Best 5 Proxy Servers To Help You Web Surf Anonymously
A web proxy server alters a user’s IP address without the need for online traffic encryption. This enables the user to privately surf the web making it difficult for malicious forces to infiltrate and acquire your browsing data information.
Using a web proxy will also allow a user to access sites that are otherwise inaccessible. So those websites at work you’re often denied access to are now open season. This also holds true for sites blocked in schools and your ISP.
A web proxy works by camouflaging your identity (hiding your IP address), acting as the middle man between your computer and the website you want to access. Your computer will request access to the website through the proxy, after which it will then go through a filtering process.
Once the process is complete, the request will proceed to the web source. Once the site receives the response it will redirect back to your computer enabling you to view its contents.
The Differences Between a Proxy Server & a Virtual Private Network
Though similar in that they both provide user privacy, the way a proxy server differs from a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is in the approach. A VPN tends to be more efficient in anonymous surfing and provides a more robust service that typically comes at a cost.
There are plenty of free VPNs out there but the bulk majority that can be considered “most safe” tend to have a price tag attached. Proxy servers are more often than not, free of charge.
But as they say, “You get what you pay for, ” and when it comes to online privacy, this statement rings true. A proxy server will not encrypt your traffic as is standard with a VPN. They are also browser-specific and exclusive as you can only use a proxy from your web browser.
A VPN is designed for the device it’s used on so you’re able to use it for more than just website surfing. Regardless, a proxy server will do well in a pinch when you need to get past an online geo-block or simply want to surf the web in peace.
Best 5 Proxy Servers To Help You Web Surf Anonymously
Some web proxy servers are of the paid variety. It should come as no surprise that the paid versions are the ones offering the best quality. The better-paid web proxies can compress online traffic, cache files, and even block annoying ads from the websites prior to granting access. However, depending on what you need it for, a free web proxy will do just fine.
If all you require is to mask your identity while online or sneak passed a blocked site, there are several free services available to you. Enter the domain name into the proxy and enjoy your online anonymity.
HideMyAss
The most famous and widely recognized proxy server has to be HideMyAss (HMA). It provides the standard feature of hiding your true IP address in addition to a pop-up ad blocker to help smooth over your web surfing experience. The proxy server is completely free but if you want additional protection, HMA also offers a pay-to-use VPN service.
HMA is a collection of varying globally located VPN proxies. This means that you get a very fast and flexible service when using HMA over other proxy servers. There is an official extension for both the Google Chrome and Firefox browsers allowing you to avoid having to download and install the full software.
The only hangup with using HideMyAss is that it stores both your IP address and that of the VPN server currently being used for an undisclosed period. They claim to not use the information and only share it with their partner company, the Avast Group, in order “to execute on the provisions of this service, for direct marketing, or to help our product development. ”
So if this is something that worries you, we have other proxy servers from which to choose from.
4everproxy
This proxy server is most prominent in the access of YouTube and HD streaming services typically blocked based on geographical location. 4everproxy offers unlimited bandwidth and is perfect for anyone wanting to access video streaming sites outside of their own country.
The streaming quality is of good quality considering you can use it for HD video streaming. It’s very rare you’ll face any buffering when using the service. There is no need to log into YouTube in order to watch videos. The service also provides an extra security measure by automatically removing all logged history from your browser every two hours.
ProxySite
ProxySite increases your online security through the use of SSL encryptions. Similar to HideMyAss, they offer VPN-like quality with your searches. You’ll be able to hide your IP address, get around pesky website blocks, and access popular sites all while having your history logs completely cleared.
There are numerous proxy servers available with ProxySite including those located in the US and Europe which are free to use. There is a premium VPN option for additional security features but the free proxy offers what you’ll need in most cases.
To be clear, the proxy server allows you to control cookies, javascript, objects, and ads on your page, making it perfectly capable of whatever the typical user is likely to use it for.
shares similar fame with HideMyAss in that it’s a well-known and popular web proxy service. won’t log or retain your data. Immediately after exiting your browser, the URL provided to mask your identity will expire. There are no annoying ads on their website and all pop-up ads received while surfing are automatically blocked from your browser, enhancing the browsing experience.
is one of the faster proxy servers and allows you to easily change your location, control browser cookies, and block harmful scripts. Server selection is rather limited, housing locations in only Germany, the USA, and the Netherlands. The UI appears very professional and user-friendly.
For a more all-encompassing security solution, offers its premium VPN service at $5. 41/mo.
Whoer
Whoer is more than just a web proxy. Aside from the basic proxy server security solution, Whoer allows you to change your IP address incredibly fast. This may sound like something that should be common to all proxy sites but the speed in which Whoer allows is second to none.
The Whoer website offers tools that allow you to track information on a specific website, test your internet connection speed, and run a ping test to determine server response times.
You can manually choose between seven to nine proxy servers that are available in most European countries as well as the US. The only annoying issue the Whoer site has is the inability to remove ads. This could prove irritating but remains unavoidable. The ads are what keeps Whoer in business thus you will need to deal with the ads if you want to use the service.
The Whoer proxy server is available for the Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Yandex browsers.
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.
10 Best Free Proxy Servers – Safe and Anonymous Browsing in 2021
Ordinarily, anyone can see what you do online. When you connect to a non-secure website, advertisers, hackers, and government agencies can see where you’re located and what kind of computer you’re using. This information can be used to feed you targeted ads, and it can block you from seeing certain web content.
Web proxies protect your privacy and also help avoid restrictions. Such restrictions may be imposed by a government, workplace, school, or others. In any case, a web proxy helps make the internet as free and anonymous as it should be.
How a Proxy Keeps You Safe
When using a proxy, your request to a website is filtered through a web form, or sometimes a browser extension. The proxy server then acts as an intermediary. It receives your request, finds the right information on the internet, and relays it back to you.
Without this intermediary, the connection between your computer and a website is wide open. But when using a proxy, prying eyes can’t see both sides of the exchange.
As far as the website knows, the request is coming from the proxy server, not from your computer. Personally identifying information – like your IP address – doesn’t make it to the other side.
When it’s not clear who you are, a website doesn’t know whether you’re “allowed” to visit. If your national government blocks a website, it can only block it for people inside the country. But if the site thinks you’re visiting from a foreign server, it will usually let you through.
This way, a proxy can help keep you safe when there are consequences to reading certain information online. However, it’s important to note that proxies alone only offer a basic level of protection. They tend to have a small number of IP addresses, which can be blocked once they are recognized as proxies.
What to Look for in a Free Proxy
Free web proxies have some limitations. But they’re a good option for people who need short-term anonymity or one-time access to blocked content.
Of course, some proxies are better than others. You should do your research before choosing which one to use. Always stick to a service with a solid reputation. Unknown or untested proxies might not work as advertised, or they might even carry a risk of malware infection.
The first feature you should look for in a free web proxy is the number and variety of its servers. If there are many options, you’re less likely to lose your connection. And if some of the available servers are close to you, you’ll probably get better internet speeds.
Not all proxies give details about their servers. And not all of them allow you to choose which ones to connect to. When this information isn’t available, you should be skeptical. But don’t dismiss the service completely. If other users have had a good experience with it, then you might be satisfied with letting the servers’ owners choose one for you.
Another thing to look for in a free web proxy is customizability. Every good proxy will serve the same role as an intermediary in your web browsing. But some will offer additional services beyond hiding your IP address.
Many of the web proxies that we recommend in this article add additional security by encrypting URLs and page content. Many of them give you the option to block scripts and objects, which can increase the risk of malware infection. Some also disable cookies to minimize the storage of your browsing history.
These sorts of tools help you to get the most out of a web proxy without having to pay for decent protection. But the same tools are usually made stronger with paid upgrades. And if you want the absolute best protection, nothing beats a well-tested VPN.
Disadvantages of Proxies
Whatever free web proxy you choose, its extra features are only a bonus. And these usually come with strict limits. You may find that only a certain number of cookies can be encrypted each month. Blocking certain elements of a site might keep you safer but also prevent it from displaying properly.
Even worse, it’s common for proxies – especially free proxies – to come with traffic limits. If you want 24/7 protection from monitoring, hackers, and malware, you might want to upgrade to a paid version. Better yet, you might want to opt for a VPN instead.
Proxies are good enough for getting around firewalls and unblocking content. But they are not as much of a guarantee against monitoring by hackers or your internet service provider. It’s also far more likely that a free proxy could track some of your activities. A premium VPN, such as ExpressVPN has strict no-log policies. One of our top picks is when looking at overall performance.
A VPN will also save you the hassle of having to manually route all your web traffic through the service. To use a web proxy, you have to navigate to the proxy site and then input the URL from there. With a VPN, you can install an app on your device and let it run automatically.
The more advanced VPN option means you’ll be protected when connecting to the internet with third-party apps instead of your web browser. These days, a browser is definitely not the only app that needs protection. But that’s where most free web proxy services end.
Premium VPN services like ExpressVPN offer you a 30-day money-back guarantee so that you can enjoy a risk-free trial of their superior protection.
Try ExpressVPN
Best Free Proxy Servers
Despite the drawbacks, a free proxy might be all that you need. In that case, there are plenty of good options for you to consider.
We’ve combed through existing reviews and tested some free proxy services for ourselves. And from what we’ve found, these are ten of the best free proxy servers out there:
1. KProxy
This seems to be the single most frequently recommended free proxy server. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best. But it does mean that it’s good enough that it satisfies most users, most of the time.
With KProxy, you have ten servers to choose from. You can manually pick from these and switch them anytime. So if you lose access to one server, you’re still protected. There are no imposed speed limits, as with some proxies. And KProxy has a good track record for avoiding detection and blocking by websites and ISPs.
You can access KProxy servers directly through the website, or you can download a browser extension for either Firefox or Chrome.
2. ProxySite
This free web proxy also gives you the opportunity to manually switch between servers. It also offers more than twice as many servers as Kproxy.
You can have ProxySite choose automatically from among servers in the United States and the European Union. Or if you’re having difficulty, you can try them one by one. The specific locations aren’t identified, though, so you can’t be sure of the effect on your connection speed.
ProxySite has been tested for compatibility with YouTube. There are even buttons on the main page that take you, by proxy, to popular sites like Reddit and Twitter. ProxySite is tailor-made to bring anonymity to your everyday online activities.
3.
This option also appears on many “best of” lists, even though its functionality is somewhat limited. doesn’t work with YouTube, Instagram, or Pinterest, and it relies on servers in only 1, 900 locations to mask users’ IP. But it makes up for some of these drawbacks with added security.
allows you to disable cookies, scripts, and objects on any site. In addition to hiding your IP behind the proxy, this service adds a layer of encryption and guarantees that URLs expire after every browser session.
The proxy will not save databases or IP addresses, so you can be confident that your information will not fall into the hands of hackers or advertisers. This makes it a good option for people who are more interested in security than entertainment online. also offers users a full VPN service in addition to its proxy servers.
4. HMA
This web proxy gives you the option to connect to a random server or choose one of 1, 080. These are located on opposite sides of the US and in four different European countries. The geographic coverage is as good as can be expected with a small number of servers.
The HMA proxy also prompts you to set up your connection with three options. You can encrypt URLs, disable cookies, and remove scripts. But that’s about as far as it goes without upgrading to the HMA VPN, which the site will try to sell you.
5. Hidester
Recent user reviews have given Hidester a good reputation for reliability. But it’s not for sure that the reputation will stand up, because this proxy is pretty new.
Still, it seems to be as good an option as other more established proxies on this list. Hidester operates its own servers across both the US and Europe, and access to them is protected with 128-bit encryption and a secure socket layer (SSL).
Its commitment to security extends to free users but paying customers receive access to literally hundreds of additional servers.
Hidester also offers a number of free tools alongside its web proxy. These include a secure password generator and a DNS leak test. These could be major perks for users who want to stay safe online.
6. Anonymouse
If Hidester is a new kid on the block, Anonymouse is an elder statesman of web proxies. It has been around since 1997 and still appears on many lists of most reliable proxy servers.
The main page for Anonymouse shows you the information that snoopers can see when you connect to a site. And it lets you compare that to what they’ll see when you connect through their proxy. But they choose the specific proxy for you, so you’ll just have to trust them.
Tests have actually shown that it’s pretty easy to identify the proxy that you’re using through Anonymouse. So the security might not be the best. But this old service still seems to be improving. Paid users get SSL encryption, and Anonymouse recently launched its own VPN.
Along with the web proxy, you can use Anonymouse to anonymously send e-mails and post to newsgroups. So after all this time, it still has something unique to offer.
7. Megaproxy
Compared to some free proxies, Megaproxy’s servers are harder for snoopers to identify. And that’s without the additional security of its paid version.
You can use Megaproxy by installing a toolbar that lets you type web addresses and route them through a proxy server. It’s a convenient setup, and you can easily switch between regular and protected browsing.
Unfortunately, this might be important with the free version. Megaproxy limits non-paying users to 60 site visits in a five-hour period. And it only encrypts 20 cookies at a time. Still, this adds a little extra privacy that not all free proxies have.
8. NewIPNow
This service acknowledges some of its own limits upfront. It says openly that free proxies might be incompatible with certain websites. That kind of truthfulness in advertising might be a sign of trustworthiness.
Speaking of truth and accuracy, NewIPNow shows you the estimated speed of each server you could connect to. There are about a dozen of these, though they are mostly limited to the United States. But users still receive a new IP address for each session.
You can use NewIPNow on-site or through a Firefox browser extension. There are budget-friendly paid options and they promise 100 percent compatibility. And if you have problems, customer support is a click away.
9. 4everproxy
Before connecting to 4everproxy, you can select both the server and the IP location. There are over ten options for the first selection and even more for the second. By trying different options you can find the perfect balance between security and connection speed.
But speed shouldn’t be much of an issue in any case. Each 4everproxy server boasts a one gigabit per second connection. Each connection also comes with optional SSL encryption and blockage of cookies and scripts.
10. ProxFree
With seven servers in North America and four in Europe, this web proxy offers a decent geographical reach and solid security. After you choose a server, you will be switched to the fastest IP location. But this can also be changed manually.
ProxFree is as customizable as most any free web proxy. SSL encryption is enabled by default but can be turned off. There are check boxes to remove scripts, objects, cookies, and page titles. You can also disable the “referer” and “user agent” headers. This way, the site you’re visiting won’t know what you clicked on to get there, or what type of computer you’re using.
ProxFree has dedicated pages for visiting Facebook, YouTube, and other video streaming sites. You can be confident in your ability to browse social media anonymously and avoid geoblocks on most videos.
Conclusion
None of these proxies would be our first recommendation for people who want to protect their privacy and stay safe online. A trusted VPN will do a better job than any one of these. You can read our newbies guide to VPNs for an in-depth explanation. Our number one choice of VPN is ExpressVPN. But free web proxies are a convenient option, especially for temporary use.
As you can see, there are many good choices available. Their basic function is generally the same, but there are unique advantages to different services. Luckily, they are all free to use and work right in your browser. So you can test them out one by one if you need to.
Free web proxies can be a good way of learning about the risks associated with your web browsing, and how to protect against them. And since some of these providers also have their own VPNs, a web proxy can be a stepping stone to more complete protection. We also took a look at different proxy protocols if you’re looking to understand the other options available to you.
Further Reading
Easy Ways to Hide Your IP Address
Top Really Free VPN Services
Best VPN Browser Extensions for Chrome
Privacy Alert!
Your data is exposed to the websites you visit!
The information above can be used to track you, target you for ads, and monitor what you do online.
VPNs can help you hide this information from websites so that you are protected at all times. We recommend ExpressVPN — the #1 VPN out of over 350 providers we’ve tested. It has military-grade encryption and privacy features that will ensure your digital security, plus — it’s currently offering 49% off.
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Frequently Asked Questions about proxy servers that work
What is a good proxy server to use?
Best Free Proxy ServersKProxy. This seems to be the single most frequently recommended free proxy server. … ProxySite. This free web proxy also gives you the opportunity to manually switch between servers. … Hide.me. … HMA. … Hidester. … Anonymouse. … Megaproxy. … NewIPNow.More items…
Are proxy servers illegal?
Yes, it is legal to use a proxy server. Proxies have many different uses, including enabling remote work; setting up a support system for users who are located outside a particular network; protecting networks and Internet users from malicious content; streaming online content from outside a country and more.
What is the strongest proxy server?
Best Proxy Server for 2021Smartproxy – Best for individuals.Bright Data – Best for small business.Oxylabs – Best for small and midsize businesses.IPRoyal – Best for residential proxies.Hide.me – Best for streaming.ScraperAPI – Best for running scripts by API.KProxy – Best free proxy.HMA – Best proxy browser.More items…