The Best Proxy Servers of 2025

Proxy vs. VPN: What’s The Difference?

Proxy literally means “to act as a stand-in for someone,” and that’s precisely what a proxy does in networking. A proxy server acts as a middleman to the internet that relays your traffic to websites. It hides your IP address; instead of seeing your real one, the websites you visit see the proxy’s IP address.

VPNs operate similarly, as explained in our VPN guide. But rather than just rerouting your traffic, a VPN encrypts your data as well. That’s the main difference between a VPN and a proxy.

Think of using a proxy like taking an Uber for online privacy. You’re in a different car, so people who know what you drive won’t easily spot you. But if someone peeks through the window, they’ll know you’re in there. Using a VPN on the other hand, is like riding in a security convoy. And if someone tries to peek in, you’ll have security detail to stop them. The same goes for your data with VPNs. Even if your internet provider, the government, or a hacker sees that you’re sending data, they won’t be able to see what’s inside because of VPN encryption.

VPNs are more secure and private than proxies, but some might prefer using a proxy for a few reasons:

• For one, proxy servers are faster because they don’t have to encrypt data. That’s good if you want to access a website blocked in your country or network only.
• Second, it’s easier to set up a proxy than manually set up a VPN on devices that don’t have native VPN apps, such as gaming consoles.
• Lastly, proxy services are usually cheaper than VPN subscriptions.

When Should You Use a VPN or a Proxy?

We only recommend using a proxy when you need to protect your IP address and maintain very fast online speeds. Remember — a proxy will hide your IP address, but it won’t encrypt your web traffic.

» Did You Know? Difference Between a Static and Dynamic IP Address

Here are some scenarios where it makes sense to use a proxy:

• Playing online games. A proxy is enough to help you bypass an unfair IP ban, access a region-locked game server, or avoid Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
• Accessing streaming content. By hiding your IP address, a proxy also hides your geolocation. So, it could give you access to streaming websites and content that are not available in your area.
• Hiding your IP while torrenting. You can set up a proxy in your P2P client to prevent anyone in the torrent swarm (all users downloading and uploading a torrent) from seeing your real IP address.
• Bypassing network firewalls. A proxy could help you access blocked websites on restrictive networks, like at school or work. Basically, you use the proxy’s IP address to connect to the blocked site. That allows you to bypass the firewall because the proxy’s IP doesn’t have any firewall restrictions linked to it.
• Avoid ad trackers. To a certain extent, proxies could make it harder for ad trackers to associate your online preferences with your real IP address. This way, you might see fewer personalized ads.
• Hiding your IP on devices not compatible with VPNs. VPNs have apps for most platforms, but there are some devices that don’t support the installation of VPN apps — like gaming consoles, for example. You can still use a VPN on such devices by manually setting it up on your router. But if you only need to hide your IP, it’s easier to use a proxy instead. Unlike a VPN, you don’t need to configure it on your router. You can manually set it up on the device instead.

You can also use a VPN in most of the scenarios mentioned above. But it’s best to use it when you need to also secure your web traffic by encrypting it. And also when you don’t mind your original speeds slowing down a bit, as a VPN’s encryption will cause some slowdowns (usually minor, though).

We also recommend using a VPN if you think that your ISP is throttling your bandwidth. By encrypting your web traffic, the VPN stops your ISP from seeing what you’re doing online. So, it won’t be able to selectively slow down your speeds for specific online activities.

Overall, both proxies and VPNs have specific use cases. That’s why we only added VPNs that also support proxy connections to our guide. So, you can easily switch between a proxy and a VPN as you see fit.

Tips for Choosing a Proxy Server

If you want to use a proxy server, there are two specific things you should consider:

1. The Proxy Server Location

By default, proxies are very fast because they don’t normally encrypt your traffic. Even so, if your internet speeds are not very fast, you might experience noticeable slowdowns when using a proxy server that’s too far away from you.

While your data isn’t encrypted, it still has to travel to and from the proxy server on its way to the web. And if the distance between your device and the proxy server is too big, that will increase the transfer time, which will result in slower speeds.

So, if the proxy service you’re using has multiple proxy server locations, make sure to pick one that’s very close to your real location.

>> Learn about: VPN Proxy Master

2. The Proxy Protocol

A proxy protocol dictates how you connect to a proxy server. It tells your device which port to use, how to chop up traffic into data packets, how to label those packets, and so on. It’s a complex mechanism with lots of moving parts.

Some protocols are better than others depending on how you use the proxy. Some examples are:

• HTTP/HTTPS. This proxy protocol is commonly used by websites and browsers. The HTTP protocol can also sometimes be used in P2P apps or on certain devices (like smartphones or gaming consoles).
• SSL/TLS. This is a more secure protocol that uses encryption to scramble data that’s being transferred. Unfortunately, this protocol has some vulnerabilities, so it doesn’t provide the best security.
• Shadowsocks. This is an open-source proxy that’s widely used in China to get around censorship. It’s also able to encrypt internet traffic.
• SOCKS5. This is a secure proxy protocol because it requires authentication to access a proxy server, which means not just anyone can access a server. But it doesn’t encrypt internet traffic.

Of those protocols, the safest to use are SOCKS5, Shadowsocks, and HTTPS (but not HTTP; the “S” stands for “secure”).

Are Free Proxy Servers Safe?

Your data’s privacy when using a proxy server is contingent on the protocol, but even if a free proxy service uses SOCKS5 — the most secure proxy protocol — we’d still recommend avoiding free proxy services.

The logic is simple: When you send traffic through a proxy server, the server itself has access to your data. That’s true for both paid and free proxy services. Now, running a server network costs money, so if a free proxy is able to keep its servers up, it must be getting funds from somewhere else. Usually, that “somewhere else” is you — or, more specifically, your data.

If you use a free proxy service, you’re more likely to encounter a provider that logs data and sells it. That could open you up to privacy risks, identity theft, and ad targeting, none of which is good for your personal and digital safety.

Plus, very few legitimate services actually offer free access to proxies. Even the ones that used to have free proxies have stopped offering them. For example, HMA used to have a free browser proxy, but it stopped supporting it in 2023.

Do Proxy Servers Work on Smartphones?

You can set up a proxy connection on an iPhone or Android, but bear in mind that only HTTP proxy servers are supported. If your proxy uses SOCKS5 or Shadowsocks, it won’t work.

Moreover, with both iPhones and Android, not all traffic is diverted to the proxy server — only browser traffic from Chrome, Safari, or any other third-party browser that supports HTTP (all of them, basically). Traffic from apps — for example, Netflix — will not route through the proxy server. That means if you’re browsing from a browser app, your IP address will change, but if you’re using a different app, it will not.

If that is an issue, we have guides showing you how to change your location on an iPhone and change your location on Android more effectively.

Setting Up a Proxy on iOS

1. Obtain the proxy IP address and port from your provider or by pinging the proxy server address.
2. Open the Settings app.
3. Go to Wi-Fi and select your Wi-Fi network.
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap Configure Proxy.
5. Tap the toggle switch to turn it on.
6. Enter your proxy IP address and your credentials from your proxy provider.

Setting Up a Proxy on Android

1. Obtain the proxy server address and port.
2. Open the Settings app.
3. Go to Network & Internet, then Wi-Fi.
4. Select your Wi-Fi network.
5. Look for the Modify option.
6. Select Advanced Options.
7. Under the Proxy menu, select Manual in the drop-down list.
8. Enter the server address and port details.
9. Tap Save.

Setting Up a Proxy on Other Devices

If there’s any other device you need to use proxy on, the setup process is mostly the same. As long as the device allows you to change network settings, there’s more than likely an option to manually set up a proxy connection. Just remember to have these three things handy:

• Proxy server or IP address: You can get these straight from the proxy provider. If your device requires a proxy IP address, just ping the server address given to you using a Windows or Mac computer.
• Port: This tells your device which network port to use when sending traffic to a proxy server (usually 1080 or 8080). You can also get this information from the proxy provider.
• Credentials: Secure proxy servers require account credentials before giving you access. You can get your account credentials usually by logging in to your proxy account and requesting a username and password from your proxy provider.

Once you have those, it’s just a matter of filling in the blanks in your device’s proxy settings menu.

Conclusion

Using a proxy is a good way to gain some online privacy while also getting around website blocking, censorship, and network restrictions. It’s also a good way to make it appear as though you’re browsing from a different location. Plus, it barely impacts your online speeds.

However, keep in mind that proxy servers are secondary only to VPNs in terms of the privacy they provide. They don’t provide encryption, so your browsing activity is not really private when you’re using a proxy server.

» Learning Guide: How Do Private Browsers Work?

To get the best of both worlds, we recommend signing up for a VPN that also provides proxy functionality.