Top 10 Best Free Proxy Servers of 2025

Online privacy is becoming an increasingly bigger concern for internet users and it’s easy to see why. Most major companies go out of their way to collect personal data so they can serve user’s personalized ads or sell it to third parties. On top of that, there are plenty of entities and individuals that use the data for all sorts of malicious purposes ranging from ransomware and phishing to credit card fraud and everything in between. The bottom line is that users are at risk while browsing the internet unless they use special tools and services to protect their data.

One of the best tools you can use to enhance your online security is free proxy servers. These act as a middleman between you and the internet and allow you to browse anonymously. When using a proxy server, your real IP is hidden and you are assigned a different address that acts as a temporary substitute. There are plenty of proxy services out there that you can get for free while others have paid, often subscription-based, variants that come with certain benefits. We’re going to cover both types in this article to give a varied sample group to choose from.

Below you can find a quick summary of the providers we handpicked for you along with the main reasons they were chosen to be featured on this list. If you’re looking for a more detailed analysis of these companies, keep reading for our full breakdown of each provider.

• Webshare – Unlimited testing and very accessible plans.
• Oxylabs – Free proxy package with 5 U.S. IPs and a user-friendly Chrome extension.
• Smartproxy – Free trial access to premium proxies with helpful browser extensions and tools.
• ProxySite – Straightforward service that gives you a lot of server locations to choose from.
• Hidester – Good free proxy servers that get even better if you decide to go premium.
• 4everproxy – Completely free with multiple websites in the case the main one goes down.
• KProxy – Minimalistic website that makes things easy for inexperienced users.
• MegaProxy – Veteran-free service provider that also offers very cheap paid proxy servers.
• Hide.me – Offers free limited plan with no credit card required.
• Tor – A very popular service that can easily act as a replacement for your current browser.

Remember – Some of the companies on this list specialize in proxy servers while others offer a wider variety of services. We only went with reliable and well-known companies here, so you’re in good hands regardless of which provider you pick.

1. Webshare

Webshare is a rising star in the proxy market, offering a comprehensive suite of proxy services including datacenter, residential, and ISP proxies. The company stands out for its commitment to providing affordable, high-quality proxies with a user-friendly interface and flexible customization options. One of Webshare’s key features is its free tier, which offers 10 datacenter proxies and 1 GB of monthly traffic, allowing users to test the service without any commitment. This approach to accessibility sets Webshare apart from many competitors.

The service provides a diverse range of proxy options, including datacenter proxies (available in shared, private, and dedicated variants), residential proxies (with a pool of over 30 million IPs from 195+ countries), and ISP proxies. Webshare’s residential proxy network has shown impressive performance in various tests, with an average success rate of 87.7% at 300 concurrency and a reasonable average response time of 1.17 seconds, which is competitive for its price range.

Webshare’s user-friendly dashboard allows for easy proxy management, including the ability to choose locations, set up rotations, and manage authentication methods. The service also offers detailed graphs and statistics on proxy usage and performance, giving users valuable insights into their proxy utilization.

Additional Services and Premium Options

In addition to its proxy services, Webshare offers an API for programmatic access to proxy management and configuration. This feature is particularly useful for developers and businesses looking to integrate Webshare’s proxies into their existing systems or applications.

For users requiring more advanced features, Webshare offers paid plans with additional benefits. The pricing is competitive, especially for smaller to mid-scale projects. Residential proxies start at $7 for 1 GB, with larger plans offering better value. Datacenter proxies are available from as low as $1 for 10 IPs on a shared plan, while static residential proxies start at $6 for 20 IPs.

The premium plans offer increased bandwidth, more IPs, and additional features such as higher concurrency limits and priority network access. While not the cheapest option for very large-scale operations, Webshare offers excellent value for small to medium-sized projects and businesses, making it a strong contender in the proxy market.

2. Oxylabs

Oxylabs offers a free proxy package that includes 5 U.S.-based IPs supporting HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols. These free proxies come with up to 20 concurrent sessions and 5GB of monthly traffic, all without requiring payment information. The service delivers reliable connections with impressive speeds, making it suitable for accessing geo-restricted content while maintaining anonymity. Oxylabs also provides a free Chrome extension called Oxy® Proxy Manager that lets users easily switch between multiple IP addresses with a single click, eliminating manual configuration hassles.

Unlike many free proxy providers, Oxylabs gives users access to the same high-quality infrastructure that powers their premium services, with 99.9% uptime and minimal connection failures. The free proxies include basic customer support, a rare feature among free proxy services. This combination of quality, ease of use, and reliable performance makes Oxylabs an excellent choice for users looking to try premium-level proxies without immediate commitment.

Reliable Services at Reasonable Costs

For those needing more features, Oxylabs offers free trials of their premium services – 7 days for businesses and 3 days for individuals. These trials provide access to their extensive network spanning 195 countries with city-level targeting. Their premium options include residential proxies using real device IPs, datacenter proxies for speed, and a Web Scraper API starting at $49/month. While not the cheapest option available, Oxylabs’ premium services deliver exceptional quality and reliability, making them popular among users who need consistent performance for accessing restricted content.

3. Smartproxy

Smartproxy is an award-winning proxy service provider that offers a generous free trial for new users wanting to test their extensive proxy network. The 3-day free trial gives access to their full suite of services without initial investment, making it ideal for users who want to thoroughly evaluate proxy performance before committing. This trial includes access to their residential proxy network of over 55 million real IPs across 195+ locations worldwide, featuring a 99.99% success rate for accessing geo-restricted content. Unlike many competitors, Smartproxy’s free trial doesn’t limit features, allowing users to experience the same quality and capabilities as paying customers.

In addition to the free trial, Smartproxy offers several completely free tools that enhance the proxy experience. Their free Chrome Proxy Extension and Firefox Add-on integrate proxy functionality directly into browsers for seamless anonymous browsing. The free X Browser tool helps users manage multiple accounts simultaneously without detection, while their Proxy Checker tool lets users test proxy lists for functionality and performance. These free offerings provide substantial value even before purchasing a plan.

Extremely Affordable Paid Options

For users who decide to continue after the trial period, Smartproxy provides a 14-day money-back guarantee, essentially extending the risk-free evaluation period. Their premium options include Residential Proxies starting from $1.5 per GB, Static Residential Proxies (ISP proxies) from $0.35 per IP, Mobile Proxies from $4.5 per GB, and Datacenter Proxies from $0.026 per IP.

Each proxy type is optimized for specific use cases, including web scraping, multi-accounting, price aggregation, SEO monitoring, and ad verification. With their competitive pricing and high-performance infrastructure, Smartproxy offers an excellent balance of quality and affordability for users needing reliable proxy services beyond the free trial period.

4. ProxySite

A pretty self-explanatory service that does exactly what it says. Most of these services are very easy to use but ProxySite takes things to the next level by adding the URL bar on the front page. You don’t need to click anywhere else on the website thanks to this convenient feature. ProxySite is very generous with the number of servers you can choose from, giving you access to more than two dozen locations across the US and EU. A sour point for some users might be that ProxySite has a lot of ads on its website, but since you’re planning to use a proxy server, you’re probably not above using an ad blocker as well.

Since I’ve already mentioned convenience earlier, there is another nice feature available on the site that will make things easier and faster. Just above the URL bar, you can find a series of buttons that will take you straight to proxy versions of popular websites such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and more. That’s great for situations when you don’t want to type in or copy a URL because you can simply visit the target website first and then proceed from there. ProxySite also has a Settings section where you can see and delete all the cookies stored by your computer while visiting websites via the service.

Decent Premium Offering

If you want to take your online security to the next level, ProxySite recommends using its premium VPN services. The service also includes a premium web proxy so this is one of those 2-in-1 type deals. The premium service costs $9.99 per month and comes with most of the features you would expect, such as access to dedicated servers, end-to-end encryption, geo-targeting, and full compatibility with restricted websites, among other things. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot that stands out here, particularly given the fairly high monthly subscription. The premium service is a bit hit-or-miss but the free offering is definitely very solid.

5. Hidester

Hidester is a very popular provider of services related to online privacy. While primarily known for its VPN service, Hidester also offers proxy servers that are not only secure but also extremely simple to use. One of the main reasons users pick Hidester instead of other similar services is because you don’t need to install anything here. You also don’t need to create an account or provide any type of information in order to use the service, which saves up a lot of time.

You can use Hidester from any browser and it works equally well on both desktop and mobile devices. If you plan on using the service often, you can install a Chrome extension so you don’t have to visit the company’s website every time you want to hide your IP. Regardless of where you plan on accessing Hidester from, you can pick between two types of servers – US and Europe – and play around with a few useful options before starting your browsing sessions. For example, you can encrypt the URL you want to visit, block cookies or remove scripts and objects from the target site.

A Huge List of Proxies to Choose From

Although the free proxy servers are very solid, you can get a lot more value from the premium version of the service. If you go premium, you can choose between more than 1600 proxies from a wide variety of countries around the globe. The service gives you access not just to public proxies but also SOCKS 4/5, SSL, HTTP, and Google proxies. You also get three levels of anonymity to work with along with a few other useful features. Hidester only supports semi-annual subscription plans for its paid service but you can get full access for just $24.90 for the 6-month period. In addition, the company also offers a very powerful VPN service, a password generator, and a couple of other tools that will help you enhance your online security.

6. 4everproxy

While other companies on this list try to stay diversified by offering multiple tools and services, 4everproxy is more single-minded in its approach. The provider works exclusively with proxy servers and doesn’t charge anything for its service. You will see more than a couple of ads on the company’s website because of it but that’s a small price to pay for anonymous browsing without any restrictions. Not offering a premium version may seem counter-productive, however, the company has been around since 2008 so the business model it uses seems to be working out just fine.

4everproxy is pretty unique in that it allows users to choose not only the location of the server but also the IP they want to use to connect to the targeted website. This gives you a lot of flexibility, especially given that you can choose between nine server locations and over a dozen IP locations. Another nice feature of 4everproxy is the ability to change both your server and IP location on the fly, which is a must for certain activities such as ad verification, for example. Aside from that, you’ve got many of the customization options you would expect, including the ability to remove scripts and page titles, allow or disallow cookies, page encryption, and more.

A Solid Backup Plan

As mentioned, 4everproxy itself doesn’t offer any other service or even a premium version. However, the same people who own 4everproxy run a wide variety of other websites you might be interested in. Most of these websites are a bit more specialized than 4everproxy and were designed to work specifically with YouTube, Chrome, or torrent sites like The Pirate Bay. Many of these additional websites were put in place as a backup plan, so just in case 4everproxy gets taken down at some point in the future, know that there are plenty of replacements you can use.

7. KProxy

KProxy is another popular proxy service that will allow you to browse anonymously for free. The website has a minimalistic design with very little clutter or unnecessary elements. If you don’t like the website, don’t worry because you can just install the KProxy Chrome or Firefox browser extensions instead. Another option would be to install the KProxy browser. The browser is exactly what you would expect and makes using the proxy servers a breeze, however, it does feature ads so maybe stick with the extensions or the regular websites if you’re not into that kind of thing.

A nice feature of Kproxy is that it allows you to switch between HTTP and HTTPS with a simple switch of a button. Although you can access most sites with either of the two protocols nowadays, there are some instances when the URL will not work unless you’re using a certain version, so having this option is really helpful. KProxy allows you to choose between 10 different public servers, which is quite a bit more compared to other providers. The bad news is that the company doesn’t say where these servers are located so you wouldn’t be able to make it seem like you’re browsing from a specific country or region.

Ad-Free Experience, For a Price

Despite all the advantages offered by KProxy, the service does contain some ads and makes you wait for 30 minutes after using the service for longer periods of time. If you want to get rid of those annoyances you’ll need to go with the premium version, which costs $10 per month. If you’re thinking long-term, I recommend opting for the semi-annual plan as that would only set you back $30 for the entire 6-month period. In return, you can expect an ad-free experience, unlimited downloads, access to premium servers, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and a few other benefits to boot.

8. MegaProxy

MegaProxy has been around for a pretty long time so you may find its site to be a bit dated compared to some of the other services on our list. If you don’t mind the minimalistic interface, however, there’s actually a lot to like about the service. For one, the URL bar is conveniently placed on the front page so you can quickly type the URL you want to visit and click the “Surf” button to begin your anonymous browsing session.

Once you’ve accessed the website, you can find a menu bar at the top of the screen that gives you a number of options you can use to customize your browsing experience. Among other things, you can shield OS and browser agents, hide HTTP referrer information, block internet cookies, remove ads from webpages, and limit animated images. On the flip side, MegaProxy doesn’t let you pick between different server locations and the free version of the service comes with a lot of other limitations. Still, MegaProxy is known for being fast and secure so this remains a good choice in spite of the limitations.

Dirt-Cheap Premium Service

MegaProxy’s premium proxy service is one of the cheapest ones out there. The company only charges $9.95 for a 90-day subscription and offers even better prices for educational and non-profit organizations looking to purchase licenses in bulk. Going for the premium proxy servers will remove the many limitations found in the free version. For example, free users can’t download files larger than 200 kilobytes, visit more than 60 pages over a five-hour period, encrypt more than 20 cookies at a time, and more. Needless to say, the premium service is a lot more advanced. The only problem with it is that MegaProxy doesn’t support monthly billing cycles, so you would have to commit to a 90-day plan right off the bat.

9. Hide.me

Hide.me takes the privacy of its users very seriously as evidenced by the fact that the company doesn’t store any data that could be traced back to you, such as browsing history logs. You don’t have to register on the site or enter any sort of information before using the service, so anonymity is the name of the game here. Another nice thing about Hide.me is that the service automatically blocks ads and pop-ups on the website so you’re accessing. The company doesn’t have any ads on its own website either so you can expect a completely ad-free experience here.

The free proxy service allows you to choose between three different servers – US, Germany, and the Netherlands – and includes all the useful options you might expect, such as the ability to encrypt URLs, remove scripts, disallow cookies, and more. The service can be accessed either directly via the official website or through a Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox extension. Hide.me has quite a few systems in place to prevent IP leaks, including firewalls and a special feature known as Kill Switch, which is meant to keep your data safe in case your connection drops unexpectedly.

Free VPN Solution

Similar to other companies on this list, Hide.me offers a few other tools and services in addition to free proxy servers. One of these tools is a VPN service that you can use for free if you don’t mind registering an account. You can download the VPN without registering but you would only be able to use it for free for a limited time. If you’re looking for a more advanced solution, Hide.me offers a premium VPN service priced at $5.41/mo that comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Unsurprisingly, the premium version has a lot more to offer than the free one, including access to 1400 servers, unlimited data transfer, 10 simultaneous connections, and more.

10. Tor

Tor is different compared to all the other entries on our list but we still wanted to talk about it because it works on a similar principle as web proxy servers. Namely, its purpose is to hide your real IP address and allow you to browse the internet anonymously. Unlike the other service on this list, though, Tor is a full-fledged web browser and a pretty robust one at that. The Tor Project is a non-profit organization so you can expect everything to be completely free, though the company does accept donations from users who wish to support the initiative.

Because Tor is a browser you will need to download and install the software on your computer. This is an extra step you don’t have to take when using other proxy servers so that’s a bit of a drawback. If you do decide to install it, you can expect Tor to work just like any other browser you’ve used in the past. The browser uses a multi-layered encryption system and automatically blocks cookies and deletes browsing history once you close it so the security features are pretty solid. The disadvantage is that Tor tends to be a lot slower than other proxy services because it reroutes your connection through multiple servers around the world.

A Viable Replacement for Your Current Browser

Tor was designed to resemble traditional browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, complete with many of the features and options users have come to expect. For example, you have the ability to bookmark websites, change the language or font, open as many tabs as you want, set permissions, choose how the browser interacts with other applications, and so much more. In addition, you can also set a new online identity on the fly or change the Tor circuit for a specific site, including the one you’re currently visiting.

How Proxy Servers Protect Your Identity

I touched on this a bit at the beginning of the article but let’s take a more in-depth look at how a proxy protects your identity and why you should consider using one. When you’re accessing a website without using a privacy tool, the site’s owner or anybody with administrator privileges can see your IP address, location, and internet service provider bright as day. Needless to say, that’s a problem because you can never know what people who collect this information plan to do it with it.

A proxy simply reroutes your connection through one or multiple servers, which can be located in different parts of the world. The proxy service assigns you a different IP address, thus making it seem like you’re just another ordinary user. This is very important to note because suspicious IPs can be blacklisted or blocked from accessing websites. If you’re using a good proxy service, that’s unlikely to happen. In short, a proxy server protects your personal information and allows you to browse the internet anonymously.

Use Cases for Proxy Services

Accessing Geo-locked Content: This is arguably the main reason why people use proxy servers. I’m sure you’ve already come across an article or video at one point that you can’t access because “the content is not available in your country”. Under normal circumstances, there’s not much you can do to access that content. However, a good proxy service will allow you to reroute your connection via a server found in a different country where the content isn’t blocked.

Bypass Government Blocks: This is similar to the previous use case but works the other way around. Some governments impose strict laws regarding what parts of the internet you can access like in the case of the infamous Great Firewall of China. People who live under strict governments often don’t even have access to popular websites we take for granted, such as Facebook, Reddit or YouTube. Although bypassing government blocks can be risky depending on where you live, it can be easily done by using a proxy server.

Control Internet Usage of Employees and Children: If you’re a business owner, you’re probably not a big fan of employees slacking on the job because they’re too busy browsing Facebook or YouTube from their workstations. A good solution to this problem is to set up and configure a proxy server on the company network that blocks access to specific websites. Similarly, parents can use proxies to prevent their children from accessing websites that feature mature or graphic content.

Privacy and Anonymity: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Whether you’re worried about hackers trying to snoop in on you to steal your data or you’re the one snooping on an ex’s Instagram pics, there are plenty of situations when being able to hide your online identity comes in handy.

Features to Keep an Eye on Before Using Free Proxy Services

A Good Variety of Servers to Choose From:  A lot of people won’t get much value from a proxy service that gives them access to just one or two server locations. Most providers greatly limit the number of locations available to free users but some do give you a good number of options to work with.

Server Information: If the service you’re checking out doesn’t reveal any information about its servers you may want to consider a different option. At the very least, you should know the country or region the servers are located in. If you can also get some info regarding the speed and uptime of the servers, even better.

Privacy Options: It’s good to go with a service that provides a few extra options you can use to tighten your privacy. Some of the most common options you’ll find are URL encryption, script blocking, and the ability to disable cookies. You may not always need to use these options but having access to them regardless is definitely an advantage.

Data Retention: Some proxy providers store your IP address or browsing history in order to improve their own services. These companies usually don’t intend to use the data for any malicious purposes but if you’re worried about that sort of thing, you may want to go with a provider that automatically clears all logs once you’re done using its service.

Final Thoughts

Free proxy servers provide users with a fast and efficient way of masking their online identity while browsing the internet. In spite of their simplicity, these services work remarkably well and can be used for a wide range of purposes, from viewing geo-blocked content to thwarting potential cybercriminals and so much more. Proxies are not quite as safe as VPNs but they don’t require you to download anything or register an account and, of course, they tend to be free.

Having said that, there are limits to what the free version of these services can do. If you need to use proxies often, it’s definitely not a bad idea to upgrade to the paid version, especially since these services are pretty cheap. In case you need a more well-rounded privacy solution, a good VPN is the way to go. Good VPNs are rarely free, however, you do get great value in return for your money. It’s not a coincidence that most of the companies we covered in this article offer both web proxies and VPNs so make sure to choose the solution that’s best suited for your particular needs.