The primary function of a proxy server is to hide your location when you establish an internet connection. When the host website cannot see the IP addresses of your devices, then it can’t locate you. You may use proxy servers in different ways based on different situations. It can be used to track employees’ progress, gain more internet traffic, protect your site, or get competitor data. When you visit a website, it will track down your location (IP address) for certain personalization settings. The main use of a proxy server is to hide your IP address and improve cybersecurity.

However, we are put off by the lack of support options, the prices on the plans, and also that competitors offer proxies in many more locations. Overall, the free proxy is worth trying, with all of the features, to see if this proxy meets your needs. However, do note that a lot of the best proxy server providers also provide paid-for Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, which can offer better security and privacy than a proxy service alone. In which case, it may be worth considering getting a free VPN or pay for one of the best VPN services instead.

What is a proxy server?

ExpressVPN tops the list as our overall favorite thanks to its rapid speeds, varied server locations, friendly apps, brilliant customer support and the ability to unblock loads of streaming services. On top of that, you can try it 100% risk free with its 30-day money back guarantee. On the other hand, VPNs like ExpressVPN use fully encrypted tunnels and what features does a proxy offer are generally better at protecting your data. The most private VPN services also offer strict no-log policies to guarantee that any of your sensitive data is never retained by the provider. The top reason why a web proxy is needed on a network is that it protects a company’s data assets by limiting websites that potentially contain malicious code.

Such proxies can potentially enhance your security, privacy and help you bypass content filters and geo-blocks. They can also cache website content and load them faster in certain circumstances. However, some types of proxies can be used to filter or censor content and don’t improve online privacy.

What are residential proxies used for?

Broadly speaking, a web proxy, also referred to as a proxy or proxy server, is a way to filter the connection between your computer and the internet. When the proxy server forwards your web requests, it can make changes to the data you send and still get you the information that you expect to see. A proxy server can change your IP address, so the web server doesn’t know exactly where you are in the world.

Start reading the best proxies for network protection and data gathering, or jump to best free proxy servers for personal privacy. Fortinet empowers businesses to protect users against cyberattacks and malicious activity through FortiProxy, an enterprise-grade, secure web proxy. You can use a forward proxy along with anonymous proxies to secure your internet usage. You can also use a rotating residential proxy with a high anonymity proxy to hide all your web activities from your competitors.

There are several reasons organizations and individuals use a proxy server. You might be using a proxy server at your office, on a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or you could be one of the more tech-savvy who always use a proxy server of some kind or another. The I2P router takes care of finding other peers and building anonymizing tunnels through them. Intercepting proxies are also commonly used by ISPs in some countries to save upstream bandwidth and improve customer response times by caching. This is more common in countries where bandwidth is more limited (e.g. island nations) or must be paid for. SOCKS also forwards arbitrary data after a connection phase, and is similar to HTTP CONNECT in web proxies.

• Data center proxies are often faster than residential proxies and are plentiful.
• Although they’re often used interchangeably, the terms “proxy server” and “proxy IP address” have different meanings.
• A proxy acts as a gateway when you access the internet, protecting your privacy when browsing the web.
• Such information would be impossible to extract without proxies in place due to recurring blocks.