The Ultimate Guide to Proxy Servers

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Omar Rifai

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Information and access to data is more important than ever — and the scale at which data is created online has grown exponentially. An estimated 402.74 million terabytes of data are created every day, according to Statista, and the need for acquiring data has exploded as a consequence. Large and small businesses alike benefit from being more informed and the main driver of almost every service-based business today is data.

Every facet of web automation and data collection is underpinned by proxy servers, which make it all possible. If you’ve ever looked at a price comparison aggregator to book a hotel or flight, you’ve seen the product of proxies. From ecommerce and digital advertising to finance and cybersecurity, countless industries use proxies every day.

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What is a Proxy Server?

A proxy is an intermediary server through which traffic passes from client (your device) to target server (usually a website you’re visiting).

When used as an anonymizing technology, the proxy handles all your device’s traffic to the outside world, making it appear to the target servers as though your requests originated from the proxy. As far as the websites you’re visiting and apps you’re using, your IP is that of the proxy server.

There are many other ways proxy servers can be used, like acting as a gateway to internal servers, as a communal exit route for traffic from a network, and more, which we’ll discuss in more detail later in this article.

Proxies give you the ability to change your IP, make it appear as if your traffic is originating from somewhere else, and allows you to spread many requests out over several IPs to avoid getting banned for spamming a server with requests. Why you’d want to do that will also be explained later in the article.

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How Do Proxies Work?

When you set up a proxy server, you tell your device — the client — to forward traffic to the proxy, which then sends those requests on to the target server. The target server processes that request and sends the response back to the proxy, which in turns sends it back to your device.

Proxies can be instructed to modify or test the requests before forwarding them, which allows for a few interesting things to happen. One example is checking whether the content you’re requesting is already cached on the proxy server, because it’s a frequently visited site. Another example might be using the proxy as a content filter. In this case the proxy would check whether the request is being sent to a permitted site and refuse to forward the request if the site is on a blacklist.

That being said, both these examples are not generally what proxy servers are used for, but are more outlying, situational use cases.

Here is the complete step-by-step process a request takes from your device:

  • Client Request: You configure your browser or application to send requests to the proxy server instead of directly to the target server.
  • Proxy Processing: The proxy receives your request, applies any rules (content filtering), determines what requested content it may already have (caching), and forwards it to the target server.
  • Server Response: The target server processes the request and sends the response back to the proxy.
  • Proxy Response: The proxy sends the response back to you.

Now that we understand the broad strokes of how proxies work, it’s time to dive into the many different types of proxy server.

A diagram of a proxy interacting with different devices and people under the title

Types of Proxy Server

When we talk about “types” of proxy server, what we’re really talking about is highlighting the feature or function that is relevant to the context in which that proxy is being used.

For example, you can sort proxies by where they source their IP addresses from, what protocol they use, their position relative to client and target server, whether they change their IP regularly or have static IP addresses, whether they’re used by many people or one person, whether they use 32-bit or 128-bit IP addresses, and so on.

Proxies can — and usually do — fit into several of these categories at once but, depending on the context, these distinctions are less relevant.

 

Proxies by IP Source

Proxy servers can be identified by where they source their IP from, namely from datacenters, residences, or mobile devices. The proxy takes on the characteristics of their source, which is often its most relevant aspect.

Datacenter Proxy

A datacenter proxy sources its IP from a datacenter rather than from an internet service provider (ISP). Datacenter IPs are traditionally static, because they need to be consistently accessed, and having a consistent IP makes that easier.

Datacenter hardware is often designed to be intensely used as they’re usually used in cloud or hosting services, accessed by several devices at once. This means they tend to support faster speeds.

Datacenters don’t get IPs from an ISP, but rather from Regional Internet Registries directly; these IP ranges are public information.

These traits are passed onto proxies sourcing their IP from datacenters — their IPs are generally static, they’re generally faster than residential and mobile proxies, and are also much more likely to be flagged as unusual traffic.

Residential Proxy

A residential proxy sources its IP from a home, which gets its IP assigned from an ISP. Residential proxies are generally less static than datacenter proxies, rotating automatically every few days.

Residential proxies can vary in quality and speed because home connections can greatly vary. These IPs are sourced most often through SDK-based integration or bandwidth-sharing apps.

What makes residential proxies the standard IP for most proxy users is the fact that residential IPs most closely resemble websites’ “expected” type of traffic, i.e. real people at home or at work, surfing the net using real IP addresses.

Mobile Proxy

A mobile proxy sources its IP from a mobile device, i.e. mobile data. These IPs come from mobile carriers — which are also often ISPs. Mobile IPs are much more dynamic than their datacenter or residential counterparts as they are designed to rapidly reconnect to cell towers.

Although mobile proxies can be sourced via SDK-based integration, they can also be hosted on dedicated hardware for the purpose, as is the case with Proxidize Proxies.

Mobile proxies equally match websites’ traffic expectations but are less commonly used by proxy users. Furthermore, due to CGNAT, a technology used to avoid IP exhaustion, they are inherently harder for websites to ban because multiple legitimate users can be using the same IP address. This fact, together with their less frequent use, makes them a more effective proxy for a wide variety of use cases.

Proxies by Protocol

Proxies can be separated by what protocol(s) they support, which makes them better suited to different types of use cases.

HTTP(S) Proxy

An HTTP proxy is able to parse HTTP requests and responses, and read and modify headers. Unless otherwise stated, almost all proxies are HTTP(S) proxies.

An HTTPS proxy establishes a TLS tunnel between your device and the proxy server, encrypting traffic as it passes between client and proxy.

SOCKS Proxy

SOCKS is a proxying protocol that can handle more than just HTTP; it’s protocol agnostic. Once the connection between client and server is established, a SOCKS proxy just forwards the data back and forth without modification.

SOCKS5, the latest version of the protocol, offers UDP support — increasingly important as more sites start supporting HTTP/3 — as well as access controls, which mean it is more interesting in commercial proxy settings.

Proxies by Position

Proxies can sit in different positions relative to access. Do you need to connect to the proxy to access the internet or are you on the internet and need to access servers on a network through a proxy?

Forward Proxy

A forward proxy, also known as a client-side proxy, sits between the client and the internet. It acts as a gatekeeper for a network’s access to the wider web.

Forward proxies are most commonly used in the context of company networks, monitoring and moderating employees’ access to the internet. They can also be used to cache frequently requested data too, which decreases page load times.

Reverse Proxy

A reverse proxy, also known as a server-side proxy, sits between the internet and backend servers. Instead of opening ports on all your servers, a reverse proxy can be used as the gateway to servers on a network — a safer option.

Reverse proxies are commonly used for load balancing, assigning incoming requests to the appropriate server and making sure that no server receives an excessive number of requests.

Log Proxy

A log proxy exists alongside the normal network, existing exclusively to keep logs of network activity. Also called a log forwarder or logging agent, a log proxy specializes in receiving logs of events, metrics, and more while existing outside of the ordinary flow of data.

No real-time data is being collected by these proxies and isn’t meant to be; it’s generally data for posterity, feeding a centralized logging system. The proxy is the first point of aggregation for the collected data before being sent for aggregation and analysis.

Proxies by Access

Proxies are commonly identified by the number of users that have access to them at any given time. Some are just one proxy that’s accessed by many users while others are assigned to only one person. The way a proxy is assigned affects reliability, cost, speed, and how likely you are to get blocked.

Shared Proxy

A shared proxy is used by multiple unrelated users at the same time. Everyone sends traffic through the same IP, often without knowing who else is using it.

What this means:

  • If someone else gets that IP blocked, you get blocked too.
  • If someone is scraping aggressively and overloads the proxy, your connection slows down or fails.
  • You can’t build a consistent identity from it. The IP is constantly doing different things for different people.

What they’re good for:

  • They’re cheap.
  • They’re useful when you don’t care if the IP gets banned.
  • You can use them to test scripts or scrape non-sensitive sites that don’t care who’s knocking.

What to watch out for:

  • If you care about stability or reputation, skip these.
  • Bad neighbors get the whole IP flagged, and you go down with it.
  • You can’t log in to accounts or do anything tied to long-term behavior.

Pooled Proxy

A pooled proxy setup — also known as a backconnect proxy — gives you access to a large rotating network. You send traffic through one endpoint, and behind it, the provider routes your requests through a different IP every time. Some pools rotate per request, others let you keep the same IP for a few minutes.

What this means:

  • You get tons of IPs without managing a giant list.
  • Each request can look like it’s coming from a completely different person or location.
  • Great for tasks that need to avoid rate limits or blocks.

What they’re good for:

  • Scraping at scale
  • Avoiding bans by spreading traffic out
  • Doing short sessions where identity doesn’t matter, like pulling search results or public listings

What to watch out for:

  • You can’t rely on the same IP sticking around. Logins and multi-step flows can break if the IP changes halfway through.
  • Troubleshooting is harder. If something breaks, you can’t easily trace it back to a specific IP.
  • Not all IPs in the pool are equal. Some might be flagged or unreliable.

Dedicated Proxy

A dedicated proxy is yours alone. No one else uses that IP but you. That gives you full control over how it’s used and how it’s seen by the internet.

What this means:

  • Everything that IP does is tied to you. Good or bad, you’re responsible for its reputation.
  • Performance is consistent because no one else is pushing traffic through it.
  • You can use the same IP for long sessions, logins, carts, and repeat activity.

What they’re good for:

  • Logging into platforms that track IP reputation (e.g., social media, e-commerce)
  • Managing long-term accounts
  • Doing anything where consistency matters and bans are a real risk

What to watch out for:

  • They’re more expensive. You’re paying for the entire IP by yourself.
  • You don’t get much diversity. One IP means one identity, and that’s it unless you buy more.

Proxies by Rotation

Proxies are sometimes selected based on their ability to change —or maintain — their IPs over time. These characteristics are usually inherited from their source IP, but there is overlap. Proxies’ rotation behavior can range from completely unchanging to changing automatically every few hours.

Static Proxy

A static proxy provides a single, unchanging IP address. The IP remains the same until the user explicitly changes it or the lease expires.

This is the default behavior for most:

  • Datacenter proxies (as they need to be consistently accessed)
  • ISP proxies (residential-labeled IPs hosted in data centers)
  • Some rare static residential proxies (via long-term leases or sometimes at customer request

Strengths:

  • Consistent identity: Appear as the same user over time, useful for social media management
  • Session-based activities: Ideal for logins, shopping carts, or long scraping sessions where a persistent identity is necessary
  • Performance: Generally higher and more consistent speeds (generally due to datacenter connection)

Limitations:

  • Just one IP: One IP means all activity is tied to that address; if it gets blocked, your access is lost
  • Manual proxy rotation: You need to rotate between static proxies yourself to avoid detection patterns or bans (rather than rotating through IPs)
  • Not ideal for scraping: Not suitable for aggressive or high-volume scraping unless combined with careful rate limiting, just like when using your home/office IP
 

Rotating Proxy

Rotating proxies — also referred to as dynamic proxies — can automatically assign themselves a new IP at a set interval (e.g. every hour or 5 mins) or for every request — they can also be rotated manually. Unlike backconnect proxies, where you rotate between endpoints, a rotating proxy can rotate between IP addresses.

IP rotation is typically associated with:

  • Residential proxy networks
  • Mobile proxy pools
  • Some datacenter proxy rotation services

Strengths:

  • Lots of IPs: Ideal for tasks where you need to send many requests without being rate-limited or banned.
  • Automated IP rotation: You don’t need to babysit rotating through proxies; rotation is handled by the provider.

Limitations:

  • Downtime between rotations: Sometimes endpoints can take up to 60 seconds to reestablish connection after rotating IPs
  • Can break your session: Unexpectedly changing IPs can sometimes break login sessions if the website requires consistent IP fingerprints (common in more secure settings like banking apps)
  • Only scalable to a point: Rotating between IPs too quickly can trip anti-bot checks, depending on the site, as may rotating at precise intervals.

Sticky Proxy (Sticky Sessions)

Somewhere between static and fully rotating proxies are proxies that support sticky sessions, also referred to as temporary static proxies. A sticky proxy keeps your session on the same IP for a limited time or number of requests.

This can last anywhere between 5 minutes to days. This depends greatly on whether you’re using a residential or mobile proxy. It also depends on the settings offered by your provider and pool behavior. After that time, or if the device hosting the IP goes offline (in residential/mobile setups), the IP may rotate automatically.

Strengths:

  • Good for bridging the gap: This is a useful option when you need temporary consistency, e.g. a multi-step login process that requires the same IP to avoid tripping antibot checks.
  • Mitigates the risk of a static proxy: You don’t need to fully commit to using (or paying for) a static proxy to have a (temporarily) consistent IP.

Limitations:

  • Unpredictable IP loss: A sticky session requires the endpoint you’re using to remain connected to the internet — if the endpoint suffers a temporary disconnection, it may not have the same IP when it reconnects to the internet.
  • Limited control: Unlike truly static IPs, you can’t always predict or maintain stickiness unless the provider gives explicit guarantees.

Proxies by IP Technology

There are two types of internet protocols, IPv4 and IPv6. The latter was developed because every public IP address needs to be unique.

Proxies, therefore, can use either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.

IPv4 Proxy

IPv4 proxies’ public IP address is a 32-bit IPv4 (internet protocol version 4)  address, which looks like this: 192.168.0.1. IPv4 proxies are the standard and work on nearly every website. Essentially all internet services, filters, and security systems were built with IPv4 in mind.

IPv6 Proxy

IPv6 proxies use the modern replacement for IPv4. IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) uses 128-bit addresses, like 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334, and supports a nearly unlimited number of unique IPs. 

As every IPv6 address is unique, they’re much easier to make publicly routable. Not having to deal with NAT means you don’t have to deal with port forwarding either, assuming your firewall is configured correctly.

Proxies by Level of Anonymity

Whenever you connect to a website, you pass along quite a lot of information about the device you’re using, from your browser to your hardware. When you use a proxy, it broadcasts some information about itself as well. When we talk about proxies’ level of anonymity, we’re referring to how much information is being shared.

For proxies, it boils down to two key pieces of information:

  • Is your proxy hiding your IP?
  • Is your proxy announcing it’s a proxy?

Transparent Proxy

A transparent proxy intercepts and manages web traffic without changing the client’s IP, unlike other proxies. A transparent proxy isn’t used as anonymizing technology, but can instead be used to filter content, monitor internet use, and enforce network policies.

Although more practical methods exist, one could use a transparent proxy at businesses, schools, or cafes to monitor or restrict users’ internet activities.

The name “transparent” works in two ways: Firstly, it does not hide your IP address and secondly, users may not even know they’re using one.

What it does:

  • Adds headers like X-Forwarded-For or Via that include your real IP or proxy details.
  • Sometimes rewrites parts of the request or response for internal tracking.

What the site sees:

  • Your original IP
  • Clear signs that a proxy is involved

Anonymous Proxy

An anonymous proxy is a server that hides your IP address but still broadcasts enough information to be identified as a proxy.

What it does:

  • Keeps your IP out of the request
  • Still adds headers that show proxy usage (Via, Forwarded, etc.)

What the site sees:

  • The proxy’s IP
  • Obvious proxy headers

Your IP address is hidden but you’ll still trip antibot measures because your proxy is announcing itself, separate from any steps you’re taking to hide identifiers like browser fingerprints.

Elite Proxy

Despite this term being largely a commercial invention, an “elite proxy” is one that hides your IP and strips out anything that reveals the request came through a proxy.

What it does:

  • Doesn’t include any giveaway headers
  • Mimics normal client behavior all the way down to things like TCP/IP fingerprints and TLS handshakes

What the site sees:

  • A regular request from a single IP
  • No trace of a proxy anywhere in the traffic

This is what every anonymizing proxy should be and is also the most sought after — most commercially available residential and mobile proxies try to operate at this level.

If you trip antibot measures, it won’t be due to the proxy but instead due to your browser fingerprints, excessive requests, poor behavior, blacklists, and the myriad other ways that websites combat automation.

Proxies by Use Case

You’ll sometimes see proxies advertised by the use case they’re intended for. These are proxies that fit into the many categories we’ve described above, but selected for greater suitability to the advertised activity. Examples include:

When you see proxies advertised this way it’s important to consider carefully what kind of proxies are actually being sold, as they might not be the right choice for your specific project.

A proxy server next to two laptops under the title

Pros and Cons of a Proxy Server

Let’s discuss the benefits and drawbacks of proxy servers in the context in which they are commercially available. This means we won’t be discussing transparent proxies, forward or reverse proxies, etc.

Advantages of Proxy Servers

  1. Anonymity: Using a proxy server hides your IP address from the broader internet. At the level of personal use, a proxy could replace your VPN — on average a proxy is faster (no tunneling/encryption) and achieves the same end result of a hidden IP address. 
  2. Traffic distribution: Using proxy servers means you can, for example, scale up the intensity of your web scrapers by spreading more requests over many IP addresses.
    • Bypass rate limits
    • Avoid IP bans
    • More automation and scraping
  3. Geohopping: Bypass regional content restrictions by making it appear as if your traffic is originating from a different country. This is useful for bypassing your local restrictions or accessing region-locked content. Most proxy providers offer not just country targeting but city-level targeting too.
  4. Identity isolation: Using proxies allows you to bypass the account limits of many social media websites by isolating different identities. This lets you scale up the number of clients you can take on, and more.
    • Bypass platform account limits
    • Prevent account contamination
    • Allows for greater social media automation
  5. General scalability: Any activity that would otherwise be limited by your IP address can be (nearly infinitely) expanded:
    • Web scraping and data collection generally
    • API testing
    • Web automation

Disadvantages of Proxy Servers

  1. Cost: The quality of proxies, on the whole, correlates largely with their price. If you want high-quality proxies, they will cost more than lower quality proxies. If you want a dedicated proxy, you will pay more than if you’re spreading that cost across many people by using shared proxies, and so on.
  2. Higher latency & slower speeds: Using a proxy will slow your connection down, as your traffic has to be physically routed to that server before continuing on to its final destination. The further away the proxy is, the more latency will increase. A lower quality proxy will likely not have a stable connection.
  3. Additional software: Using a proxy on its own is not generally feasible. To make the most effective use of your proxies you’ll have to branch out into antidetect browsers or similar anonymizing technologies, depending on your use case.
  4. Bad neighbors: Using shared proxies means you run the risk of your proxy’s IP address having been used by bad actors in the past, compromising the reputation of your IP. As we’ve seen, low quality proxies run that risk inherently, too.

Conclusion

In this article we’ve covered what proxy servers are, their various types and how each of them works, and their general benefits and drawbacks. Proxies underpin many, very different industries and make most web automation possible.

They’re the first step towards protecting your privacy online, being able to bypass geo-restrictions, and take your business the data it needs to succeed. 

Key takeaways:

  • Proxy servers fuel web automation and data collection for many industries.
  • Proxies can be categorized by IP source, protocol, access, rotation, and level of anonymity.
  • Residential and mobile proxies are the most sought after for their resistance to IP bans.
  • Different types of proxies offer different trade-offs in quality, access, uptime, speed, and more.
  • Proxy servers have a lot to offer beyond anonymity.

Although the proxies commercially sold are almost exclusively marketed as anonymizing technology, which admittedly is how they are primarily used, proxies are also critical infrastructure in networking.

We hope you’ve gained a greater understanding of what proxies are and that we’ve cut through some of the marketing jargon surrounding them.

About the author

Omar Rifai

Omar is a content writer at Proxidize with a background in journalism and marketing. Formerly a newsroom editor, Omar now specializes in writing articles on the proxy industry and related sectors.
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