Top 10 Best Proxies Software and Service Providers in 2024 🏆

In 2024, finding the best proxy service provider might be a challenge for businesses and individuals looking to manage multiple accounts, access geo-restricted content, and collect real-time data. With a plethora of options available, identifying the most reliable and efficient proxy solution might take some time.

This comprehensive guide delves into the top 10 best proxy service providers of 2024, highlighting their handy features, strengths, and ideal use cases. Whether you need proxies for data collection, multi-accounting, AdTech, or completing SEO analysis, our curated list will help you make the right decision.

What are the best proxies?

Each of the most popular proxy types has unique specs. Each proxy type performs well with different tasks. Here’s a brief overview of all proxy types available in the market:

• Residential proxies with IPs originating from real household devices connected to local networks. Making them appear genuine users, residential proxies are highly reliable and less likely to be blocked. Plus, they’re great for real-time data collection and bypassing geo-restrictions.
• Datacenter proxies, sourced from data centers, offer high speed and cost-effectiveness but higher detection rates compared to residential proxies. They’re suitable for tasks that require fast and scalable solutions, such as bulk data scraping and bypassing CAPTCHAs on targets equipped with poor anti-bot software.
• Mobile proxies with IPs from mobile carriers provide high anonymity and flexibility in locations. They’re perfect for activities that mimic mobile user behavior, such as managing multiple accounts and app testing. However, this proxy type is the most expensive and might not be viable if you seek a cost-effective solution.
• Static residential (ISP) proxies combine the advantages of residential proxies with the stability of datacenter proxies, maintaining the same IP address for extended periods. Due to the ability to keep the same website session for as long as the user needs, they’re excellent for scenarios that require consistent and reliable IPs, such as eCommerce management, multi-accounting, or accessing mission critical websites.

Some providers might offer two generic types of proxies. These are:

• Open proxies are publicly accessible and free to use but often lack security and reliability. They’re generally not recommended for sensitive tasks due to their high risk of being compromised.
• Free proxies, while providing cost-free access, typically come with speed, privacy, and performance limitations. They may be useful for occasional and non-critical tasks but aren’t suitable for professional or extensive use.

Why do you need a proxy server?

A proxy server is essential for users looking to scale their projects without facing CAPTCHAs, geo-restrictions, or IP bans. There are a range of use cases where proxies come in handy:

• Data collection is one of the most popular use cases for proxies as they enable efficient web scraping while eliminating the risk of being banned for using automation tools. They allow users to gather large volumes of real-time data from various websites, depending on the proxy type, even those well-equipped with advanced anti-bot software.
• Multi-accounting is another popular use case for managing multiple accounts on various eCommerce platforms and other websites. By assigning different IP addresses to each account, proxies help avoid detection, account suspension, and CAPTCHAs while interacting with diverse audiences or running organic marketing campaigns.
• Ad verification tasks ensure that paid marketing campaigns are displayed correctly across different regions and prevent fraudulent clicks by verifying the ad's placement and performance. Proxies allow users to see how their ads are shown to users in various countries and make budget-saving adjustments.
• SEO managers equip proxies to improve their search engine rankings monitoring game and polish their competitor strategies without being blacklisted by the search engines. Additionally, businesses can identify how their website and content appear to users in specific locations and evaluate local search rankings to ensure localized efforts are accurately reflected.
• Price monitoring with a proxy server allows businesses to track and compare prices across different websites and regions, ensuring competitive pricing strategies. Companies can also identify best-selling products in various platforms, seasonal demand related to their niche, and tweak their offerings to stay competitive.

Best proxy service providers in 2024

Whether you’re choosing proxies for a specific use case or need an affordable yet reliable proxy service, we’ve gathered all the best providers in one list. As residential proxies are the most popular, we’ll focus on each provider's performance metrics and briefly review other proxy servers. Backed by Proxyway Market Research 2024 data, here are the best proxy service providers in 2024:

#1 Smartproxy – Best Value Provider 2024

Awarded for 4 years in a row as the Best Value Provider, Smartproxy holds its title as the reliable, affordable, and innovative proxy service provider. With residential, static residential (ISP), mobile, shared and dedicated datacenter proxies in their line, Smartproxy caters to a diverse range of users’ needs.

According to Proxyway, Smartproxy’s residential proxies demonstrated a near-perfect response time of 0.54s with a success rate of 99.68%. From the performance tests, mobile proxies demonstrated the best-in-market 0.88s average response time in the global pool and an impressive 98.48% success rate. The research also showcased that Smartproxy’s IP quality score is the highest among all the competitors.

Here’s an overview of all features:

• Proxy types: residential ($2.2/GB), static residential (ISP) ($0.35/IP), mobile ($4.5/GB), shared ($0.09/IP), and dedicated datacenter proxies ($1.9/IP)
• IP pool size: 65M+
• Available locations: 195+ locations
• Support: 24/7 tech support through LiveChat and email, dedicated account manager
• Free trial: 3-day free trial for residential proxies and 14-day money-back option for other proxy types
• Other handy features: Site Unblocker, 4 Scraping APIs, 4 free tools, quick start and advanced integration guides

#2 Oxylabs – Best Proxies for Enterprise 2024

Awarded as a leading Premium Proxy Provider by Proxyway, Oxylabs is known for its reliable, high-performance, and innovative proxy solutions for various use cases. With residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies, Enterprise businesses can scale their operations with one of the largest pools with 100M+ worldwide IPs.

In the recent benchmarks, Oxylabs' residential proxies achieved a 78.22% success rate and an average response time of 1.43 seconds, highlighting their reliability and speed.

A quick overview of Oxylabs:

• Proxy types: residential ($4/GB), mobile ($5/GB), ISP ($2.1/IP), shared datacenter ($0.44/GB), and dedicated datacenter proxies ($1.9/IP)
• IP pool size: 100M+
• Available locations: 195 countries
• Support: 24/7 via LiveChat, dedicated account manager
• Free trial: 7-day trial for businesses, 3-day refund
• Other handy features: Web Unblocker, 3 Scraper APIs, datasets, and SDK

#3 Bright Data

One of the biggest proxy market players, Bright Data, offers a complete proxy line, including residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies. Individuals and businesses can overcome geo-restrictions and complete web scraping tasks with 72M+ IPs around the globe.

In the recent benchmarks, Bright Data's residential proxies achieved a 99.47% success rate with a 0.21% drop compared to 2023 and an average response time of 1.12s, worse by 0.1s compared to last year.

Here’s what you should know about Bright Data:

• Proxy types: residential ($5.04/GB), mobile ($5.04/GB), ISP ($9/GB), and datacenter proxies ($0.066/GB).
• IP pool size: 72M+
• Available locations: 195 countries
• Support: 24/7 through LiveChat, tickets, dedicated account manager
• Free trial: 7-day free trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals
• Other handy features: Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker, Scraping Browser

#4 Webshare – Best Entry Choice 2024

Recognized for its budget-friendly entry prices and easy interface, Webshare is loved by users for high-performing proxy services catering to diverse use cases. Users can choose from residential, static residential (ISP), and datacenter ones.

Webshare's proxies demonstrated a 99.35% average success rate and an average response time of 1.67s.

A quick recap of Webshare proxy service provider:

• Proxy types: residential ($4.5/GB), ISP ($0.22/IP), and datacenter proxies ($0.05/IP)
• IP pool size: 30M+
• Available locations: 190 countries
• Support: email and LiveChat (6AM-6PM PST)
• Free trial: free plan with 10 IPs
• Other handy features: documentation, API, verified proxies

#5. NetNut

NetNut excels at offering high-speed residential, ISP, mobile proxies, and shared datacenter proxies. With over 85M+ IPs around the world, users can effectively overcome CAPTCHAs while scraping various targets or managing multiple accounts.

During the performance tests, residential proxies showed a 98.7% success rate and an average response time of 0.99s.

Here’s what you should know about NetNut:

• Proxy types: residential ($5/GB), static residential (ISP) ($7/GB), mobile ($9/GB), and datacenter proxies ($3/GB)
• IP pool size: 85M+
• Available locations: 200+ countries
• Support: 24/7 through email, LiveChat, phone, and Skype
• Free trial: free plan with 10 IPs
• Other handy features: SERP Scraping API, Website Unblocker, documentation

#6. SOAX

Another popular proxy service choice for various use cases is SOAX. This provider offers residential, mobile, ISP (US location), and datacenter proxies. According to SOAX, they offer a massive 191M+ IP pool in global locations, and all IP addresses are ethically sourced.

In the recent benchmarks, SOAX residential proxies reached a 98.48% average success rate with a 0.54% decline compared to 2023 tests, and a 2.11s response time, also slowing down by 1.06s compared to last year’s tests. 

A quick overview of SOAX proxy service provider:

• Proxy types: residential ($2.2/GB), US ISP ($2.2/GB), mobile ($2.2/GB), and datacenter proxies ($0.4/GB)
• IP pool size: 191M+
• Available locations: 195+ locations
• Support: 24/7 through LiveChat and tickets
• Free trial: 3-day trial ($1.99)
• Other handy features: 3 Scraper APIs, AI scraper, Web Unblocker

#7 IPRoyal

On the cheaper proxy service, the provider side is IPRoyal. With 32M+ ethically-sourced IPs in worldwide locations, the provider offers residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies, helping users overcome geo-restrictions or IP bans when running web scraping tasks.

According to Proxyway’s market research, IPRoyal residential proxies achieved an average success rate of 98.22% and 1.36s response time.

Here’s a recap on IPRoyal:

• Proxy types: residential ($1.75/GB), ISP ($2.4/proxy), mobile ($117/month), and datacenter proxies ($1.39/proxy)
• IP pool size: 32M+
• Available locations: 195+ countries
• Support: 24/7 through LiveChat
• Free trial: not available
• Other handy features: Proxy Tester, browser extensions, documentation

#8 Infatica

Focusing on the Enterprise segment and offering competitive pricing for large plans, Infatica is a proxy service provider valued for its easy-to-navigate dashboard and reliable IP pool. Infatica offers residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies.

In the recent benchmarks, Infatica’s residential proxies achieved a 97.12% average success rate and 0.99s response time.

What you should know about Infatica:

• Proxy types: residential ($0.3/GB), ISP ($5), mobile ($1/GB), and datacenter proxies ($15)
• IP pool size: 60M+
• Available locations: 150+ countries
• Support: 24/7 support through LiveChat, tickets, or email 
• Free trial: 3-day trial ($1.99)
• Other handy features: Web Scraper, SERP Web Scraper, documentation

#9 RayoByte

While RayoByte is best known for its datacenter proxies, the provider also offers a complete proxy line. Users can choose from static and rotating datacenter, residential, mobile, and ISP proxies.

During the test, RayoByte’s residential proxies achieved a 99.1% average success rate and 2.12s response time, the slowest among all the tested proxy service providers.

Recap of RayoByte offerings:

• Proxy types: residential ($1/GB), ISP ($4.6/IP), mobile ($50/month), and datacenter proxies ($1/IP)
• IP pool size: unknown
• Available locations: 130+ locations
• Support: 24/7 support through LiveChat, email, and tickets
• Free trial: 2-day free trial is available
• Other handy features: documentation, Scraping Robot, Web Unblocker

#10 PacketStream

Last on our list of the best proxy service providers is PacketStream. This provider doesn’t offer a complete proxy line, so if you ever choose to stick with PacketStream, make sure that their only offering, residential proxies, is the right fit for your use case. With over 7M IPs in global locations, the provider is losing in terms of the available proxy types and the residential proxy pool size.

But what about performance? According to Proxyway, PacketStream’s residential proxies reached a 95.62% average success rate, dropping by 2.15% compared to 2023, and 1.56s response time, also dropping by 0.41s compared to last year.

Here’s all you need to know about PacketStream:

• Proxy types: residential proxies ($1/GB)
• IP pool size: 7M+
• Available locations: 100+ countries
• Support: available upon request 
• Free trial: not available
• Other handy features: documentation, reseller API

A list of the top proxy server service providers in 2024

1. Smartproxy

2. Oxylabs

3. Brightdata

4. Webshare

5. NetNut

6. SOAX

7. IPRoyal

8. Infatica

9. RayoByte

10. PacketStream

Best proxy server software (tools) in 2024

Great, you’ve chosen a proxy server provider that best matches your needs! And in case you’re in for a real proxying game, we’ve reviewed the best proxy server software out there. Here’s the list:

#1 Nginx

Type: Reverse proxy, load balancer

Pros:

• High performance and scalability
• Efficient load balancing
• Wide adoption and extensive community support
• Good for handling concurrent connections

Cons:

• Complex configuration for beginners
• Limited native caching capabilities

Best for: High-traffic websites, web serving, load balancing

#2 Squid

Type: Caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy

Pros:

• Excellent caching capabilities
• Reduces bandwidth usage
• Extensive access control features
• Supports HTTP(S), FTP protocols

Cons:

• Can be resource-intensive
• Configuration complexity

Best for: Content caching, improving web performance, reducing bandwidth costs

#3 HAProxy

Type: TCP/HTTP load balancer, proxy server

Pros:

• High performance and reliability
• Robust load balancing features
• Extensive logging and monitoring capabilities
• SSL termination

Cons:

• Limited to layer 4 and layer 7 proxying
• No native support for caching

Best for: Load balancing, improving availability and reliability of web applications

#4 Apache Traffic Server

Type: Caching proxy server, reverse proxy

Pros:

• High-performance caching
• Handles large amounts of traffic
• Flexible and extensible
• Good for reducing latency and load on web servers

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve
• Less popular than some alternatives

Best for: High-traffic websites, content delivery networks (CDNs)

#5 Varnish Cache

Type: Web application accelerator (reverse proxy)

Pros:

• Excellent caching capabilities
• Speeds up content delivery significantly
• Flexible configuration with VCL (Varnish Configuration Language)
• High performance

Cons:

• Primarily focuses on HTTP
• Complex for beginners

Best for: Accelerating web applications, content-heavy websites

#6 Privoxy

Type: Non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities

Pros:

• Excellent privacy and filtering features
• Removes ads and web trackers
• Highly configurable

Cons:

• No caching capabilities
• Configuration can be complex

Best for: Enhancing privacy, ad-blocking, and content filtering

#7 3Proxy

Type: Lightweight multi-protocol proxy server

Pros:

• Lightweight and fast
• Supports multiple protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS, FTP)
• Highly configurable

Cons:

• Limited documentation
• Basic features compared to other proxies

Best for: Small-scale proxying needs, educational purposes

#8 Tinyproxy

Type: Lightweight HTTP proxy

Pros:

• Very lightweight and fast
• Easy to configure and manage
• Minimal resource usage

Cons:

• Limited features
• No caching capabilities

Best for: Small-scale HTTP proxying, embedded systems

#9 Shadowsocks

Type: Encrypted proxy, SOCKS5 proxy

Pros:

• Strong encryption
• Bypasses internet censorship
• Lightweight and fast
• Open source

Cons:

• Requires technical knowledge to set up
• Primarily designed for individual use

Best for: Circumventing internet restrictions, secure and private browsing

#10 Jigsaw's Outline

Type: VPN and proxy server

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use
• Strong focus on security
• Open source
• Good for bypassing censorship

Cons:

• Limited advanced features
• Performance can vary based on the host server

Best for: Individuals and companies needing a simple and secure proxy or VPN solution

A summary of the top proxy server software in 2024

1. Nginx

2. Squid

3. HAProxy

4. Apache Traffic Server

5. Varnish Cache

6. Privoxy

7. 3Proxy

8. Tinyproxy

9. Shadowsocks

10. Jigsaw's Outline

Bottom line

Selecting the right proxy service provider in 2024 can be challenging, but our comprehensive guide highlights the top 10 options, tailored for various use cases, including web scraping, multi-accounting, SEO analysis, or AdTech. From Smartproxy's exceptional value to Oxylabs' enterprise-grade solutions, we covered all the most important features every user should know about their new proxy provider.

If you'd like to know more about the proxy market, take a look at our resources on the best residential proxies and top ISP proxies. Additionally, we review the best Bright Data alternatives, in case you're interested.

The information provided here is valid as of 25-06-2024. Please be advised that circumstances and facts may change over time, rendering this information outdated or incomplete. Performance data is taken from Proxyway Market Research 2024.