7 Best Free Proxies in 2022: Tested and Secure Free Proxy Solutions

Looking for a reliable free proxy service? Here is the free proxy server list. Find out more about the differences between paid and free proxies and the pros and cons of the latter.

7 Best Free Proxies in 2022: Overview

Free proxies are one of the simplest ways to circumvent blocks and regional restrictions. By routing the traffic through a proxy server, a proxy hides your IP and allows accessing web content anonymously. While your identity and activity remain hidden from the site owners, it is still visible to proxy providers! So, please only stick with reliable proxy services. But how do you know if a proxy provider is a trustworthy one? We have scanned over a hundred free Internet proxy platforms to spare you time and effort. The selected ones have shown good security and stable performance during testing.

What Are Free Proxies?

Like paid proxies, a free proxy server acts as a buffer between you and the web. When you have a web request, it goes not from your IP but from a proxy server. A proxy reaches out to the target web page and returns to you with the web page’s content. In that manner, it allows you to bypass geoblocking and censorship. 

Proxies save bandwidth and control access to certain websites and content. So, those act as an intermediary between you and the web and forward your web requests. But good free proxies also take a lot of other important roles. For example, they enhance security by acting as a web filter! They also speed up connections by caching data. At an individual level, a free proxy server might be helpful in those situations where you need instant access to the blocked content.

Best Features of Free Proxy:

• Free and easily accessible;
• Allow accessing geo-restricted content and bypassing censorship;
• Best proxy providers ensure anonymity and personal data protection.

Is Free Proxy Dangerous?

There is a downside to every free offer in the market, and it cannot be otherwise since the primary purpose of business is to make profits. So what risks does the use of free Internet proxy imply? There are various ones, and the core risk is that, as practice shows, most proxy providers do not use HTTPS encryption. HTTPS prevents data eavesdropping, modification, or corruption and protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks. The latter, in turn, is of great importance to secure Internet activity!

But let us suppose you have been lucky to find free proxies that use HTTPS encryption. Does this mean the risks vanish? Unfortunately, no. The data security issue remains even if your proxy provider goes for HTTPS. Proxies enable anonymity on the Internet, but your identity and activity are all visible to the proxy owner. After all, you have no guarantees the latter doesn’t sell your data to third parties or use it for other malicious purposes. 

Free proxies are also associated with viruses, cookie stealing, and poor efficiency. You can learn more details about each of them here. So, it is always dangerous to use free proxies. If you still need such an app, it is a good idea to at least choose tested free proxies only.

Free Proxies vs. Paid Ones

Suppose you need to access a webpage that does not work in your region. You only need the content of this particular page and would like a free tool to bypass geoblocking. A free Internet proxy seems like an adequate solution under this scenario. The choice depends on users’ goals and the tasks they expect proxies to complete. 

And now, let us suppose you need to collect large volumes of data for your business. So, you would like to have a pool of fast and effective proxies to do web scraping for you. In this situation, even the best free proxies should be no help because free proxies cannot provide the due level of performance.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Free Proxies

The key benefits of free proxies are as follows:

• You get your proxy server free, and that’s probably the major advantage of free proxies.
• Best proxy providers ensure your anonymity and a certain level of security (encryption, cookie disabling, the option of hiding the operating system, etc.).

Some of the most serious weaknesses of free proxies include but are not limited to

• Security guarantees are poor in contrast to paid proxies. Thus, you never know how exactly the proxy provider uses your data and the data about your Internet activity. Moreover, if the data is not encrypted, it can be easily accessed by third parties! That means they might steal your card information, account information, and other sensitive data.
• Along with the low level of security, free proxies show poor performance. Uptime percentage and speed are far lower than those in paid proxies, not to mention quick burnout and faulty kill switches. All these performance drawbacks make even top free proxies a poor fit for large-scale scraping projects.

To summarize, the only advantage of free proxies over paid ones is that you do not pay money to use them. Paid ones provide better security, anonymity, reliability, and speed, to name but a few. Due to the serious security and performance limitations, one must be careful when using free proxies. A good strategy is only to choose tested solutions such as those on our free proxy server list.

Top 7 Free Proxies in 2022: Reviews

#1 HMA — Best Overall

Key features:

• HMA is, first and foremost, a VPN platform that likewise provides proxy solutions.
• It allows connecting through various proxy servers: USA (New York or Seattle), Germany, Netherlands, UK, and the Czech Republic.
• Users can choose to encrypt the URL. They will need to purchase VPN services to encrypt the whole connection.
• It removes scripts and disables cookies. Those options contribute to faster performance and a higher level of anonymity.
• HMA’s free proxies are super easy to use. You type the site you want to access, chose one of the six server geo-locations and set up cookies and other additional options.
• Along with free proxies, there are free WebRTC tests and an IP checker.
• HMA has a blog with useful tips on enhancing privacy and security.

Best suited for: Safe and anonymous access to geo-restricted content.

#2 Hidemy.name — Best Variety of Proxy Types

Key features:

• Hidemy.name specializes in VPN services but likewise has a database of proxy lists. The company’s spider robot automatically collects the proxies from these lists.
• The service provides for effective geo-targeting with 75 countries available in its assortment. There are Australia, Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, and UAE, to name but a few.
• Users can sort proxies by type (HTTP, HTTPS, Socks 4, Socks 5) and anonymity level (high, average, low).
• All proxies in the database undergo speed tests, that is, how long it takes a particular proxy to load a small web page.
• There are statistics for the living proxies for the last 2 days.
• Hidemy.name has a free anonymity check, proxy server verification, and speed test.

Best suited for: Mass action such as increasing views or visits.

#3 Bright Data — Best for 99.9% Success Rate

Key features:

• Bright Data only provides free Internet proxy solutions as a part of its seven-day free trial. The key benefit is that users enjoy the high quality of paid proxies during the free trial without actually paying for them.
• There is a huge data center proxy pool of more than 1.6 million IPs.
• Because those free proxies are paid proxies available for free during a period, they show excellent performance. They are 99.9% network uptime, unlimited concurrent sessions, zero bandwidth, and target limitations.
• The company has an impressive geographical coverage (i.e., 98 countries).
• Bright Data’s clients can manage their proxies using the Bright Data Control Panel.
• Users can get help managing their free proxies from 24/7 customer support or an account manager.

Best suited for: Short-term web scraping projects.

#4 4everproxy — An HMA Alternative for Better Privacy

Key features:

• 4everproxy is a VPN provider that likewise offers free proxies.
• Its free proxies are simple. One enters the website domain, chooses the IP location, and sets up security parameters (cookies, scripts, and encryption).
• All connections are TLS secure, and users can enable the HTTPS option.
• All sessions get erased two hours after the user closes the browser.
• The service allows for a double proxy connection: you can use one location for the web server and the other for IP.
• A list of quick links to popular websites is accessible with free proxies: YouTube, Imgur, Reddit, etc.

Best suited for accessing YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, and other popular platforms.

#5 CroxyProxy — An HMA Alternative for Streaming

Key features:

• CroxyProxy offers a free proxy browser with a user-friendly design. You type the target URL or request and click “go,” as in traditional browsers.
• Its free proxies work on most video sites as CroxyProxy provides full video streaming support. More specifically, the platform supports HTML5 video and audio.
• The service uses HTTPS and SSL encryption.
• There is a permalink option that allows sharing links to open pages.
• Because its proxy works as a browser, there is no need for complicated configuration, which makes it a good fit for inexperienced users.
• CroxyProxy provides comprehensive proxy guides with tips on selecting the best proxy server.

Best suited for: Accessing video websites.

#6 ProxySite — Sufficient for Social Networking

Key features:

• ProxySite has a simple interface: you choose the server and type the URL of the target website. There are 20 US servers and 18 EU servers to choose from.
• The platform uses SSL encryption.
• The two popular sites that ProxySite supports are Facebook and YouTube.
• There is a panel where you can manage the platform’s browser settings to pass requests to the target web pages. 

Best suited for: Accessing content on social media platforms.

#7 KProxy — A Simple Downloadable Proxy Extension

Key features:

• Their free proxies work as a free proxy browser: you only need to provide the URL of the target website to access it.
• KProxy has a downloadable extension available in the Chrome Web Store and can be used on Android. There are likewise addons for Edge and Firefox.
• The platform encrypts the connection to ensure safety.
• KProxy guarantees its proxy server works on 100% of websites.
• There is a detailed configuration guide on how to use KProxy’s extension.

Best suited for: A free portable proxy solution.