How to Get a Proxy?
If you need a quick solution to increase your privacy while browsing online, you can’t find a better option than using proxies. They are intermediaries that allow you to mask your IP address and remain anonymous. You can also use them to escape IP bans and other IP-related issues such as being tracked or exposing your location.
In order to get them, you just need to pick the right provider with a service that suits your needs. It might not be so easy, though, since there are many options on the market with different nuances from different providers.
Before choosing, you must determine:
- how well-rounded of a service do you want,
- what portion of your budget can you assign to it,
- the level of quality that you are seeking.
These key aspects will let us dive deeper into things that you need to pay attention to if you wish to get the best proxy for yourself.
The type of proxy that you need
The choice between different types of proxies depends mainly on what you need more: the good speed with a stable connection or more legitimacy with higher levels of security.
If you need the latter, residential proxies can ensure that you will get household IPs that will cover nearly all geo-locations and leave no possibility of being tracked. But that comes at the cost of the stable connection and the speed.
That’s why you should choose data center proxies if speed is your primary concern. They are the fastest type of proxies that provide you with all the necessary security.
Regardless of the type, you must be aware of which geo-locations these proxies can cover, how many IPs they provide, whether they rotate, and so forth. You must also decide if you wish to share your new IP addresses with other users or if you want to be a single user and go for dedicated IPs.
Pricing
Once you figure out what type of proxy you need, the next question is how much you are willing to pay, if anything at all.
The price of proxies depends on the type. Datacenter proxies are cheaper. If you can’t have too much flexibility within your budget, you should not look further and settle with data center proxies.
Because of their more complex maintenance, residential proxies tend to have much higher prices. If you have a large enough budget and want the highest level of security without having too many requirements for speed, then residential proxies could be an option. Just make sure that a provider is asking an appropriate price compared to the market averages.
Can you get proxies for free?
Of course, you can find lots of proxies for free. If you have looked for them, you must also have heard that you should never use free proxies, because they are untrustworthy. It’s true in most cases, but not all of them.
If you wish to use free proxies, you should look for a respectable brand that sells their proxy services, but also has some products for limited usage without any charge. Otherwise, it’s likely that the provider is making money by collecting and selling your data.
When you can get a proxy from a company that doesn’t seem like a fraudster trying to get you into their dubitable schemes without actually providing any guarantees, you can be sure that your data will be secured and you will not end up suffering any damage that would not have occurred without using proxies in the first place.
Why would someone give trustworthy proxies for free?
Profitable brands that provide their clients with high-quality proxies might give their product to use for free because they believe that will serve them as good advertising that will equally work as a trial for users and as a charity to improve the name of the company.
Not all users of free proxies will eventually buy those proxies from the company. But those that need good proxies will likely do that since nobody wants to lose a good and necessary service that is offered for an affordable price.
So, you should use free proxies only when you have no second thoughts about the trustworthiness of their provider.
The class of quality
Trusting a known business to get your proxies from is a good way to be sure that you are getting a great quality product. When you are considering free proxies, you should also be sure to notice certain things that your provider is not guilty of.
The key thing to know is how well proxies are dealing with HTTPS. Unsecured proxies are those that have no HTTPS encryption. So, the first thing you must do is to make sure that the proxy you are going to use provides HTTPS encryption. That is the minimum level of security a proxy must-have.
Second, you need to be sure that proxies are not going to make any HTTPS or JavaScript modifications that would insert unwanted ads or any kind of malware into your browsing. These kinds of practices are popular with many free proxies.
Finally, nobody will give a good product for free to use without any restrictions. You must make sure not only to take it from a trustworthy company but also that it provides it only for a limited period or a certain number of GBs.
Any respected brand should fit all these criteria. And if you decide to skip the free of charge part and go straight to paid services, you will surely avoid all these issues.
Final thoughts
To get a good proxy, you need to make sure that their provider is trustworthy and will give you exactly the type of service you need for an affordable price or even for free to some extent without any commitments. Only then will you get the sufficient quality of proxies that you need.
