Best Proxy Services Compared

The main types are HTTP(S) proxies, which handle web traffic; SOCKS5 proxies, which work with almost any TCP traffic (messengers, email, P2P, games); rotating proxies, which give you a fresh IP for every request; and web proxies, which unblock websites right in your browser without any setup. Each type comes in two flavors: public (free and shared, unstable) and private (paid, fast and stable).

Try our free SOCKS proxy list or web proxy list, or compare the private services in the tables above.

The IPs in A.B.C.0 ~ A.B.C.255 (ex. 11.22.33.0 ~ 11.22.33.255) are in the same subnet. The more subnets, the harder it is for websites to block all your IPs at once. For example, 100 proxies from 100 subnets survive a subnet-wide ban; 100 proxies from 3 subnets can be blocked with 3 rules.

Google proxies are proxies that support searching on Google. Google blocks most datacenter and public IPs from its search results, because they are a typical sign of bots and scrapers. The Google row in the comparison above shows how many IPs in each pool can still search Google. If you run SEO tools that check Google rankings, choose the service with the highest number there.

An HTTP(S) proxy only understands web traffic, which is fine for browsing and scraping websites. A SOCKS5 proxy does not read your traffic at all and works with any protocol: messengers, email, P2P and more, so it is more versatile.

Compare the HTTP List and Socks List columns above, or read our HTTP proxy vs SOCKS proxy guide for details.

Residential proxies use real home IPs from Internet service providers, so strict websites treat you like a regular visitor. Our Rotating Proxy pool includes 1950 residential IPs.

See the Residential Proxies page for details.

Datacenter proxies come from cloud servers: they are fast and cheap, but websites know they are not real users, so strict sites may block them. Residential IPs come from real home connections, so those strict sites treat you like a normal visitor. Start with datacenter IPs; if your targets have strong anti-bot checks (Google, social media, sneakers, tickets), pick a pool with residential IPs: our Rotating Proxy includes 1950 of them.

A public proxy is open to everyone. A private proxy is only open to paid users, so it is faster and more reliable. That is also the difference between free and paid proxies: public proxies are shared by hundreds of users, so they are slow, unstable (usually working for 1~2 hours) and disappear quickly. Paid proxies are private: only you use them. If your task matters (scraping, SEO, business), a paid proxy from $9.92/month saves hours of retry work.

Private proxies are stable: they are dedicated to you, so they work as long as your subscription is active. Public proxies are shared by hundreds of users and die quickly; they usually keep working for 1~2 hours before you need to switch to a fresh one. That is why the free lists are marked Unstable in the comparison table and the paid services are marked Stable.

We refresh the free public lists (HTTP and SOCKS) every 30 minutes, and 2% of the open pool is replaced with brand-new proxies daily. Private proxies do not churn like that: we replace them from time to time and retire any IP that stops working, rather than on a fixed schedule.

The numbers in the comparison tables, such as IP counts, countries, subnets, Google support and daily new rates, come from live proxy pools and are refreshed every 20 minutes. Prices shown are the current monthly rates.