The 11 Best Proxy Server Options in 2024
Whether you want to be anonymous online, gather huge amounts of data from the internet, or make money by scraping the best deals—you need a proxy to hide your IP or change it. With this list, we’ll introduce you to some of the top options so you can find the best proxy server for your needs.
We’ll look at our methodology, the top 11 proxy servers, proxy server buyer’s guide, and FAQs.
Last Updated: February 2, 2023
1. Smartproxy
Smartproxy is a sleek and modern paid proxy service offering a wide range of proxy plans for different users and use cases, generally competitively priced. It boasts an impressive network of over 195 locations and 65+ million rotating IPs, not to mention customer support with 3-min response times. Full Review
- 65+ million rotating IPs
- Unlimited connections and threads
- 195+ global locations
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Smartproxy is a sleek and modern paid proxy service offering a wide range of proxy plans for different users and use cases, generally competitively priced. It boasts an impressive network of over 195 locations and 65+ million rotating IPs, not to mention customer support with 3-min response times. Full Review
5/5
5/5
4/5
4.5/5
2. IPRoyal
No matter what type of proxy server you want to use, IPRoyal offers an excellent and purpose-built solution. Residential proxy users can benefit from flexible and affordable pay-as-you-go rates, while sneaker enthusiasts or scrapers can easily integrate it with their scraping software. Full Review
- 2+ million ethically sourced residential IPs
- Up to 10 GBPS connection speeds
- Available in 195 countries
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No matter what type of proxy server you want to use, IPRoyal offers an excellent and purpose-built solution. Residential proxy users can benefit from flexible and affordable pay-as-you-go rates, while sneaker enthusiasts or scrapers can easily integrate it with their scraping software. Full Review
4.5/5
5/5
4.5/5
5/5
3. NetNut
Through DiViNetwork’s global infrastructure with 100s of ISP partners, NetNut offers highly stable proxy servers with up to 100 Gbit/s connectivity and 99.9% uptime, not to mention access to over 20 million high-quality residential and static IPs across the world. Full Review
- Unlimited concurrent connections
- 20 million IPs from over 100 ISPs
- 100 Gbit/s bandwidth
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Through DiViNetwork’s global infrastructure with 100s of ISP partners, NetNut offers highly stable proxy servers with up to 100 Gbit/s connectivity and 99.9% uptime, not to mention access to over 20 million high-quality residential and static IPs across the world. Full Review
4.5/5
4/5
3.5/5
5/5
4. Oxylabs
Whether you’re an individual or SMB making a living from scraping the web for data or retail deals, Oxylabs is a service you must consider. Not only does it offer ready-made scraping APIs, but also provides access to one of the largest pools of rock-solid rotating residential as well as static IP proxy pools. Full Review
- 99.2% success rate for residential proxy requests
- Locations in over 195 countries
- 100+ million IP pool
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Whether you’re an individual or SMB making a living from scraping the web for data or retail deals, Oxylabs is a service you must consider. Not only does it offer ready-made scraping APIs, but also provides access to one of the largest pools of rock-solid rotating residential as well as static IP proxy pools. Full Review
4/5
5/5
4/5
4/5
5. Whoer
With superb, user-friendly extensions and apps, Whoer is a quick and easy way to hide your IP, unblock sites, and browse anonymously. Whoer offers a free online anonymizer, but you can also use the premium VPN tool with many of the same proxy features plus the security and privacy of a VPN. Full Review
- Use on up to 5 devices
- 21 global locations
- VPN and proxy all-in-one
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With superb, user-friendly extensions and apps, Whoer is a quick and easy way to hide your IP, unblock sites, and browse anonymously. Whoer offers a free online anonymizer, but you can also use the premium VPN tool with many of the same proxy features plus the security and privacy of a VPN. Full Review
4/5
3/5
5/5
5/5
6. Hide.me
As one of the best free proxy options, using Hide.me means you don't have to worry about your activity being logged, being served annoying ads, or being left without any support. And the best part is, they offer effortless proxy tools with no strings attached. Full Review
- 4 country IP locations
- Chrome and Firefox extensions
- 24/7 customer support
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As one of the best free proxy options, using Hide.me means you don't have to worry about your activity being logged, being served annoying ads, or being left without any support. And the best part is, they offer effortless proxy tools with no strings attached. Full Review
4/5
3/5
5/5
5/5
7. ScraperAPI
If you need the best proxy server tool to help you scrape raw HTML website data while automatically bypassing pesky CAPTCHAs and other restrictions, ScraperAPI should definitely be on your radar. What’s more, thanks to the free trial, there's no reason not to try it out. Full Review
- 40+ million IPs
- Up to 400 concurrent threads
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
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If you need the best proxy server tool to help you scrape raw HTML website data while automatically bypassing pesky CAPTCHAs and other restrictions, ScraperAPI should definitely be on your radar. What’s more, thanks to the free trial, there's no reason not to try it out. Full Review
4.5/5
4/5
4/5
5/5
8. Ghostealth
If you're looking for an affordable and reliable proxy provider, Ghostealth is definitely worth your money. The service is easy to use and offers a great range of features, including unlimited bandwidth and 99% uptime. One of the things customers especially appreciate is the company’s 24/7 live support. Full Review
- High uptime
- Unrestricted bandwidth
- Large IP pool
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If you're looking for an affordable and reliable proxy provider, Ghostealth is definitely worth your money. The service is easy to use and offers a great range of features, including unlimited bandwidth and 99% uptime. One of the things customers especially appreciate is the company’s 24/7 live support. Full Review
4/5
4/5
5/5
5/5
9. Bright Data
If you’re looking for one of the top proxies for real-time data collection from e-commerce sites, search engine results, or any other online source, Bright Data is a must-see. Its powerful tools make it a no-brainer IP proxy service for large-scale data harvesting. Full Review
- 72+ million IPs
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Available in 195+ countries
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If you’re looking for one of the top proxies for real-time data collection from e-commerce sites, search engine results, or any other online source, Bright Data is a must-see. Its powerful tools make it a no-brainer IP proxy service for large-scale data harvesting. Full Review
4.5/5
5/5
4/5
4/5
10. KProxy
KProxy provides the closest experience to a premium proxy service you can get for free. If you ever feel like you need to upgrade, you can take advantage of the affordable and flexible pricing plans with unlimited usage. Its convenient browser-based proxy server software will facilitate your anonymous internet browsing from anywhere. Full Review
- Download and use portable proxy browser
- 6 server locations
- Portable browser proxy
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KProxy provides the closest experience to a premium proxy service you can get for free. If you ever feel like you need to upgrade, you can take advantage of the affordable and flexible pricing plans with unlimited usage. Its convenient browser-based proxy server software will facilitate your anonymous internet browsing from anywhere. Full Review
3/5
3/5
5/5
5/5
11. Zyte
If you want to scrape the web for data-based research or to secure the best deals, Zyte is simply one of the best proxy service providers you’ll find. The best part is, you don’t have to be a coding genius to use its superb UI-based proxy management tools. Full Review
- Up to 400 concurrent threads
- 99.9% success rate
- 50 global server locations
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If you want to scrape the web for data-based research or to secure the best deals, Zyte is simply one of the best proxy service providers you’ll find. The best part is, you don’t have to be a coding genius to use its superb UI-based proxy management tools. Full Review
4/5
4/5
4.5/5
4.5/5
Methodology
Using a proxy to hide or change your IP might seem fairly simple at first, but there are many different types of proxies and a huge number of competitors to choose from. That’s why we narrowed down the top options based on:
- Features: From online anonymizers to scraping APIs, different types of proxies need different features to be useful.
- Performance: You want a proxy to be able to do its job with a minimal impact on your connection speed and reliability.
- Ease of use: Whatever type of proxy server software or coding API you use should be accessible and easy to understand.
- Customer reviews: Feedback from real-life customers is key to getting an unbiased opinion regarding the quality of the product and service.
Individual Reviews
- Huge proxy pool of over 40 million
- Great apps, add-ons, and browser extensions
- Large number of pricing plans
- Powerful and advanced proxy features
- No SOCKS 5 protocol support
- No mobile or ISP proxies
Smartproxy is one of the best proxy provider services you can find for residential and business use. With rotation IPs, worldwide coverage, 24/7 support, and an impressive list of features, Smartproxy is suitable for your various needs.
Features
Regardless of what use you have for proxies, Smartproxy has one of the most impressive feature lists of all:
Types of Proxies
Smartproxy offers a range of different proxy services, including:
- Residential proxies
- Datacenter proxies
- Dedicated datacenter proxies
Locations
With locations in 195 different countries, not only does Smartproxy offer locations in nearly every country, but every city worldwide as well—some countries even have more than 50 IPs.
Rotating IPs
Smartproxy offers smart IP rotation, which makes it easier to web scrape, scale marketing, and automate your activities without any issues. It has a proxy server list with over 40 million IPs to rotate through.
Connections and Threads
All Smartproxy plans allow you to use an unlimited number of concurrent connections.
Available Devices
Unfortunately, Smartproxy is only available as Chrome and FireFox extension as well as a Windows and Mac app, Proxy Generator.
Traffic Statistics
Smartproxy lets you track your traffic usage in your dashboard with a helpful visual graph, but it doesn’t offer much detail.
Support
Smartproxy has one of the best proxy customer supports in the game, with 24/7 availability and response times of under 3 minutes for most tickets. Support can be reached via tickets and live chat.
Sticky Sessions
Smartproxy can allow sticky sessions of up to 30 minutes for datacenter proxies. For residential proxies, you can choose a session length of 1, 3, or 30 minutes.
Ease of Use
Because it’s only available as a browser extension, Smartproxy is very easy to use—all you need to do is add it to your browser and activate it. Its other software tools are also modern and intuitive.
Pricing
As a proxy server that’s paid, Smartproxy offers a huge range of packages for different types of users and use cases. All come with a 3-day money-back guarantee:
Residential proxies: $75/month to $400/month
- 5 GB–50 GB
- Username: password 1–5
Datacenter plans: $30/month to $500/month
- 100 GB–1 TB
- Username: password 1–10
Dedicated DC plans: $40/month to $320/month
- 25 to 100 IPs
- Unlimited traffic
Reseller plans: From $1,000/month
- 5 Whitelisted IPs
Unfortunately, there are no free options.
Customer Satisfaction
With a 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot from nearly 600 reviewers, it’s safe to say most are satisfied with the service. Customers are the happiest with the customer support provided.
Competition Overview
Where Smartproxy dominates: One of the best proxies for a range of affordable and flexible proxy plans for different use cases.
The Best Entry Point: With Pay As You Go, you can purchase 1GB for only $12.5.
Where Smartproxy falls short: No SOCKS 5 protocol.
Bright Data
The best proxy service for large-scale data gathering projects for businesses
Visit Website- 7-day money-back guarantee
- Access ready-made, real-world data sets
- Superb proxy management tools
- Dedicated mobile proxies
- Comparatively expensive and complex pricing
- My be too complex for everyday use
Bright Data is a business-focused proxy provider, with tools primarily aimed at making it easy to manage bulk operations online, such as in business data mining. Their software also provides a powerful, all-in-one interface for managing your proxy-related processes.
Features
Bright Data’s capabilities are uniquely tailored to helping businesses be more effective at finding and handling data:
Types of Proxies
Bright Data primarily offers data-driven proxy services for businesses. However, you can pick from a number of familiar and specialized proxy products:
- Residential proxies
- ISP proxies
- Mobile proxies
- Datacenter proxies
Locations
With a pool of over 700,000 proxies across more than 3,000 subnets, Bright Data operates in 195 countries across the globe.
Rotating IPs
Bright Data claims to have a massive proxy server list of over 72 million residential IPs across all 195 countries it operates in. Its Web Unlocker tool will even automatically choose the best IPs to unlock a certain online service for you.
Available Devices
Bright Data comes in a browser proxy extension for Chrome and Firefox, and the Proxy Manager tool is also available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Support
Bright Data offers 24/7 expert global support, and provides extremely thorough and high-quality documentation.
Uptime
Bright Data offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee to all customers on all its plans.
Tools
Bright Data’s software for proxy server configuration is one of the best. For example, you can change the user agent and customize your DNS. It also provides a suite of data gathering and organization tools.
SEO Analysis
Bright Data’s Search Engine Collector lets you find real user search results for any keyword, search engine, or search type.
Ease of Use
Bright Data offers specialized proxy tools for data collection, so it’s not for everyone. However, its software is sleek, modern, and features a fantastic UI. The documentation is also very helpful.
Pricing
Although it’s marketed as different products on the website, Bright Data essentially offers a single proxy service with a single pricing structure. Companies may qualify for a 7-day free trial but there are certain conditions.
- Pay-as-you-go:
–Data center proxies: $0.80/IP + $0.110/GB
–Residential proxies: $15/GB
–ISP Proxies: $0.50/IP + $15.00/GB
–Mobile Proxies: $40/GB
- Fixed plans: $500–$2,000/month
–Data center proxies: From $0.52/IP + $0.072/GB
–Residential proxies: From $9.75/GB
–ISP Proxies: From $0.50/IP + $9.75/GB
–Mobile Proxies: From $26/GB
Customer Satisfaction
With a 4.8-star rating on Trustpilot, Bright Data is one of the best proxy companies according to its customers. Almost all reviewers speak very highly of the customer support.
Competition Overview
Where Bright Data dominates: Bright Data’s proxy tools for online data collection are unparalleled.
Where Bright Data falls short: Pricing and usability are inaccessible for everyday users.
- 7-day free trial
- Static and residential IPs sourced from ISPs
- Reasonable pricing at high usage volumes
- No mobile proxies
- High starting prices with limited features
What NetNut lacks in tooling and specialized proxy services, they make up for in infrastructure—they leverage DiViNetworks’ existing data delivery and network management solutions that consist of 100+ ISPs and over 20 global PoPs.
Features
NetNut offers everything you’d expect from a well-rounded proxy service:
Types of Proxies
NetNut’s suite of proxy services encompasses the most popular types of proxies:
- Rotating Residential Proxy
- Static ISP Proxy
- Datacenter Proxy
Locations
NetNut is not the best proxy provider when it comes to global reach, but it’s also not the worst. It has network locations in over 50 countries across the world, and you can select state or city-level IPs in the US.
Rotating IPs
While not the largest, NetNut still offers a huge pool of 20+ million rotational residential IPs. The network dynamically rotates between ISP and P2P proxy IP networks.
Available Devices
Although there’s no dedicated NetNut software, it does offer a Firefox and Chrome extension with a variety of app integrations.
Support
NetNut doesn’t provide live support with entry-level plans, and the support site is lacking—while the support team is competent, it’s not always responsive.
Uptime
NetNut provides a guarantee to keep its proxy server online 99.9% of the time, but only for its data center plans.
Connections and Threads
NetNut allows you to use unlimited simultaneous connections or requests, which it can easily handle thanks to its 100 Gbit/s network.
Sticky Sessions
NetNut offers 1+ million high-quality static IPs that it sources directly from ISPs. So, these are highly stable and can be used for as long as needed.
Ease of Use
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get started with NetNut thanks to the sparse documentation and lack of beginner-friendly software. That being said, at least it’s not as complicated to understand as some competitors.
Pricing
The good news is that NetNut is one of the few proxy server paid providers that offer a 7-day free trial. Unfortunately, its pricing starts at quite a high price point, with the exception of its data center plans:
Rotating Residential Proxy:
- Bandwidth-based: $300–$4,000 (20 GB–1 TB)
- Request-based: $7,500–$25,000 (50 million–250 million)
- Static Residential Proxy: $350–$5,000 (20 GB – 100 GB)
- Datacenter Proxy: $20–$500 (20 GB–1 TB)
Customer Satisfaction
With a 2.7-star average on Trustpilot, NetNut’s feedback is quite mixed. The majority of negative reviews are regarding the high prices and quality of support.
Competition Overview
Where NetNut dominates: One of the best proxy servers for fast network speeds with connectivity bandwidth of up to 100 Gbit/s.
Where NetNut falls short: A lack of user-friendly and meaningful tools.
- Massive proxy pool with 100 million IPs
- Support for SOCKS 5
- Ready-to-go web scrapers
- No dedicated mobile proxies
- Relatively high pricing
Despite being one of the newest proxy server companies, Oxylabs is nearly unmatched when it comes to its wide variety of proxy services, which includes next-gen residential IPs and ISP-sourced static proxies. While the platform requires some technical expertise to get the most out of, it offers incredible web scraping capabilities with ready-made APIs.
Features
Oxylabs is one of the most advanced and wide-ranging proxy services on the map, and its features prove it:
Types of Proxies
Oxylabs easily offers one of top proxy services catalogs with a variety of proxies:
- Shared Datacenter proxies
- Dedicated Datacenter proxies
- Residential proxies
- Next-gen residential
- Mobile proxies
- Rotating ISP proxies
Locations
With IPs in virtually every country in the world, Oxylabs offers true worldwide IP coverage. It offers more than 11 million IPs in the US alone, and offers IPs even in Antarctica.
Rotating IPs
For normal residential IPs, Oxylabs users will get access to a pool of over 100 million rotating IPs. However, you can also opt for ISP IPs that offer even better efficiency.
Available Devices
Unfortunately, Oxylabs doesn’t provide much in the way of tooling. However, the web dashboard is superb, and there’s a Chrome Proxy Manager extension.
Support
Oxylabs has some of the best proxy provider support teams that’s available 24/7 and known for excellent technical support readily provided by its agents.
Scraping Deals
With a variety of ready-to-use proxy scraping tools and APIs (SERP, eCommerce, Web Scrapers), Oxylabs is a scraper’s dream proxy service.
Traffic Usage Statistics
In Oxylabs’ web dashboard, you can find a decent breakdown of your usage in traffic and requests thanks to visual graphs.
HTTPS Support
HTTPS support comes standard on all Oxylabs proxies, but you can also use SOCKS 5 for tighter security and more configurability.
Ease of Use
You’ll spend most of your time with Oxylabs in the web interface, which is sleek and user-friendly. Oxylabs also provides superb documentation to help you use its powerful integrations and APIs. However, it’s not really an everyman’s proxy service.
Pricing
Unfortunately, if you’re looking for the best proxy server for free, Oxylabs doesn’t offer any free plans, trails, or money-back guarantees. Most of its plans start at the mid-to-high pricing range:
- Shared Datacenter Proxies: $100/month–$1,000/month (167 GB–2+ TB)
- Dedicated Datacenter Proxies: $180/month–$6,000/month (100 US and 50 intl. IPs–5K US and 2.5K intl. IPs)
- Residential Proxies: $300/month–$5,000/month (20 GB–1+ TB)
- Next-gen Residential: $360/month–$6,000/month (20 GB–1+ TB)
- Mobile Proxies: $500/month–$11,000/month (20 GB–1+ TB)
- Rotating ISP proxies: $340/month–$6,000/month (20 GB–1+ TB)
Customer Satisfaction
Oxylabs has an excellent 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot from nearly 300 reviews. By far, its amazing customer support is Oxylabs’ most highlighted characteristic.
Competition Overview
Where Oxylabs dominates: One of the best proxies with an incredibly huge global proxy pool of over 102 million IPs.
Where Oxylabs falls short: A lack of low-cost entry-level packages.
- Free to use proxy
- Affordable VPN bundle
- Multi-platform support
- Licensed for up to 5 devices/users
- No advanced proxy capabilities
- Limited locations
Whoer is a free online anonymizer that offers proxy services via a number of browser extensions. Whoer’s real product is its affordable multi-platform VPN tool that also comes with proxy capabilities.
Features
Whoer’s proxy tools are as simple as it gets, prioritizing convenience and accessibility over more powerful features:
Types of Proxies
Unfortunately, Whoer doesn’t provide any information on the type of proxies or IPs it uses.
Locations
The free tier is only available in the Netherlands, while paid users also get access to servers in 21 countries, including the US and UK.
Rotating IPs
Whoer doesn’t have the ability to rotate IPs for scraping or other uses.
Available Devices
If you buy the proxy server that’s paid for and VPN service, you can install the software for Windows, Linux, and macOS. There are also mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Support
Whoer provides live chat and email support, but doesn’t make any guarantees regarding availability.
Extensions
Whoer’s free proxy extension and VPN tool is available for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Yandex.
Uptime
Unfortunately, Whoer doesn’t make any uptime guarantees.
Tools
You can find a number of free tools on the Whoer site, including a DNS leak and speed test as well as a port scanner, whois lookup, and ping. There’s even a tool to find your IP address tool.
Ease of Use
Thanks to it being a straightforward online anonymizer, Whoer is extremely beginner-friendly. What makes the best proxy server for free is that it offers platform-specific apps and a variety of browser extensions with a simple UI.
Pricing
Whoer’s online anonymizer proxy service can be used totally free, but you can only change your IP to the Netherlands, and your connection speed will be limited to 1 MB/s.
You can unlock more locations with the paid VPN tool, plus a license to use Whoer on up to 5 different devices:
- 1-month: $9.90/month
- 6-month: $6.50/month
- 1-year: $3.90/month
Customer Satisfaction
Whoer has a really high customer satisfaction rate of 4.2 on Trustpilot. Most think it’s one of the best free proxies thanks to its fast connection speeds and reliability.
Competition Overview
Where Whoer dominates: A range of platform-specific apps and extensions for up to 5 devices/users.
Where Whoer falls short: Doesn’t offer any advanced proxy capabilities, just an online anonymyzer.
- Completely free
- Support for SOCKS 5
- Very easy to use
- WebRTC blocker
- Not good at unblocking streaming sites
- Limited locations
Hide.me is one of the few services out there offering free proxy and VPN tools. Despite being free, Hide.me doesn’t display ads or log your data. Despite some limitations that are to be expected of a free proxy, it offers a solid service with reliable and fast performance.
Features
If you’re looking for a simple, cost-free proxy service, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn about Hide.me:
Types of Proxies
Unfortunately, Hide.me doesn’t provide any information on the proxy IPs they make available.
Locations
As is to be expected of a free proxy, the locations are somewhat limited, with only Germany, Canada, Netherlands, and Finland being available.
Rotating IPs
Despite being one of the best free proxy sites, Hide.me doesn’t offer the ability to set up rotating IPs with any of its proxy services.
Available Devices
Alternatively, you can use the free in-browser search tool.
Support
Surprisingly for a free service, Hide.me actually offers 24/7 support via live chat, email/ticket, or the community forum. The documentation is also decent.
Tools
On top of its proxy tools, Hide.me also offers a freemium VPN and other privacy and security tools, including the ability to disable WebRTC and support for any BitTorrent client.
Extensions
Hide.me can be installed and used via free browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, which are extremely user-friendly and straightforward.
Connections and Threads
Since it’s a free tool, you can effectively request as many proxy IPs as you want. However, there are no tools to view or manage multiple connections.
Ease of Use
As one of the best free proxies, it couldn’t be simpler to use Hide.me—with the in-browser search tool, find a proxy IP for the service you want to connect to, select your preferences and location, and click the “Go” button to connect via Hide.me.
Pricing
Hide.me is completely free to use.
Customer Satisfaction
Hide.me has received near-perfect reviews from customers, scoring 4.9 stars on Trustpilot. While most of the reviews are for the VPN, many love how easy to use and effective Hide.me is.
Competition Overview
Where Hide.me dominates: One of the few truly free proxy services.
Where Hide.me falls short: Doesn’t provide any information on the proxy IPs offered.
- Can bypass bot blocks and CAPTCHAs
- Free plan and 7-day trial available
- Easy to integrate with scraping tools
- Streamlined scraping approach
- Only really for web scraping
- No apps or extensions
As the name suggests, ScraperAPI functions almost exclusively as software for proxy server web scraping. You can just send it a URL of any site and get the raw HTML, without worrying about anti-botting or CAPTCHAs. The powerful API also effortlessly integrates with any scraping setup.
Features
If you’re a developer of web scraping tools, you’ll hardly find a proxy service better suited to your needs:
Types of Proxies
All of ScraperAPI’s proxy packages are aimed at web scraping. You can switch between data center and residential IPs with paid plans.
Locations
ScraperAPI offers a robust global network with IPs in 50 countries. However, geotargeting is only available for US and EU in Hobby and Startup plans.
Rotating IPs
A pool of over 40 million rotating residential IPs makes ScraperAPI one of the best proxies for scraping.
Available Devices
ScraperAPI doesn’t provide any extensions, apps, or tooling, but it integrates with a large number of coding frameworks, including Node, Python, PHP, Ruby, Java, etc.
Support
ScraperAPI offers round-the-clock live chat and email support, in addition to documentation that’s especially helpful for developers.
Scraping Deals
ScraperAPI is built for scraping, granting developers access to a simple yet powerful API that seamlessly integrates with most scraping tools. It’s also extremely easy to use thanks to the simple request-response methodology.
Uptime
Scraper API offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee to keep its proxy server online at all times.
Connections and Threads
While it’s not unlimited, ScraperAPI allows you to establish between 20 and 400 concurrent connections/threads, depending on your plan.
Ease of Use
ScraperAPI mostly caters to developers, so it’s not really for anyone looking for a no-code, UI-based proxy tool. That being said, ScraperAPI is about as easy as it gets to integrate a proxy solution with just about any scraping tool.
Pricing
ScraperAPI is one of the few proxies that offer a free trial as well as a 7-day money-back guarantee. It only offers one range of proxy packages with simple and transparent terms:
Hobby: $49/month
- 100,000 requests
- 20 concurrent threads
Startup: $99/month
- 1,000,000 requests
- 50 concurrent threads
Business: $299/month
- 3,000,000 requests
- 100 concurrent threads
Professional: $999/month
- 14,000,000 requests
- 400 concurrent threads
Customer Satisfaction
Based on ratings of between 4.3 and 4.7 stars from thousands of reviews on sites like G2, Capterra, and Crozdesk, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of users considers ScraperAPI one of the best paid proxy servers for scraping.
Competition Overview
Where ScraperAPI dominates: ScraperAPI offers a nearly effortless approach to scraping HTML web data.
Where ScraperAPI falls short: Only focused on scraping HTML data and doesn’t offer much else.
- HTTPS and SOCKS 5 support
- Earn money by acting as proxy
- Highly specialized proxy services
- Dedicated mobile proxies
- Not the largest rotating proxy pool
- Could do with better documentation
IPRoyal is one of the newest proxy server operators offering a full range of IP address solutions. On top of typical IP services like residential and datacenter proxies, you’ll also find highly specialized products like sneaker scrapers and dedicated 4G mobile proxies.
Features
While many are interested in IPRoyal for its sneaker proxies, it has a lot more going for it:
Types of Proxies
IPRoyal offers a large number of different proxy server products, including:
- Residential proxies
- Static residential proxies
- Datacenter proxies
- Private proxies
- Sneaker proxies
- Mobile proxies
Locations
IPRoyal has a presence worldwide in over 180 different countries, some of the top ones being the US (300K+ IPs), Germany (300K+ IPs), and even China (nearly 200K IPs).
Rotating IPs
IPRoyal offers specialized plans and services for purposes like sneaker scraping. You can rotate between over 2 million IPs as well as use a randomizer to avoid botting detection.
Uptime
IP Royal is so confident in keeping its proxy server online that it offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee on all its proxy servers.
Available Devices
The IPRoyal proxy manager is available as an extension for both Google Chrome and Firefox, while the IPRoyal Pawn app is a great way to earn money by turning your mobile device into a proxy.
Scraping Deals
IPRoyal actually offers a plan specifically for sneaker proxies. It’s compatible with the most popular sneaker bots, and they’ll prioritize using servers closest to your chosen retailer.
Support
IPRoyal’s customer support is available via email and live chat, while also being pretty active on social channels like Discord and Twitter.
HTTPS Support
Not only does IPRoyal offer HTTPS support, but also SOCKS 5 support, which will allow you to use your proxy much more securely.
Ease of Use
In general, IPRoyal is a pretty standard IP proxy service that can be used via browser extensions. While you need to be knowledgeable to take full advantage of it, it’s great that its sneaker proxies come with out-of-the-box compatibility with scraping tools.
Pricing
Unfortunately, IPRoyal doesn’t offer any free plans or trials, but it has a wide catalog of products at pay-as-you-go-rates:
- Residential proxies: From $1.75/GB
- Datacenter proxy: From $1.39/proxy
- Sneaker proxy: From $1/proxy
- Static residential proxy: From $2.4/proxy
Customer Satisfaction
IPRoyal has a very positive rating of 4.4 stars on Trustpilot from over 700 reviewers, most of whom are happy with the service and the IPRoyal Pawns program.
Competition Overview
Where IPRoyal dominates: One of the best proxy server options with affordable and flexible pay-as-you-use pricing.
Where IPRoyal falls short: A relatively small pool of rotating IPs.
- Free-to-use proxy
- Affordable pricing platforms
- Great, user-friendly browser tools
- No advanced proxy capabilities
- Limited locations
KProxy is a web proxy service for desktop and mobile browsers. While it offers free access to its basic proxy tools, paid users get more advanced features like premium servers, higher usage limits, and better performance.
Features
KProxy offers straightforward proxy features for those who simply want to browse privately or bypass geo-blocks:
Types of Proxies
Unfortunately, KProxy doesn’t provide any information on the type of proxies or IPs it uses.
Locations
With a paid KProxy plan, you get access to servers in five countries, including Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.
Rotating IPs
KProxy doesn’t offer access to rotating IPs.
Available Devices
What makes KProxy one of the best free proxies is the portable browser software you can install on your computer or USB stick to browse the web via a proxy server from anywhere.
Support
KProxy technical support can be reached via email, but it’s a very small team, so don’t expect the best availability or response times.
Extensions
You’ll find KProxy extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. They even offer an extension for Kiwi, an Android browser for mobile devices.
HTTPS Support
KProxy supports HTTP connections, while offering some added security in the form of a WebRTC blocker and IP leak protection.
Tools
Aside from its extensions and browser, the KProxy Agent software helps you bypass company filters.
Ease of Use
As a very straightforward proxy server software, there’s not much to learn about how to use KProxy. If you’ve used any similar tools before, you’ll find it a breeze. The portable browser is especially easy to get a grip on.
Pricing
KProxy is free to use for up to three hours at a time, or 300 MB. When you reach the cap, you have to take a break for at least 30 minutes. You can also only access two locations.
However, the paid plans allow unlimited usage as well as some other benefits:
- Basic plan: $5 for 10 days
- Premium plan: $10 for 30 days
- VIP plan: $30 for 180 days
Customer Satisfaction
Unfortunately, despite being one of the best free proxy sites, there are very few customer reviews for KProxy online.
Competition Overview
Where KProxy dominates: One of the most well-rounded free proxy server tools.
Where KProxy falls short: Collects logs on your browsing activity.
- Generous 14-day free trial
- Superb UI-based Smartproxy Manager
- Relatively affordable pricing plans
- Only suitable for web scraping
- Doesn’t provide much information on its servers and IPs
Formerly known as Crawlera by ScrapingHub, Zyte’s name might have changed, but it’s still one of the go-to proxy tools for botting or scraping websites. Thanks to next-gen rotating IP capabilities, it allows scrapers to stay ahead of anti-botting tools, and it offers a generous 14-day trial.
Features
Everything about Zyte is geared towards web scraping, including its various powerful APIs:
Types of Proxies
As a specialist scraping tool, Zyte mostly uses rotating IPs, with residential proxies also available.
Locations
Although they don’t provide details on the exact locations, Zyte’s servers are located across 50 different countries.
Scraping Deals
Zyte is simply one of the best proxies for scraping. It’s advanced rotational IPs are highly effective at penetrating anti-botting measures, not triggering CAPTCHAs or IP bans to begin with.
Rotating IPs
Zyte uses advanced rotating IP intelligence to stay ahead of anti-botting tools. If an IP gets blocked, it analyzes why and then automatically rotates it with another IP that shouldn’t trigger the same ban.
Support
Zyte’s outstanding customer support is available 24/7. Support is tiered, with entry-level customers only getting ticket support, and enterprise customers getting a dedicated account manager.
Concurrent Threads
Depending on your plan, Zyte allows you to make anywhere between 50 and 200 concurrent connections. Enterprise users can establish custom limits.
Available Devices
As one of the newest proxy server providers, Zyte’s Smartproxy Manager is only available for Windows. However, you can technically use its other APIs and browser extensions on any device supporting that browser.
Tools
Zyte offers an entire ecosystem of web scraping tools, including a data extraction service, smart browser, automatic extraction tool, and splash – a headless browser for scraping.
Ease of Use
While many web scraping proxies force you to only work via an API or a website dashboard, Zyte offers a more user-friendly experience thanks to its Smartproxy Manager with a graphic interface.
Pricing
Although it’s one of the top paid proxy servers, you can try out Zyte risk-free for 14 days with a 10,000 request cap. Most users will be interested in the affordable plans that come with the Smartproxy Manager:
Starter: $29/month
- 50K requests
- 50 concurrent threads
Basic: $99/month
- 200K requests
- 50 concurrent threads
Advanced: $349/month
- 2.5M requests
- 200 concurrent threads
Enterprise: $999/month
- 24/7 priority support
Customer Satisfaction
With 3.1 stars, Zyte may not be rated one of the best proxy servers on Trustpilot, but it generally gets 4+ starts on other review sites.
Competition Overview
Where Zyte dominates: Zyte’s powerful and user-friendly Smartproxy Manager is one of the best UI-based proxy tools.
Where Zyte falls short: Doesn’t really offer any meaningful proxy capabilities outside of web scraping.
- High uptime
- Rotating IPs
- Excellent customer support
- Only datacenter proxies are available
- Some features are available only in the paid version
Ghostealth is a proxy provider that’s been selling datacenter proxies since its founding in 2017. Its main purpose is to ensure constant connectivity, unrestricted bandwidth, and optimum performance from its changing proxy servers. This rotating proxy network has established itself as reliable and trustworthy, putting strong emphasis on customer privacy and security.
Features
Ghostealth offers a number of features that make it an attractive choice for those looking for a reliable proxy provider, including:
Types of Proxies
Unlike other services offering several types of proxies, Ghostealth only specializes in providing fast and reliable datacenter proxies.
Locations
Having a proxy pool of over 50,000 datacenter proxies so far, Ghostealth allows its users to access their services from different locations in 100 countries.
Rotating IPs
The Ghostealth proxy system is based on a rotating proxy architecture, meaning you’ll get a new IP address with each request, which takes around 500 milliseconds. According to reviews, Ghostealth not only grants you complete anonymity on the internet at all times, but also provides a fast, high-quality connection.
Support
On their website, customers will be able to find thorough documentation they can refer to for help. In addition, Ghostealth offers 24/7 live support, which users seem to be really satisfied with.
Uptime
Ghostealth offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee on their proxy servers, so you can be confident your connection will always be up and running.
Tools
The Ghostealth Proxy Scraper is a tool that allows you to easily and quickly find thousands of fresh proxies. The scraper is constantly updated with new sources, so you can be sure you’re always getting the latest and greatest proxies.
SEO Monitoring
Ghostealth’s rotating proxies allow you to track your search engine result page ranking and performance in real-time.
Ease of Use
The Ghostealth Proxy service is extremely easy to use—simply sign up for an account, select your subscription plan, and choose the proxies you want to use.
Pricing
The company offers weekly and monthly pricing plan options:
- Weekly:
Beginners (100 concurrent connections): $20/week
Advanced (200 concurrent connections): $36/week
Professionals (500 concurrent connections): $80/week
Experts (1000 concurrent connections): $140/week
- Monthly:
Beginners (100 concurrent connections): $50/month
Advanced (200 concurrent connections): $90/month
Professionals (500 concurrent connections):$200/month
Experts (1000 concurrent connections): $350/month
Customer Satisfaction
Ghostealth has a very high customer satisfaction rate, with most users rating the service as “excellent” or “very good.” This is mainly because the service is easy to use, offers high uptime, and is very affordable.
Competition Overview
Where Ghostealth dominates: one of the most reliable and secure proxy providers
Where Ghostealth falls short: offers only datacenter proxies
Best Proxy Server – Buyer’s Guide
Even though we’ve provided you with a list of what we believe are the top proxy servers out there, you might still have trouble making up your mind. If that’s the case, this buyer’s guide can help you pinpoint the best option for you:
Types of Proxy Servers
In a way, a proxy acts as a middleman between different points on a network. As you can see from our proxy server list, there are many different types of proxies for specific use cases. Here are some of the most important types and what they’re used for:
Forward Proxy
Used for sending data from a single sender to other recipients on an internal network. The server evaluates the data and decides whether it should be transmitted.
Public Proxy
This is a proxy server open for use by the public as a free or paid service. It’s the most common type of proxy that gives its users access to its library of IP addresses to mask their own.
Shared Proxy
Multiple different users can use a shared proxy at the same time, and they’ll all share the same IP address.
Residential Proxy
This is one of the most popular types of proxy server software out there that gives its users access to a list of IP addresses tied to actual physical devices. This makes it harder for a website or service to detect a newly connected user is using a proxy address because it looks like a real device.
Anonymous Proxy
Anonymous proxies make a user’s internet activity untraceable by the proxy server acting as an intermediary or privacy shield between the user and external points. There’s also a high-anonymity proxy that deletes all the user’s information before connecting to the target.
Transparent Proxy
This is the opposite of an anonymous proxy in that the proxy server passes on all the user’s devices’ identifying information, so these aren’t the go-to proxies if you’re concerned with online privacy. Transparent proxies are usually used to control network access as well as monitor the activity of users within the network.
Distorting Proxy
A proxy that simply obfuscates the user’s IP so it can’t be traced or used to identify the user by the target.
Data Center Proxy
As the name suggests, this is a proxy server with a literal database of IP addresses that it can assign its users. To a user’s ISP or the connection target, it will look like the user is connecting from the data center’s location.
Rotating Proxy
A rotating proxy has a pool of proxy addresses to assign a new IP to every request from a user’s device. This IP proxy service is often used in scraping and other types of applications so that the target doesn’t know it’s the same device that keeps sending requests.
Reverse Proxy
A reverse proxy sits in front of a server and intercepts incoming traffic, and then routes that incoming client traffic to the appropriate back-end applications.
SOCKS 5 Proxy
This is a specific proxy protocol that’s a more secure alternative to conventional proxy servers. It mainly works the same as other proxies, whereby connections are routed through a remote service to obscure the IP address. However, the difference is that you can build authentication into the proxy so only authorized users can access the proxy servers.
There are also other highly specific types of proxies, such as SSL, TOR, I2P, and suffix proxies.
How to Choose the Best Proxy Service
First of all, you need to determine exactly what you need the proxy for. You can use the list above to help determine the best type of proxy for what you’re looking to do. Keep in mind that many proxy services offer a range of different types of proxies, so you might be able to get an all-in-one service.
However, proxy services usually divide their plans into residential, data center, dedicated data center, and reseller plans.
That being said, there are a number of other factors you should consider too:
Features
As you can see from our review above, there are many different features to consider. The best proxy for you will have everything you need, including a number of IP addresses, security protocols, add-ons, apps and extensions, programming APIs, and more.
Performance
This refers to the network speed and bandwidth a proxy server is able to provide. Having many servers across the world results in better performance across a wider area, but it also depends on the quality of the servers and the network.
Ease of Setup And Use
Some proxies can simply be downloaded, installed, and used without any technical expertise, while others may require additional setup and configuration, depending on how you plan to use them. You should also take into account the user interface of the software for proxy server as well as the supported platforms (desktop, mobile, browser, etc.).
Support
A quality, responsive one-on-one support is important for quickly resolving any issues you might have using the proxy, especially if you’re using the proxy for business or professional purposes.
Price
Of course, price is always a consideration. While there are many free proxies, they usually lack advanced features or are complicated to configure. Remember that you get what you pay for so you should consider the price in terms of the features and capabilities you get. Some paid proxy servers also use a pay-as-you-use model, while others use a flat subscription price.
Customer Reviews
First-hand feedback from users can give you a lot of unbiased insight into the performance, support, and user experience of a particular proxy service. It’s important to look at what others have to say so you know what to expect.
Paid vs Free Proxies
We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the benefits, capabilities, and features of paid proxies. However, you might be wondering whether you’re better off keeping your money and just using a free proxy.
You can find many free proxies online, like the free proxy server list HideMyName. Basically, they give you a list of free proxy addresses with their IP address, location, port, level of anonymity, and whether they support HTTPS. You can simply plug these values into your browser, operating system, or the app’s proxy settings to set up your own proxy connection.
So, it still does the most important thing a proxy is supposed to do: hide your IP address.
However, there are a number of potential problems and shortfalls with free proxies, particularly when comparing them to paid proxies.
Here’s what you should know:
Inconsistent
Because they’re free, the proxy owner is under no obligation to keep it up and running for you. You can expect a lot of intermittent downtime for any number of reasons, even from the best free proxy sites.
Slow Performance
Once again, because they’re free, the owner isn’t worried about providing you with a quality service. Typically, free proxies are owned by normal individuals that don’t have the resources of a proxy business to provide fast servers that can handle a lot of load.
Ads and altered websites: Some proxy hosts make money by using their proxy to serve users unsolicited ads they wouldn’t normally see, or even altering the HTML or JavaScript of the websites they visit. As you might guess, this can have dangerous repercussions for cybersecurity.
Blacklisted
Unsurprisingly, many people use free proxies for elicit purposes, such as DDoS attacks or hacking attempts. Many of these free proxy server list IPs have already been blacklisted, so they won’t be allowed to connect to a lot of websites or servers on the web.
Data Privacy and Security
Another downside of free proxies is that no one is overseeing them or reporting on them to consumers, which allows proxy hosts to use their proxies as a lure for all kinds of malicious purposes. While a proxy hides your IP from others, the proxy server itself can see all your information that an outside party would usually see if you connected to the internet normally. This can lead to a lot of negative consequences:
-
Logging
Some paid proxy servers have strict no-logs policies, but free proxies are free to track and hold all your network activity.
-
Information And Identity Theft
A proxy server can see all the information your device provides or that you share online, including your login credentials for online banking, for example. The host will easily be able to steal this information.
-
Malware
Proxies can have malware embedded in them that can infect your computer, or they can redirect you to malware sites.
In 99.99% of cases, a paid proxy service should provide better performance and reliability than a free proxy. As a legit business, they’re also obligated to provide a safe experience, so they likely won’t serve you illegal ads, redirect you to malicious sites, or try to infect your device. What’s more, legit paid proxies usually have privacy and data-sharing policies in place, so you’ll know what data they collect and how they use it.
However, even the best free proxy websites may have unscrupulous actors offering their IPs.
Proxy vs VPN
Before we get into what makes them different, let’s see what they have in common—both a VPN and proxy are used to hide your IP address. Both the best proxy provider services and VPNs typically operate a large number of servers in locations across the globe in order to do this, so both can be used for private web browsing as well as obscuring your location.
However, there are important differences that determine whether you should use a VPN or a proxy:
Connection Scope
A VPN protects your entire connection, routing all apps that use your device’s connection to make requests through the VPN connection. On the other hand, a proxy works by setting up specific apps to connect via the proxy, while other apps will still make requests using your normal IP.
Protection & Security
Many VPNs today also act as an added layer of security, and even the best proxy servers won’t be able to match the security of a VPN in this regard. For one, your entire network connection will be encrypted, and some VPNs even have internet security features like malicious website/download warnings, anti-malware, etc. A proxy doesn’t encrypt your network or act as a security tool.
Price
Generally speaking, professional proxies are more expensive than VPNs—you can usually get a VPN service for only a few dollars a month. Conversely, proxies usually cost tens of dollars per month, although there are many more free proxy services than VPNs.
Session Length
When you connect using a VPN, you’ll get an IP address that will stay the same for as long as you are connected. However, a proxy can rotate through a set of IPs so that each new request has a new IP. This is one of the things that makes some of the best proxy options a better tool for web scraping, but a VPN is preferred if you need prolonged persistence.
So, a VPN is more of a multi-functional privacy and security tool that can prevent your network activity from being tracked or monitored (even from your ISP) as well as protect you from hackers.
Proxies, on the other hand, are more specialized tools. While they still provide a level of privacy and protection from attackers, they’re increasingly being used to circumvent location blockers, in scraping applications, or to control internet usage for employees or children.
Best Proxy Servers at a Glance
Here’s a quick side-by-side breakdown of our top proxy services:
Proxy Server Provider | Standout Features | Price | Ease of Use | Best for |
Smartproxy | -40M+ IP addresses
-195+ locations worldwide -Unlimited connections |
$29–$999/month | Good | As an overall proxy service for residential or business use. |
Bright Data | -72+ million IPs -99.9% uptime guarantee -Available in 195+ countries |
$500–$2,000/month
OR From $0.110/GB |
Great |
Best IP for large-scale data harvesting. |
NetNut | -Unlimited concurrent connections
-20 million IPs from over 100 ISPs -100 Gbit/s bandwidth |
$20–$25,000/month | Average | Best for bandwidth and reliability. |
Oxylabs | -99.2% success rate for residential proxy requests.
–Locations in over 195 countries -100+ million IP pool |
$100–$11,000/month | Average | Best for web scraping. |
Whoer | -Use on up to 5 devices.
-21 global locations. -VPN and in-one |
Free–$9.90/month | Great | Best for multiple users/devices. |
Hide.me | -4 country IP locations
-Chrome and Firefox extensions -24/7 customer support
|
Free | Great | Best free of cost proxy server. |
ScraperAPI | -40+ million IPs
-Up to 400 concurrent threads. -99.9% uptime guarantee |
$49–$999/month | Average | Best web scraping API for developers. |
IPRoyal | -2+ million IPs
-Up to 10 GBPS connection speeds -Available in 180+ countries |
From $1.00/GB or proxy | Great | Best IP for sneaker scraping. |
KProxy | -Download and use portable proxy browser -6 server locations -Portable browser proxy |
Free–$30/6 months | Great | Best for free portable proxy browser. |
Zyte | -Up to 400 concurrent threads
-99.9% success rate -50 Global server locations |
$29/month–$999/month | Superb | Best for UI-based web scraping. |
Ghostealth | – High uptime
-Unrestricted bandwidth -Large IP pool |
Weekly: Beginners – $20/week
Monthly: Beginners – 50/month |
Extremely easy to use | Parsing and bot automation |
Wrap Up
There are many things today that would simply be impossible to do without proxy software. However, whether it’s anonymizing your identity, carrying out large-scale data harvesting, or scraping sneaker deals, you need the right proxy for the job to ensure good results. The best way to make sure you make the right choice is to look over your options and use our buyer’s guide to zero in on the most suitable proxy for the job.
FAQ
In our opinion, Smartproxy is one of the top proxy servers you can use. It offers a range of different types of proxies with flexible pricing plans that will help you know exactly what you’re paying for. However, if you want a cheap service, there are better options.
Hide.me is generally considered to be the fastest proxy server on the market for most people, but the performance may differ based on your location and where you’re attempting to connect to. Because it’s fast, it’s one of the top proxies for streaming.
It depends on what you need—a VPN is better for a higher level of privacy and security, and paid VPNs are also usually cheaper than paid proxies. That being said, a proxy server is often the better choice for a specific application, like scraping, botting, controlling internet access, monitoring internal networks, etc.
There are plenty of free proxy servers and websites, and some premium proxy providers also offer free plans. Bright Data, Hide.me, Whoer, and Oxylabs are considered some of the best proxy server options you can use for free.