What is a proxy server?

A proxy server is a computer that makes requests on your behalf. Your browser or script sends each request to the proxy; the proxy sends it on to the site from its own IP address and passes the answer back. The site sees the proxy’s address, not yours. People buy proxies to see a site as a visitor from another place would, and to spread many automated requests across many addresses. A proxy is set up per app and adds no encryption of its own, which is what separates it from a VPN.

Answer · The live comparison uses prices checked up to Oct 24, 2026; every figure in the text keeps the date it was checked.

What happens to a request

1. Your software is told to use the proxy: an address and a port, and usually a username and password.
2. Each request goes to the proxy instead of to the site.
3. The proxy opens its own connection to the site and sends the request from its address.
4. The site answers the proxy, and the proxy passes the answer back to you.

For an https:// site, the proxy only opens a tunnel and relays encrypted bytes; it can see which site you connect to, but not the pages. For a plain http:// site it can read and change everything that passes (HTTP vs SOCKS5 proxies explains the two ways a proxy carries traffic).

What people use proxies for

• Collecting public data at scale. Price monitoring, search result tracking and research send thousands of requests. Sites limit how many they take from one address, so the requests are spread across many (price monitoring and SEO and SERP tracking price those jobs).
• Seeing a site from another country. Ads, prices and search results change with the visitor’s location; a proxy in that country shows what its visitors see (ad verification).
• Keeping separate identities apart. Each account or test profile can leave from its own address.
• Office and school networks. Many organisations route their staff’s web traffic through a proxy that filters or caches it. That kind is run for you, not bought.

Proxy or VPN?

If you want to browse privately on public Wi-Fi, a VPN is the tool. If you want a script to fetch pages from many addresses, or from a particular kind of address, a proxy is.

The kinds you can buy

What separates the kinds is whose address the site sees, and that decides both the price and how sites treat your requests:

• Datacenter: addresses owned by hosting companies. Fast and cheap, sold by the IP, and the easiest for a site to recognise as a server.
• Residential: addresses of home internet connections, so each request comes from a household rather than a server. Sold by the gigabyte, and dearer.
• Static residential (ISP): home-registered addresses hosted on servers, kept by you for as long as you rent them. Sold by the IP.
• Mobile: addresses of phone networks. One mobile address is shared by many real people, so sites may be slower to block it. The dearest by the gigabyte.

The box above prices each kind at the amount a first purchase is made in. Which proxy type is cheapest for my use case? helps you choose, and are free proxies safe? explains why a free list is a different thing from any of these.