The Free Proxy Sites I Actually Keep Bookmarked

I have a bookmark folder called “proxies” that I am slightly embarrassed by.

It has accumulated over years of needing to open something that would not open. Most of what went in there is dead now. Some of it was never good.

These ten survived. Here is what each one is actually for, in plain terms, and the two I would tell a friend to stay away from.

No affiliate links anywhere in this, by the way. There is nothing here I get paid for.

For Video: CroxyProxy

Most free proxies fall apart the moment video is involved. You get the page, you get the player, you press play, and nothing happens.

CroxyProxy is the exception. It handles JavaScript and streaming properly, which is why it is the default answer for YouTube.

The trade: it is the most popular one, so it is the first blocked on any filtered network, and it gets busy in the evenings. Sessions expire too.

More on that in proxy sites for YouTube.

For Speed: ProxySite and Proxyium

ProxySite is the old reliable. Around forty servers, shortcuts to commonly blocked sites on the homepage, and it has been running for years. Open one page, get on with your day.

Proxyium is the newer one I reach for. Cleaner interface, faster to load, no account. Because it is newer it is on fewer blocklists, which matters more than any feature.

Both struggle with video. Both are excellent for a single page right now.

For School and Office Filters: Blockaway and KProxy

Blockaway works on filtered networks mostly because nobody has added it to the list yet. It handles modern sites properly too, so it is not a downgrade.

KProxy has the trick the others do not: browser extensions. Once installed there is no proxy domain left for a filter to catch. If you are allowed to install extensions on that machine, it is the most durable option here.

Worth noting, KProxy would not connect over HTTPS from where I tested. It may be perfectly fine on your network. Try it and see.

For Knowing Who You Trust: Hide.me

Most web proxies are anonymous operations. You have no idea who is running them.

Hide.me is an actual company with a name, a jurisdiction, and a published no-logs policy. The free proxy is decent, and if you outgrow it there is a free VPN tier with a monthly allowance sitting right there.

Fewer free locations than the others. That is the price of knowing who you are dealing with.

For Picking Your Country: 4everproxy

This one lets you choose both the server location and the IP, which most free proxies will not do properly.

If you specifically need to look like you are somewhere, that control is the reason to use it. Interface is dated. Works fine.

For Checking Yourself: Whoer.net

Honestly, I use this one for the checker rather than the proxy. The free proxy is one Netherlands server with a speed cap, which is not exciting.

But the anonymity check is genuinely good. IP, DNS, WebRTC leaks, fingerprint consistency, all free.

Pair it with our own proxy checker and what is my user agent page. Ours tell you if the proxy is alive and what your browser is broadcasting. Whoer gives you a second opinion on leaks.

When You Want Actual Privacy: Proton VPN and Windscribe

These two are not proxies, and that is the point.

If your reason for reading this is privacy rather than access, web proxies are the wrong tool entirely. They redirect one browser tab. They do not protect you.

Proton VPN's free tier is the one I would actually recommend. No data cap, Swiss jurisdiction, open source apps that have been audited. Limited countries on free, one device. Still the best free option on this page by a distance.

Windscribe gives you 10 GB a month across more than ten locations, plus an ad blocker. Better for streaming than most free tiers.

The difference between these and everything above is explained properly in proxy vs VPN.

The Two I Would Avoid

Hola. Back in 2015 researchers showed its free users were not customers, they were the product. Their bandwidth was resold as exit nodes for other people's traffic, meaning strangers browsed through their connections and their IP addresses. The model has stayed a documented concern since. There is no reason to take that risk when Proton VPN's free tier exists.

Random proxy IPs for anything sensitive. This includes ours. Public proxy addresses are fine for scraping, testing and casual unblocking. They are not fine for logging into anything. Whoever runs that server can see unencrypted traffic, and you have no idea who that is. We wrote up the rules in how to use a free proxy list safely.

What I Actually Do

One video: CroxyProxy. One page: Proxyium. Locked down network: Blockaway, or KProxy's extension.

Anything I am doing more than once, I skip the wrapper entirely. Grab an IP from our free proxy list, filter by country if I need one, drop it into the browser, done. No ads, no session timer, no proxy page around everything. Setup is covered in how to set up a proxy.

And if you would rather learn to judge a proxy source yourself instead of trusting my bookmark folder, that is exactly what how to choose a free proxy site you can trust is for.

Bookmark two of these, not one. You always find out a proxy is down at the exact moment you needed it.