A proxy server is an intermediary server between a user’s device and the internet. The user’s request first goes to the proxy server, which sends the request to the web server and returns the result to the user.
Multiple types of proxy servers are available for use, such as forward proxy servers, reverse proxy servers, and transparent proxy servers. The most common types of proxy servers are forward and reverse proxy servers, with the forward proxy being the standard proxy server. Reverse proxy servers handle incoming user requests to ensure the server’s security and stability. Some proxy servers also use different types of proxies, such as residential proxy servers and datacenter proxy servers.
Using a proxy server provides anonymity and security through IP masking and firewalls. It also helps users access geo-restricted content and collect data from various websites.
The Geekflare team has researched, tested, and listed the best proxy servers based on factors like privacy, performance, price, IP pools, and security.
BrightData
Best for Public Data Collection
Bright Data proxy servers are user-friendly, efficient, and versatile. Unlike conventional proxies, which frequently have expensive setup costs and require extensive programming, deploying Bright Data proxies is comparatively easy, especially for technical users.
The platform offers varied proxy types, such as residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter, with a more than 99% claimed success rate. It provides tools like Scraper API, Scraping Browser, and SERP API to help with your web scraping tasks. Moreover, you can utilize datasets from 100+ domains that are essentially pre-collected data, eliminating your web scraping needs.
Top Features
- IP pool of 400 million+ residential IPs.
- Comprehensive tools for public data collection, such as Scraper API, Scraping Functions, and Web Unlocker.
- Supports third-party software integration.
- Real-time network performance dashboard.
It can be tried free for 7 days, and flexible pricing plans are available.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
With the flexible no-commitment plan, you can pay $4.00/GB as you use the service. However, other plans start from $3.50/GB.
👉Use promocode GEEKFLARE50 to get $50 worth of free credits.
Oxylabs
Offers 175M+ IP Pools
Oxylabs gives you instant access to continually maintained residential proxies and proxy servers. It offers 100% anonymity on the web and smooth, effective, human-like scraping.
This service has over 175 million IPs worldwide, and the IP locations are from 195+ countries, with most of the IPs being from the United States. Oxylabs’ proxy services include residential proxies, ISP proxies, mobile proxies (3G, 4G, 5G), and datacenter proxies, with a claimed 99.9% success rate.
Using Scraper APIs like SERP Scraper API, E-Commerce Scraper API, and Web Scraper API, users can take advantage of Oxylabs’ proxies for different use cases. This includes pricing intelligence, SEO monitoring, email delivery and protection, market research, ad verification, and data gathering.
Top Features
- Web Unlocker, which is an AI-powered tool for bypassing blocks.
- Oxy proxy manager for Android and Chrome.
- Scraper APIs such as SERP and E-Commerce Scraper.
- Datasets including company data, job postings data, and product review data.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
Oxylabs pricing starts at $6/GB for 5 GB for residential proxies and $1.20/IP for data center proxies.
Decodo
Affordable Proxies and Scrapers
Decodo provides access to over 115 million IPs in 195+ geographic locations worldwide. The platform offers features like rotating sessions, random residential IPs, geo-targeting, sticky sessions, automatic proxy rotator, and more.
Due to the affordable prices of Decodo’s services, it lacks some enterprise-grade features, such as datasets and development tools. However, with unlimited bandwidth and a beginner-friendly interface and setup process, it’s a great choice for individuals and small businesses to use as a web scraping or SEO proxy.
Top Features
- Scraping APIs, including social media scraping and SERP Scraping.
- Decodo’s X Browser is used to manage multiple accounts.
- Browser extension for Chrome.
- Proxy Checker for testing proxies.
- Supporting SOCKS5 protocol.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
Decodo’s residential proxies start at $2/GB, while data center proxies start at 0.02/IP.
Webshare
Cheap Proxy
Webshare is an affordable proxy and proxy server provider. It primarily offers residential and datacenter proxies. Moreover, it provides a service called Verified Proxy that combines the reliability of residential proxies with the features of datacenter proxies.
Webshare offers 10 free IPs with no credit card required, allowing users a short trial. However, the platform has a small IP pool of 400,000+ IPs from 50+ countries, significantly lower than well-known proxy providers. Moreover, customer support is only accessible through email, and there is no live chat option.
Top Features
- 10 free proxy IPs without a credit card.
- Verified Proxies for both Residential and Datacenter features.
- SOCKS5 and HTTP proxies.
- Proxy extension for Chrome.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
You can get 10 proxies for free, and a paid subscription starts at $2.99, which includes 100 proxies.
IPRoyal
Easy to Get Started
IPRoyal offers access to various proxy servers at very affordable prices. Thanks to the excellent 24/7 customer support and easy setup process, IPRoyal is a good option for beginners. However, the performance and speed are inconsistent, and users often encounter hiccups.
IPRoyal provides tools, such as a proxy tester, an online proxy checker, and browser extensions, for a straightforward proxy experience. However, with a 32 million+ IP pool, it lags the largest proxy providers in terms of quantity and diversity of IPs.
Top Features
- Rotating and static residential proxies.
- IPv6 subnet leasing service.
- Google Chrome and Firefox browser extensions.
- Proxy Tester.
- Online Proxy Checker.
- All-in-one dashboard.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
The pricing for IPRoyal’s residential proxies starts from $1.75/GB. Additionally, ISP and datacenter proxies are available for $1.80/proxy and $1.39/proxy, respectively.
MarsProxies
Offers Sneaker Copping Proxies
MarsProxies provides SOCKS5 residential proxy servers with dual authentication for maximum online security and privacy. These proxies are ethically sourced from genuine residential users and ISPs, making them difficult to detect. Furthermore, MarsProxies provides sneaker copping proxies dedicated to sneaker websites so users can get their hands on limited-edition sneakers.
You can also select sticky sessions in the user-friendly dashboard, and the platform provides unlimited bandwidth.
MarsProxies offers private data center and ISP proxies, SOCKS5 support, and a claimed 99.99% uptime for a fast, smooth, and secure connection.
Top Features
- SOCKS5 protocol for proxies.
- Rotating and sticky sessions.
- Geo-targeting cities and states.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
MarsProxies’ residential proxies start at $3.49/GB, while dedicated datacenter proxies start at $0.89/proxy.
Proxy-Seller
Best for Personal Use
Proxy-Seller sells private HTTPs and SOCKS5 proxies. It offers Datacenter IPv4, Datacenter IPv6, ISP, residential, and mobile proxies. With a dedicated channel of up to 1 Gb/s and proxies selected from 800 different subnets, Proxy-Seller provides fast and diverse proxy services.
The proxy servers are available in 220+ countries and can be used for cases such as web scraping.
Top Features
- IPv4 and IPv6 datacenter proxies.
- Proxy Checker and Proxy Scanner.
- Online IP tracing tool.
- Proxies optimized for gaming, sneaker websites, and more.
- 800 subnets and 400+ networks.
- 24-hour refund and replacement policy.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
Proxy-Seller benefits from a flexible pricing system, but the cost is higher than other options. Residential proxies are available in a wide range of plans, starting at $3.5 for 1 GB in the pay-as-you-go plan to $220/month for 100 GB.
NetNut
Offers Customization for Optimal Performance
NetNut focuses on providing valuable tools like Website Unblocker and APIs for web data extraction. These tools help users with web scraping and customizing the data collection experience.
The platform includes a system that maps an identifier to your IP. Using this unique identifier, you can define your Static IP address. Netnut’s services include 85 million+ residential IPs in 195 countries, 5 million+ mobile IPs across 100 countries, 1 million+ static IPs, and 150,000+ datacenter IPs.
Furthermore, the server provides a unique IP per browser session that integrates into any browser. Along with the dashboard access, all your usage statistics are made available in almost real-time for retrieval via a simple API.
Top Features
- Allows for geo-targeting cities and states.
- CAPTCHA-solving technology provided.
- Includes a Website Unlocker.
- Provides LinkedIn Scraper API and SERP Scraper API.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
NetNut’s rotating residential proxies start at $3/GB ($84/month for 28 GB). However, the plans are mostly suitable for large companies and businesses, as the best prices are available on large packages that include over 500 GB of bandwidth. There’s a lack of plans for small-scale use cases.
SOAX
Best for Marketing and SEO Monitoring Needs
As a data extraction platform, SOAX provides web scraping tools and resources alongside its proxy services. The services include residential proxies, mobile proxies, ISP proxies, and datacenter proxies, with a claimed 99.5% success rate and 0.55s response time.
SOAX offers a Web Unblocker tool and social media APIs, which are beneficial for marketing and SEO monitoring. Users can utilize these tools to scrap Google and use it as a search engine proxy.
However, all of the proxy services are available based on data consumption, and the bandwidth is limited, making the services unsuitable for large-scale data collection.
Top Features
- AI-powered scraper provided.
- SERP, social media, and e-commerce APIs are included.
- Comes with a web unblocker tool for easy access to websites.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
Based on your traffic needs, SOAX’s residential proxies are available from $3.60/GB.
Shifter
Offers Unlimited Sessions
Shifter offers various proxy services, including rotating residential proxies, static residential proxies, and sneaker proxies. All the services are available with unlimited sessions. The residential proxy pool consists of 205 million+ IPs.
Users can take advantage of the Cloud Hosting feature to get ultra-low latencies with Shifter proxy networks. Moreover, optimized sneaker proxies let users get the most out of sneaker websites and purchase their limited-edition products.
Top Features
- Cloud hosting with claimed 0 ms latency.
- Web scraping and SERP APIs.
- Provides sneaker proxies.
- Geo-targeting capabilities.
- Supports multiple protocols, including SOCKS5.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
Compared to the other proxy server providers, Shifter has limited pricing plans that are mostly tailored to meet the needs of people with large-scale projects. The rotating proxy plans start at $2.10/GB for 10 GB.
Storm Proxies
Best to Integrate with SEO Tools and Social Media
Storm Proxies provides specialized and dedicated proxy services for various websites. In addition to residential proxies, users can benefit from proxy services dedicated to sneaker sites, ticket sites, and social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.
Using these services as SEO proxies, you can target a suitable website for scraping and monitoring with optimized features and tools. Storm Proxies offers geotargeting by country, region, city, or ASN.
Top Features
- Sneaker sites and ticket sites are optimized with proxies.
- Social media-optimized proxies.
- Unlimited traffic on all plans.
- Rotating and private proxies are provided.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
The pricing for rotating proxies starts at $21/month for 10 GB.
PacketStream
Peer-to-Peer Residential Proxies
PacketStream provides residential proxies via a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. This provides users with reliable and ethical connections. However, this approach is not ideal for large-scale tasks that require consistency.
The Packeter Program allows users to share and monetize their unused bandwidth to earn money. This allows other users to have authentic proxy connections and stay anonymous while browsing and data scraping. Furthermore, you can integrate and rebrand the PacketStream network and earn money using the Reseller API.
Top Features
- Ability to monetize unused bandwidth with the Packeter Program.
- Reseller API for rebranding.
- Peer-to-Peer residential proxy network.
- Includes Python, PHP, and Java integrations.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
PacketStream’s residential proxy service offers a flexible pay-as-you-go model that starts at $1/GB. If you decide to share your bandwidth, you can earn $0.10/GB. Moreover, you can request a free trial to test the services.
Proxyrack
Offers UDP Proxies
Proxyrack provides residential and datacenter proxies with IPs from 140+ countries worldwide. Both proxy services support HTTP, SOCKS, and UDP protocols.
Users can benefit from geo-targeting capabilities, such as city and Internet Service Provider targeting. There’s no limit on the number of IP addresses, but the IP pool (12,000 USA IPs) is small compared to other providers.
Top Features
- Multiple protocols supported, such as UDP and SOCKS5.
- Provides both rotating and private proxies.
- Uncapped data on all plans.
- Customizable rotation time.
- Geo-targeting countries, cities, and ISPs.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
Proxyrack’s residential proxy pricing starts at $110/month for 100 threads. The datacenter proxy pricing starts at $150/month.
Infatica
Best for Price Aggregation, Brand Protection
Infatica hosts a global peer-to-business proxy network that provides residential, mobile, datacenter, and ISP proxies. The platform presents multiple scraping solutions such as Web Scraper, Scraping-as-a-Service, SERP Web Scraper, and more.
One of Infatica’s standout features is scraper APIs for specific websites and companies like Amazon, Yelp, Washington Post, Bing, and more. These tools are ideal for price aggregations and brand protection because they provide optimized services focused on a website or social media.
Top Features
- Support for HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols.
- CAPTCHA-solving capabilities.
- Web Scraper, SERP Web Scraper, and Scraping-as-a-Service tools.
- Ethically sourced IPs.
- Rotating and static residential proxies.
Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Pricing
The pay-as-you-go pricing plan offers residential proxies at $4/GB, which is higher than most proxy providers.
Best Premium Proxy Server Comparison
The table below compares the premium proxy servers in this list based on IP pool size, location coverage, company headquarters, and customer support.
| Proxy Server Providers | IP Pool Size | Location Coverage | Company Headquarter | Customer Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | 400M+ | 195+ Countries | Israel | 24/7 live chat, email |
| Oxylabs | 172M+ | 195+ Countries | Lithuania | 24/7 live chat, email |
| Decodo | 115M+ | 195+ Countries | Lithuania | 24/7 live chat, email |
| Webshare | 400K+ | 50+ Countries | The U.S. | Email Support |
| IPRoyal | 32M+ | 195+ Countries | Lithuania | 24/7 live chat, email |
| MarsProxies | 2M+ | 190+ Countries | Panama | Email support |
| Proxy-Seller | 500K+ | 220+ Countries | Cyprus | 24/7 email and ticket system |
| NetNut | 85M+ | 195+ Countries | Israel | 24/7 live chat, email, and phone |
| SOAX | 80M+ | 120+ Countries | London, UK | 24/7 live chat and email support |
| Shifter | 50M+ (31M+ Residential IPs) | 100+ Countries | The United States | 24/7 ticket and email support |
| Storm Proxies | 70K rotating residential IPs | U.S. and EU | The U.S. | Email and Ticket system support |
| PacketStream | 7M+ | 50+ Countries | The U.S. | Email Support |
| Proxyrack | 2M+ (10K USA) | 140+ Countries | Australia | Email and Ticket system |
| Infatica | 10M+ | 100+ Countries | Singapore | 24/7 Email Support |
Best Practices for Proxy Server Usage
To maximize the effectiveness and security of proxy servers, follow the practices shown below.
- Choose Reputable Providers: Only opt for reputable and well-established proxy providers that offer security measures and ethical IPs.
- Beware of Free Proxies: Using free proxies is risky, as they usually lack advanced security protocols, making your online presence vulnerable.
- Consider Affordable Options: Cheap proxies from reliable providers can offer a cost-effective solution for tasks like web scraping and SEO monitoring, while maintaining decent security and performance.
- Respect Website Terms of Service: While using a proxy server, always pay attention to the terms of service of your target website. Always check
robots.txtand newer AI-specific files (likeai.txt). Ignoring technical barriers can legally undermine your data compliance defense. - Avoid Illegal Activities: Using proxies doesn’t make your IP address completely untraceable. Law enforcement is equipped with advanced tracing technologies, and engaging in illegal activities, such as hacking and fraud, will be detected.
- Consider Ethical Implications: Ensure that you’re using proxy IPs that are ethically sourced. Some unreliable proxy providers offer proxy IPs of other people without their consent, which will lead to legal trouble.
- Test Proxy Speed and Reliability: Don’t immediately commit to a proxy provider. These platforms often provide free trials or affordable starting plans that you can use to test the speed and reliability of the proxy servers. Test the servers with heavy tasks such as streaming or data scraping and see if the performance drops.
Is Using Proxies Legal?
Yes, using proxy servers is generally legal, but you should use them legitimately and avoid illegal activities like phishing and hacking. The best and safest use cases for proxies include scraping public data from websites that don’t explicitly prohibit using proxies, SEO research, market analysis, and ad verification.
to privacy and data collection, such as the EU’s landmark GDPR (which officially marked its first decade of enforcement in May 2026) that you should be aware of while using proxies. Always check if your proxy provider complies with these regulations.
Also note that if web data is being collected to train AI models, scrapers must also comply with the EU AI Act’s data transparency and copyright rules.
What is a Proxy Server?
A proxy server is the intermediary between a client and other servers. The proxy receives client requests and sends them to the web server on behalf of the client.
For instance, when a client connects to the proxy server, it requests a service, such as a file, connection, or other resources, from a different server. The proxy server analyzes this request and finds a way to simplify and control its complexity.
Think of the proxy server as a bridge, taking you from where you are to where you want to be. Most times, when this gateway is discussed, it is described as just that—a gateway or a bus. However, there is more to a proxy server than this.
While the proxy server is an intermediary, it also serves as a firewall and web filter. It also helps with shared network connections and cache data to speed up common requests.
Also, it may make slight changes to the data you send, but it will serve you the information you requested. The proxy server changes your IP address and actual location so you can stay anonymous, and the web server will recognize the proxy IP as the user who requested the information.
Why Choose a Proxy Server?
Although users consider a VPN service better, using a proxy server has multiple perks. Here are 3 reasons why you should choose a proxy server:
Privacy Protection
Using a proxy server will help keep you protected while surfing the web. Most people use proxy servers to surf the internet privately. With the ability to change/conceal IP addresses, your identity and personal information are private. This means the destination server is denied from knowing who made the original request.
A proxy server typically has its own IP address. So, when you use it to connect to a website, the website will see only the proxy’s IP address and not your IP address.
Accessing Restricted Content
Proxy servers also help you bypass geo-restrictions for content and give you access to blocked websites.
For this, you have to choose the correct proxy server location. For instance, if you’re based in the UK and trying to access video content that’s blocked in your country and available in the US, then you’ll need to use a US-based proxy server.
Improved Performance
Proxy servers can cache the site contents and improve the overall service speed and general performance.
This means that every time you log on to a website, the proxy server saves its information. Upon subsequent visits to that website, the proxy server will check to see if it is the most recent copy and then send you the saved copy.
For example, when many users log in to a website at the same time from the same proxy server, the server only sends one request to the site until the content is modified. This process helps the proxy server to serve the content faster.
Why Premium Proxy?
A premium server is a fast, reliable, and anonymous proxy server. Unlike the free proxy servers, which can expose you to various risks, premium proxies are much more reliable and efficient in function.
The use of a premium proxy server saves you from the trouble of going through an entire list of public proxy servers. With a premium proxy, you will have control over its authentication. Additionally, UDP proxies are essential if the user’s web scraping tasks involve streaming data, live video scraping, or VoIP, whereas SOCKS5 is the gold standard for general high-speed scraping.
Moreover, unlike the free proxy servers, premium servers usually do not crash or shut down. You don’t need to worry about getting disconnected. Premium proxy servers are managed by trustworthy companies and are configured and supported by experts.
