Why You Shouldn’t Use Free Proxy Servers
We won’t be looking at the best free proxy servers. Why? Let’s face it: free proxy servers are terrible for anything beyond the most basic tasks. Are you interested in hiding your IP address and browsing the web anonymously? Don’t use a free proxy server that is likely tracking your every move. Unprotected web proxy servers can also steal your data or inject ads into the websites you visit. Beyond that, they’ll be slow and often already blocked or abused.
None of the proxy providers in our list are free. Heck, some of the best anonymous proxy services aren’t even cheap! That’s because good service costs money, and we’re looking at the best the proxy server market has to offer.
How We Selected the Best Proxy Servers
When selecting the best proxy servers, we relied on our technical expertise and experience, as no universal standards exist for testing proxies. We developed a comprehensive approach based on two pillars: a performance test and a manual analysis.
The performance test evaluates critical factors like the size and quality of the proxy pool, its infrastructure performance, and success rate with real targets. Meanwhile, the manual analysis explores the provider’s features, price, and user experience. We compiled all the data in our annual Proxy Market Research.
Unique IPs
Advertised proxy pool sizes can be only so much marketing. And it is impossible to ascertain how true those numbers are without some breaking-and-entering. However, during PMR 2026, we ran some representative tests to see how many unique IPs would be found in the pools during a specific amount of time.
Residential Proxy Network Connection Success Rate and Response Time
During PMR2026, we also tested the infrastructure performance to see how well and and how fast the proxies performed. For residential proxies, this meant running 3.6 million requests in the global pool over 21 days. This is the data displayed in the second table below.
Resi: global pool, 3.6M requests over 21 days; DC: US pool, 70k connection requests over 7 days; Mobile: random pool, 1.2M requests over 21 days. May 2026 data.
Resi: global pool, 3.6M requests over 21 days. May 2026 data.
The Best Proxy Server Providers of 2026
1. Decodo (ex Smartproxy)
Best bang for your buck.
Get 35% off all proxies.
- Locations: global (residential, mobile); ~16 countries (ISP); ~18 countries (datacenter)
- Support: award winning 24/7 support
- Extras: API, browser extension, extensive documentation
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $11.25/mo for 3GB ($3.75/GB)
- Datacenter: $6/mo for 10 GB ($0.6/GB) or $3.5/mo for 100 IPs ($0.035/IP)
- ISP: $3/mo for 1 GB or $4.7/mo for 10 IP ($0.47/IP)
- Mobile: $7.5/mo for 2 GB ($3.75/GB)
- Trial: 3-day trial, 14-day refund
Decodo is a smart pick regardless of which proxy type you’re after. The proxies come from large pools covering a wide range of countries. Every plan grants access to the full pool, though you can also opt for a fixed number of IPs if you prefer. We are also impressed by Decodo’s consistently high connection success rate and quick response times across most proxy types.
Beyond technical performance, Decodo offers thorough documentation and handy proxy management tools (like a browser extension). If anything goes wrong, there’s the award-winning 24/7 customer support.
Pricing-wise, Decodo positions itself comfortably between budget and premium providers. Some of its offerings are super affordable. For example, shared datacenter proxies start at just $0.035 per IP.
Now for the drawbacks. For one, the location coverage for datacenter & ISP proxies is somewhat limited. Secondly, the plans are less flexible compared to competitors’ offerings, such as non-expiring traffic.
For more information and performance tests, read our Decodo review.
2. Oxylabs
Best proxies for enterprise.
Use the code proxyway35 to get 35% off your first purchase.
- Locations: global (residential, mobile); 18 countries (ISP); 42 countries (datacenter)
- Support: 24/7 via live chat, dedicated account manager
- Extras: API, browser extension, Android app, extensive documentation
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $30/mo for 5 GB ($6/GB)
- Datacenter: $12/mo for 10 IPs ($1.2/IP) or $11.80/mo for 20 GB ($0.59/GB)
- ISP: $16/mo for 10 IPs ($1.6/GB)
- Mobile: $30/mo for 4 GB ($7.5/GB)
- Trial: 7-day free trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals
Oxylabs is a premium provider for medium-scale and enterprise clients. Its proxy networks are some of the largest in the world and cover most locations. Oxylabs proxy performance puts it in the top three positions on our lists. The residential proxies succeeded up to 99.93% of the time while displaying impressive stability and speed.
Let’s not forget the benefits of having a dedicated account manager to help you with whatever query you have. Their flexible proxy management tools include a browser extension and an Android app. The documentation is quality, too.
However, you’ll need a larger budget to reap most of Oxylabs’ benefits. So, if you’re a proxy newbie or looking to use proxies for personal purposes, the provider’s pricing may not be ideal.
For more information and performanc Oxylabs review.
3. SOAX
Advanced features and platform-based pricing.
Use the code PROXYWAY35% to get 35% off.
- Locations: global (residential, mobile); US(datacenter)
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Extras: reporting API, customer success manager
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $90/mo for 25 GB ($3.60/GB)
- Datacenter: $90/mo for 145 GB ($0.62/GB)
- Mobile: $90/mo for 25 GB ($3.60/GB)
- Trial: $1.99 for 400 MB for 3 days
SOAX sells residential, US datacenter, and mobile proxies, all of them packaged as rotating pools. They’re in the middle of the pack by size (except for their large residential pool) and offer competitive infrastructure performance.
The most distinguishing thing about SOAX is how flexible the provider is. City and ASN filtering come in the box, and there are several IP optimization filters. You also get SOCKS5 with UDP and QUIC support, as well as flexible rotation options.
In addition, subscribing to any plan unlocks all products, letting you freely switch between them. This is a big bonus, considering the serious buy-in costs of $90 and per-GB costs that are competitive, but not cheap.
SOAX may not be a great choice if you’re looking for dedicated proxies. It also trails most other providers we tested in accessing popular targets, especially Google.
For more information and performance tests, read our SOAX review.
4. Byteful (ex Ping Proxies)
Great platform and a traffic optimization engine.
Use the code PROXYWAY10 to get 10% off.
- Locations: global (residential); 100+ (mobile); 18 countries (ISP); ~15 countries (datacenter)
- Support: 5AM-7PM European time via tickets, chat, or email
- Extras: proxy tester, Smartpath optimization engine
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $3.25/mo for 1 GB
- Datacenter: $2.5/mo for 1 IP
- ISP: $3.5/mo for 1IP
- Mobile: $4.25/mo for 1 GB
- Trial: 1 GB
Byteful is the 2026 name of what used to be Ping Proxies. However, the name change doesn’t matter much, especially when the provider shows great results. This company may not have the largest roster of proxies, but the proxies put up top 5-tier performance, easily running with the big dogs.
It also has some more interesting tricks up its sleeve. Smartpath is a function that will route some of your less important traffic through datacenter proxies. It is claimed to save you up to 60% in data use. Another feature is Byteful’s proxy tester, available in online and installable versions, which is the company’s preferred way for you to check their proxies.
While Byteful isn’t the cheapest option when it comes to per GB/IP cost, it does look very attractive with how low the entry costs are. You’re not required to splash above $5 for anything if you just want to dip your toes in.
For more information and performance tests, read our Byteful review.
5. Webshare
Affordable and highly customizable plans.
Get 50% off your first purchase.
- Locations: global (residential); ~15 countries (ISP); ~45 countries (datacenter)
- Support: email and chat (11PM-11AM PST)
- Extras: API, basic documentation
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $3.5/mo for 1GB
- Datacenter: $2.99/mo for 100 IPs ($0.0299/IP)
- ISP: $6/mo for 20 IPs ($0.3/IP)
- Trial: 10 free datacenter IPs
Webshare offers datacenter and ISP proxies in various formats, as well as residential proxies. The provider stands out due to its flexibility. You’re free to choose how many IPs you’d like to get and where. You can then adjust the traffic, threads, and network priority. IP replacement options range from individual refreshes to a full change up to every five minutes.
The service is easy to use for beginners and surprisingly developer-friendly: there are detailed usage stats, and you can replicate most of the dashboard’s functionality via the provided API.
Webshare can be considered an affordable provider. Its basic configurations cost below the market average, and, uniquely, you get refunded for unused traffic if you cancel. Plus, each new user gets 10 free datacenter proxies to try out for free.
For more information and performance tests, read our Webshare review.
6. DataImpulse
Affordable rotating pools with non-expiring traffic.
- Locations: 100+ (residential, mobile); 100+ countries (datacenter)
- Support: live chat, 24/7 via email
- Extras: API for resellers
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $50 for 50 GB ($1/GB)
- Premium residential: $5/mo for 1 GB (PAYG) or $50/mo for 10GB ($5/GB)
- Datacenter: $50/mo for 100 GB ($0.5/GB)
- Mobile: $50/mo for 25 GB ($2/GB)
- Residential: $50 for 50 GB ($1/GB)
- Trial: $5 entry plans for the same rate as basic $50 plans
DataImpulse offers cheap residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies. For all their affordability, the proxy pools are actually fairly large. One of their latest features is the premium residential proxies. Our tests showed them to perform better than regular proxies, with success rates within 0.08% each other and connection times differing by 0.33s.
DataImpulse’s residential proxies were relatively fast and succeeded over 99% of the time. Combining these factors, they manage to beat some more established proxy providers. All three proxy types support city, ASN, and ZIP code targeting.
Despite having great rates, DataImpulse requires an investment of at least $50. And it’s up to you to decide whether premium residential proxies are worth the 5x price increase. Also, the proxies may see more abuse compared to premium competitors. Still, DataImpulse manages to offer an impressive package.
Read the Dataimpulse review for more information and performance tests.
7. Evomi
Affordable ethical proxies
- Locations: 150+ (residential, mobile); US (ISP); 100+ countries (datacenter)
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Extras: IP quality, speed, device filters
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $49.99/mo for 100GB ($0.49/GB)
- Datacenter: $80/mo for 200 GB ($0.4/GB)
- ISP: $20/mo for 20 IPs ($1/IP)
- Mobile: $4/GB (PAYG)
- Trial: 3-day trial
Evomi is a relatively new (2024) player in the field that’s working hard to make a name for itself. But it has more to offer than free traffic for startups or the reputation of being a member of the Ethical Web Data Collection Initiative. Evomi has a decent, if a bit small, pool of proxies and decent performance stats.
The proxies come with filtering features (for residential) like ad blocking, fraud score, OS, IP quantity, latency, and uptime. As for sessions, they can last up to 120 minutes, or you may opt for a hard session that will keep the same IP as long as possible.
The downsides come from a lack of advanced proxy management features. There’s no IP allowlisting, the usage information is basic, and sub-users are only available for resellers of the 5 TB tier.
For more information and performance tests, read our Evomi review.
8. NetNut
Rotating proxies for large-scale use.
Use the code Proxyway to get a 30% discount.
- Locations: global (residential); 100 (mobile); 30 countries (ISP); 23 countries (datacenter)
- Support: email, live chat
- Extras: reseller API
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $99/mo for 28GB ($3.53/GB)
- Datacenter: $100/mo for 100 GB ($1/GB)
- ISP: $99/mo for 7 GB ($14.4/GB)
- Mobile: $99/mo for 13 GB ($7.6/GB)
- Trial: 7-day trial for businesses
NetNut offers datacenter, residential, ISP, and mobile proxies in the rotating pool format. The proxy networks have broad location coverage and can be filtered down to a city or ASN. The ISP offering is especially impressive, both for the pool size and the locations offered.
In recent years, NetNut has invested a lot in IP sourcing. As a result, it now owns one of the largest pools in the US and UK, rivaled only by Oxylabs, Decodo, and maybe Bright Data. On the other hand, the quality drops once you look into the datacenter and mobile pools.
The provider’s plans start from $99, so they require quite an up-front investment. However, the rates scale pretty well for bulk purchases.
NetNut could definitely improve in user experience. Despite providing very detailed usage statistics, NetNut’s dashboard disappoints, and it’s inflexible with budget management.
For more information and performance tests, read our NetNut review.
9. IPRoyal
Flexible proxies with friendly entry plans.
Mobile proxies
2.5M IPs
ISP proxies
500K IPs
Datacenter proxies
Not specified
Residential proxies
32M IPs
- Locations: global (residential); not specified (mobile); ~32 countries (ISP); ~15 countries (datacenter)
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Extras: proxy tester, extensive documentation, browser extension
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $7.00/mo for 1 GB
- Datacenter: $1.80/mo for 1 IP
- ISP: $2/day
- Mobile: $6.8/mo for 2 GB ($3.4/GB)
- Trial: free trial for businesses
IPRoyal is a strong option for small to medium needs. Its main product is rotating residential proxies. You can also get a dedicated ISP, datacenter, or dedicated mobile proxies. All four cover a good number of locations and have cheap entry plans, allowing for the bare minimum buy-in.
The company has a comfortable dashboard and a browser extension for easier proxy management. Additional benefits? Filtering for better quality IPs as well as excluding ISP proxies or IP ranges. You may even set up allow/deny lists for domains. The customer service is also good.
The residential proxy pool performs well, with flexible rotation and city targeting. And based on our testing, IPRoyal has overcome its issues with IP quality, easily taking the #1 spot.
For more information and performance tests, read our IPRoyal review.
10. Infatica
Solid choice for all proxy types.
Use the code proxyway2024 to get 20% off your first purchase.
- Locations: global (residential); 100+ countries (mobile, datacenter); 23 countries (ISP)
- Support: 24/7 via tickets, chat, or email
- Extras: extensive documentation
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $96/mo for 25 GB ($3.84/GB)
- Datacenter: or $29/mo for 50 GB ($0.58/GB)
- ISP: $3/mo for 1 IP
- Mobile:or $45/mo for 6 GB ($7.5/GB)
- Trial: 7-day trial for $4.00
Infatica covers all four corners of the proxy, er, house, with residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies. The provider’s proxy networks include versatile location targeting options, including city and ASN. You can create lists of up to 1,000 proxies at once.
As far as locations go, the selection isn’t bad, though we’ve seen companies that offer more mobile locations right on this list. In our benchmarks, Infatica’s proxies showed a good deal of unique IPs. Performance-wise, they were OK, and the connection success rate was much better than the connection speed.
Infatica’s rates, however, are beyond what mid-market alternatives like Decodo or SOAX would ask from you. This includes the PAYG pricing as well. All in all, there’s nothing particularly remarkable about this provider, just a solid service.
For more information and performance tests, read our Infatica review.
11. Rayobyte
Proxy servers covering all the bases.
Use the code proxyway to get 5% off.
- Locations: 100+ (residential, mobile); ~6 countries (ISP); ~29 countries (datacenter)
- Support: tickets, email, or Slack (select customers)
- Extras: browser extension
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $3.50/GB
- Datacenter: $0.3/mo for 1 GB or $12.5/mo for 5 IPs ($0.25/IP)
- ISP: $7.5/mo for 2 GB ($3.75 GB) or $25/mo for 5 IPs ($5/IP)
- Mobile: $250/mo for 200 GB ($1.25/GB)
- Trial: 2-day free trial with 50 MB (non-expiring)
Rayobyte is well known for its datacenter proxies, but that’s not all. It also sells residential, ISP, and mobile proxies in several formats. The residential and mobile proxy networks cover over 100 countries, with city-level targeting and several rotation settings.
The IP pool is stable, but its response time really underwhelmed, barely reaching the mid-tier. In terms of price, Rayobyte is very affordable if you need rotating proxies. The PAYG plans are a good deal for those with minimal needs, too. Mobile proxies are the real outlier there, with a very hefty minimum price.
Rayobyte’s main downsides include its lack of speed. You may also miss some features like ASN targeting or SOCKS5 support. The user experience is questionable, too.
For more information and performance tests, read our Rayobyte review.
Providers We Haven't Tested Recently
12. Bright Data
Best platform for proxies.
Use the code PROXYWAY60 to get 60% off all proxy plans and Browser API. New users only.
- Locations: global (residential, mobile); 50 countries (ISP); 100 countries (datacenter)
- Support: 24/7 via live chat, tickets, dedicated account manager
- Extras: API, browser extension, Proxy Manager, dedicated IPs, IPv6-only IPs
- Pricing starts at:
- Residential: $4.00/mo for 1 GB (PAYG) or $499/mo for 141 GB ($3.50/GB)
- Datacenter: $14/mo for 10 IPs ($1.4/IP) or $0.6/GB (PAYG)
- ISP: $18/mo for 10 IPs ($1.8/IP) or $8/GB (PAYG)
- Trial: 7-day free trial for businesses
Bright Data is one of the largest premium proxy suppliers today. You can get residential, datacenter, and ISP proxies. Unfortunately for mobile, the provider sunset the service in 2026.
The provider controls the largest residential proxy network in the world and has one of the largest ISP pools. The geographical coverage is also impressive. What’s more, you can expect an almost perfect success rate, good response time, and stability. In addition to that, Bright Data has a very extensive API, a browser extension, and an open-source proxy manager. The latter allows you to manipulate the IPs to a great extent.
However, Bright Data is very much not for beginners. If there’s an enterprise proxy provider out there, this is it.
For more information and performance tests, read our Bright Data review.
Different Types of Proxies
The most common proxy types are datacenter and residential proxies. The former come from cloud hosting companies, while the latter are sourced from real users.
Proxies can be private, which means that the IP belongs to one user or a particular domain. In contrast, shared proxies are available to a handful of different users. There are also rotating proxies that automatically fetch you IPs from a pool of addresses.
Lastly, for those who need diversity, SOCKS5 proxies can handle almost any protocol, program, or type of traffic.
Proxy Types by Use Case
Proxies can be categorized by specific use cases, such as ad verification, SEO tracking, web scraping, social media management, and more. Here are the main proxy types by use case:
- Ad verification proxies can help track misplaced ads, check their redirection paths, and check whether they appear in the right location.
- SEO proxies are commonly used to track ranks, research keywords, analyze competitors, and perform site audits. Since search engines are difficult to scrape, there are specialized proxies to tackle the task, such as Google scraping proxies.
- Web scraping proxies make sure you won’t get blocked when you scrape various targets. They are fast, anonymous, and hard to detect. If you’re using a bot, make sure to get ScrapeBox proxies to go with it. These proxies are used to increase your scraping success rates.
- Sneaker proxies help to overcome strict anti-botting measures imposed by various popular sneaker stores.
- Social media proxies differ according to each popular platform. For example:
- Instagram proxies are usually mobile or at least residential, and they will protect you from getting banned when you’re working with multiple accounts.
- Facebook proxies enable you to unblock, manage multiple accounts, and scrape Facebook.
- Pinterest proxies are verified to work with Pinterest platform, so you will scrape or pin without getting blocked.
- Youtube proxies allow you to access geo-restricted content, automate and scrape YouTube.
- Another popular use case is e-commerce:
- Amazon proxies offer a fast and reliable way to scrape reviews and product listings, perform market research and boost your e-commerce business.
- Craigslist proxies let you scrape its postings or post multiple ads yourself to various locations and without blocks.
Frequently Asked Questions About Best Proxy Providers
The best proxy server provider depends on your needs. Each proxy provider comes with different pricing methods, different products, geographical availability, filtering options, and so on. Once you decide on what feature(s) is important for your case, go over our list above to find what you need.
Your proxy type should be chosen based on your goal. If what you need more than anything is for proxies to go undetected, go for residential or mobile proxies. If speed and stability matter more, use datacenter or ISP proxies.
Proxy costs depend on the type: mobile are usually the most expensive while datacenter are the cheapest. Here are some average prices, with the caveats that many providers don’t sell single GBs or IPs, and that they get cheaper if you buy in bulk.
- Residential proxies: $3.5/GB.
- Datacenter: $0.6/GB or $1/IP
- ISP: $3/GB or $2/IP
- Mobile: $4 GB
Residential proxies are worth the extra cost for unlocking popular, well-defended targets. It doesn’t matter that datacenter proxies are cheaper, faster, and more stable if they can’t unblock the target in the first place. Since residential proxies are a lot less likely to be detected, they’re much more useful and thus expensive.
