Best Proxy Services
In this article, I will review and compare the top paid proxy services out there. While there are many lists of free proxies, the provided proxies from different locations are usually quite slow, over-subscribed, blocked, or they disappear after a short time. After fiddling with free proxies and getting frustrated about the low quality proxy servers list, I decided to get a paid proxy service. If you think about it, it is really worth the money. Finding and coping with crappy free proxy lists is time consuming and does not bring you closer to what you really want to acheive.
I have tried to find the most reliable information about the proxy services, that is, I got information from their official websites and mailed them whenever information was missing or misleading. By contacting their support, I could also test their customer support. I think that is a crucial part in the decision for a proxy service. There are some cases where providers don't seem to care if proxy servers go offline and they don't respond to paying customers.
For each proxy service, I have a brief review and a summarization table with the most relevant information. More importantly, at the end of this article you will find a comparison table of the best proxy services with information about bandwidth, locations, prices, subnets and so on. This table should make the decision process easier for you. To anticipate the conclusion a bit, I have to say that most of the proxy serivces that I review here are worthwhile and I could recommend them. The ones that I recommend also have an affiliate link, so if you value this comparison article, I'd appreciate if you use one of the links here if you plan to sign up for a service. Thank You!
Sometimes the proxy service providers have promo codes so that you get a discount. I have collected them and put them in the table for you, don't forget to use them when ordering a proxy! So let's get started.
If you want to integrate fresh proxies in your application, you might also want to consider the WebKnox Proxy API which lets you obtain fresh and not recently used proxies. We refresh proxies multiple times a day and from each usage, WebKnox learns which proxies are valuable and which are blocked and useless.
MyPrivateProxy
MyPrivateProxy is the one I can recommend most because I am their customer right now and are really happy with the whole experience. Setting up is instant and I had my first set of private proxies ready to be used. All of them worked and I had no performance issues. For my customer support test, I contacted the provider and got a prompt and useful reply. Even though it is not the cheapest proxy service, I get some good value for my money, especially because they also allow to use and access most software and websites such as Facebook, Twitter and use SeNukeX, Traffic Travis, and other SEO tools.
I can fully recommend MyPrivateProxy from my own experience. Check them out and use the MyPrivateProxy discount code "10off2012" to save 10%.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month for private proxies |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Webmailing (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL), KeywordBee, SeNukeX, Traffic Travis, TweetAdder, TweetAttacks, Bookmarkwiz, Answer Assault, Scrapebox, ZennoPoster, Sick submitter, Craigslist |
| Disallowed Software | Xrumer and SMTP mailing |
| Coupon Code | 10off2012 |
| Cheapest Price | $1.49 for private dedicated proxies (1000 package) and $0.65 for shared private proxies (2000 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Credit and Debit Cards, Paypal |
Proxy-N-VPN
With free setup and low prices Proxy N VPN is a valuable proxy provider. Check them out.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month for private proxies |
| Proxy Types | Private, Shared, Gaming Proxies, Instagram Proxies, Ticketmaster Proxies, Craigslist Proxies, private and shared VPN |
| Setup Fee | Free Setup |
| Cheapest Price | $1.39 for private dedicated proxies (1000 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Credit and Debit Cards, Paypal |
SquidProxies
SquidProxies is a legit proxy service that seems to be widely used and appreciated. I was also not able to find a negative customer review about the service. You can also use SquidProxies for Webmailing and data mining tools such as Scrapebox. I am not aware of any software that might cause trouble. In my customer support experiment, they were able to answer my questions professionally 18 hours after my inquiry. Check them out and use the SquidProxies discount code "trix20" to save 20% off your order.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month is possible |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | Webmailing (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL), Scrapebox, KeywordBee |
| Disallowed Software | - |
| Coupon Code | trix20 |
| Cheapest Price | $0.75 for private dedicated proxies (2000 package) and $0.65 for shared private proxies (1000 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Credit and Debit Cards, Paypal, and 2CO |
YourPrivateProxy
YourPrivateProxy claims to have a setup time of less than three hours. I haven't tested that but I believe it because they were rather quick with a reply in my customer support test. They provided an answer only an hour after my inquiry. Their answers were rather short though. I asked them about the proxy server specifications and got "fast servers" as a reply. What does fast proxy servers even mean? I was expecting something along the line of Ghz, number of cores, available RAM etc. Besides that, different reviewers say that their proxy service is rather quick so you might want to check them out as well.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month is possible |
| Proxy Types | HTTP dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | Scrapebox, KeywordBee |
| Disallowed Software | Xrumer |
| Cheapest Price | $1.98 for private dedicated proxies (253 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal |
BuyProxies
BuyProxies is to the point. Check out their funny website with the "no bullshit" image. But seriously, these guys don't seem to mess around. I have not find a single website or software that could not be used with their shared or dedicated proxies. I got an answer to my customer support test mail after about 9 hours, which is fair I think. Try their service.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | all |
| Disallowed Software | - |
| Coupon Code | t22 |
| Cheapest Price | $1.50 for private dedicated proxies (100 package) and $0.75 for shared private proxies (100 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal, AlertPay, and 2CO |
IPFreelyProxies
IPFreelyProxies offer only dedicated private proxies over HTTP(S) and FTP. They pretty much don't restrict any software other than Xrumer. So far they only accept payment via Paypal which is a bit restricting. They responded to my customer support test mail within two hours which was pleasantly fast. I don't see any reasons not to use their service. If you're interested in their proxy service, pay them a visit.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS/FTP dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | YouTube, Facebook, Craigslist, YouTube, Webmailing (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL), KeywordBee, Scrapebox |
| Disallowed Software | Xrumer |
| Cheapest Price | $1.21 for private dedicated proxies (400 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal |
AnonymousProxies
Anonymous-Proxies offers only dedicated private proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) - so no private shared hosting. After a short setup time of maximum two hours you can test their service for 30 days and get your money back if you were not satisfied. That's quite nice. Also, they developed this firefox extension to use with (their) proxies. Again, I asked their customer support some questions and got a reply after 24 hours. You might want to give them a try.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | YouTube, Facebook, Craigslist, KeywordBee, Scrapebox |
| Disallowed Software | Webmailing (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL), Xrumer, Torrents |
| Coupon Code | bhw15off |
| Cheapest Price | $1.75 for private dedicated proxies (100 package or bigger) |
| Accepted Payment | Avantgate |
ProxyBonanza
ProxyBonanza has your proxies up and running only five minutes after your payment is received. Better yet, if you don't like the proxy server performance or anything else, you get your money back within a seven day test period. ProxyBonanza seems to have many special offers which requires some calculating on your side, the cheapest possible price I found was $7.39 per proxy for a pack of five private dedicated proxies and $0.28 per shared private proxy if you are willing to grab a pack of 500. As you will see in the proxy service comparison table, they also have bandwidth limitations so if you require lots of traffic through your proxies, they are not for you. Unfortunately, they did not come back with a reply to my customer support test, even after 24 hours. You can check them out and see if you can find a good offer.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Every couple of months |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/Socks5 shared private, international proxies, and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | YouTube, Facebook, KeywordBee, Craigslist |
| Disallowed Software | Scrapebox, Xrumer |
| Cheapest Price | $7.39 for private dedicated proxies (5 package) and $0.28 for shared private proxies (500 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal |
CheapPrivateProxy
CheapPrivateProxy offers only dedicated private proxies but guarantee to have the cheapest prices. With $1.25 per proxy in a package of five, I have to agree that this is a good deal. However, they have also failed to provide answers to my inquiry after 24 hours. Based on slow customer support I would not necessarily recommend them but you could check them out anyway.
| Proxy Update Frequency | No information |
| Proxy Types | HTTP dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | Webmailing (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL), KeywordBee, Scrapebox |
| Disallowed Software | Xrumer |
| Cheapest Price | $1.25 for private dedicated proxies (5 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal and 2CO |
EZProxies
EZProxies is a proxy service provider that I can really not recommend. Not only do they have very sparse information about their service on their website, but they also fail to respond to two of my customer support inquiries. It seems as if I was not the only customer that is being ignored as you can read here. I'd recommend not to use them.
| Proxy Update Frequency | No information |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, most Webmailing, KeywordBee |
| Disallowed Software | Xrumer |
| Cheapest Price | $1.00 for private dedicated proxies (500 package) and $0.50 for shared private proxies (500 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal and Credit Cards |
Packetflip
Packetflip is a little bit more pricy. Their customer support got back to me after 9 hours and was very competent which is a big plus for me. The good thing is that you can request a trial and see yourself whether you'd be satisfied.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Once per month for dedicated private proxies |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | KeywordBee, Scrapebox |
| Disallowed Software | Xrumer, most WebMailing |
| Cheapest Price | $2.00 for private dedicated proxies (250 package) and $0.50 for shared private proxies (1000 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal, Alertpay, and Credit Cards |
LimeProxies
LimeProxies excels through instant activation of your proxies. Also, you can upgrade your private proxies to premium private proxies giving you more subnets and locations. Also, access to Twitter is only possible using the premium proxies. Their customer support got back to me after about 5 hours and gave me satisfying answers. Check out their proxy services.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Upon request |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private, international proxies, and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | Facebook, YouTube, Craigslist, eBay, KeywordBee |
| Disallowed Software | Scrapebox, Xrumer |
| Coupon Code | PACMAN or BHWSPECIAL |
| Cheapest Price | $0.80 for private dedicated proxies (2500 package) and $0.50 for shared private proxies (1000 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal, MoneyBookers, Epassports, and Bank Transfer |
RapidSocks
RapidSocks is somewhat weird to me. You cannot contact them using a form or by mail but have to use Jabber, ICQ, or Skype. So probably the company is one guy alone. Doesn't matter if the guy is good, right? Well, I contacted him on Skype and he did not answer any of my questions. Maybe he also did not understand them which might be due to his broken English. In any way, I would not use their/his service until I get waaaay more information. There are far more serious proxy providers out there.
| Proxy Update Frequency | Every 10 minutes |
| Proxy Types | HTTP/HTTPS shared private, international proxies, and dedicated private proxies |
| Supported Software | all |
| Disallowed Software | - |
| Cheapest Price | $2.40 for private dedicated proxies (500 package) |
| Accepted Payment | Paypal |
Comparison of the Best Proxy Services
In the following table you can see the private dedicated ("private") and private shared ("shared") proxy services from the different providers. The table should you help to decide which proxy service and package is the right one for you. The table is also sortable, just click in the head to sort the columns.
The prices for "private" are for each proxy in a 10 proxy package. The prices for "shared" are for each proxy in a 100 proxy package. This allows for a fair comparison of the prices. The only exceptions is ProxyBonanza, here the "private" price is for each proxy in 5 proxy package and the "shared" price is for each proxy in a proxy package of 130.
Speed is in Mpbs and the price is in US Dollar (one provider is from Australia so their prices are converted to USD as well).
| Service | Type | Price | Mult. Locations | Mult. Subnets | Bandwidth | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MyPrivateProxy | Private | 2.37 | yes | yes | unlimited | 1,000 |
| MyPrivateProxy | Shared | 1.00 | yes | yes | unlimited | 1,000 |
| Proxy N VPN | Private | 1.39 | yes | yes | unlimited | 1,000 |
| SquidProxies | Private | 2.40 | no | no | unlimited | 1,000 |
| SquidProxies | Shared | 1.00 | 4 | 8 | unlimited | 1,000 |
| YourPrivateProxy | Private | 2.99 | yes | yes | unlimited | 1,000 |
| BuyProxies | Private | 2.00 | yes | 2 | unlimited | 100-1,000 |
| BuyProxies | Shared | 1.50 | yes | 4 | unlimited | 100-1,000 |
| IPFreelyProxies | Private | 1.78 | no | yes | ? | ? |
| AnonymousProxies | Private | 2.37 | yes | yes | unlimited | 100 |
| ProxyBonanza | Private | 7.39 | yes | yes | 70 GB | 100-1,000 |
| ProxyBonanza | Shared | 0.30 | yes | yes | 30 GB | 100-1,000 |
| CheapPrivateProxy | Private | 1.99 | ? | ? | unlimited | 1,000 |
| EZProxies | Private | 2.00 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| EZProxies | Shared | 0.90 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Packetflip | Private | 3.50 | yes | yes | limited | 50-1,000 |
| Packetflip | Shared | 1.00 | yes | yes | limited | 50-1,000 |
| Limeproxies | Private | 2.50 | 2 | 8 | 500 GB - unlimited | 1,000 |
| Limeproxies | Shared | 1.00 | 2 | 4 | 500 GB - unlimited | 1,000 |
| Rapidsocks | Private | 7.50 | yes | yes | ? | ? |
If you still can't decide, here are some options:
- I want the best proxy service that you recommend! (MyPrivateProxy)
- I want the cheapest private proxy service! (IP FreelyProxies)
- I want the cheapest shared proxy service! (ProxyBonanza)
- I want to get my proxies via a proxy API! (WebKnox API)
I hope you enjoyed this overview. If you find something wrong, you want to add something, or have a question, just drop me a line!