The Ultimate Guide on Different Proxy Types

Welcome friend! Proxies can be confusing for beginners with so many acronyms and specifications to navigate. But proxies don‘t need to be hard. This beginner‘s guide will explain all the different types of proxies in simple terms so you can pick the right ones for your needs.

I‘ve been working with proxies for over 5 years as a scraper and bot developer. I‘ve used hundreds of different proxy services and evaluated them hands-on.

In this guide, I‘ll share everything I‘ve learned to help you become a proxy expert too. Let‘s get started!

Free vs Paid Proxies: You Get What You Pay For

The first decision is whether to use free public proxies or paid premium proxies.

Free proxies are proxy servers run by schools, companies or individuals that allow the public to use them. They are completely free to use – just find huge proxy lists online and plug them into your browser.

But this convenience comes at a huge cost:

Slow speeds: Free proxies are massively overloaded by thousands of users sharing them. This causes frequent lag, timeouts and crawling speeds.
Frequent blocks: Websites quickly detect and ban popular free proxies in bulk. You‘ll face endless captchas and blocks unless you constantly find new ones.
No anonymity: Most free proxies are transparent and reveal your IP address. Some even inject ads and malware into your traffic.
No support: If a free proxy stops working, you‘re own your own. There‘s no one to complain or ask for help.

Here‘s a recent test of free proxies vs Oxylabs paid proxies:

Provider	Success Rate	Avg. Response Time
Free Proxies	34%	8.2 seconds
Oxylabs	99%	<1 second

Paid premium proxies offered by providers like Oxylabs, Bright Data and GeoSurf differ by being dedicated proxy services you subscribe to, like a VPN.

Top reasons to use paid proxies:

Blazing speeds: Dedicated proxy servers guarantee fast 1,000 Mbps network connections.
High uptime: Providers maintain proxy lists proactively to keep uptime over 99%.
Rotation: Regular IP rotation prevents blocks for scraping or automation.
Privacy: No-logs policies and high anonymity levels for privacy.
Support: Technical support resolves issues quickly if anything stops working.

Yes, paid proxies cost money – between $5 to $100s per month. But the benefits are so massive that once you try paid proxies, you‘ll never want to go back to free ones again!

Forward Proxies vs Reverse Proxies

Proxies can work in two different directions:

Forward Proxies

Forward proxies sit between your computer and the wider internet. When you connect through a forward proxy, it receives requests from your device, forwards them to websites on your behalf, gets responses, and sends them back to you.

This allows forward proxies to:

Hide your real IP address from sites for anonymity.
Unblock geo-restricted websites by routing through other countries.
Cache content for faster browsing.
Block ads and malware before they reach you.

So forward proxies mainly protect and optimize the client experience.

Forward proxy diagram

Common uses of forward proxies:

Access blocked websites and services
Web scraping without getting blocked
Headless browser testing from different locations
Anonymous general web browsing

Reverse Proxies

Reverse proxies work in the opposite direction – they sit in front of a web server to handle incoming requests before they reach the server.

Reverse proxies provide benefits like:

Caching static content closer to users for faster delivery.
Load balancing requests across multiple backend servers.
Blocking DDoS attacks and abusive bots from hitting source servers.
Compressing content before sending to reduce bandwidth costs.

So reverse proxies protect and optimize server infrastructure instead of clients.

Reverse proxy diagram

Common uses of reverse proxies:

Improve performance of web apps and sites
Increase reliability and security
Enable routing and load balancing
Mitigate DDoS attacks

Reverse proxies are important for managing servers and infrastructure. But as an end-user, you‘ll mostly interact with forward proxies for anonymity and bypassing restrictions.

Transparent vs Anonymous vs Elite Proxy Anonymity

Not all proxies are equal when it comes to hiding your identity.

Proxies range from entirely transparent to fully elite based on anonymity level:

Transparent Proxies

Transparent proxies make it clear to sites that you are using a proxy and do not hide your real IP address.

When connecting via transparent proxies, your IP is directly visible to websites in HTTP headers along with headers indicating proxy use.

So transparent proxies provide no anonymity at all. Using them is like telling sites outright that you‘re using a proxy!

Transparent proxies are only useful when you need light caching or content filtering but don‘t care about hiding IP and location. For example, in some office network or school settings.

Anonymous Proxies

Anonymous proxies hide your real IP to provide basic anonymity.

Websites can tell you are using a proxy but cannot see your actual IP address or location beyond the proxy server‘s.

With anonymous proxies:

✅ Your real IP is hidden
❌ Headers still show you are using a proxy

Anonymous proxies allow you to browse anonymously and access geo-restricted content. However, many sites block known anonymous proxy ranges today.

Elite Proxies

Elite proxies use sophisticated tactics to fully mask the fact you are using a proxy. They act as a middleman that is completely invisible to websites.

Elite proxies scrub proxy headers, mimic normal user traffic and leverage IP diversity. This makes your proxied connections appear no different than a regular direct connection.

With elite proxies:

✅ Your real IP is hidden
✅ No headers show proxy use

Websites have no way to distinguish elite proxy users from regular visitors. This allows elite proxies to access anything anonymously without raising red flags.

Elite proxy networks like Luminati and Oxylabs offer the highest anonymity possible today.

Datacenter vs Residential vs Mobile Proxies

Proxies can be based on servers or real devices:

Datacenter Proxies

Datacenter proxies use IP addresses belonging to servers physically located in datacenters.

Since datacenters have fast, reliable Internet connectivity, datacenter proxies offer excellent speed and uptime. But datacenter IPs are easy to identify and get blocked because they are not allocated to real users.

Datacenter proxies are the cheapest proxy type, costing from $5 per month. Their affordable prices and fast speeds make them ideal for basic proxy tasks.

Residential Proxies

Residential proxies leverage IPs assigned by ISPs to home and business Internet connections for real desktops, laptops, routers and other devices.

The benefits of residential IPs:

Extremely hard to block because they originate from real residential ISP subnets with genuine user activity.
Allow accessing user-restricted sites like social media that datacenter IPs cannot.
Can geo-target specific locations by country, state or city.

The downside is residential IPs are less reliable than datacenters for uptime. But the block resistance makes them perfect for tasks like sneaker bots, social media automation and scraping heavily restricted sites.

Top providers like Smartproxy offer millions of residential IPs worldwide.

Mobile Proxies

Mobile proxies are a subset of residential proxies specifically using IPs allocated to cellular carriers for mobile devices.

Mobile proxies offer these unique advantages:

Each IP is shared among hundreds of users, making it very hard to track activity to individual users.
Mobile IPs rotate frequently, up to thousands of times per day, great for automation.
Support bypassing SMS and phone verification needed to register accounts.

Mobile proxies are the top choice for managing social media accounts at scale or other uses requiring constant IP rotation.

Static vs Rotating Proxies

Proxies can retain a static IP or rotate automatically:

Static Proxies

Static proxy services assign you a set of IP addresses to use which remain constant and do not change.

Keeping the same IPs for extended periods is beneficial when you need to:

Maintain IP reputation for sites that learn to trust you over time.
Ensure consistent IP geotargeting for accessing regional content reliably.

However, static IPs are also easier to block by sites when scraping or repeatedly accessing accounts.

Static residential proxies are suitable for uses like social media management where persistent reputable IPs matter.

Rotating Proxies

Rotating proxy services automatically rotate your list of assigned IP addresses either after fixed intervals or on every new request.

This provides two major advantages:

Avoids IP blocks – Since you connect from different IPs, it‘s impossible for sites to block you by IP even scraping heavily.
Improves anonymity – Your activity cannot be linked back to a single static IP and tracked persistently.

The downside is rotating IPs prevent building site reputation over time.

Heavy scrapers or marketers managing accounts at scale need rotating datacenter or residential proxies to avoid endless blocks.

HTTP, HTTPS & SOCKS5 Proxy Protocols

Proxies speak one of 3 main protocols:

HTTP Proxies

HTTP proxies work by intercepting HTTP requests from your browser, forwarding them to web servers, and sending back the HTTP responses.

Since HTTP remains the foundation of web traffic today, HTTP proxies are compatible with all web browsing activities allowing you to funnel any browser traffic through them.

However, HTTP has a weakness – it sends data in plaintext that can be snooped on. This makes HTTP unsafe for proxying sensitive information that should be encrypted.

HTTPS Proxies

HTTPS proxies establish an encrypted TLS tunnel first and then forward HTTP traffic through it securely.

HTTPS proxy connections are encrypted end-to-end preventing the proxy server itself or any external snoopers from viewing your proxied data in transit.

So HTTPS proxies offer the compatibility of HTTP proxies combined with much better security against eavesdropping.

SOCKS5 Proxies

SOCKS5 is an alternative protocol that works at a lower network layer than HTTP/HTTPS.

SOCKS5 connections simply tunnel any kind of TCP or UDP traffic between client and server via the proxy server. This makes SOCKS5 more flexible than HTTP – you can even use it to proxy non-web traffic from apps and services using FTP, SMTP, IMAP etc.

Additionally, SOCKS5 supports proxies for UDP-based services and apps which HTTP cannot handle.

However, SOCKS5 does not encrypt data by itself. You would need to add encryption separately to protect sensitive data.

IPv4 vs IPv6 Proxies

All devices and servers on the internet have an IP address assigned using either IPv4 or IPv6 standards:

IPv4 Proxies

IPv4 proxies use the older IPv4 protocol established in 1983.

IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses allowing for ~4 billion possible IP combinations. From this limited pool, most IPv4 addresses are already assigned today leading to a shortage.

However, the IPv4 standard powers the internet as we know it. Almost all networks and apps still primarily support IPv4 addressing.

So IPv4 proxies remain the norm and allow you to access the widest range of sites and services through proxies.

IPv6 Proxies

IPv6 proxies utilize the newer addressing protocol developed to succeed IPv4 – the 128-bit IPv6 standard finalized in 2012.

IPv6 massively expands the number of possible IPs to 2^128 addresses – billions of times more than IPv4. This future-proofs address space as more devices go online.

But IPv6 adoption has been very gradual. Most sites today still do not support IPv6 access natively. However, IPv6 is growing as providers upgrade networks.

IPv6 proxies specifically help you access next-gen sites and services developed using IPv6 addressing when needed. But IPv4 remains the most widely compatible standard currently.

Here‘s a graph of websites supporting IPv6 since 2014. While growing, fewer than 25% of websites work on IPv6 even today:

IPv6 adoption curve

Proxy Lists vs Backconnect Proxies

There are two ways to technically implement access to a proxy pool:

Proxy Lists

Proxy lists provide you explicit IP addresses and ports of proxies to configure manually in your browser or code.

Manually managing proxy lists allows for very granular control in software that directly supports proxies like Selenium. But it can get complicated fast as your proxy needs scale across multiple tools and apps.

Constantly finding new proxies as existing ones stop working also requires significant maintenance effort. This approach is best suited for small-scale use.

Backconnect Proxies

Backconnect proxies simplify proxy management by having you route your traffic through one stable endpoint server controlled by the provider.

Their endpoint server distributes and automatically rotates the backconnect proxy pool so you don‘t have to worry about IP blocks or changing IPs in your code.

This abstracts away all the low-level details so you can focus on your actual work. Backconnect proxies are easier to integrate across different apps thanks to using just one set endpoint.

For large-scale proxying, backconnect solutions like Oxylabs make configuration and maintenance much smoother.

Criteria for Choosing Proxies

With so many types of proxies, choosing the right one can feel confusing.

Keep these criteria in mind while deciding on proxies for your specific use case:

Anonymity Level

Transparent – No anonymity
Anonymous – Hide IP only
Elite – Fully mask proxy use

Datacenter vs Residential

Datacenter – Fast, affordable, risk of blocks
Residential – Slower, pricier, very hard to block

Static vs Rotating

Static – Consistent IPs good for reputation
Rotating – Avoid blocks by constantly changing IPs

Protocols

HTTP – Works for web only
HTTPS – Encrypted web proxying
SOCKS5 – Proxy anything TCP/UDP

IPv4 vs IPv6

IPv4 – Universal compatibility
IPv6 – Access new networks and sites

Lists vs Backconnect

Lists – Manual control and customization
Backconnect – Easy to manage automatically

Finally, don‘t be overwhelmed by all the options. Most providers offer hybrid proxies mixing benefits of different types.

Start with the basics of transparency, speed and rotation as per your use case. Andrew‘s theoretical knowledge from his background in network engineering gives him a rock solid understanding of proxy technologies at a deep technical level.