The Best Proxy Services of 2024

Making the best choice for a proxy provider is not an easy task. Fortunately, we have made it easy by combing the market and presenting to you the best proxy providers in the market for you to make a choice from.

Best Proxy Services


Overview: Best Proxy Service Providers


  • BrightData (Luminati Proxy) – Best Proxy Overall <Experts' #1 for Scraping>
  • Smartproxy – Cost-Effective Residential Proxies <Best Value Choice>
  • Soax – Best Mobile Proxies <Cleanest for Instagram automation>
  • SimplyNode – Residential proxies with excellent geolocation capabilities <Traffic does not expire>
  • Webshare – Rotating datacenter Proxies <Fast Scraping project>
  • IPRoyalEthically-sourced residential proxies <affordable, non-expiring proxies>
  • Proxy-Seller – Good Location Coverage <Best Private Proxies>
  • Proxy-Sale – Flexible Pricing <Best Budget Private Proxy>
  • ProxyCheap – Cheap Residential Proxies <Good for data collection>
  • Oculus Proxies – Cheap ISP Proxies <Good for session and account management>
  • Myprivateproxy – Best Private Proxies <Fast Dedicated IPs>
  • TheSocialProxy – Best 4G Proxy <For Social account management>
  • Shifter – Best Backconnect Proxies <Unlimited Bandwith>
  • StormProxies – Optimized rotating proxies <Budget Choice>
  • Blazingproxies – Optimized Sneaker Proxies <Good for Footsites>
  • InstantProxies – Best Shared Proxies <Good for Search Engine>

Have you ended up buying proxies from the wrong provider before? Trust me, I have been there before and can tell you how frustrating and draining that can be. In my own case, my project was ruined, time wasted, and money lost.

If you have not experienced this before, then just know that it is better heard than experienced. With the help of our proxy experts, you will not end up with a bad proxy provider again – provided you follow all of the guides in this article to the later.

Proxy Providers

It is no longer news that many proxy providers survive on hypes. That is, they are better at marketing gimmick than proxy service provision – and the result always ends badly for the end-users.

For this reason, we have done our research and combed the market to find the best proxy providers you can use. Our recommendations cut across proxies in residential, mobile, and datacenter proxy categories. Whatever task you need proxies for, you are sure to get the best for it in this writeup.


Comparison of the Best Proxy Services

As stated earlier, we did extensive research before we were able to come up with these recommendations. In all, we considered about 70 proxy services in the market in other to come up with the best 12 in the market,

SPECS comparison for Best Proxies 2024

Proxy Service IP Type Monthly Plan Price Proxy Protocol IP Pool Size IP Rotation
Brightdata Residential Starts at $8.4 for 1GB HTTP(S) + Socks5 72+ million Yes – time and session
Smartproxy Residential Starts at $2.2 for 1GB HTTP(S)+ Socks5 65+ million Yes – session up to 30 min
SimplyNode Residential Starts from $6 per GB HTTP(S) + Socks5 50+ million 5 minutes
Proxy-Cheap Residential Starts from $5 for 1GB HTTP(S) 6+ million Yes – up to 30 min session
Webshare Residential Starts from $7 for 1GB HTTP + SOCKS5 30+ million Yes – from 5 minutes
IPRoyal Residential Starts at $7 for 1GB HTTP(S) + SOCKS5 2+ million Yes – from 1 second to 24 hours
Soax Mobile Starts at $175 for 5GB HTTP(S) + Socks5 8.5+ million Time-based randomly
Proxy-Sale Datacenter  Starts from $1.5 per proxy HTTP(S) + Socks5 N/A No
TheSocialProxy Mobile Starts from €90 per proxy HTTP(S) 2.5+ million 1 min/ 10 min/ 30 min – after every request
MyPrivateProxy Datacenter Starts from $2.49 per proxy HTTP(S) N/A No
Shifter Residential Starts from $249 for 10 ports HTTP(S) + Socks5 31+ million 5 minutes
Stormproxies Residential Starts from $50 for 5 ports HTTP(S) 40K Time-based – 3 or 15 minutes
Blazing Proxies Datacenter Starts from $1.20 per proxy HTTP(S) + Socks5 N/A Yes
InstantProxies Datacenter Starts from $10 for 10 proxies HTTP(S) N/A No
NetNut Residential Starts at $300 for 20GB HTTP(S)+ Socks5 52+ million Yes – time and session
Proxyrack Datacenter Starts from $120 for 250 proxies HTTP(S)+ Socks5 N/A No
GeoSurf Residential Starts from $450 for 38GB HTTP(S) 2.5+ million 1 min/ 10 min/ 30 min – after every request

A lot of factors were considered, including but not limited to compatibility with popular web services, speed, security, uptime, and customer support, among others. Let take a look at the 12 proxy services that made it to our final Top Picks.


List of Details of Best Proxies Providers


Brightdata - Luminati Proxy - Best proxy overall

1. Bright Data (Luminati) – Overall Best Provider 

  • Experts' #1 for Scraping

Bright Data Proxy Networks is Bright Data Now, Now Give a $250 Discount for New Sign UP!

Bright Data for Residential proxy

In the proxy market, the Bright Data proxy service is king. We have tested their proxies for a range of tasks, and we can categorically tell you that they are the best proxy provider in the market. Bright Data (Luminati) has proxies in the datacenter, residential, and mobile categories.

While their datacenter proxies are not popular because of their pricing, their residential proxies and mobile proxies are quite popular. Their proxies are secure, one of the fastest in the market, and quite compatible with most popular web services. If you are looking for proxies for web scraping, then Brightdata's residential proxies are the number one choice.

Pros of Bright Data (Luminati):

  • Over 72 million IPs in pool
  • Excellent location support
  • 7 days free trial
  • Provide you 100 percent control over sessions
  • Compatible with all web services
  • Impressive uptime and service performance
  • Proxy API, Luminati Manager, and Chrome extension

Cons of Bright Data (Luminati):

  • Expensive pricing
  • Email support is slow
  • Not the easiest to use out there
  • All plans come with limited bandwidth usage

Bright Data Overview

  • Excellent Location Support

Bright Data has the best location support in the market. It might interest you to know that Bright Data has proxies in all countries around the world. In addition to this, it also has proxies in all states and the most popular cities in each country. This has made Bright Data have the best geo-targeting support that allows users to select and use proxies from specific countries, states, and cities.

  • Largest Proxy Network

Bright Data does not only have proxies in all countries in the world, but the number of proxies it has altogether is impressive. In all, Bright Data has a residential proxy pool with over 72 million IP addresses, a mobile proxy pool with over 7 million IP addresses, and over 700K datacenter IPs. No other proxy provider in the market that has a proxy pool as large as this.

  • Perfect Session Control

Bright Data residential proxies are rotating proxies – and for every change in IP address, a new session is created. However, Bright Data’s support for IP rotation is one of the best I the market as it has both high rotating proxies that changes IP address after every request and the time-based IP rotating that changes IP address after a specific period of time.

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Limited Time Offer:  First-time customers get a 100% match up to $500 in free credits


Smartproxy - Best Price-Performance Proxies

2. Smartproxy – Fast Residential Proxies

  • Best Value for the Money

Smartproxy Residential Trial

While Bright Data takes the seat as the overall best proxy provider, Smartproxy comes in as our best residential proxy provider, and this is not without reasons. They are as effective as Bright Data for most use cases, and they even surpass Bright Data in some of our tests. With proxies from Smartproxy, you can overcome IP-based restrictions in other to scale up your marketing efforts.

Not Just residential proxies, smartproxy also provides Dedicated datacenter proxies from the US, which allow you to have full control over your IPs

One thing you will come to like about the Smartproxy proxy service is that it has flexible pricing that accommodates both small marketers as well as big corporations. Creating an account and integrating their proxies into your service is easy – and they will quickly help you out if need be.

Pros of Smartproxy:

  • Proxies are premium residential proxies
  • Over 65 million IPs from about 195 countries
  • Flexible pricing for small and big marketers
  • Offer a 3-day free trial
  • Compatible for most proxy use cases
  • Integration easy
  • Perfect customer support
  • Provides a 3-day money guarantee

Cons of Smartproxy:

  • All plans come with limited bandwidth usage

Smartproxy Residential Trial Price

  • Flexible Pricing

With Smartproxy, you can get the best value for your money even though there is a bandwidth usage limit depending on the plan you subscribe to. One thing you will come to like about Smartproxy is that even though it can be as effective as Bright Data, you can get started with using their proxies for free, as opposed to Bright Data where you will need a minimum of $8.4.

  • Excellent Location Support With Large IP Pool Size

Another feature you will come to like about the Smartproxy service is their support for many locations. According to the information available on their website, they have proxies in about 195 countries, supporting almost all big cities. Interestingly, they match this up with a large pool as they have over 65 million residential IPs, which you can use without getting blocked.

  • Completely free tools & Apps

Smartproxy offers some fantastic free tools that help you easily integrate with their proxies, such as X Browser, scrapers, Firefox, and Chrome browser extensions. You can also get code integrations in 6 programming languages on Smartproxy’s GitHub.


Soax - Cleanest Proxy Pool

3. Soax – Best Mobile Proxies

  • Cleanest Pool for Instagram automation

City & ISP-Level GEO-targeting, Now Offer 100MB test at $1.99!

Soax Mobile Proxies New

Soax provides a mix of both residential and mobile proxies. But if you want, you can either pay for either of the two separately. Our focus here is on their mobile proxies, as that is where they really stand out. While Bright Data is the overall best provider and also offers mobile proxies, Soax is our recommended mobile proxy provider. The have proxies from many locations around the world.

One other thing you will come to like about the Soax mobile proxy pool is that it is one of the cleanest, and the pool is constantly being monitors – and bad IPs are removed to make sure you only have to make use of the good IPs in it. Soax is popular for providing unrivaled flexible payment plans.

Pros of Soax:

  • Flexible pricing
  • Easy to use
  • Has support for about 120 countries
  • Has a sizable amount of IPs in pool
  • Acceptable connection speed

Cons of Soax:

  • Free trial limited to only an hour
  • Pricing is expensive without considering its flexible pricing
  • High latency
  • Large Mobile Proxy Pool

One thing we find interesting about Soax is that it has one of the largest mobile proxy pools in the market. Currently, it has a proxy pool with over 3.5 million mobile IPs in it. While you might think of this as not large enough, it might interest you to know that only Bright Data has more mobile IPs than it. Most other mobile proxy providers have fewer IPs. This is because, unlike residential proxies, mobile proxy service is a new invention.

  • Flexible Pricing

Soax has one of the most unrivaled payment packages. From Soax, you can buy daily, weekly and monthly proxies from them. However, you need to know that this provider is considered expensive when you compare their monthly plans with that of other providers.

  • Compatible Instagram Automation

If you are into Instagram automation, you will know that Instagram is arguably one of the hardest nuts to crack as it is very effective in detecting proxies. With mobile proxies from Soax, you can get past the Instagram anti-spam system easily as they are undetectable. Aside from IG, Soax mobile proxies are 100 percent compatible with all popular SEO tools in the market. It has also proven to be perfect for web scraping, among other proxy cases.


4. SimplyNode – Non-Expiry Proxy Bandwidth

  • Traffic does not expire

SimplyNode Homepage

The SimplyNode service is actually a newer service compared to the other providers mentioned on this page. However, it started on a good note, having one of the largest pools of undetectable 50 million residential IPs. The IPs are ethically sourced and you have to abide by their rule of usage if you must make use of their service.

In terms of location support, it has one of the best location support in the market and offers you a proxy network that supports both rotating and sticky ports. It generally has one of the best session management support in the residential proxy market and its pricing can be said to be one of the cheapest in the market.

Pros of SimplyNode

  • Large pool of IP addresses
  • Extensive location support with granular targeting
  • No minimum monetary commitment
  • Support HTTP(S), SOCKS5, and UDP protocols
  • Bandwidth does not expire

Cons of SimplyNode

  • No free trial offer
  • Speed is slightly below average
  • Non-Expiry Bandwidth Offer

One way the SimplyNode service sets itself apart from the other services on the list is its non-expiry bandwidth offer. Generally, the market operates on a 30-day validity period with some extending it to 60 days or so depending on the size of the order. In the case of SimplyNode, there is no validity period as your bandwidth remains for as long as you didn’t consume it.

  • List of Blocked Sites

I mentioned earlier that it is ethical in their dealings. One of the ways it affects this is that there are some lists of websites blocked by default to be on the safer side. You can’t use their proxy network to access government domains, financial services, and some news websites. These restrictions are in place for legal and ethical reasons.

  • Precise Geo-location Targeting

When you have a task at hand that needs IPs from a specific geo-location, then the SimplyNode service is a great option as it can handle geo-location targeting precisely down to the city and ISP level. While you are at it though, you should avoid going too granular with your targeting, especially if your target location is not popular as that will reduce the number of IPs available to you.


5. Proxy-IPv4 — Best Private Proxy in terms of Rental Terms

Proxy-IPv4

Proxy-IPv4 has emerged as a notable player in the proxy industry, offering various proxy types like data center IPv4/IPv6 proxies as well as rotating mobile proxies and dedicated private proxies that boast low spam rate promises to allow accessing popular websites without the worry of getting banned instantly.

Proxy-IPv4 stands out from its competition by offering every kind of proxy server for at least three days without making an extensive financial commitment upfront. By taking this flexible approach to provide their services, users can “test drive” these solutions before making any major commitment.

Pros of Proxy-IPv4

  • They've got both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols covered.
  • They offer flexible rental periods, starting from just 3 days.
  • Their speed is fast, with a 99% uptime record.
  • They support both HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 protocols.

Cons of Proxy-IPv4

  • They may not offer specific locations.
  • Their rental periods can be flexible but might not suit everyone.
  • Support of both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols

Proxy-IPv4 stands out among its competition with its support for both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, making the service truly universal in that aspect. Please take note: not all websites support the latter protocol so before purchasing these proxies it would be wise to verify compatibility before doing so.

  • Random Subnet Issuance

Proxy-IPv4's unique automated system randomly chooses from 200 subnets per location when fulfilling orders to help prevent you from getting banned due to subnet issues. This makes the ordering experience stress-free!


6. Webshare – Rotating Datacenter proxies

  • Fast Scraping Projects

Webshare Image

Webshare is a proxy provider not very popular among paid proxy users – a good number of proxy users make use of them because of their free proxy services. However, if you actually want to unleash the power of Webshare, then you need to become a paid user.

One thing you will enjoy when using their proxies is that you will enjoy one of the cheapest pricing you can get in the market. Interestingly, their proxies are rotating proxies that you can use for quick scraping projects that involve scraping websites that are effective in detecting proxies.

Pros of Webshare:

  • Pricing is very cheap
  • Free trial available
  • Easy to set up

Cons of Webshare:

  • Location support not great
  • Higher latency
  • Easily get detected by effective anti-spam systems

Webshare Rotating Datacenter proxies Price

  • Rotating Datacenter proxies

Webshare is one of the few providers that offer rotating datacenter proxies. Unlike static proxies that you are given, a list of proxy is when you pay for a subscription, rotating proxies only provide you gateway to a proxy pool, and then the IP address assigned to you is rotated, making the proxies perfect for web scraping and crawling.

  • Cheap Pricing

Another major feature that makes this provider stands out is its pricing. Unlike other providers, this provider makes it possible for you to make use of working and secure proxies with a small amount of money.


7. Proxy-SellerBest Private Proxy in terms of Location Coverage

  • High Performing Infrastructure

Proxy-Seller New

There is no double that Proxy-Seller is one of the best proxy providers out there. It has got proxies in a good number of proxy categories including private proxies, mobile proxies, and ISP proxies. The proxies of interest to us here are their dedicated private proxies which it is known for. The private proxies this service offers are of high quality with a low spam score.

This means that you can use them on popular sites including e-commerce and social media networks without getting banned at first contact except you give them a reason to. But that is not all. The service has got one of the best location coverage support and its flexible payment system is some of the things that have gained it many customers over the years. 

Pros of Proxy-Seller

  • Good location coverage 
  • Supports both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols
  • Flexible payment systems and rental support
  • Fast speed with excellent uptime
  • Supports both HTTP(S) and SOCKS5

Cons of Proxy-Seller

  • No free trial for new customers
  • Refund policy isn’t as friendly as you will expect
  • No live chat support
  • Good Location Coverage 

The Proxy-Seller service has got one of the best location n coverage among datacenter proxies. Currently, the service has got support for over 30 countries. This is a lot more than most of the other providers. Datacenter Proxies have a unique problem that stops them from supporting many countries because of the datacenter requirements. And Proxy-Seller has defy this to provide good location coverage.

  • Flexible Pricing System

Another pro of the Proxy-Seller you will come to like is its flexible pricing system. For this service, the pricing can be generally said to be affordable. But that is not all. The service has a flexible rental period. With this service, you can purchase weekly proxies. Interestingly, if you want to stick to them for longer periods, you can purchase them for months up to 12 months. Generally, the more duration or proxies yo purchase, the cheaper the pricing per proxy becomes. 

  • Multiple Subnets Supported

With Proxy-Seller, you are sure of a redundant network you can trust. It has got support for over 100 networks and over 800 subnets. This means that if the subnet you are in is blocked, you can be migrated to another subnet. If you purchase multiple IPs from them, your IPs are not from the same subnets. The bundle with has IPs from multiple subnets in other to make your activities more natural.


8. IPRoyalBest Authentic Proxies

  • Ethically-sourced residential proxies

IPRoyal proxy

In terms of authenticity, IPRoyal is the clear winner. They offer ethically-sourced proxies from their own residential proxy pool, providing an affordable solution for anyone who needs high anonymity and security online without breaking the bank. Along with residential proxies, IPRoyal offers datacenter and mobile proxies.

Their datacenter proxies are known for their fast speeds and unlimited bandwidth, making them ideal for streaming, gaming, and performing various automating tasks. IPRoyal’s mobile proxies come from a 5G/4G residential cellular network pool, providing unlimited bandwidth and auto-rotation options.

Pros of IPRoyal

  • Ethically-sourced residential proxies
  • Over 2 million IPs from worldwide locations
  • Affordable pricing with a pay-as-you-go option
  • HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 and dual authentication support
  • Sticky and rotating sessions
  • Non-expiring traffic
  • Easy integration and API support
  • Fast speeds and high uptime

Cons of IPRoyal

  • Average-size proxy pool
  • Ethically-sourced Proxy Pool

IPRoyal has one of the most authentic proxies on the market, sourcing them from genuine users that agree to have their IPs shared with others. This is why their residential IPs are extremely hard to detect and block – the goal of every proxy user looking for optimal anonymity and security on the web. The high IP trust score makes them perfect for web scraping, ad verification, market research, and any other online task where staying anonymous is a must!

  • Advanced Session Control

IPRoyal offers randomized and sticky IP options, giving you full control over the proxy sessions. With the randomized IP option, your IP address will change automatically after each request. With the sticky IP option, you can set up the TTL for each session, allowing you to keep the same IP address as long as you want, from 1 second to 24 hours.

  • Affordable, Non-expiring Proxies

IPRoyal is one of the most affordable proxy providers on the market with a pay-as-you-go option that allows you to pay only for what you need. And since the proxies are non-expiring, you can buy as much proxy traffic as you want without worrying if it’ll expire by the end of the month.


9. Proxy-Sale – Best Budget Private Proxy

  • Flexible Pricing for IPv4 and IPv6 Proxies

Proxy-Sale Homepage

Proxy-Sale is a versatile proxy service provider offering a wide array of proxy solutions designed to meet diverse online privacy, security, and accessibility needs. Their offerings include residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies, catering to a broad spectrum of use cases.

With a comprehensive selection of proxy types and extensive global coverage, Proxy-Sale provides substantial benefits for users seeking to enhance their online anonymity, access geo-restricted content, and improve web browsing performance.

Pros of Proxy-Sale:

  • Flexible pricing includes weekly rentals and discounts for longer terms
  • Strong location support with proxies available worldwide
  • Ideal for online gaming and streaming
  • Multi-channel customer support
  • Both IPv4 and IPv6 proxy IP addresses are available

Cons of Proxy-Sale:

  • Datacenter IPs are more popular than residential ones

Proxy-Sale Private Proxies Price

  • Diverse Proxy Types

The service offers a range of proxy types, including IPv4 and IPv6 proxies, HTTP(S), and SOCKS5 support. This variety ensures compatibility with different applications and use cases, from personal browsing to business operations.

  • Unique Tools for Marketers

The service includes specialized tools designed for marketing purposes, such as a ‘UTM Builder' for tracking campaign parameters and a ‘Keyword Grouping Tool' for SEO efforts. These features enhance the overall value of the service for users focused on digital marketing.


10. ScraperAPI – Best Proxy Solution for Web Scraping

  • Experts’ #1 Choice for Efficient Web Scraping

Get 5,000 Free Credits with ScraperAPI's 7-Day Trial – Start Scraping More Data for Less Money!

ScraperAPI – Best Proxy Solution for Web Scraping

If you need a comprehensive web scraping API and proxy management tool that automates the complexities of extracting data at scale, it’s time to move to ScraperAPI. Its smart proxy management combines datacenter, residential, and mobile proxies (from a network of over 75M premium proxies) to prevent blocks and bypass strict anti-bot measures, including bot blockers like DataDome and PerimeterX. 

Unlike traditional proxy providers, ScraperAPI offers an all-in-one solution covering every aspect of web scraping. Users get access to a full suite of scraping tools designed for both small and enterprise-level data collection projects with a pay-per-successful-request model, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses to scale without surprise charges.

For those looking to scrape complex sites like Amazon, Google, and Walmart, ScraperAPI offers Structured Data Endpoints (SDEs) so users can collect well-organized JSON or CSV data that is easy to analyze and comprehend.

Pros of ScraperAPI:

  • Smart proxy rotation between a vast pool of over 75 million IPs
  • Geotargeting support in over 200 countries
  • Predictable API credit-based pricing model
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Charges only for successful requests
  • Advanced bot-detection bypassing, including automated CAPTCHA handling
  • Built-in tools like SDEs, asynchronous scraping, and DataPipeline (a hosted scraping scheduler)
  • 99.99% success rate
  • JavaScript Rendering and browser instructions
  • Dedicated Slack support channel and account manager
  • Offers 7-day free trial with 5,000 credits

Cons of ScraperAPI:

  • Best for large-scale data scraping projects
  • Users need to have some familiarity with API integration

ScraperAPI New Price

1. Efficient Proxy Management

ScraperAPI’s smart proxy rotation system starts with datacenter proxies and switches to residential or mobile proxies as needed, letting you retrieve raw HTML from any website without the hassle of managing your proxies.

Thanks to this process, ScraperAPI avoids wasting IPs and reduces costs while maintaining high success rates – no extra work or setups are needed. It also offers country-level geotargeting for localized data collection, further enhancing its scraping capabilities.

Similarly, if a CAPTCHA challenge is encountered, ScraperAPI will disconnect the connection and immediately repeat the request with an alternative combination. These retries are free, as it will only charge you for successful requests.

2. Advanced Bot-Detection Bypassing

ScraperAPI utilizes machine learning and statistical analysis to detect and bypass sophisticated anti-scraping measures, like CAPTCHAs, anti-blockers like Datadome and PerimeterX, and JS challenges, letting you scrape tough sites like Amazon, Walmart, and Google at large scale.

Its smart proxy rotation system chooses the right proxy while generating headers and cookies to simulate real user traffic to maximize the chances of successful data extraction. 

3. Tools Designed for Large Scraping Projects

ScraperAPI provides an array of tools to handle large-scale scraping needs:

  • Its async scraper manages millions of requests concurrently with high success rates using a simple post() request, which will speed up large-scale projects.
  • DataPipeline allows you to schedule recurring scraping jobs through a visual interface or dedicated endpoints, allowing you to scrape up to 10k URLs automatically (per project) on autopilot, 24/7. This automation feature is particularly useful for businesses handling complex, ongoing data collection projects.

4. Premium Solution Without the Premium Price Tag

ScraperAPI is best known for its cost-effective and highly reliable solutions. Its flat-rate, pay-only-for-successful request pricing model ensures transparency and affordability.

For example, Unlike other major players that offer, for example, just 1,332,000 Amazon successful results on a Business Plan ($999), ScraperAPI offers 600,000 successful results on its Business Plan ($299), which is significantly more cost-effective than most competitors. The credit-based pricing system and absence of bandwidth restrictions allow businesses to extract vast amounts of data without incurring unexpected costs. 


11. Proxy-Cheap – Cheap Residential Proxies

  • Good for Data Collection

Proxy-cheap residential proxies

There is one thing I do not like about most of the residential proxy providers – they have a minimum monetary commitment and, as such, force you into paying for proxies you will not need. If you are like me, then there is a cheap option available – Proxy-cheap. This provider does not have a minimum monetary commitment, and as such, you can buy as small as a 1GB data plan. Interestingly, they have proven to be one of the cheapest options available in the market. The price per GB starts from $5 and could get to as low as $3 depending on the package you choose. Generally, their bigger packages come with discounts.

However, that they are cheap does not mean they are not of high quality. In fact, it might interest you to know that Proxy-cheap proxies are compatible with many use cases. In terms of location support, they have got proxies in about 127 countries and support country-level targeting. They have a pool of 7 million residential IPs with both rotating and session IPs.

Pros of Proxy-Cheap:

  • Over 7 million IP addresses
  • Good location support
  • Cheap pricing
  • No minimum monetary requirement
  • Easy to use

Cons of Proxy-Cheap:

  • No free trial option
  • Payment method option limited

proxy-cheap price plan

  • Sizable IP Pool

Proxy-cheap is cheap but has a sizable IP pool. According to the information on the proxy pool website. They have over 7 million residential IP address. These IPs are not concentrated in a single location but from over 127 countries around the globe. If you are wondering how they are able to have a network like this, the simple answer is – a peer-to-peer network, and that’s how most residential proxy service gets their IP.

  • Proxy Generator Support

The proxy generator is a tool for dynamically generating proxy lists. While they rotate IP addresses for users, in some cases, users will need a list of IP:PORT pf proxies to use. not many proxy providers have support for this feature. But with Proxy-cheap, you have an easy tool for generating proxy list effortless at no extra cost.

  • Good for Many Use Case

Proxy-cheap residential proxies are the proxies for many use cases. The proxies have been optimized to be stealthy and undetectable. These have made it perfect for a good number of use cases. Some of the popular use cases of Proxy-cheap includes market research, brand protection, SEO utility, ad verification, price monitoring, sneaker copping, and web scraping, among others.


12. Oculus Proxies —Best for Session and Account Management

  • Private ISP Proxies

Oculus Proxies ISP Premium Proxy

In the past, you wouldn’t find Oculus Proxies on this list. Recently, the service has rebranded and moved its focus from being a sneaker proxy service to a general proxy service with proxies in multiple categories including ISP and datacenter proxies. The main proxy of choice here is the ISP premium which is a static residential proxy service. It offers only static IPs and the IPs are private — only for your usage.

This provides you with the best performance since you aren’t sharing the proxies with anyone. As of the point of writing this article, the download speed recorded was 43.86 Mbps with an upload speed of 47.93 Mbps, making it one of the fastest ISP proxies out there. However, you only have access to US IP addresses which makes it a bad choice for those who need IPs from specific countries.

Pros of Oculus Proxies:

  • Undetectable IP addresses
  • High performance and speed
  • Support multiple protocols (HTTP(S) and SOCKS5)
  • Long duration session support
  • Free trial offered

Cons of Oculus Proxies:

  • Refund policy is not friendly
  • Username and password authentication are not supported
  • There is a consumable bandwidth cap

Oculus Proxies ISP Proxy Price

  • Excellent Session Duration

The IP addresses offered by this service are static IP addresses. The proxy is offered with the IP address as the host and this does not get changed. This means that left to them, you can maintain the session for as long as you want provided your target site permits. This makes it great for managing accounts on social media and e-commerce platforms, among others.

  • High Performance (Speed)

Oculus Proxies, especially their ISP premium proxies are some of the top performers, especially when it comes to speed. The ping rate recorded was 73 ms which gives an enjoyable streaming experience. You can use their proxies to unblock and stream Netflix US and other streaming services. It is also good for playing online games.

  • Ease of Usage

The website has been designed to be simple and minimalistic. The service supports only IP authentication which makes it easier for you to use their proxies without using a username and password for authentication. It even has support for auto-IP detection. You only need to go through a few steps to get the proxy details and there is a customer support team available to help you if you have any issues to be resolved.


13. MyPrivateProxy – Best Private Proxies

  • Fast Dedicated IPs

myprivateproxy for iPlayer

From the above, we already have the overall best provider, which is Bright Data, the best residential provider which is Smartproxy, and the best mobile provider – Soax. When it comes to the datacenter proxy service, then MyPrivateProxy is considered the best provider, especially when you consider their private proxies.

Interestingly, their private proxies are considered some of the fastest dedicated IPs in the market. With this provider, you will enjoy the maximum speed you can expect from a proxy service. But this not all; MyPrivateProxy has other pecks and strengths that other providers do not. It is also one of the easiest proxy services to use in the market.

Pros of MyPrivateProxy:

  • Fast dedicated IPs
  • Diverse packages of private proxies for sneaker copping, ticket scalping, and Pokemon.
  • Supports many locations
  • Responsive customer support
  • Supports both username/password authentication and IP whitelisting

Cons of MyPrivateProxy:

  • Not the cheapest out there
  • Does not support Socks proxies
  • No free trial supported

MyPrivateProxy Plan

  • Offers Specialized Proxies

Datacenter proxies are notorious for their unreliable nature as they easily get detected by most web services. For this reason, unless a private proxy is labeled specialized for some special use cases, you are better off not using them for that. MyPrivateProxy has special proxies for some special use cases, including sneaker sites, ticketing, and catching Pokemon. For these purposes, their general private proxies won’t work. These special proxies are considered dedicated proxies by MyPrivateProxy.

  • Green Servers

There has been an increasing demand for individuals and businesses, and government agencies to consider earth-friendly option when varying out their activities. MyPrivateProxy is one of the web services that take this upon itself to make sure that it is earth-friendly. Some of the MyPrivateProxy servers are powered by wind energy, which is considered green and earth-friendly.

  • Supports Many Locations

Unlike residential proxy services that all you need to have proxies in a location is have Internet users in such location to join your proxy peer network, datacenter proxy provider need to have data centers in most cases or partners with datacenter centers in the location they support. For this reason, most private proxy providers only support a few locations. MyPrivateProxy is one of the few providers that have support for a good number of locations. MyPrivatProxy has support for locations in North America (US and Canada) as well as some locations in Europe.


14. TheSocialProxy - Best 4G Proxy in the Market

  • For social account management

SocialProxy homepage

When it comes to 4G proxies, then you will have to give it up to TheSocialProxy as it has proven to be the best in that regard. While there are many providers before it, it has been about to provide proxies with unrivalled quality in the 4G proxy space. This is not unconnected to the fact that while most providers utilize P2P networks to get IPs, it makes use of 4G modems under its control to provide you IPs and that has given it an edge.

Interestingly, the proxies have proven to be some of the best for social media automation as they have been engineered specifically for Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest. You will enjoy high speed and wouldn’t experience blocks as you would when using some of the other mobile proxies in the market. Of late, TheSocialProxy has been improving, providing support for changing of location even after paying for a subscription - a feature not supported in the past.

Pros of TheSocialProxy:

  • IPs sourced from owned equipment
  • Superfast speed when compared to others
  • Simple pricing model
  • Good customer support
  • Developed specifically for social media management

Cons of TheSocialProxy:

  • Only 3 countries are supported
  • Only username and password authentication is supported

thesocialproxy price + loaction

  • Owned IP Sources

In  a bid to cut the cost of setting up and managing mobile devices for proxies, many providers have opted for P2P networks to source for IPs. With this model, providers do not have control over the performance and even the availability of IPs in their pool. In the case of TheSocialProxy, it does not make use of such – it uses its own modems, giving it control over availability and performance, making it possible for them to offer static mobile IPs for a while.

  • Optimised for Social Media Platforms

It is no longer news that social media platforms are some of the most effective at detecting proxies. Take, for instance, Instagram is effective at detecting most proxies in the market including some mobile proxies. It was because of this that the TheSocialProxy has been developed – to provide you proxies that can evade Instagram anti-spam system. It does work with all other social media platforms and integrates well with all popular social media automation tools.

  • Simple Pricing Model

At first, the €90 per proxy price looks expensive but aside from this, the system is simple since all you are saying for is a port and you can use as many IPs as you want as it does have support for IP rotation. Interestingly, it does allow you to enjoy unlimited bandwidth usage too. This makes it the perfect proxies for tasks that consume a lot of bandwidth.


15. Shifter – Best Backconnect Proxies

  • Unlimited Bandwidth

Shifter Backconnect Residential Proxies for Scraping

Residential proxy services are known to price their services based on bandwidth usage. If you are looking for a residential proxy service where you can enjoy unlimited bandwidth usage, then the Shifter backconnect proxies are the way to way to go. Just like the other residential proxies discussed above, Shifter proxies are rotating proxies.

Shifter’s IP rotation is time-based and the IP address assigned to each of their ports changes after every 5 minutes. Very important to mention is the fact that they have one of the largest proxy pool in the market. They currently have over 31 million IP addresses. For those not aware, Shifter has been in the market for a while as Microleaves since 2012.

Pros of Shifter:

  • Unlimited bandwidth usage support
  • Large proxy pool with good location support
  • Perfect for all proxy use cases
  • Decent Pricing

Cons of Shifter:

  • Speed is a little bit slow when compared with others
  • Restrict access to some sites, including Amazon
  • Customer support is slow

Shifter Residential Plans for Everyone

  • Unlimited Bandwidth Usage

If there is one reason why this Shifter is one this list, then that has to be because of its unlimited bandwidth usage support. Most premium providers price their proxies based on bandwidth usage, and this can make holes in your pocket if the tasks you need proxies for consume a sizable amount of bandwidth. If you know that you require proxies for streaming purposes or other tasks that require much bandwidth, then Shifter can help you save money.

  • Numerous Use Cases

Just like the other proxies discussed above, Shifter proxies can be used for a good number of tasks. It might interest you to know that you can use Shifter proxies for many tasks, including price comparison, ad verification, SEO, sales intelligence, web testing, brand protection, and online shopping, among other tasks. However, it is important I stress here that Shifter blocks its users from using Amazon and a few other web services by default – you will need to contact them and agree to stick to their guidelines first.

  • Large Proxy Pool

If you visit the Shifter website, you will see that they claim to be the largest proxy network in the market. As someone that has been in the market for a while, I know this is just a marketing gimmick as other providers such as Bright Dataand Smartproxy have more IPs in their pool than Shifter. However, they are still one of the largest proxy networks as they have over 30 million residential IPs.


16. Stormproxies – Optimized Rotating Proxies

  • Budget Choice

Storm Proxies Reverse Backconnect Premium Rotating Proxy Stormproxies cannot be said to be in the same league as the other providers discuss above as it lags behind in some areas, including location support and the number of IPs they have in their pool. However, if you are on a tight budget and you are looking for ways to cut costs, then the Stormproxies residential rotating proxies should be one of the options you should consider.

They have been optimized for a good number of task, which includes SEO, ad verification, web scraping, brand protection, price intelligence, and bulk account creation, among other tasks. Their proxies change the IP assigned to them after every 5 minutes. Interestingly, they allow users to enjoy unlimited bandwidth usage.

Pros of Stormproxies:

  • Cheap pricing
  • Unlimited bandwidth usage
  • Good for many use cases
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Have different packages for special use cases

Cons of Stormproxies:

  • Username/password authentication not supported
  • IP pool size is small
  • Limited geo-targeting options
  • Socks proxies not supported

Storm Proxie Plans

  • Affordable and Cheap

If you ask me, the major selling point of Stormproxies in the pool of other proxy providers is their pricing. They are incredibly cheap. If you look at their pricing for their residential proxies, you will see that at $50, you can buy 5 ports from them. It might interest you to know that with this, you can enjoy unlimited bandwidth with them. Also important is the fact that even if you need a smaller package, they can sell port for you at a price of $19. Looking at their pricing, we can tell that they are geared more towards small marketers.

  • Diverse Proxy Packages

Aside from general proxies, this proxy provider also has support for a good number of proxy packages dedicated to special use cases. Some of the special use case proxies offered by Stormproxies include sneaker proxies for copping limited-edition sneakers, social media proxies for social media automation, and proxies for SEO tools.

  • Easy to Use

Stormproxies residential proxies have got to be some of the easiest rotating proxies to use. This is partly so because of the Stormproxies lean nature. Unlike other providers, you do not need to use username and password for authentication. Just whitelist your IP address, and you are good to go. This provider supports only US and EU geotargeting, and selecting proxies from supported regions is done from the dashboard.


17. Blazing Proxies – Optimized Sneaker Proxies

  • Good for Footsites

Blazing Proxies

Blazing proxy is a subsidiary of Blazing SEO LLC, a cloud-based solution provider with an interest in proxies, servers, and scraping. Blazing proxies are datacenter proxies and have proven to be some of the best datacenter proxies in the market right now. In fact, it might interest you to know that Blazing proxies are some of the datacenter proxies that can be used in sneaker copping, a market dominated by residential proxy providers.

One thing you need to know is that Blazing proxies come with unlimited bandwidth and concurrent thread support. One thing you will also come to like about this provider is that their proxies are reasonably affordable.

Pros of Blazing Proxies:

  • Reasonable pricing
  • 13 countries supported
  • Compatible with SEO and sneaker copping
  • Fast proxies with unlimited bandwidth and threads
  • 2 days free trial

Cons of Blazing Proxies:

  • Customer support is slow
  • Some customers do complain of bad performance sometimes

Blazing Proxies for Minecraft

  • Sneaker and SEO Support

From inception, Blazing proxies were not created as general proxies but proxies dedicated to some specific tasks. While you can make use of them for many of the proxy use cases, it is important you know that they have been developed specifically for SEO monitoring and auditing, as well as sneaker copping. It is important you know that for sneaker site support, they have only been optimized to work for sites that datacenter proxies can work for. The sites their proxies support include Footsites and Shopify sites.

  • Unlimited Bandwidth and Threads

Blazing proxies is one of the proxy providers that make it possible for proxy users to enjoy unlimited bandwidth and concurrent thread. Most of the providers in the market provide either unlimited bandwidth or thread – but hardly both. However, with a provider like Blazing proxies, you have the two freedoms at your disposal.

  • Supports Many Countries

It might interest you to know that Blazing proxies has support for many locations. Currently, Blazing proxies have support for about 13 locations, including the US, UK, Canada, and 10 more other countries. This makes it one of the best datacenter proxy providers in terms of location support.


18. InstantProxies – Shared Proxies

  • Good for Search Engine

InstantProxies for etsy

Instantproxies are one of the datacenter proxy providers that have become popular among proxy users. The popularity of their proxies is partly because of their cheap pricing. With their proxies, you can buy cheap datacenter proxies. One thing you will come to like about their proxies is that you can use them for a good number of tasks with SEO as the major tasks they are perfect for.

Instantproxies have proxies from worldwide locations. From this provider, you can enjoy unlimited bandwidth with subnet variety. Their proxies are high anonymous proxies and compatible with many sites. With Instantproxies, you are not just handed proxies; proxies are tested before being assigned to users.

Pros of InstantProxies:

  • Unlimited bandwidth and thread
  • Customer support is responsive
  • Very cheap and affordable pricing
  • 7-days refund policy
  • Fast connection speed

Cons of InstantProxies:

  • Locations of servers not disclosed
  • Does not have support for Socks proxies
  • Only IP authentication supported

Instant Proxies overview

  • Cheap Pricing

When it comes to pricing, you just have to give it to Instantproxies. I am aware of the fact that some proxies can be used for free, and there are even some low quality paid proxies you can buy for a few cents. However, when it comes to working proxies, Instantproxies has got to be the cheapest in the market. One thing you will come to like about Instantproxies is that with $10, you can get access to about 10 proxies.

  • SEO-Optimized

There is no denying that datacenter proxies have limited usage because of the fact that many of them have been flagged, and a good number of web services have them blocked when you make use of them as they are easily detected.

However, Instantproxies still have their place, and one of the areas that they excel in is in the area of search engine optimization research. With proxies from Instanntproxies, you can carry out SEO researches on search engines cheaply. However, they can disappoint when abused.

  • Ease of Usage

I have used proxies from many providers in the market to know proxies that are easy to use and the ones not easy to use. From my experience, I can tell you that Instantproxies are some of the easiest proxies to make use of. However, this is only true if you authentication via IP whitelisting. This provider does not support username and password authentication.


19. NetNutMost Innovative For Residential Proxies

  • Residential Proxies for fast data scraping

NetNut Proxy products

NetNut, a rapidly growing proxy service based in Israel, has earned respect in the industry. With its versatile range of proxies, including data center proxies, rotating proxies, static residential proxies, and unblockable mobile proxies, NetNut offers solutions to businesses across various sectors, like advertising, consulting, and internet services. NetNut promises speed, reliability, and anonymity that can take your data needs to new heights with their proxy services.

Pros of NetNut:

  • Over 52M+ million IPs in the pool
  • Worldwide coverage
  • 7 days free trial
  • Total control over sessions
  • Compatible with all web services
  • 99.99% Uptime, and Impressive Performance
  • Easy proxy management with a user-friendly dashboard
  • Affordable and flexible Pricing

Cons of NetNut:

  • Inadequate API integration documentation

NetNut residential proxies

  • Customer-Centric Support

NetNut places a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction, and their customer service reflects this commitment. When you become a NetNut client, you'll receive personalized support from a dedicated account manager, ensuring that your unique needs are met. With their multi-channel support system, you can expect quick and efficient responses to your inquiries. Clients consistently praise NetNut for their seamless and hassle-free experience when dealing with the company.

  • Lightning Fast Residential Proxies

NetNut provides 52M+ auto-rotating residential proxies and 1M+ static residential proxies that ensure seamless browsing and zero IP blocks. Prioritizing speed, quality, and anonymity, these proxies bypass CAPTCHAs and anti-bot systems without using U.S. peer proxies. Ideal for tasks from SEO to market research, they offer virtually zero failure rates and top-tier user support. Users can effortlessly navigate online, ensuring privacy and efficiency.

  • World Wide Coverage

NetNut is fast-growing, with an extensive coverage of over 1 million+ Static Residential IPs in their proxy network. This vast pool of IPs is distributed globally, providing businesses with extensive options for accessing IPs from various locations and countries. With such a massive IP pool, NetNut ensures that users can easily switch between IPs, allowing for seamless and efficient market research, ad verification, and so on.


20. Nimbleway — Best for Scraping, Botting, and Social Monitoring

  • Top Performer for Enterprise Users

Nimbleway Residential Proxy Page

Nimbleway is a data collection platform and infrastructure. This proxy network is quite diverse as it offers proxies in a good number of proxy categories ranging from rotating residential and private datacenter proxies. Its selling points include its highly anonymous network that isn’t known to many. It performs excellent well in terms of speed and scalability.

The proxies I recommend the most are their residential proxies. This is because they are elite proxies that aren’t detectable. For the rotating proxies, it uses an AI system to determine the best IP address to assign to your request at every given time in real-time to increase the chances of the request going through successfully.

But that is not all; it has millions of IP addresses in its pool, with its location support spanning all of the countries of the world. It is an ethical provider that requires KYC, and that is one of the areas users are not comfortable with. Its pricing is also considered expensive as spring starts from $600 monthly. However, this was intentional as they cater to only mid-scale to large-scale businesses.

Pros of Nimbleway

  • Large proxy pool with undetectable residential proxies
  • Extensive location support with granular geo-targeting options
  • High-rotating proxies with sticky port support for session management
  • Uses AI to choose the best IP address to maximize scraping success rate
  • In-depth usage analytics and usage data provided
  • Easy-to-use dashboard and API
  • Offer free 22GB after KYC to new customers

Cons of Nimbleway

  • Requires KYC
  • New in the market
  • Requires a minimum of $600 to get started
  • Cost-Effective Solution for Enterprise

For regular proxy users, the pricing for Nimble residential proxies is expensive since you need $600 to get started. However, if you are an enterprise or represent one, then it is cost-effective. This is because $600 will get you 75GB at a price of $8 per GB. If you consider what you get for $8 per GB in terms of features, reliability, and effectiveness, you will discover it is actually cheap for you.

  • Large Proxy Pool with Extensive Location Support

Unlike the other providers that take pride in mentioning the millions of IP addresses they have, Nimble is keeping its own private. But based on our research and the information at our disposal, we know they have got millions in their pool and can be said to have one of the largest pools in the market. But having a large pool is just a piece of the puzzle; the distribution in terms of location is another — and they got it right, too. They provide IPs for all countries and the most popular states and cities around the world.

  • Performance Beast in Scraping

The Nimbleway service is a web scraping platform — and its proxy wing was designed to support it. If you use their proxies, what you are using is a modern proxy network that has learnt rom the mistakes of others. For web scraping, you don’t just need many IP addresses, but you need them rotated at the right time.

Well, this provider goes further to tighten the loose end by using an AI system to determine the IP address to assign to you at every moment in other to increase the chances of your requests succeeding. It even prioritizes newer IPs it hasn’t assigned to you, so you get more newer IPs to use.


21. Proxyrack – Proxies for API Request

  • Support SOCKS proxy

Proxyrack – Best Residential for Multithreading

Proxyrack makes it to our list as one of the best proxy providers in the market, and we rank it as one of the providers you can use for sending API requests. Just like most other residential proxy services in the market, Proxyrack proxies are rotating proxies. Interestingly, they also have support for sticky IP you can use for account management.

While Proxyrack IP pool size is not breaking any record, it is sizable enough for the most task – currently, they have over 5 million residential IPs in their pool. However, only about 500K – 600K are online at any given instant. They actually provide this information, and I respect their honesty as other providers will tell you their total pool size.

Pros of Proxyrack:

  • Affordable pricing
  • Allows you to whitelist 4 IPs
  • Has support for HTTP(s) and SOCKS proxies

Cons of Proxyrack:

  • Can be slow

Proxy rack Pricing Plan

  • Excellent IP Whitelisting Support

Many proxy providers except those that have support for subusers do not allow more than one user to share the same subscription. In their bid to fight that, they place a restriction on the number of IP addresses that can be whitelisted. Take, for instance, Stormproxies only allow a user to whitelist one IP address. however, Proxyrack has one of the best support for IP whitelisting as you are allowed to whitelist one 4 IP addresses.

  • Good Location Support

Just like most residential proxy services in the market, Proxyrack gets the IP addresses in its pool from a P2P network – and this can be seen by the number of IPs active IPs to total IPs in the pool. Through the P2P network, Proxyrack is able to provide support for over 140 countries around the world. From these locations, it was able to harness over 5 million IP addresses.


Geosurf – Stable Proxy Network - Closed!

  • For Account Management

Geosurf Unblockable Residential Proxies Geosurf is another premium proxy provider on the list. It is one of the providers that you can term as highly stable as you can maintain a session for a considerable period of time before a session is forcefully ended by IP rotation.

Just like their proxies are premium and of good quality, so is their pricing meant for only those that can pay for them. in terms of pricing, Geosurf can be said to be in the same league with Bright Data as you will require $450 to get started using their proxies. While this is not a lot of money for many marketers, it could make a hole in the pocket of small marketers getting started. If you can afford to pay the price, then Geosurf is actually worth it.

Pros of Geosurf:

  • Good location support
  • Big IP size
  • Fast and compatible with many web services
  • Proxies are high-quality

Cons of Geosurf:

  • Expensive pricing
  • No free trial available
  • Email support is slow
  • Limited geotargeting option

Gerosurf Proxy Plan

  • Good Session Control

Geosurf has support for two types of IP rotation – time-based IP rotation and session-based IP rotation. Session-based IP rotation changes IP address after every request while time-based change IP address after a specific period of time. With Geosurf proxies, you can maintain the same IP address for either 1 minute, 10 minutes, or 30 minutes. Interestingly, you can also trigger a change before any of the specific periods reaches. With this, you can use Geosurf for account management.

  • Good Location Support

When it comes to location support, we can say that geosurf has good support. This is because it has support for about 130 countries. Even though one can say it supports fewer countries when compared to Bright Data and Smartproxy, there is no denying that the countries are the popular countries among proxy users. In terms of city support, Geosurf has support for over 2000 cities.

  • Dedicated Account Manager

When it comes to customer support, you will get it in its premium form when you make use of Geosurf. This is because Geosurf assigns dedicated account managers to their customers. This makes it easier for you to get help when you need it.


What is a Proxy?

Proxy servers are otherwise known simply as proxies, are servers that act as an intermediary between clients’ computers and web servers on the Internet. Without using a proxy server, all web requests you send go straight to the intended website except your ISP or network operator modifies it – by the way, network operators such as the WI-FI you connect to can also be seen as proxies too.

However, when you are using a proxy server, the working mechanism becomes different. With a proxy server, your requests do not go to the intended website directly. They are routed through the proxy server, which then routes it to the intended website.

Before being routed, modifications are made, and your IP address bundled with the request is replaced with either the IP address of the proxy server or an arbitrary one. By doing this, your real IP address is hidden, and this comes with a lot of opportunities. You can see proxies as fronts Internet users use as shields to hide their real IP footprints online.


The question of the legality of proxies has to be on a per-country basis. However, on a general level, proxies are completely legal. It might interest you to know that most of the popular businesses make use of them.

If you are in the US, you need to know that there is no law that makes creating or using a proxy server illegal. For some countries, the use of proxies could be completely illegal, and you will have to face the wrath of the law if you are found wanting. In many others, the use of proxies becomes illegal if you use it to access a web server that has been blocked in that country.

So, while proxies are legal on a general basis – it could be illegal depending on your location and what you need them for. I will advise you to seek the opinion of a lawyer in your country to help you determine when you will be crossing the legal line.


Proxy Services: What Can I Use Them for?

From the above, we stated that the major use of proxies is to serve as fronts to shield our real IP address. But why would we want to hide our IP address? It might interest you to know that web services make use of them to effect some IP-based restrictions. By hiding your real IP address, you can get as many IP addresses as you wish. If you are using proxies, you need to know that you are not alone; big corporations, research institutions, and government agencies all around the world are making use of them – even without admitting it.

There are a good number of uses you can put proxies into. Some of the most popular uses of proxies are ad verification, web scraping, brand protection, account management, price comparison, application & affiliate link testing, cybersecurity, and fraud protection, among others. Basically, you will need them to bypass any IP-based restriction and censorship.

proxy services use cases
Image source: https://luminati.io/static/IPPN-analysis-2019.pdf

Are Proxy Services trustworthy?

From the above, we stated that it helps hide your activities and identity from your ISP, web services, intelligence and marketing agencies, and any other eavesdroppers. Some proxy services even go further to encrypt your web traffic to provide you better security. In essence, they provide you privacy and security online.

However, while other web services that you interact with don’t know your real identity and what you do online when using a proxy server, the proxy server actually knows – they do know real IP addresses and the content of your requests. This now brings us to the issue of trust. Some proxy services can be worse than not even using a proxy service at all as they could eavesdrop on you.

Now, many proxy servers claim they stick to a strict no-log policy and do not monitor individuals’ online activities. But how can you trust their words when you do not have access to their code base and what they do behind the scene? I am sure you would not want to find yourself in the hand of an eavesdropper after paying them to protect you against the same eavesdropping.

For this reason, you will have to settle with a popular provider that security experts have put them to test rigorously and have heard a large number of users and organic testimonies. With a provider like that, you will just have to trust them to keep you private, secure, and not spy on you.


Proxy Buying Guide

When making a choice of a proxy provider, there are some factors you need to consider to make sure you the proxies you end up with works perfectly for your use case. Let take a look at some of these factors below.


  • IP Address Source

The most important factor you need to consider when making a choice of proxies is the source of the IP address of the proxy server. There are basically 3 sources – mobile, residential, and data center.

Mobile IP proxy: These are the newest among them, and the IPs used are owned by Mobile Network Operators – the ISPs of mobile Internet devices. They are the most expensive and perfect for web services that require mobile simulation or have a very effective anti-spam system. The most popular example of such services is Instagram.

Residential IP proxy: The IPs used are assigned to devices by ISPs. They are also undetectable and perfect for most use cases. Interestingly, they are cheaper than mobile proxies.

Datacenter IP proxy: From the name, you can tell that the IPs are sourced from data centers. These proxies are the least effective and can be detected easily. They are also the cheapest in the market, with some even coming with no price tag. They are only useful on sits with a relaxed antis-pam system.


Another factor you need to consider when making a purchase is location support. Many proxy users make use of them for location spoofing in other to access geo-targeted and localized data

While you can go for a provider that supports just the location you need, I will advise you to go for a provider that has support for many locations if you need to spoof your location to many locations. Providers such as Bright Data and Smartproxy has support for all countries around the world.

  • Number of Users

Some proxies are shared proxies, while others are private proxies. In the residential proxy category, you will most likely be sharing IP with other users using IP from the IP pool you are using. However, considering the fact that IP is being rotated, you don’t have a problem with another user ruining a particular IP.

However, for datacenter proxies that you buy proxies individually, you will have to stick to private proxies for better performance and reliability, Being that as it may, there are scenarios whereby you will need to make use of shared proxies to cut cost.

  • Proxy Protocol

The two popular proxy protocols are HTTPS and SOCKS proxy protocols. The difference between them is a little bit technical and beyond the scope of a brief buying guide like this. However, just know that most software that has support for proxies has the protocol they support.

You will need to make an inquiry to know from the developers of the software to know the supported protocol before making a purchase.

  • IP Rotation

Some proxies rotate IP addresses, and these are call rotating proxies. others maintain one IP address and are known as static proxies. rotating proxies are used when you need to send many requests to a web service but do not want the web service to know the requests are coming from one source.

Rotating proxies are perfect for web scraping and everything in-between such as price monitoring, SEO, and ad verification, among others. On the contrary, static proxies are good when you want to maintain the same IP address, such as in the case of account management and online gaming.

  • Special Proxy Use Case

While many proxies in the market are general proxies you can use for most proxy use cases; some proxies have been developed and engineered to meet certain requirements in other to work for specific use cases.

Some of the special proxies include sneaker proxies, ticketing proxies, SEO proxies, gaming proxies, and many others. If your need for proxies falls under any special category, it is better you purchase dedicated proxies for such use cases.


FAQs About Best Proxy Services


  • Are Free Proxies Safe for Use?

Free proxies are proxies you do not have to pay in other to use them. They are considered not secure, and your data can be stolen. Aside from the security and privacy concern, they are also low quality, very slow, and easily get detected by web services. You should avoid them.


  • What are the Best Proxies for Web Scraping?

The best proxies for web scraping are high rotating proxies. this is because high rotating proxies change IP address after every request. By rotating IP address, you won’t reach any web request limit – and no IP footprint is discovered.


  • What are the Best Proxies for Sneaker Copping?

The best proxies to use for copping limited-edition sneakers are residential proxies. this is because sneaker sites have anti-bot systems that are effective in detecting proxies, and you will need to use residential proxies that are not easily detected. However, there are some sneaker sites, including Shopify sites and Foot sites, that you can use datacenter proxies on.


  • What are the Best Proxies for Social Media?

Social media, with the exception of a few like Twitter, are very effective in detecting proxies. Instagram has been at the forefront in fighting the use of proxies and bots on their platform, and as such, the best proxies to use are mobile proxies. for other social media, you can make use of residential proxies – residential proxies work for Instagram too, but you will have to be careful.

I need to let you know that when logged in, avoid using high rotating proxies as that would raise suspicion – in this case, using time-based IP rotation works best – if you must rotate IP address.

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