Proxy servers (Proxies) have gained a lot of popularity recently. With an exceeding number of reported cyber-crimes, users are looking for various more powerful ways to protect their online privacy. In addition to that, the Internet isn’t an open world anymore. Many restrictions have been invoked for various reasons, security, political, and social. Though, some of these restrictions do keep us and others safe, many of them are there just to satisfy political needs. Proxies also help bypass those restrictions to provide access to restricted content.
What is a Proxy Server?
Every device has its online address known as IP Address. Proxy is just a device with its own IP Address. After establishing connection with a proxy server, all your online requests get redirected to Proxy. Proxy server then transfers the request on your behalf. This results in Websites getting Proxy’s IP address instead of your private IP Address offering protection from various cyber-threats. Proxy servers can also encrypt data that you send over the internet to make it unreadable without decrypting.
There are a lot of Paid and free proxies available, but not all of them offer same level of security and access to content. We have accumulated a list of 10 Best Proxies available in the market:
Best Paid Proxies Available in the Market:
Paid Proxies are highly expensive and offer much more features than an individual requires. For an Individual who is required to protect its online privacy and identity, VPNs make a more logical solution. In addition to that, VPNs are easier to use and are relatively more secure than a Proxy Server. So, if you are an individual looking for proxy server options to access global content and hide your IP, you can skip this part of the post. However, if you are a businessperson looking for a proxy to collect data and want to target your customers better, continue to the list to find out the 5 Best Proxy servers for Business and enterprises.
1. Bright Data
Best for Static IP and cost-effective proxies.
Another popular name in paid proxies which is made up of 7000,000 static residential IPs, is Bright Data. The proxy solution has nodes in all the countries around the world, and like Smartproxy, it also features a rotation policy for proxies. This feature helps choose Static IPs datacenter and other usages.
Moreover, Bright Data offers a Proxy Manager (LPM) tool that helps manage different IPs and rules relating to IPs, such as blocking and IP rotation rules. To enhance the success rate of any scraper, it offers Web Unlocker and ASN system for better focus on your target audience on parameters other than country and state. For user convenience, it has a 24/7 live chat feature and a free trial.
However, all these features and functionalities have a price attached. But the best part is that you can choose from the plans you need since they are based on cost/proxy, cost/GB, and data collector plans for cost/request. For Residential, Static, Mobile, and Data centers, prices range between $500/per month to $30,000/per month. To some, the proxy tool may look pricy, but for the features and functionalities it provides, it is worth it.
Visit for more info: BrightData
2. SmartProxy (Security at its Cheapest)
SmartProxy is one of the most widely used proxy server solutions in the world. It boasts 40 Million IP addresses available for both residential and data centers. Though, the paid proxies are widely used by enterprises because of the sheer amount of cost involved in purchasing those proxies, Smartproxy provides a relatively cheap solution for residential proxies. Smartproxy has nodes in over 195 countries. It offers 24/7 Live support. All 40 million IPs are shared among the users. Also, Smartproxy offers rotation policy to stop IPs from getting flagged.
Smartproxy offers browser extensions for easy usability. Smartproxy doesn’t charge for the proxies offered, rather its plans are based on the traffic allowed i.e. Cost/GB.
Residential Proxy server plans range from $50 for 5GB to $400 for 50GBs. Data Center Plans range from $50 for 100GBs (Single User) to $500 for 1000GBs (10 User). Smartproxy offers a free trial and 3 days money back guarantee.
Data Center Plans:
Residential Plans:
Visit for more info: SmartProxy
Also Read: How does an Antivirus Protect your PC?
3. Oxylabs (Fastest Proxy Solution)
It seems like we are following the reverse order when it comes to the number of IPs these vendors have to offer. For Instance, Oxylabs offers more than 100 million IPs. (Yet no Mobile IPs) The IPs are available all around the world in every country as you would expect from a vendor with 100M IPs. Like Luminati, it also offers ASN (Autonomous System Number) to control how the IPs function for you. With ASN, IPs can be blocked, rotation rules can be defined, etc.
Oxylabs also offer rotating shared IPs to provide you a wide IP base to work with and yet without getting the IPs flagged. However, static/non-rotating IPs are also available to choose. Static IPs are directly obtained from ISPs which makes them difficult to detect and block. Oxylabs also maintains over 2million IPs which are not shared and are only available for exclusive usage.
The plans in Oxylabs aren’t based on usage and are based on the IPs used. It means that Oxylabs allows unlimited bandwidth. The plans range from $180/month for 100 IPs to $6,000/month for 5K+ IPs.
Visit for more info: Oxylabs
4. RSocks (Plans for Everyone)
RSocks offer a lesser number of IPs but it features all different types of IPs, Residential, Data Centers, and Mobile IPs. RSocks maintains a pool of over 3 million IPs. Like Oxylabs, RSocks too offers unlimited bandwidth and allows unlimited usage till the plan expires. RSocks supports various popular protocols.
RSocks features rotating IPs which rotate every few minutes or hours. Although the user gets the option to pause the IPs to improve the rate of expiry, this function can be used only a limited number of times. Also, RSocks doesn’t offer the functionality to manually manage the IPs like Oxylabs and Luminati.
The place where RSocks excels is the number of plans that it offers. It consists of around 35 plans to help you choose one that suits your needs. Like all other Proxies in the list, it also features 24/7 live support. These are few of the popular plans:
For More Info: RSocks
5. Storm Proxies (Affordable Plans)
Storm Proxies is a relatively small Proxy vendor when compared to other vendors in the list. The plans offered by Storm Proxies are the cheapest of all. Storm Proxies doesn’t feature Mobile IPs. But it contains Residential, Data Center IPs, and a mix of Residential and Data Center IPs. It offers a relatively small pool of 70,000 IPs. IPs can only be broadly chosen for the US, Europe and the rest of the world.
Though small, Storm Proxies of 24/7 Live assistance. Storm Proxies proffer both rotating and dedicated proxies to suit your needs. The pricing plans in Storm Proxies depend on the type and number of proxies that a person or enterprise requires and features a free trial based on the same parameters. The plans start from as low as $39/month with unlimited bandwidth for Reverse Proxies, $10/month for Private IPs, and
Reverse Proxies:
Private Proxies:
For More Info and Plans: Storm Proxies
Here are the Best Free Proxies Available
Free Proxies are always an unreliable tool to protect your online privacy and data. However, free proxies can provide you access to restricted content at your office or school and can also hide your IP address, still better than using nothing. Continue reading to find out the 5 Best Free Proxies available in the market.
1. Hidester (Visit Hidester to Visit whatever you want)
Hidester is an online free proxy tool. To use Hidester, you don’t need to download any application at all nor you have to register anywhere, you can simply visit hidester. Through the page, you can visit any website you like and you can be sure that your personal IP address would be safe and you would be visiting that website with some other IP Address.
Unlike the paid proxy vendors, Hidester, or any free proxy vendor for that matter, wouldn’t provide you thousands or millions of servers. It also provides you worldwide access to restricted content.
Visit: hidester
2. Proxysite (Visit Social Media Site You Want)
Proxysite is another free tool to visit online content securely and provide access to worldwide content. Proxysite excels in visiting restricted social media websites such as YouTube and Facebook. If you are in your office and want to access Facebook, YouTube, or any other website for that matter, Proxysite can be the idle choice for you.
In addition to social media access, it also provides SSL encryption of your data to ensure data security and privacy, and an option to block ads on your browser. Proxysite features multiple servers in different countries to allow you to access content from different country servers.
Visit: Proxysite site
3. KProxy (Surf Privately and Evade Hackers)
KProxy is also an online tool like Proxysite and Hidester. Like both the other free options, you can just logon to KProxy website to visit the websites you like. KProxy also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. KProxy is a widely used free proxy vendor.
It proffers unmatched security and protection from hackers. It has over 1.5 million active users. You can access Global content with the help of KProxy. KProxy has been in business since 2005 and is a fairly trustworthy option if you are looking for a free proxy server.
Visit: kproxy
4. VPNBook (Fast Performance)
Though named a VPN, VPNBook is a proxy service vendor. VPNBook encrypts user data with SSL encryption. With VPNBook Free proxy, you can surf the web anonymously. VPNBook gives you the option to choose servers from the US, UK, France, or Canada.
VPNBook is famous for its fast surfing speed and hiding address bar. Ad Blocking with VPNBook is decent. It supports only HTTPS connections.
VPNBook is pretty clear about its logging policy which states about the logs that it keeps regarding the user’s search history.
Visit: vpnbook
5. Hide. me
Hide.me is popular for its no logging policy and its resulting fast speed. Hide.me is a free proxy server that can’t be accessed by visiting the website. Unlike all 4 free proxy server options mentioned above, Hide.me is a downloadable tool. Like few others in the list, Hide.me offers web extensions to make it easy for users to surf. Hide.me has servers in the Netherlands, Germany, and Finland. It also proffers the functionality to encrypt URLs and Web Pages. There are two upgradable versions available for Hide.me.
The upgradable version Hide.me Plus costs $4.99/month and Hide.me Premium costs $9.99/month. Because it has upgradable versions, the free versions show annoying ads to make people upgrade to higher versions. Apart from this, Hide.me is a good proxy tool.
Visit: Hide.me
So, these were the 10 Best Paid and Free Proxy Servers for Individuals and Businesses for their varied needs. Do let’s know which Proxy you liked the most, we love hearing from you.
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