The Best Proxy Servers of 2024
The torrent-friendly proxy servers, nine locations, and SOCKS5 protocol are why we ranked NordVPN as the best option.
- Torrent-friendly proxy server
- 9 proxy server locations
- SOCKS5 proxy protocol
- Provides complete online anonymity
- Lets you access blocked websites
- Ensures protection against malware
- Fully conceals your IP address
- Allows you to bypass geo-blocks
- Provides you filtering options
While it’s best practice to use a top-rated VPN to increase your online security, sometimes you don’t want to have to deal with the negative consequences of increasing your anonymity – namely, the performance degradation. That’s where proxy servers come in.
A proxy server acts as an intermediary for queries from internet users looking for resources from other servers like webpages or connection and file resources. The proxy server estimates the request as a way to control and simplify its complex while making the request more difficult to trace back to its origin.
Some types of proxy promise to give users privacy and anonymity while also letting them access blocked websites by changing their device’s IP address. However, not all proxy servers are the same. There’s a different type of proxy for different purposes, most of which are aimed at businesses. Because of that, you might have a hard time looking for a personal-use proxy service to protect your privacy. That’s where we come in.
Today we’re diving deep into the three best personal-use proxy services based on our research and hands-on testing.
The Best Proxy VPNs of 2024: Our Top 3 Picks
- NordVPN - Best Proxy for Torrenting
- Private Internet Access VPN - Best Encryption
- IPVanish - Best Proxy With Multiple Server Locations
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 proxy, but some might prefer using 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, getting access to proxy servers is usually cheaper than VPN subscription costs.
We’ll look at those use cases as we explore the best proxies available. Without further ado, here they are.
Comparing the Top Proxy Service Providers
System |
NordVPN
|
Private Internet Access VPN
|
IPVanish
|
---|---|---|---|
Ranking | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Ratings | 9.7/10 | 9.4/10 | 9.3/10 |
Proxy server locations | 9 | 1 | 50 |
Offers encryption | No | Yes | No |
Can bypass georestrictions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Easy to set up | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Included in VPN subscription | Yes | Yes | Yes |
VPN subscription cost | $3.79 per month for 2 years | $2.19 per month for 2 years | $3.33 per month for 2 years |
Read Review | NordVPN Review | Private Internet Access VPN Review | IPVanish Review |
Detailed Information on the Best Proxy Servers of 2024
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1. NordVPN - Best Proxy for Torrenting
Product Specs
Multihop Yes Camouflage Mode Yes Kill switch Yes Split Tunneling Yes Netflix Yes Torrenting Yes Speed
NordVPN is a good VPN for torrenting because it’s fast and has strong security features, but if you only want to hide your IP address and have nothing to hide in your torrent downloads, NordVPN’s manually set up proxy for torrenting is a good alternative. We experienced much faster speeds from NordVPN’s proxy than when we used its VPN for torrenting. It took the proxy less than four minutes to download the 2.1 GB file we used for testing the best torrenting VPNs. It took the VPN seven minutes to download the same file.
Ease of setup
Although it requires manual configuration, NordVPN was easy to set up because we didn’t need to ping the server addresses. We simply entered the selected server address into our uTorrent application and then filled in our credentials (username and password sent to our email). After that, all our uTorrent downloads and seeds went through the proxy server in Stockholm, which we selected. Hint: The country code or city in the proxy server address tells you the location of the proxy server.5
Pricing
NordVPN costs a minimum of $3.79 per month. Our subscription gave us access to both the VPN and the proxy. After signing up, we enabled manual setup from our NordVPN account dashboard, and then NordVPN sent us an email with a username and password (different from our NordVPN account password). Those were the credentials we entered into the uTorrent app to activate the proxy server address.
What We Like
- Works on multiple torrent clients, like uTorrent, qBittorrent, etc.
- Easy to set up
- Nine locations
- Faster for torrenting than the VPN
What We Don’t Like
- Half of the locations are in the U.S.
- For torrents only
- Doesn’t work as multi-hop for NordVPN (a VPN multi-hop feature is available)
- No access to proxy features via the app
We recommend using a VPN when torrenting for two main reasons: to encrypt your traffic in order to hide that you’re torrenting from your internet provider, and to change your real IP address to hide it from torrent users who might have bad intentions.
Both are essential if you live in the United States. Torrenting is not illegal, but downloading copyrighted materials is piracy and against the law. And because so many people use torrent to pirate digital media, even those who use it legally are sometimes penalized through ISP throttling. This is when your internet provider caps your download speed to discourage downloads.
Torrent downloads are not as monitored outside the U.S., though, so if you’re from a country that’s not strict about torrenting, a proxy will work just fine. It won’t encrypt your traffic, but it will still change your IP address. In fact, it might work better because without encryption, using a proxy results in faster speeds than a VPN. That was certainly true with NordVPN. Using its proxy server in Stockholm, we downloaded a 2.1 GB file with two seeders in less than four minutes. When we used a VPN server in Sweden, it took us nearly twice as long.
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2. Private Internet Access VPN - Best Encryption
Product Specs
Multihop Yes Camouflage Mode No Kill switch Yes Split Tunneling Yes Netflix Yes Torrenting Yes Speed
Private Internet Access’ (PIA) proxy server speed depends on how you use it: For regular browsing or to enhance a VPN connection using multi-hop, a stealthy VPN feature that makes your traffic go through two servers for extra privacy. In PIA’s case, it routed our traffic to a proxy server and then a VPN server.
For regular use, Private Internet Access’ speed was amazing. It felt like we weren’t using a middleman at all. It retained more than 90 percent of our 250 Mbps internet, as our average reading with PIA was 243 Mbps for both downloads and uploads.
For multi-hop, PIA was slower since it connected us to two servers. It averaged around 180 Mbps, which is still great considering that when we tested Surfshark’s multi-hop feature, it slowed us down to 70 Mbps, only 30 percent of our network capacity.
Ease of setup
Setting up a proxy on a Windows computer isn’t as easy as installing a VPN app, but PIA’s setup process is doable and comes complete with instructions.1 First, we copied the proxy server address and port details from our VPN dashboard. We then pinged it using Command Prompt to get the IP address. From there, we manually entered the proxy server IP address and port into the built-in Windows proxy menu found in the Network & Internet settings.
Once we got the proxy’s IP address and port, we were able to set it up on multiple devices, including our Xbox Series S gaming console, which doesn’t support VPN apps. Even the best VPNs for Xbox require workaround setup methods like setting up the VPN on a router, so PIA’s proxy is easier to use if you just want to change your IP address.
Pricing
Private Internet Access’ proxy server comes with a VPN subscription, so essentially, it’s free if you already have PIA as your VPN. If not, signing up for a VPN subscription costs as little as $2.19 per month for two years with Private Internet Access’ current pricing. It’s one of the most affordable VPNs around; ExpressVPN, for example, charges a minimum of $8.32 per month and doesn’t even include proxy features.
What We Like
- SOCKS5 and Shadowsocks protocol
- Can be used as multi-hop for VPN
- Separate login credentials from VPN (extra security)
- Relatively easy to set up
What We Don’t Like
- Only one proxy server location (Netherlands)
- Doesn’t always work with streaming services
- Requires manual setup and configuration
- No encryption (but works well with PIA VPN encryption)
When using privacy tools such as a VPN or proxy, you’ll usually have to give up some speed for security and privacy. That’s especially true if you use VPN multi-hop, which is a feature that routes your traffic twice to two different VPN servers and encrypts it each time. We use multi-hop when we’re doing something that needs extra privacy, like sending over confidential company files. The problem is, the extra routing and encryption usually slows our network speed to a fraction of its usual output, sometimes to less than 10 Mbps.
» How To: Set Up VPN on a Router
Private Internet Access’ solution is multi-hop via a proxy server.2 Instead of two VPN servers, it sends traffic to a proxy server first, and then the proxy forwards it to a VPN server for encryption. PIA’s multi-hop is less secure because encryption happens only once, but it still hides your IP address behind two servers. The real advantage of multi-hop via proxy, though, is you get better speeds than with regular VPN multi-hop. PIA’s multi-hop averaged 180 Mbps on our network, which was just a tad slower than the PIA VPN’s average of 225 Mbps.
Of course, we were still able to use Private Internet Access’ proxy as a regular proxy server for things that required speed and changing of IP address, but not encryption. For example, we used it to change our Netflix region to the Netherlands (the only location of PIA’s proxy servers), and because the proxy didn’t encrypt our traffic, we were able to stream 4K movies and series. “The Missing” is highly recommended.
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3. IPVanish - Best Proxy With Multiple Server Locations
Product Specs
Multi-hop No Camouflage Mode No Kill switch Yes Split Tunneling Yes Netflix Yes Torrenting Yes, with uTorrent Speed
IPVanish functions as a regular personal-use proxy for changing a device or application’s IP address, but not for multi-hop like Private Internet Access.
The speed we got from IPVanish depended on the location of the server. Some servers we connected to were fast. The Singapore, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, and United States servers all averaged between 220 and 240 Mbps, while the Czech Republic, Philippines, and Brazil servers averaged less than 150 Mbps. Sometimes it’s all about location. The closer you are to a server, the faster the speed you’re going to get. However, factors like the country’s internet infrastructure can also affect a proxy server’s speed.
Ease of setup
The setup process for IPVanish was the same as it was for Private Internet Access. We pinged the server address to get the IP address and used the latter to set up the proxy on the device or app we were using. For our tests, we used a Windows laptop, but you can use IPVanish’s proxy on any device (or even app-like torrent clients) that lets you manually change the proxy settings.
Bear in mind that IPVanish gives you one IP address in the location of the server address. For example, when we pinged sin.socks.ipvanish.com, we got an IP address from Singapore. If you want to change location, you’ll have to start all over every time. You’re going to have to get cozy with Command Prompt on Windows3 or Terminal on macOS4 because that’s what you’ll use to ping the servers to get a working IP address.
Pricing
Like Private Internet Access, IPVanish’s proxy service is part of every IPVanish VPN subscription. IPVanish costs $2.99 per month if you sign up for two years. It’s a few cents more expensive per month than Private Internet Access, but consider what you’re getting: IPVanish offers 50 proxy locations, whereas PIA offers just one in the Netherlands. Our other top pick, NordVPN, offers just nine locations.
What We Like
- 50 proxy server locations
- SOCKS5 (latest proxy protocol)
- Account authentication before connecting is required
- Easy setup process and works with torrent clients
What We Don’t Like
- Speeds could be improved
- No data encryption
- Doesn’t work with IPVanish VPN
- Tedious to change proxy locations
Besides offering 50 proxy locations all around the world, IPVanish’s proxy feature is top-notch because it uses SOCKS5, the latest, most advanced, and most secure proxy protocol right now.
A proxy protocol is not unlike a VPN protocol; it’s a set of rules and instructions that decide how your online traffic is routed from your device to the proxy server. Think of it like navigation directions for your data.
SOCKS has long been one of the most widely utilized protocols, and SOCKS5, its latest version, is better than all other proxy protocols because it’s more robust and flexible. For example, HTTP is another widely used proxy protocol, but you can set it up only on a web browser. Everything you do on that browser goes through the proxy, but traffic from an external app like Netflix, for example, won’t be affected by the IP address change.
With SOCKS5, we were able to set up IPVanish on our Windows laptop, meaning all traffic from that laptop went through the server. We were also able to set up IPVanish on BitTorrent, and when we did, only our torrent traffic passed through the server and we were able to browse on Chrome with our real IP address.
» Learn more: VPNs Best for Chrome
With the flexibility of SOCKS5 and IPVanish’s 50 proxy locations, we had a good day-to-day proxy to use for changing our device or an app’s IP address.
VPN or Proxy?
You might have noticed that all our top picks are VPN providers with complimentary proxy servers, and there’s a good reason for that. We recommend using a proxy only for very specific situations, especially if the goal is to protect your privacy.
A proxy doesn’t encrypt your data; it changes your IP address only. That’s one way to protect your privacy, but it’s not foolproof. For example, your internet provider can still see what you’re doing online. And with that, it can track what websites you’ve visited, what you downloaded, and more.
» Did You Know?: Difference Between a Static and Dynamic IP Address
With a VPN, you also get encryption. Your traffic is encrypted before it leaves your device, so even if your internet provider can see that you’re sending data to a VPN server, it can’t see what’s inside.
So, when should you use a proxy? The answer is only for online activities that require you to change your IP address but are not a privacy risk. Some examples that come to mind are:
- Gaming: If you want access to a game server in a different location, a proxy might provide faster speeds and less uptick in latency, although the best gaming VPNs are fast too.
- Accessing a blocked website: Changing your IP address is enough to give you access to a blocked site, as long as the website is available in the location of the proxy server.
- Changing streaming location: Similarly, changing your IP address gives you access to the streaming libraries available in the server’s location.
You can do all of those things with a VPN, but since proxy servers don’t offer encryption, you might experience better speeds if you use a proxy.
Tips for Choosing a Proxy Server
With that in mind, if you choose to use a proxy server, there are two specific things you should consider:
Proxy Location
First is the location of the proxy server. One thing we noted while testing proxy servers is that changing server locations is not as easy as changing locations with a VPN. With a VPN, you can just launch the app and select a different location in the server list. With a proxy, you’ll need to manually set up the proxy connection by pinging the server address to get a proxy IP address. Bear in mind that you’ll have to go through the entire process whenever you change your location.
Another thing to keep in mind is that most proxy providers offer only a handful of locations. For its VPN, NordVPN has over 5,000 servers in 60 countries. For its proxy, it has only nine servers in five locations. That’s why you need to select a provider with proxy servers in the locations you want to use. For example, if you want to access Netflix Italy using a proxy, find a proxy with a server in Italy.
Proxy Protocol
The other factor to consider is the proxy protocol. We touched on this earlier, but just to elaborate, 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 in browsers only, but it doesn’t work on external apps such as torrent clients.
- SSL/TLS: This is a more secure protocol that uses encryption to scramble data being transferred, but because it was last updated in 1996, its encryption has vulnerabilities.
- Shadowsocks: This is a high-performing protocol good for bypassing firewalls. It’s widely used in China to get around censorship. It encrypts data much better than SSL/TLS, but it’s still not as secure and private as VPN encryption.
- 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. It still lacks the data encryption power of VPNs, but it’s the most secure proxy protocol there is right now.
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 not to use 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.
While there might be a few honest free proxy providers — for example, HMA and its free browser proxy — there’s a whole bunch more that offer free services only to profit off of your data. It’s simply easier to avoid free proxy services altogether.
Do Proxy Servers Work on Smartphones?
After choosing a proxy service to use — hopefully not a free one — the next part is to set up the proxy on the devices on which you’ll need it. We know that proxy connections work on Windows and macOS, but do they work on smartphones as well?
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.
Learn how to change IP address location on an iPhone and change location on Android more effectively.
Setting Up Proxy on iOS
- Obtain the proxy IP address and port from your provider or by pinging the proxy server address.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to Wi-Fi and select your Wi-Fi network.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Configure Proxy.
- Tap the toggle switch to turn it on.
- Enter your proxy IP address and your credentials from your proxy provider.
Setting Up Proxy on Android
- Obtain the proxy server address and port.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to Network & Internet, then Wi-Fi.
- Select your Wi-Fi network.
- Look for the Modify option.
- Select Advanced Options.
- Under the Proxy menu, select Manual in the drop-down list.
- Enter the server address and port details.
- 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.
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?
If you want to hide your browsing activity, it’s better to use a VPN.
FAQs
Craving more proxy server information? Check out these FAQs!
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What is a proxy server?
A proxy server is an intermediary server that stands between you and the internet. When you connect to the internet through a proxy server, it hides your real IP address and instead shows the server’s IP address. Proxy servers can be useful in unblocking georestricted content, preventing websites from blacklisting your IP address, and achieving better online privacy.
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What are the uses of proxy servers?
The uses of proxy servers include unblocking websites, hiding real IP addresses, and navigating around content restrictions and IP address blacklisting. Businesses also use proxy servers for data scraping and automated sneaker copping via sneaker bots, as search engines and websites consider these to be suspicious activities. Data scrapers and sneaker bots avoid detection by using proxy servers.
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Is it illegal to use proxy servers?
No, it is not illegal to use proxy servers in the U.S. However, illegal online activities, like downloading or broadcasting copyrighted content without permission, remain illegal even if you’re using proxy servers. Some proxy server providers even reserve the right to report illegal activities on their servers to the authorities.
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Are proxy servers better than VPNs?
From a privacy and security standpoint, proxy servers are not better than VPNs. Proxy servers and VPNs both stand as intermediaries between you and the internet in order to provide online privacy. However, VPNs also encrypt online traffic, while proxy servers do not, so VPNs offer better privacy. On the other hand, if you prioritize speed over privacy, proxy servers often offer better speeds due to the lack of encryption.
Private Internet Access. (2022). Do you offer a SOCKS5 proxy?
helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/kb/articles/do-you-offer-a-socks5-proxyPrivate Internet Access. (2022). Understanding the Multi-Hop Feature.
helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/kb/articles/understanding-the-multi-hop-featureHelloTech. (2023). How to Do a Ping Test on a Windows 10 PC.
hellotech.com/guide/for/how-to-do-a-ping-test-windows-10HelloTech. (2023). How to Do a Ping Test on a Mac Computer.
hellotech.com/guide/for/how-to-do-a-ping-test-on-macNordVPN. (2023). NordVPN proxy setup for uTorrent.
support.nordvpn.com/Connectivity/Proxy/1047410732/Proxy-setup-on-uTorrent.htm