (Autonomous System Number) in addition to the usual targeting options such as country, state, and use its proxies, you can use the Proxy Manager, which is an open source tool that can be installed on top of Windows, macOS and Linux for free. The Proxy Manager can help you define rules for IP rotation, blacklist IPs that give bad results, optimize bandwidth usage by routing some requests through your regular non-proxied connection, and Data’s residential proxies support all the main protocols including HTTP, HTTPS and even SOCKS5. The service also has a comprehensive support infrastructure with multiple avenues of help including video tutorials and ever, all the features and dexterity comes at a price. While the service advertises a base rate for all types of proxies, specifying additional parameters such as the targeting levels has an effect on the final cost of the proxy. The service also has multiple payment plans to accommodate different users. In addition to the standard monthly subscriptions, Bright Data also offers a pay-as-you-go plan. The plans are on average more expensive than many of its peers, but will seem reasonable particularly to large scale proxy users and those with very specific our full Bright Data review. (Image credit: RSocks)3. RSocksAll kinds of proxies in easily consumable plansSpecificationsCoverage: LimitedIP addresses: Over 3 millionReasons to buy+Unlimited bandwidth+Single-day packages+Mobile IPsReasons to avoid-Limited geotargetingRSocks offers residential, data center and even mobile IPs. You can either share its list of over 3 million proxies with other users or get some for your exclusive use. One of the best features of the service is that it doesn’t restrict the amount of bandwidth on any of its plans. As long as the plan is valid, you can continue to use the proxies. RSocks also allows users to run upto 500 concurrent threads on many of the plans. To top it all, the proxy provider supports all the popular protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, and also offers separate plans for mobile IPs. You can buy these mobile proxies from 10 countries and can even specify a specific city and even a provider for some of them. The service updates its list of proxies automatically and the duration depends upon the plan, Some proxies are rotated every 5 minutes, others hourly, and some every 2 hours. The number of new proxies after every update also varies from one plan to the other. The important thing to note however is that you don’t get the option to rotate the proxies manually from inside the of the RSocks’ unique features is the ability to pause proxies, when not in use, to elongate their expiry. But the number of such pauses are limited, so you’ll have to use them judiciously. While it doesn’t offer any browser add-ons, RSocks has a cross-platform proxy checker tool that’ll be useful for sorting through the list of shared proxies. The tool can help you find the most useful proxies that’ll work best for you based on parameters like their location, speed, and their presence in popular spam databases. Also, unlike most of its peers, RSocks has about three dozen pricing plans for its various proxies. That’s because instead of creating plans based on limitations, such as bandwidth or the number of IPs, RSocks, has created separate plans based around individual parameters. Read our full RSocks review. (Image credit: Oxylabs)4. OxylabsHas its own web scraperSpecificationsCoverage: All countries and citiesIP addresses: Over 70 millionReasons to buy+Large proxy pool+SOCKS5 support, albeit limitedReasons to avoid-No separate mobile IPsOxylabs has an extensive network of over 70 million residential proxies that cover all the countries and cities in the world. In addition to the country and city you can also target proxies based on the ASN (autonomous system number). However these residential IPs use backconnect gateway servers and you’ll have to manually modify this address to add parameters for targeting information. Oxylabs claims that their residential proxies include mobile IPs as well, but the service provider doesn’t give you the option to choose them specifically for your tasks. These residential proxies rotate IPs at every request to ensure the target cannot block you. The proxy provider also offers static non-rotating residential proxies that it procures straight from ISPs. Oxylabs claims these give you the best of both data center and residential proxies, in terms of speed and resilience. Also these static ones support the SOCKS5 protocol, unlike the standard rotating ones that don’ pool of over 2 million data center IPs that aren’t shared but dedicated for your exclusive use, also support the SOCKS5 protocol. These also offer a proxy rotator add-on to automatically rotate the data center IPs. The one unique offering in oxylabs portfolio is the next-gen residential proxy that employs machine learning and AI to more successfully mimic a regular user’s browsing behavior and work around blocks and captchas. Oxylabs also has a web scraping tool of its own called Real-Time Crawler that’ll fetch the data for you in either HTML or JSON format. The service has tiered plans that get more cost effective as you increase your our full Oxylabs review. (Image credit: Storm Proxies)5. Storm Proxies Good for sneaker copping and individual scrapersSpecificationsCoverage: US & EUIP addresses: About 70, 000Reasons to buy+Quite cheap+No bandwidth capsReasons to avoid-Small proxy pool-Minimal geotargeting-No SOCKS5Storm Proxies is designed for individual and small time proxy users that will happily trade many of the features you get with some of the proxy heavyweight for affordable pricing plans. The service provider offers rotating residential proxies, private dedicated proxies which offer data center IPs, and backconnect rotating proxies which have a mix of data center and residential IPs. The best thing about Storm Proxies is that all its proxies come with unlimited bandwidth. Instead its private dedicated proxies limit accounts on the number of IPs, the backconnect rotating proxies bases plans on the number of simultaneous connections, while the rotating residential proxies with prices based on the number of ports. Each port is capable of running up to 50 simultaneous Proxies also doesn’t shy away from accepting the limitations of its proxies, which it clearly states for each of its supported proxy backconnect rotating proxies come from a pool of 70, 000 IPs and only allow you to choose between three broad regions namely US, EU, and worldwide. These are backconnect proxies that are served via different gateways, each with its separate rotating time. The 5-minute rotating residential proxies come from an even smaller pool of around 40, 000 IPs. They only cover the US and EU locations and don’t allow you to choose which countries or cities you want to target. There are several plans for each of the different types of proxies, but rest assured they are cheaper than most of the other proxy services. Read our full Storm Proxies free proxy servers(Image credit: Hidester)1. HidesterEasily masquerade your browsing sessionsReasons to buy+Doesn’t keep logs+Useful privacy controlReasons to avoid-No extensions for FirefoxIf you want to bypass geo-blocks and avoid being snooped, you can use Hidester’s proxy service to browse the web anonymously. Hidester doesn’t require any signup nor do you need to install any software. Just head to the website, from your desktop or your mobile device and enter the URL you want to visit in the space provided. By default it routes your request through US-based servers, but you also get the option to switch to European servers. Hidester also has a number of options to further ensure your privacy. By default it will encrypt URLs, and remove scripts. It does allow cookies by default, but you have the option to even turn that off though that’ll ruin your browsing experience. You can however choose to clear your cookies when closing the proxy session using the helpful Hidester bar at the top of the page. You can even change the browser’s referrer string from a pull-down list of preset values in the top service claims it doesn’t keep any logs of your visits and assures that they are in full control of their servers with no third party IP proxy our full Hidester review. (Image credit: VPNBook)2. VPNBookSpeedy, anonymous proxy serviceReasons to buy+Extremely fast performance+Blocks adverts and other nuisances+Clear logging policyIn addition to its titular virtual private network, VPNBook provides a free SSL-encrypted web proxy for a spot of anonymous browsing. Take your pick from proxy servers based in the US, UK, France, or Canada, or let the proxy pick one at random. In our tests, VPNBook was extremely fast, and its address bar/banner was unobtrusive. It also blocked ads and some scripted elements from web pages, which can be beneficial for privacy (though we’d appreciate being given a choice), and it supports HTTPS that VPNBook keeps web logs, which it can use to report illegal activity, but these are deleted automatically after a week. It’s not perfect, but VPNBook’s speed, convenience and clear policy on logging make it our pick for the best free web proxy. Read our full VPNBook review. (Image credit:)3. fastest free proxy serverReasons to buy+Fast proxy+Browser extensionsReasons to avoid-Pop up advertises itself as the fastest free proxy server, due to not keeping their own logs in order to help speed up the service. Whether that title is deserved or not it’s still a decent free proxy you should consider using. You can use it directly through the website, or alternatively use the Firefox or Chrome browser extensions to use the service. The service only has proxies in Europe, specifically in the Netherlands, Germany, and Finland. Also while it does give you various privacy enhancing options like the ability to encrypt URL and pages, you don’t get these options while you are visiting a some of the other free services, displays annoying pop-up adverts for their paid-for VPN service. If you can live with that then you should probably be fine using our full review. (Image credit: KProxy)4. KProxyKProxy is fast and free, with a portable browserReasons to buy+Dead easy to set up+Comes built into a portable version of FirefoxReasons to avoid-Some restrictions on usageKProxy offers a browser-based service, an extension for Chrome or Firefox, and a portable version of Firefox available with the extension already installed – a nice touch that lets you use the proxy on PCs at school, university or is a piece of cake – once the extension is installed, pick a remote server (the free version offers several options in Montreal and Munich) and click ‘Connect’. Secure HTTPS connections are service does have some limitations: you can only browse freely for three hours at a stretch, or until you’ve reached your 300MB data cap. Once you hit this limit, you might see a tab prompting you to purchase a premium account, but this isn’t mandatory – you can reconnect again free after taking a breather for 30 it comes to KProxy’s privacy policy, the firm notes: “You also understand that despite our best efforts this service may not provide a 100% guarantee of privacy and anonymity. In accordance with our privacy policy, KProxy reserves the right to turn over the IP addresses of users who abuse our system either to the appropriate legal authorities, or to those against whom abuse has been perpetrated. ”(Image credit: Hide My Ass)5. Hide My AssOffers multiple way to protect your posterior onlineReasons to buy+City-specific servers+Can encrypt URLsReasons to avoid-Confirms before loading websiteHide My Ass offers a free web proxy service that’s very handy when you want to browse privately, but don’t have time or permission to download additional software or browser extensions. There are limitations – the premium software offers faster speeds, more secure encryption, and active malware protection – but for a quick bit of browsing, it’s a good My Ass’s free proxy masks your identity and IP address. It is one of the few services that allows you to select specific cities instead of just countries to route your requests through. The free service supports servers in New York City, Seattle, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, and Prague. Hide My Ass’s web proxy service collects log files, which include your IP address, the URLs you visit, which pages and files you viewed, and when. It stores this data for 30 days – a policy that pushed it down our list of our full Hide My Ass following section was authored Cerniauskas, CEO of OxylabsWhat is a proxy? A proxy is an intermediary between the user and the web that adds an additional layer that connects to any website. Proxies have their own IP addresses, so the website the user is visiting will only see this proxy IP address.
In terms of origin, there are two types of proxies, data centre and residential:
A data center proxy is a private proxy that is not affiliated with an ISP because it comes from a secondary corporation and provides a private IP authentication, high-level anonymity and rapid data request response times. Usually, data center proxies are used for infrastructure, such as servers and web hosting.
A residential proxy is an intermediary using an IP address attached to a physical location provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to a homeowner. It is a genuine IP address that can be used to imitate organic users are proxies used for? As mentioned before, individuals and businesses widely use proxies. Let’s explore the reasons behind it.
Personal use A proxy used for a personal case will be attached to a particular location. This can enable certain access to geo-blocked content. For example, consumers can browse and purchase flights from locations that offer the most advantageous prices.
Secondly, proxies can optimize user’s web activity and improve security levels by encrypting requests.
Business use In most cases, businesses use proxies to gain advantage over competitors by gathering insightful information. The proxy gives them the ability to extract and process large amounts of publicly available data on competitor prices, products, services, reviews or even market trends that can accelerate businesses in their decision-making process regarding adapting marketing, sales and pricing strategies.
Such information would be impossible to extract without proxies in place due to recurring blocks. When data gathering is in progress, a large number of requests are made to a web server.
The difficulty arises when these requests come from the same IP address because websites identify this activity as suspicious and block the IP address for security reasons. Proxies prevent this as IP addresses can be constantly changed if rotating proxies or a proxy rotator is used. This way data gathering can continue to take place anonymously and efficiently.
In addition to data gathering, many businesses use proxies for email security as there are huge amounts of emails that contain malware attachments, ransomware or suspicious URLs. Proxies help to scan each inbound email and filter out malicious content.
Another common use case is brand protection, as proxies are employed to scan the web searching for stolen content or counterfeit is the difference between paid proxies and free proxies? With a free proxy you can access almost every proxy benefit, which is great until something goes wrong. Utilizing such services means that no one is responsible for technical faults, which happen to be a common occurrence in this case.
It is not easy to find a free, long-life proxy as they quickly become outdated and the providers usually turn into paid ones or disappear over time. Furthermore, using free proxies can pose a serious threat because you never know if your data is secure and you may run the risk of falling victim identity theft.
Paid proxies are responsible for their services, with contracts and agreements in place to protect the user. For businesses, there is no other option but to pay for a dedicated proxy service and avoid any potential security issues. If you choose a reliable proxy provider, you should not need to worry about servers crashing or disappearing for no reason as many will offer dedicated account support.
A reliable proxy provider will also have ethically sourced proxies. Deciding what proxy provider to choose is not an easy task as there are many criteria to consider, but we have singled out a few key points:
Reliability: 24/7 customer support and account managers, service trials and a money-back guarantee are must-haves for a reliable proxy provider. Pay attention to client reviews as well
IP pool size and location: IP pool size and location variety are critical for those who will be scraping large amounts of data from various countries
Success rates and speed: a reliable proxy network success rate should be at least 90%, with the best providers guaranteeing 95% or higher
Integration and support: proxy providers must ensure their documentation is clear and understandable, including integration tutorials and clear instructions
The future of proxiesBusinesses mostly use proxies for large-scale data gathering and extraction, but this is not an easy process. It consists of many complex tasks, especially when anti-data gathering measures are becoming more sophisticated and making it harder to collect publicly available information without being blocked. To address this, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) innovations are gradually being applied. Ultimately, proxies are extremely valuable solutions for both individuals and businesses that need to make accurate data-driven decisions. For individuals, proxies can help to access geo-blocked content, improve security levels, and optimise a web activity. For businesses, not only will they provide an extra layer of security, but they are quickly becoming an indispensable tool to gather publicly available information.

Frequently Asked Questions about best paid proxy

What is the best proxy service provider?

Pricing. Hidester is the best free proxy and doesn’t charge users for browsing the internet via their proxy service. The premium proxy list comes with a price tag of $24.90 for a 6-month subscription. The VPN service is budget-friendly, too, offering a 49% discount with a yearly plan.

Which proxies are the fastest?

Hide.Me advertises itself as the fastest free proxy server, due to not keeping their own logs in order to help speed up the service.Aug 12, 2021

What is a good proxy?

In order for a variable to be a good proxy, it must have a close correlation, not necessarily linear, with the variable of interest. … Proxy variable must relate to unobserved variable, must correlate with disturbance, and must not correlate with regressors once disturbance is controlled for.