Top 15 best proxy services
My company has been parsing sites for more than three years, every day we parse more than 500 of the largest online stores in Russia. As a rule, no one likes that their resources are scrapped, and companies that can afford it implement protection, to bypass which proxies are used.
Before proceeding to the consideration of the proxy services themselves (we used some of them in our work), it is worth dwelling on the description of their varieties. In general, there are a huge number of proxy providers in the world, and as our parsing experience shows, in some cases even free proxies are suitable. But for especially "complex" sites, it is better to work with paid solutions, especially if they offer a choice of country. So…
Comparison of different types of proxies
HTTP (S) proxies, SOCKS4 / 5 proxies, dedicated proxies, shared proxies, open proxies, anonymous proxies, elite proxies, reverse proxies ... Confusing? Read this section to understand all of them.
A proxy server can be thought of as an intermediary between you and the web server that hosts the desired site. The proxy receives the request and then forwards it to the server. The server processes the request and sends the requested information to the proxy, which finally sends the requested data back to you.
It is like asking a friend to ask another person a question and then giving you the answer. There are many proxies out there, they serve different purposes, but they all use this simple concept. Their variety can easily confuse you if you are new to this business. Let's discuss these different types and their uses.
Proxies can be categorized into several types based on different criteria. In this article, we'll talk about how proxies differ in terms of protocols, anonymity, usage methods, request modification, sharing, server types, and so on.
Proxy types by protocol
Depending on the protocol used by the proxy, it can be HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS.
HTTP proxy
An HTTP proxy is any proxy server that uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to connect to a web server and client (browser). Due to the widespread use of HTTP on the Internet, most proxies are HTTP proxies.
These proxies can access web pages, and while they can also access web sites using secure HTTPS, this protection will be lost with use.
Since the HTTP connection is simpler than the SOCKS protocol, bots and parsers work better with an HTTP proxy.
HTTPS and SSL proxies
SSL (HTTPS) proxies work with SSL (or Secure Socket Layer) - an additional layer of security imposed on HTTP to protect its data. It introduces security certificates that are used to encrypt traffic end-to-end and prevent data interception during transmission.
A proxy server that supports SSL establishes a secure connection with the client and with the web server to avoid any outside interference. HTTPS proxy helps you stay safe when making transactions or logging into websites using your username and password.
SOCKS proxy
The SOCKS proxy creates a TCP connection on behalf of the client to route traffic. This is a method of tunneling through firewalls, and in this configuration, even the proxy server itself cannot intercept the data, therefore, mainly applications work with the SOCKS proxy. Thus, SOCKS is much more secure than HTTP proxy.
However, the SOCKS5 proxy has even more advanced features to secure the connection. The only drawback is that some bots do not support SOCKS, so you need to make sure your bots can handle this protocol.
Proxy types by anonymity level
Transparent proxies
Transparent proxies are also called eavesdropping proxies, built-in proxies, or forced proxies. These proxies do not change requests or responses, so anonymity does not change and websites can obtain your IP address. Transparent proxies are commonly found on public Wi-Fi networks and are used to provide access only to those who have permission. Many servers also use transparent proxies to cache content for fast delivery.
Anonymous proxies
Anonymous proxies change the HTTP header, replacing your IP address with their own, and add additional redirect commands to prevent the web server from learning your IP address. Websites can recognize that a proxy server is being used, but cannot determine the original address. These types of proxies provide minimal anonymity and can work with any protocol.
Elite anonymous proxies
Elite anonymous proxies are similar to anonymous proxies, but they are much safer because they provide the highest level of protection possible. The proxy changes the HTTP header to completely remove any information about you, and does not add any redirect commands. Thus, the site does not recognize the connection request from the proxy server and treats it as any standard user connection.
Elite anonymous proxies are very important if you use bots for parsing - with them, the web server will not know that you are using a proxy, and your IP will not be blocked.
Proxy types by location
Proxy servers in data centers (DPC)
These proxies are hosted on servers dedicated to their operation. These servers run with high-speed connections and specialized software to maximize performance. This results in proxies having faster speeds, lower pings, and can provide elite anonymity. Proxy servers in data centers are suitable for most business purposes, especially bots.
However, for them to work, it is required that the seller has a data center in each of the locations where he wants to offer his IP addresses, and the locations of the data centers are quite limited. The total number of proxies owned by the seller is also limited and amounts to several thousand. Thus, proxies on servers in data centers are simpler and can be blocked simply by the subnet mask.
Residential proxies
Residential proxies use computers of real people and their connections in their own homes, which are provided by real Internet providers. The resident proxy vendor does not actually own these servers, but simply “leases” them in exchange for services such as VPN.
This allows sellers to have a huge pool of residential proxies from virtually all over the world. These proxies are comparatively slower than proxies in data centers, but they are suitable for many business tasks due to their variety.
Proxy by usage type
Open proxies
Open proxies are public proxies that do not require any authentication method to connect. But since they are free and publicly available, in most cases these proxies do not work well or at all and are not secure, so they can be configured by hackers to steal information.
Open proxies are also known as public proxies, but we do not recommend that you use them for work.
Closed proxies (private)
Closed proxy servers are proxies that are protected by various authentication methods to prevent any unauthorized use by people without access. A lot of companies sell closed proxies. Closed proxy servers can be of two types, depending on the number of people they work with.
Dedicated (private) proxies
Dedicated proxies (also known as private proxies) work only for you and access to them is private. Private proxies provide better performance and security, but are slightly more expensive than generic ones. Proxies that specialize in ticket sales, parsing, buying exclusive sneakers are almost always private proxies because they require high performance, and sharing proxies with other people increases the likelihood of getting banned.
Shared (shared) proxies
These proxies share their resources between 2-5 users. Each user can work simultaneously with all others, so the bandwidth is divided equally among all. The downside to using shared proxies is that they provide significantly less speed due to shared access and they can be blocked due to other users. However, shared proxies usually sell for a much lower price than private dedicated proxies.
Web proxy
Web proxy means creating a proxy server on a site. This proxy does not need to be configured in an application such as a browser or a bot in order to get normal access to data. This type of proxy is a website with a single line with which you can access the desired site and at the same time mask your IP address.
CGI web proxy
These proxies are managed through a web interface called the Common Gateway Interface. You can enter your desired URL to visit a page on the site. There are only a few CGI web proxies that are used by thousands of sites.
All the data you enter when using these proxies is passed through the owner's site and he can easily read all the data if he wants. Thus, these proxies do not need to use any confidential information. These proxies also cannot be configured for use in other software, making them unusable for most business tasks.
Proxy types by IP address
Static proxies
Most data center proxy vendors allocate a certain number of servers to the user for a specified price, and the price increases with the number of servers. These proxies are only assigned to a specific user and can be used one at a time.
If proxies are blocked, the seller usually offers a replacement - once a month. In addition, the user cannot change them.
Rotary (rotating) or reverse connection proxies
Backconnect proxies, also known as spinning proxies, change themselves automatically after a certain amount of time. This allows you to make each request with a new IP address, which means you get much better anonymity, speed and avoid blocking.
Backconnect proxies are ideal for parsing. They usually consist of resident servers (due to the large number of connections required), but some providers in the data center are also experimenting with spinning proxies.
Proxy types for changing data
Forward proxy
Forward (forward) proxies are common proxies that you use when accessing web content anonymously. This type of proxy is used by clients (browsers) for anonymity. They take a request from a client, forward it to a web server for processing, and then send a response from the server to the client. Essentially, all the types of proxies we discussed above are forward proxies.
Reverse proxy
A reverse (reverse) proxy server usually runs on the web server side to control traffic, authenticate or decrypt connection requests, or simply cache content for faster delivery. Reverse proxies are not used by ordinary people to provide anonymity. Instead, they help the web server stay secure from attacks. Reverse proxies can also distribute traffic across different servers for load balancing.
IP reuse proxy types
Unused proxies
Proxies that have not been previously used are called primary or unused. More often than not, primary proxies are not directly just created and with a new IP address, but they have not yet been used to target specific websites. This is why many proxy sellers block access to sites other than what you listed.
Used or resold proxies
While not explicitly mentioned, most proxies have previously been used in one way or another. Since websites remove the ban from addresses after a certain time, the use of such proxies is quite possible after a certain period of time, when the site (presumably) lifts the ban.
Top 15 proxy services for parsing
Rotary (spinning) proxies are much better suited for complex web scraping tasks. Since the most popular websites use anti-tampering technologies that detect abnormal activity, especially spikes in traffic from a single IP address, using proxies and real IP addresses can help avoid blocking and successfully retrieve the required data. Such proxy servers will make it seem as if several real users from different places are browsing the site at the same time, which guarantees you stealth and reliability in obtaining this data.
Rotating proxies are proxies that cyclically change IP addresses from their pool to make it harder for web servers to identify the user. This ensures that IP addresses are used evenly, which makes them less likely to be blocked on the target site.
However, due to the many companies offering proxy servers, it can be difficult to find the right provider who will offer the best service. To help you choose, we've looked at 15 of the best proxy servers with the ability to rotate IP addresses (in other words, they are best for parsing).
1. Zenscrape
It is noteworthy that Zenscrape is more than a classic proxy, since it does not burden you with management and self-rotation of addresses - it does everything automatically, unlike most other platforms. This makes the platform quite suitable for large-scale data parsing projects.
Features: Zenscrape automates proxy rotation so you can focus on extracting data. Depending on the sites you work with, Zenscrape uses different types of proxies, from servers in datacenters to premium proxies and home (resident) IP addresses. Zenscrape currently uses standard proxies in 3 locations, premium residential proxies in over 300 locations, and a large pool of over 30 million IP addresses.
Price: You can start using Zenscrape proxies for free, but there will be a limit of 1,000 requests per month. Apart from the free plan, you can use any of its paid plans, which start at $ 8.99 per month and go up to $ 199.99 per month.
2. Microleaves
Microleaves is a large network of proxy servers with a large pool of changing proxies that can be used to bypass blocking when parsing online content.
Features: Microleaves boasts over 26 million residential IP addresses. It has three categories of high speed proxies: reverse connection proxies (change IP every five minutes), private dedicated HTTP proxies, and shared proxies (which can run multiple users at the same time). All of its proxies have unlimited bandwidth. You can use any of its IP addresses in the US or anywhere else around the world.
Price: Microleaves offers a wide variety of tariff plans depending on the type of proxy you choose. For example, 10 split HTTP proxies start at $ 15 and 10 backconnect proxies start at $ 124.99. However, the company doesn't have a free trial.
3. Luminati
Luminati offers a large network that allows you to collect web data without worrying about bots being blocked or blacklisted.
Features: Luminati has over 35 million peer-to-peer resident IP addresses available from virtually every location in the world. Its network consists of proxies in data centers, persistent resident, rotational resident, and mobile proxies for freedom of choice. In each option, you can choose to use public IP addresses, which can be used by many users, or exclusive ones, which are only for you. Each proxy supports an unlimited number of concurrent sessions with high reliability rates. You can connect to its servers through an API, through a proxy manager, or through a Chrome browser extension.
Price: Luminati offers a free trial account to test their services. After that, you can choose any of the paid plans, which depend on the amount of data and the type of proxy, for example, popular residential proxies start at $ 10 per GB.
4. NetNut
NetNut is a powerful network that allows you to collect data from sites anonymously and with minimal disruption.
Features: NetNut provides a wonderful collection of rotating resident IPs that are located all over the world. This allows for country-level targeting as well as sticky sessions. Specifically, rather than relying on peer-to-peer p2p connections as other proxy networks do, NetNut leverages the power of DiViNetworks to deliver data and manage the network. This allows us to provide users with an efficient and quality service. DiViNetworks is a technology where hundreds of ISPs provide stable and efficient residential IP addresses.
Price: NetNut offers a free seven-day trial to test random proxies. After that, you can subscribe to any of the monthly plans that charge between $ 3.5 and $ 15 per GB, depending on the amount consumed.
5. Storm Proxies
Storm Proxies provides proprietary robust technology to rotate residential IP addresses and collect online data without the risk of being blocked.
Features: With Storm Proxies, you can access a pool of over 70,000 reverse connection proxies, resident proxies and private dedicated proxies. Its shared "spinning" proxies change IP addresses every 3 or 15 minutes to ensure it is not blocked on websites. You can choose proxies in the US, in the EU, in the US + EU or worldwide. Private dedicated proxies are suitable for specialized operations that require high speed fixed IP addresses. All proxies offer unlimited bandwidth.
Price: The cost of Storm Proxies services depends on the selected proxy type. For example, the starter plan for Resident Rotation Proxies costs $ 50 per month and allows access to 5 ports. The company allows you to try out the services for 2 days and request a refund in the event of a termination.
6. GeoSurf
GeoSurf is another popular service that allows you to retrieve any content without pauses or slowdowns.
Features: GeoSurf has a pool of more than 2.5 million IP addresses in more than 2,000 locations worldwide, providing a wide range of geographic coverage. The company offers resident IP addresses on a peer-to-peer trusted network, IP addresses in data centers on a private network in over 120 locations, and mobile VPNs that guarantee you anonymous surfing on the go. GeoSurf allows you to change resident IP addresses when fetching data. It also provides permanent addresses to work from the same location. In addition, GeoSurf offers dedicated proxies for accessing some sites like Instagram and Craigslist, as well as dedicated IP addresses for some countries like Iran or China.
Price: GeoSurf charges between $ 8 and $ 12 per GB depending on the plan chosen; plans start at $ 450 per month and go up to $ 2,000 per month. No free trial offered.
7. Oxylabs
Oxylabs offers excellent high-speed proxy servers designed to quickly parse online resources in real time.
Features: Oxylabs has different types of proxies for different use cases, including data center servers, address rotation proxies, static resident proxies and Socks5 premium proxies. The company has over 2 million dedicated proxies in data centers in over a hundred locations worldwide. Oxylabs also has a large pool of over 32 million resident proxies that allow for city-level targeting and reliable parsing results. In addition, proxy servers have unlimited bandwidth, unlimited concurrent sessions, and unlimited targeting options.
Pricing: Oxylabs uses a flexible pay-per-use pricing model based on IP address location, target sites, and other parameters. For example, proxy servers in datacenters start at $ 1.20 per IP, and residential proxies start at $ 5 per GB.
8. Intoli
Intoli Smart Proxies offers a customizable resident proxy network to maximize parsing efficiency.
Capabilities: Intoli uses resident proxies that allow parsing of large amounts of data, intelligent request routing that works across hard-to-find IP addresses, and automatic retries that try alternate IP addresses until data retrieval succeeds. The company has a wide range of US and worldwide IP addresses. In addition, this proxy provider allows you to deploy headless browsers to help avoid detection. You can also manage your scraping sessions locally, or use the company's reliable infrastructure to save your sessions.
Price: Intoli has three paid monthly plans: Startup Plan ($ 200 per GB), Business ($ 150 per GB), and Enterprise ($ 100 per GB). The company does not offer a free trial plan.
9. Smartproxy
Smartproxy provides high quality rotary proxies to help you bypass location-based restrictions and improve the performance of your parsers.
Features: With Smartproxy you can access a pool of over 10 million changing IP addresses in over 195 locations and 8 major cities around the world. It provides unique proxies for computers and mobile devices that do not share subnets, proxies for reverse connections that change IP addresses on every request, or allows unlimited permanent IP addresses, as well as proxies in US and EU datacenters that speed up data retrieval. Smartproxy also allows you to make multiple concurrent requests without any restrictions.
Price: Smartproxy asks for payment according to the bandwidth. For example, its starter resident servers cost $ 75 a month and provide 5GB of traffic. If a corporate tariff with residential proxies is used, then the price is only $ 3 per GB. All plans have a 3 day money back trial period.
10. Crawlera
Crawlera is a handy random proxy service that provides robust features to take your parsing to the next level. It is part of ScrapingHub, which offers a wide range of great data extraction tools.
Features: Crawlera has built-in intelligent algorithms for rotating IP addresses and user agents, which can save time on proxy management and data retrieval. The platform contains a database with more than 130 types of bans, captchas and site response codes, which helps to avoid blocking. With Crawlera, you can simulate real user behavior, perform automatic IP rotation and retry, and implement concurrent sessions. In addition, the proxy rotator supports headless browser deployment and unlimited bandwidth.
Price: Crawlera offers a free 7-day trial for their proxies. You can then choose any of its monthly plans, which range from $ 25 to $ 1,000 per month. The price is determined by the number of requests, competitive sessions and other factors.
11. Blazing SEO
Blazing SEO is another great proxy server provider with the ability to change addresses that lives up to its name (Blazing is fast) by offering fast servers for all sorts of operations.
Features: Blazing SEO provides superior proxies with unlimited streams and bandwidth, HTTPS / HTTP and SOCKs support, and real 1Gbps network connections. The company also offers various servers, including Windows VPS and dedicated ones, which, in combination with a proxy, provide an unprecedented speed of work. Blazing SEO supports proxies in nine countries including the US, UK, and Japan. In addition, it offers original IPv6 addresses that have never been used before, and many subnets. However, the company does not have residential IPs, only proxies in data centers.
Price: Blazing SEO offers three monthly pricing plans: a semi-dedicated proxy that's shared between three users starting at $ 2.50, a dedicated proxy that's used by only one person starts at $ 6.00, and a rotating proxy that's often changes IP addresses starting at $ 11.00. There is a free 2-day trial for each plan.
12. IP Ninja
IP Ninja offers real IP addresses to collect data on the internet without any blocking or performance issue.
Features: IP Ninja provides reliable resident IP proxies that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. The company has millions of unique IP addresses around the world, which minimizes the chances of blocking and gives you fast and accurate parsing.
Pricing: IP Ninja uses a traffic-based pricing model. For example, the cheapest plan costs $ 345 and gives you 25 GB. For $ 3000, you can get 500 GB. There is no free trial plan to test the services.
13. HomeIP
HomeIP is another proxy provider that allows you to retrieve data without encountering locks or security systems.
Features: HomeIP lets you access over 13 million changing IP addresses in 157 countries and 2,500 cities around the world - you can use the service to bypass location-based restrictions. In addition, HomeIP allows you to change the proxy server every 1/10/30 minutes or use a constant IP address for a long parsing session. You can use the service to run an unlimited number of concurrent sessions.
Price: HomeIP services with alternating IP addresses are charged based on traffic. The minimum tier is $ 200 per month and it gives you 10 GB. There is also a professional plan from $ 300 per month. If you need more, you can ask for a custom price. The company provides a seven-day trial and a three-day money-back guarantee.
14. DSLRoot
DSLRoot offers robust solutions to hide your IP address and bypass blocking while parsing.
Features: DSLRoot provides access to real resident IP addresses, which helps avoid detection during web scraping. Its IP addresses are located in over 70 locations in 20 cities across the United States. IP addresses are sourced from 4G / LTE operators, DSL and cable internet providers. The company also offers a robust API for integrating its services into applications.
Price: DSLRoot offers a one hour free trial with access to two US locations. Paid plans range from $ 50 to $ 1,750 depending on the length of use - from 7 days to 12 months. They also allow you to access an unlimited number of locations.
15. FusionProxy
FusionProxy offers effective, simple and fast help for those retrieving data from sites.
Features: FusionProxy owns proxy servers from IP of different 3G / LTE / Wi-Fi operators. The company has over 55,000 IP addresses in various locations around the world. With Reverse Hooking Proxy service, you can change IP addresses every 5 minutes and bypass security technologies. In one slot, the proxy rotator allows access to more than 300 IP addresses daily. In addition, FusionProxy allows you to simultaneously run unlimited sessions, access websites with passwords, and deploy JavaScript rendering capabilities. It also provides dedicated proxies to work with some popular websites like Google, Facebook and Twitter.
Price: FusionProxy also rates its services based on traffic. Plans range from $ 19 per month for 10GB to $ 199 per month for 249GB. If you have special needs, you can request an individual price. There is also a 24-hour free trial to test the services.
Conclusion
This is our long list of the top 15 rotary proxy companies. Bearing in mind that choosing a proxy is usually a trade-off between available features, price, and reliability, you can probably find a provider that suits you in this list and take your parsers to the next level.
