In recent years, the landscape of proxy services has undergone significant expansion. Proxies, once associated with dubious practices like black hat SEO, have evolved to serve a multitude of legitimate purposes across various domains. Individuals and businesses alike now harness the potential of proxy servers to unlock a range of benefits.
For individuals, proxies have become a versatile tool for tasks such as accessing geo-restricted content, circumventing website blocks, enhancing privacy, securing limited edition purchases, or altering IP addresses for various purposes. Simultaneously, businesses have leveraged proxies for activities like web scraping, data aggregation, market research, SEO monitoring, and numerous other applications.
What is A Proxy Server?
A proxy server serves as an intermediary gateway positioned between your device and the internet. Its primary function is to manage and process web requests on your behalf, providing enhanced security and privacy during online interactions.
By rerouting your internet traffic through a proxy, you effectively alter your IP address. This alteration proves particularly valuable in circumventing geographical restrictions and online censorship. This capability enables you to access websites that might otherwise be inaccessible due to regional limitations.
One notable feature of proxies is their ability to manage multiple IP addresses concurrently. This feature proves advantageous for tasks that require handling numerous web activities on a larger scale.
Moreover, proxy servers offer businesses a potent defense mechanism against cyber threats. They play a pivotal role in filtering out malicious traffic, safeguarding sensitive communications, and fortifying network systems against potential cybercriminals. Beyond security, proxies contribute to improving the speed and efficiency of web platforms. By caching data, they optimize the retrieval process, leading to faster loading times for web pages and enhancing the overall user experience.
10 Best Proxy Server Providers in 2023
The surging diversity of proxy services, however, has introduced a challenge—selecting a trustworthy provider amidst the burgeoning market. Beneath enticing marketing slogans, a range of issues may lie concealed, spanning from ethically questionable IP addresses to unfounded claims regarding the provider’s IP control. Now that you know what is a proxy server, take a look at the following 10 best proxy server providers:
- SmartProxy
Smartproxy emerges as a highly intelligent choice in the realm of proxy services, boasting an array of offerings including shared and private datacenter proxies, residential proxies, and mobile proxies. A comprehensive breakdown of the features and advantages provided by this provider reveals its exceptional value, some of them are:
- Proxy Types: Shared and private datacenter, residential, and mobile.
- Extras: API, browser extension, extensive documentation.
- Customer Support: Award-winning 24/7 support via chat or email.
- Free Trial: 3-day refund available.
Impressively, Smartproxy garners admiration for its nearly flawless connection success rate and swift response times across most of its products. For instance, its residential proxies achieved an outstanding response time of 0.57 seconds coupled with a success rate of 99.43%. This performance surpassed even the established players in the market, such as Bright Data.
Notably, the provider stands out for its emphasis on user experience. It provides an extensive repository of documentation, user-friendly proxy management tools like a browser extension, and round-the-clock customer support that has been recognized with awards. Furthermore, subscribers gain access to complimentary applications like an antidetect browser and a proxy address generator.
A particularly enticing aspect of Smartproxy’s service is its affordability. Positioned between the realms of budget and premium providers, Smartproxy offers competitive pricing. For instance, the starting price for their residential proxies stands at $8.50 per gigabyte, significantly undercutting other providers who charge $15 per gigabyte. However, it’s essential to note that Smartproxy’s dedicated addresses exhibit limitations in terms of features and location coverage.
Prices Starting From:
- Residential: Starting at $8.50 for 1 GB.
- Datacenter: $30 for 50 GB ($0.7/GB) or $10 for 100 IPs & 50 GBs ($0.1/IP).
- Mobile: $50 for 2 GB ($25/GB).
Verdict: Smartproxy’s versatile offerings, exceptional performance, user-friendly features, and cost-effectiveness make it a standout choice in the realm of proxy services. The sheer scale of Smartproxy’s proxy pools is noteworthy, encompassing a multitude of countries across the globe. Remarkably, all their products grant access to the full IP pool, except for IP-based datacenter proxies.
- SAOX
SOAX, a relative newcomer established in 2019, has swiftly garnered attention in the proxy provider landscape. Offering an array of residential, mobile, and ISP proxies, SOAX presents a compelling package.
The company boasts a moderate-sized proxy pool spanning over 100 countries, catering to both residential and mobile proxies. Notably, the availability of ISP proxies is currently limited to the US. SOAX’s proxies exhibit impressive performance metrics, showcasing substantial year-over-year enhancements. The residential network’s speed has tripled since 2021, positioning it to compete effectively with market leaders. If offers:
- Proxy Types: Residential, mobile & ISP proxies.
- Extras: Limited API, node access (direct IP connection), customer success manager.
- Customer Support: 24/7 live chat and tickets.
- Free Trial: 3-day trial available for $1.99.
One of SOAX’s standout features is its remarkable proxy flexibility. Users can choose from an extensive array of rotation settings and pinpoint IP targeting down to the city and ASN level without incurring additional costs. This distinct offering sets SOAX apart, especially considering that similar services from competitors might come at a higher price point. Additionally, the provider’s customer service stands out favorably.
Catering predominantly to business clients, SOAX tends to present higher pricing. While its residential proxies offer scalability, the same cannot be said for mobile and ISP proxies, which are comparably pricier than counterparts from Oxylabs and Bright Data. Some technical limitations, such as obligatory IP whitelisting, a restricted number of ports, and the absence of a pay-as-you-go option, should also be noted. While SOAX’s relative novelty is countered by its impressive features and performance, its business-oriented focus and higher pricing make it a choice suited for those with specific needs seeking flexible and capable proxy solutions.
Prices Starting From:
- Residential: Starting at $99 for 8GB ($12.38/GB) and 300 ports.
- ISP: Starting at $99 for 6GBs ($16/GB).
- Mobile: Starting at $99 for 3 GB ($33/GB) and 300 ports.
- Bright Data
Bright Data stands tall as one of the premier players in the world of proxy services, offering an extensive range of proxy options including residential, datacenter (shared, rotating, dedicated), ISP, and mobile proxies.
Distinguished by the title of the second-largest proxy network globally, Bright Data’s reach spans across all countries, showcasing its expansive proxy server infrastructure. These servers are equipped with a plethora of features, notably versatile targeting and rotation capabilities, including:
- Proxy Types: Residential, datacenter (shared, rotating, dedicated), ISP, and mobile proxies.
- Extras: API, browser extension, proxy manager, extensive documentation.
- Customer Support: 24/7 availability via live chat and ticket system.
- Free Trial: 7-day free trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals.
Performance is an area where Bright Data excels, showcasing an almost impeccable success rate, exceptional response time, and unwavering stability. Leveraging its robust infrastructure, Bright Data furnishes users with an array of tools to optimize their experience. This includes a comprehensive API, a convenient browser extension, and an open-source proxy manager that empowers users to exert considerable control over IP manipulation.
However, it’s important to note that while Bright Data offers a spectrum of powerful capabilities, it may prove daunting for beginners due to its technical demands. Additionally, like many premium providers, the service comes with a high price tag.
Prices Starting From:
- Residential: Starting at $15 for 1 GB.
- Datacenter: Highly flexible and dependent on add-ons, starting from $0.80/IP + $0.11/GB pay-as-you-go model.
- ISP: $15/GB + $0.50/IP.
- Mobile: $500 for 16 GB ($31.25/GB).
Verdict: While Bright Data’s robust offerings, exceptional performance, and diverse tools position it as a powerhouse in the proxy industry, potential users should be prepared for its technical demands and the higher costs associated with a premium service.
- OxyLabs
Oxylabs emerges as a distinguished premium proxy provider, catering primarily to mid-range and enterprise clients. Its comprehensive proxy offerings encompass residential, ISP (rotating and static), datacenter (shared, private, rotating), and mobile proxies. One of Oxylabs’ standout attributes is its ownership of the largest global proxy networks, providing coverage across an extensive array of countries. It offers:
- Proxy Types: Residential, ISP (rotating, static), datacenter (shared, private, rotating), and mobile proxies.
- Extras: API, browser extension, extensive documentation.
- Customer Support: 24/7 availability via live chat, dedicated account manager.
- Free Trial: 7-day trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals.
Notably, Oxylabs places a strong emphasis on performance, and this is where the provider truly shines. Across various proxy types, Oxylabs consistently secured top-tier positions on our performance evaluations. Particularly noteworthy is the exceptional performance of its residential proxies, boasting an impressive success rate of 99.61%, coupled with enviable stability and a rapid response time of 0.57 seconds.
The provider’s dedication to customer satisfaction is further highlighted by the provision of dedicated account managers, flexible proxy management tools, and comprehensive documentation – a testament to the value it places on its clientele.
It’s important to acknowledge that while Oxylabs offers a range of compelling features, accessing these benefits does require a substantial budget. As such, individuals new to proxy usage or those seeking proxies for personal purposes might find the pricing less accommodating.
Prices Starting From:
- Residential: Starting at $15 for 1 GB.
- Datacenter: $50/77GB ($0.65/GB).
- ISP: $340/20GB ($17/GB).
- Mobile: $22 for 1 GB.
Verdict: Oxylabs stands as a premier choice for those seeking high-performance proxies, particularly within the mid-range and enterprise sectors. While its premium offerings are accompanied by a higher price point, the comprehensive features and exceptional performance make it a potent contender for those who value top-tier proxy services.
- Webshare
Webshare, a newcomer to the proxy provider arena, has swiftly established a robust presence with its impressive infrastructure of datacenter and ISP proxies. This provider offers a diverse range of proxy configurations spanning over 30 countries. More recently, Webshare has expanded its offerings by introducing residential proxies to its lineup. In our inaugural testing of Webshare this year, the results were highly satisfactory. Both its shared and ISP proxies demonstrated commendable speed and scalability. If offers:
- Proxy Types: Shared, dedicated, semi-dedicated datacenter, ISP & residential proxies.
- Extras: API, basic documentation.
- Customer Support: Support available Monday to Friday (6am-6pm PST) via email.
- Free Trial: A free plan including 10 shared addresses.
Webshare sets itself apart through its comprehensive self-service platform and a customizable subscription model. Subscribers have the freedom to determine the desired quantity of IPs in their preferred locations and then fine-tune various aspects of the service, including traffic, concurrency, and network priority. The provider also offers remarkably flexible refresh options for its proxy networks, enabling individual replacements or even a complete proxy list refresh as frequently as every five minutes. The user-friendly nature of the service ensures a seamless experience, catering to users of all expertise levels.
Cost-effectiveness is a notable characteristic of Webshare. The basic configuration costs fall below the industry average, making it an attractive option for users seeking value. It’s important to note that Webshare has limitations in terms of targeting options, making it less suited for use cases that demand precise location targeting.
Prices Starting From:
Prices vary depending on add-ons.
- Residential: Starting at $7 for 1 GB.
- Datacenter: Starting at $1 for 1 IP.
- ISP: Starting at $4.20 for 1 IP.
Verdict: Webshare, with its well-rounded offerings and customizable subscription model, presents an appealing choice for users seeking a cost-effective and user-friendly proxy solution. While its targeting options may have limitations, its affordability and feature-rich platform make it a noteworthy contender in the proxy provider landscape.
- Infatica
Infatica offers two primary types of proxies: residential and shared datacenter proxies. This provider boasts an expansive network of 10 million residential IP addresses positioned globally, along with 5 thousand shared datacenter proxies situated in the United States. The residential service distinguishes itself through its versatile targeting capabilities, allowing users to focus on specific locations by country, city, or ASN. The number of threads one can run is unrestricted, and these threads rotate either with each request or within intervals of 5 to 60 minutes. It provides:
- Proxy Types: Residential & dedicated datacenter proxies.
- Extras: Extensive documentation.
- Customer Support: 24/7 support accessible through tickets, chat, or email.
- Free Trial: A 3-day trial available for $1.99.
While we did not put Infatica’s datacenter proxies to the test, its residential IP addresses delivered commendable performance. Although there was a slightly elevated error rate compared to other services on this list, the proxies remained notably fast. The provider primarily caters to businesses, presenting more economical residential rates for enterprise plans when contrasted with other premium alternatives. While the initial cost for shared addresses may appear high, it significantly diminishes as you scale your usage.
However, it’s worth noting that while many top competitors have adopted a pay-as-you-go model, Infatica has yet to incorporate this approach, limiting users to subscription options. The user experience could also benefit from enhancement; for instance, the main page lacks visibility into traffic usage, necessitating multiple layers of navigation to access this information.
Prices Starting From:
- Residential: Starting at $96 for 8 GB ($12/GB).
- Datacenter: Starting at $15 for 5 IPs ($3/IP).
Verdict: Infatica’s comprehensive offering of residential and datacenter proxies, coupled with its enterprise-friendly pricing structure, positions it as a viable option for businesses seeking efficient proxy solutions. Although certain aspects of user experience and pricing models could be improved, the provider’s substantial network and performance merits consideration.
- NetNut
NetNut has shown consistent improvements in its infrastructure over time, with most proxies now achieving a success rate of over 90% (excluding data center IPs at 49.30%). However, there have been concerns about speed. Residential proxies experienced a doubling in response time from the previous year, with an average response time of 2.13 seconds. If provides:
- Proxy Types: Shared datacenter, residential, ISP, and mobile proxies.
- Extras: API (for resellers), documentation rated as mediocre.
- Customer Support: 24/7 customer support available via email, Skype (for larger plans).
- Free Trial: 7-day free trial available.
NetNut’s basic plans offer limited features, but additional options are available at an extra cost, such as dedicated support, IP whitelisting, and request-based pricing. These features make the service particularly suitable for large enterprises. Users benefit from detailed usage statistics available on the dashboard.
As a premium provider, NetNut commands a higher price per GB. While costs become more favorable beyond 100GB with residential plans, they still don’t quite match up to alternatives like Smartproxy. Unfortunately, the service lacks a pay-as-you-go option.
Prices Commence From:
- Residential: Starting at $100 for 5 GBs ($20/GB).
- Datacenter: Starting at $100/100 GBs ($1/GB).
- ISP: Starting at $350 for 20 GBs ($17.50/GB).
- Mobile: Starting at $300 for 10 GBs ($30/GB).
Verdict: NetNut is tailored for businesses with significant requirements, offering shared datacenter, residential, ISP, and mobile proxies. The provider boasts extensive IP pools for its proxies, encompassing various locations. Its residential proxies cover 150 locations, ISP proxies span 30 locations, while shared IPs are sourced solely from the US.
- PacketStream
PacketStream, while showing initial promise, has maintained a rather basic offering over the years, albeit at an affordable cost. The provider offers a relatively small pool of 7 million residential IPs. However, it’s important to note that the number of unique IPs appears to be lower than expected from such a network, potentially leading to the rapid occurrence of duplicate proxies. For instance, in the US, PacketStream yielded around 6 thousand proxies.
What sets PacketStream apart is its extremely low initial pricing. The pay-as-you-go model begins at just $1 per gigabyte, positioning the provider as a compelling budget option. However, there’s a caveat: PacketStream tends to overestimate traffic usage by a significant factor, often eight to ten times. Consequently, the final cost may align more closely with that of premium providers.
- Proxy Types: Residential proxies.
- Extras: API available for resellers.
- Customer Support: 24/7 customer support accessible via email.
- Free Trial: None.
Pricing Starts From:
- Beginning at $1 for 1 GB.
Verdict: PacketStream exhibits commendable infrastructure performance, surpassing some competitors like NetNut or IPRoyal. Users gain the advantage of unlimited threads, with proxies rotating with each request.
- IPRoyal
IPRoyal stands out as an economical choice for proxy services, offering affordable options for residential, private datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies. Despite its modest proxy pool size, the provider maintains commendable location coverage. It offers:
- Proxy Types: Residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies.
- Extras: Proxy tester, extensive documentation, browser extension.
- Customer Support: 24/7 customer support accessible through live chat.
- Free Trial: No free trial offered.
While IPRoyal’s residential proxies present flexible filtering and rotation choices, the same cannot be said for its datacenter and ISP proxies, which lack these features. Nevertheless, the latter two come with unlimited threads, domains, and a free monthly refresh. The provider offers satisfactory customer service, comprehensive documentation, and the convenience of a browser extension for streamlined proxy management.
However, IPRoyal’s competitive pricing and potential for proxy resale do impact its overall performance. Notably, the success rate of its residential proxies falls below 90%, and their speed is notably slower – up to seven times slower compared to Smartproxy. Nevertheless, these proxies should suffice for less demanding tasks.
Prices Commence From:
- Residential: Starting at $7 for 1 GB.
- Datacenter: Starting at $9 for 5 IPs ($1.80/IP).
- ISP: Starting at $4 for IP.
Verdict: IPRoyal presents itself as a budget-friendly option for those seeking proxy services. Its assortment of proxy types, accompanied by its competitive pricing, makes it an appealing choice for users with moderate demands. However, users should be aware of potential performance limitations, particularly in comparison to higher-end providers.
- RayoByte
Rayobyte is renowned for its private datacenter proxies, but it offers a diverse array of proxy types, including shared datacenter, residential, and ISP (static and rotating). This makes it a versatile choice catering to users of varying sizes and needs. If offers:
- Proxy Types: Residential, datacenter (shared, dedicated, rotating), and ISP (static, rotating) proxies.
- Extras: Extensive documentation.
- Customer Support: 24/7 support available via email, ticketing system, or live chat.
- Free Trial: 2-day free trial offered.
The strength of Rayobyte lies notably in its private datacenter and ISP proxies. With an impressive network comprising 300,000 IPs across nine ASNs, hosted in self-owned data centers, and a peer-to-peer residential network spanning over 150 countries, the provider covers extensive ground. Shared proxies are available in three formats: a list of IPs shared in 11 countries, ports with rotating IPs assigned to each port, and pool-based proxies in the US.
Rayobyte’s user-friendly dashboard facilitates seamless proxy management, and its datacenter and ISP plans offer full self-service capabilities. These plans are notably budget-friendly when compared to alternative options. Users have the flexibility to opt for pay-as-you-go or subscription-based residential plans.
While the initial cost for smaller data amounts might appear high, Rayobyte’s pricing becomes more favorable as usage scales up. For instance, purchasing over 50 GBs reduces the unit price by half, transitioning from $15/GB to $7/GB. Notably, traffic does not expire, allowing users to obtain 1TB of data at rates as low as $3/GB for usage whenever needed. However, Rayobyte does have certain drawbacks, including the lack of features for residential and pool-based shared addresses, with the latter still in beta.
Prices Commence From:
Residential: Starting at $15 for 1 GB.
Datacenter: Starting from $4/5 IPs ($0.8/IP) or $0.65/GB.
ISP: Starting at $25 for 5 IPs ($5/IP).
Verdict: Rayobyte’s datacenter and ISP proxies demonstrated exceptional performance in tests, boasting an almost flawless success rate and competitive speeds, rivalling other premium providers. In contrast, residential proxies were somewhat slower in comparison.
Conclusion
Proxies now serve diverse legitimate purposes, from accessing geo-restricted content to enhancing privacy and cybersecurity. For businesses, they enable activities like web scraping, data aggregation, and SEO monitoring. We highlighted the 10 best proxy server providers in 2023, offering a comprehensive overview of their features, performance, and pricing. Selecting the right proxy provider depends on your specific requirements, including performance, features, pricing, and intended use cases. We hope that we have helped you make an informed decision.
FAQs
What is a proxy server?
A proxy server acts as an intermediary between your device and the internet, managing and processing web requests on your behalf. It enhances security and privacy by altering your IP address, allowing you to bypass geographical restrictions and access restricted content.
What are the benefits of using a proxy server?
Proxy servers offer several benefits, including accessing geo-restricted content, circumventing website blocks, enhancing privacy, optimizing web platform speed, and providing a defense mechanism against cyber threats.
What types of proxy servers are available?
Proxy servers come in various types, including residential proxies (IPs assigned to real residential addresses), datacenter proxies (IPs from data centers), ISP proxies (IPs from internet service providers), and mobile proxies (IPs from mobile devices).
What are the key features to consider when choosing a proxy provider?
Important features include proxy types offered, performance metrics (success rate, response time), targeting capabilities, rotation options, customer support, ease of use, pricing, and additional tools such as APIs and browser extensions.
Which proxy provider is best for me?
The best provider depends on your specific needs and budget. Consider factors like the type of proxies required, performance, user experience, and pricing. Providers like Smartproxy, SOAX, and Bright Data offer versatile options with excellent performance. Oxylabs caters to mid-range and enterprise needs. Webshare is cost-effective and user-friendly, while Infatica is suitable for businesses. NetNut targets larger businesses, while IPRoyal and PacketStream are budget-friendly options. Rayobyte excels in datacenter and ISP proxies.
What are the pricing models for proxy providers?
Pricing models vary and can include pay-as-you-go, subscription-based, or a combination of both. Some providers offer tiered pricing based on usage volume.
Is a free trial available for these proxy providers?
Most providers offer free trials or refund options for users to test their services before committing to a subscription. Make use of these trials to assess the provider’s suitability for your needs.
