Our top free proxy servers include:
IP: 145.239.85.58 – Port: 9300 – Country: Poland IP: 46.4.96.137 – Port: 1080 – Country: Germany IP: 47.91.88.100 – Port: 1080 – Country: Germany IP: 45.77.56.114 – Port: 30205 – Country: England IP: 82.196.11.105 – Port: 1080 – Country: Netherlands
Unlike a free proxy server, a VPN also encrypts all your data traffic and protects your online footprint. Moreover, premium VPN connections are generally much more reliable than free proxy servers with better speeds and uptime (99.99%). Surfshark is a great and affordable VPN we recommend to anyone. Note: Many free proxies are often unreliable, quite slow, and sometimes even unsafe. You have to remember a proxy server is under the control of an individual or an entity you don’t know. Therefore, you never quite know how your data (which, unless encrypted, will be visible to the entity managing the server) will be treated. Moreover, many free proxies are quite slow (because a lot of people use them). We generally advise using a safer and more convenient method to increase your anonymity, safety, and freedom online, such as a VPN. Modern VPNs like Surfshark for instance, are incredibly cheap and very effective. Using Surfshark is essentially like having thousands of proxies at your disposal all over the world. The main difference is that these VPN connections are much safer than proxies, thanks to Surfshark’s no-log policy and strong encryption. They’re also much faster. There are some VPNs like IronSocket that offer proxy servers, however, many of them are notorious for having issues with their security and functionality. If you’re interested in other VPNs, feel free to check out our top VPN reviews.
What Is a Proxy Server?
A proxy server is a server that finds itself between an internet user’s network and the destination (the website or page, etc.) they’re trying to connect to. The proxy masks the user’s IP address. This ultimately increases the user’s anonymity and privacy online. After all, many websites and online services use your IP address to determine where you are (which some might consider a breach of privacy). Many people use proxy servers to prevent websites and other entities from tracking them online, i.e. to browse anonymously. An even greater portion of people now uses proxy servers to circumvent geo-restrictions and watch content that, based on their real location, wouldn’t be accessible to them. Examples include the American version of Netflix and Hulu for instance for people who live outside of the United States.
Free Proxies
Down below you’ll find a list of free proxy servers worldwide. Unfortunately, free proxy servers regularly go offline and are often quite slow. With our proxies, this problem should be somewhat addressed, since we only included proxies with a high uptime percentage (80 percent minimum). We’ve only selected proxy servers that support secured HTTPS connections or SOCKS5 proxies. The former allows you to connect to the secured version of websites in a safe way that makes your data unreadable for potential cybercriminals. The latter also protects your data, through the use of the Secure Shell (SSH) encrypted tunneling method. It also offers a safe and advanced authentication method to prevent you from accidentally connecting to malicious parties. Moreover, all the proxies on our list have the highest anonymity grade proxies can achieve (level 1 out of 3). These are proxies that do not show your IP address to the other server you connect to, as transparent (level 3) proxies would. In fact, they don’t even give away the fact that you’re using a proxy, as an anonymous proxy (level 2) would. Lastly, we’ve also tried to only include proxy servers with low latency. Unfortunately, free proxies are not known for their blazing speeds. Therefore, if a server is not as fast as you’d like, you can always try another one.
Our Free Proxies List
Now, here’s our list of the top free proxy servers that you can select in 2023.
Note: Manual proxy servers are often hit & miss
Please be aware that trying out individual proxy servers, rather than proxy websites, often involves trial and error. Free proxy servers are sometimes very slow and sometimes the connection is too weak to connect to a webpage at all. For people with a blazing fast internet connection, this might not be a big issue. All of these proxy servers did work at some point, but when one of our technology reviewers, with his download speed of 88 Mbps, tried them out, he had very little success. Because of the above, we strongly recommend using either a VPN to change your IP or trying out a proxy website. These are often more reliable and easier to get a good connection than by using manual proxy servers. We reviewed some of the best proxy websites that you can use too. Now without further ado, here is our list of proxy servers.
Free residential proxies
Residential proxies are offered by (large) companies and are therefore often much more expensive than so-called datacenter proxies. They are some of the most premium proxy services around because of their increased legitimacy. Residential proxies are often used for large projects such as market research or to optimize advertising campaigns. As such, it is no surprise that many regular users want to know where to find free residential proxies. Unfortunately, those who offer residential proxy servers know their worth and therefore finding free ones is difficult. After all, residential proxies assign IP addresses that actually belong to an internet service provider (ISP) and to a real device, contrary to datacenter proxies. Fortunately, however, there are some good providers of residential proxy servers that at least offer a money-back guarantee or even a free trial, so you can try out their service without risk. Some options include:
Oxylabs (3-day money-back guarantee) Smartproxy (3-day money-back guarantee) GeoSurf (7-day free trial)
Please do make sure you read the terms and conditions about getting a refund before you purchase a subscription. Often these services only allow you to use a certain amount of data if you want your money back, etc.
How to Set up a Proxy Server
Here, we’ll explain step-by-step how to set up proxy servers from the list above on your Windows or Mac device.
Setting up a proxy on Windows
To set up a proxy on Windows please follow the following steps: Now you’re connected to your proxy server (provided it’s online) and can surf the internet more anonymously and freely.
Setting up a proxy on macOS
In order to use the free proxies on our list on your Mac, using Safari, just follow the following steps:
My Proxy Server’s IP Is Blocked – What Should I Do?
Sometimes a proxy server doesn’t work for the goal you had in mind. Often people want to use a proxy to unblock content that’s available in different regions for instance, such as the American version of Netflix. However, streaming services are aware of this, which is why they often block proxy users. They generally do this based on either your IP address, by seeing if it is shared by a lot of people (fellow proxy users), or based on the attributes that anonymous and transparent (so non-elite) proxies display about the fact you’re using a proxy server. Fortunately, there is an easy way around this problem: using a reliable VPN with a dedicated IP address, instead of a proxy, like NordVPN. Using a dedicated IP means your IP address will not be shared with any other users like often is the case with proxies and normal VPNs. Combine this with a VPN’s ability to change your IP address and you’ll have access to all the online content you want without being blocked. After all, websites and streams will no longer be able to detect you’re using an intermediary server. Some websites, rarely, also use deep packet inspection to find out if you’re using a VPN connection. However, SurfShark has an answer to this as well: their Camouflage Mode uses advanced anti-detection techniques to hide the fact that you’re using a VPN.
