Free proxies are an adequate choice for anyone trying to safeguard their digital imprint on an affordable basis. Yet, they are not as excellent at privacy and confidentiality as the best VPNs and Premium Proxy Services.
In order to determine the top free proxies, we considered factors such as security, effectiveness, convenience, and instructions for both manual setup and unblocking material. We also investigated how effectively free proxies functioned with many users and integrated with other applications.
Threats related to Web Scraping
That is standard procedure when it comes to free IP listings. Second, a public proxy server’s identity is unknown. Hackers or other individuals with nefarious intentions may operate it. Particularly if you use HTTP proxies, they can log your personal information or insert undesirable stuff into pages.
Even though relatively few free proxy servers are malicious, research suggests that you should constantly weigh the dangers and proceed with extreme caution when transferring sensitive information over them. We strongly advise obtaining a paid service if possible. Many of them have money-back guarantees or at least free trials.
Free Proxy Lists: How Are They Created?
Free proxy lists are created by looking for openly connected machines on the Internet. They come from various sources, including some that might not want to give away their intellectual property and others that might have negative intentions. It’s truly impossible to determine who will host them.
They are not the same as sites that allow you to enter URLs and browse via them, known as free web proxies. These websites are ideally suited for rapidly unblocking a resource so that you can browse from an alternative location because they frequently have known hosts (like VPN services). On the other hand, proxy lists need to be set up and are most effective when used in combination with other applications, automation software, and site scraping programs.
The subject matter of this page is proxy lists. If, however, you think a web proxy will better suit your needs, you can give KProxy, VPNBook, or CroxyProxy a try. Proceed at your own risk.
What does a Free Proxy List Offer, and What should you Expect?
Free proxy lists are helpful, but you should not anticipate too much from them. Firstly, these proxy sites are open to the public and can be used for any purpose. As a result, they frequently experience instabilities, delays, and limited online durations.
Additionally, unless you are fortunate enough to obtain a free proxy server at the earliest stages of their life cycle, they are blocked by well-known websites like Google and Instagram. So, learn to be more patient and get ready to switch between IPs frequently. For instance, we grabbed 35 HTTPS IPs off the list that ProxyScrape had scanned two minutes earlier. Only fifteen of them were functional, meaning they were able to establish a connection. After 30 minutes, just 11 out of 35 addresses were successful.
As proxy critics, we often fall into the pitfalls of thinking that in order to access massive e-commerce sites or build customized search engines, one requires proxy servers. While in fact, a lot of individuals are merely looking to do very relatively small gathering of data or unblock a particular website. And avoid shelling out several hundred dollars for this. Free proxies allow you to achieve that, despite the fact that they may appear risky and unreliable at times. Here are the top free proxy lists that you will want to check out in light of that.
The 5 Best Web Scraping Proxy Lists
Now that we are more or less done with the basics let us dive right into our list of the 5 best Web Scraping Proxy lists you can find in the market at no cost!
1) ProxyScrape
Although ProxyScrape’s proxy list isn’t the largest or most feature-rich, it provides the ideal blend of attributes and efficiency to win first place.
In reality, you have a choice between three lists: SOCKS4, SOCKS5, and HTTP(S). They are few, ranging from 200 to 2,000 IPs. This is due to the fact that ProxyScrape filters out outdated proxies by updating the IPs once every five minutes. The lists can be filtered according to factors like encryption status, anonymity degree, location (two-letter country codes), and speed. About 40 countries are available for selection overall.
In contrast to some other providers, ProxyScrape provides a wide range of exporting alternatives. The filtered list can be downloaded as an a.txt file, or you can use the free API.
We find it problematic that the list cannot be viewed before exporting it. Furthermore, even though regular refreshing intervals should guarantee live IPs, there are no uptime measurements, so you have no way of knowing if they will stay online.
2) Hide My Ass
Hide My Ass is our subsequent pick on the list of the best free proxies. This well-known supplier is now recognised in the proxy industry. HMA guarantees seamless, unimpeded internet connection. Millions of consumers worldwide have come to trust it throughout the years due to its trustworthy, outstanding service.
HMA launched in 2005 and has among the most extensive records in the data security industry. There are various ways to obtain free proxy services by utilizing HMA. The easiest is to direct your browser to its proxy page.
Germany, the UK, the USA (New York and Seattle), the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic are among the countries where HMA has proxy servers. Its unique privacy features allow you to turn off cookies, uninstall scripts, and mask destination links from unknown parties.
You may effectively unblock websites using HMA. It has the same extension as a VPN application. Your web browser traffic gets forwarded through a server in that region if you just choose a location.
Additionally, the proxy has a WebRTC blocker. This reduces the possibility of IP leaks.
As a further benefit, HMA shields your navigating data from possible online attacks by using state-of-the-art encryption standards. But while it’s free, it may not be the greatest option for difficult projects.
For example, you will not receive typical Java script features while using HMA to browse websites. To avoid this kind of issue, you might have to use the second proxy route offered by HMA.
3) ScraperAPI
ScraperAP is next on the list. In contrast to HMA, ScraperAPI is not restricted to lightweight surfing. Rather, it easily assists developers and companies that tackle complex internet scraping tasks.
ScraperAPI provides a high probability of success when gathering data from web pages due to its database of over 40 million IPs.
By carefully shifting your requests over several IPs, this API-based proxy service minimizes the likelihood that they will be blocked. In addition, it regularly retries unsuccessful requests to guarantee a seamless scraping process.
However, since ScraperAPI takes a more technical method, people who are not tech-savvy may find it difficult to use.
4) Hidemy.name
A reasonable-sized list with an export IP fee. In addition to offering VPN services, Hidemy.name also offers an extensive collection of free proxies. Don’t let your expectations up; however, these IPs are exactly the same as the previous lists that we looked over. They continue to be collected from many web sources.
Nevertheless, Hidemy.name always maintains 10,000 proxies across more than 60 nations. Naturally, the majority of them gather in many places. We were surprised to learn that Curacao, Belize, and Armenia were among the primary countries. The list includes a location, protocol, and incognito filter; it also displays the IP’s speed and last refresh date. It’s convenient to have many toggles available at once, such as elite and hidden addresses.
The list is revised frequently. The most recent proxies were updated one minute ago, and the earliest ones were updated within four hours, the moment we last verified. The worst problem actually involves downloading the list from the internet; there are several methods available for exporting it; however, you have to spend $5 to do so. It’s one method of making money.
5) VPNBook
VPNBook is a well-known, easy-to-use, and completely free proxy service. Although VPNBook lacks the wide range of features of HMA, Hide.me, or ScraperAPI, it is ideal for customers looking for simple, unrestricted online access.
The supplier provides servers in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Poland, among other places. Using several server locations allows you to view regionally secured material and circumvent regional limitations.
It safeguards your information with encryption up to military standards. AES-256 is a commonly used encryption technique that is considered safe.
Moreover, AES-256 is used by several governments and businesses worldwide. It offers robust security against data breaches and is practically uncrackable. Additionally, the company offers SSL-based 2048-bit encryption in addition to protocols like PPTP and OpenVPN.
In contrast to some free VPNs, VPNBook does not have a bandwidth limit. Furthermore, VPNBook works with several operating systems, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux. Because of its extensive seamless integration, customers may utilize the service on almost any device.
On the other hand, the server’s load and the condition of your personal network may affect the speed. This may affect internet-based gaming and streaming—activities that demand uninterrupted connectivity. Lastly, if you use a VPNbook, torrenting is not advised.
Conclusion
Web Scraping Tools can be extremely important when you need to curate useful data and information from various sources on the internet. The right tool will help you seamlessly gather the information you need to create your database. All in all, these are five of the most trusted and reliable tools we recommend you to try to suffice your web scraping needs.
