Table of contents

Introduction: Why Talk About Public Proxy Lists at All

The query "proxy list" consistently ranks among the most frequent in the proxy niche. The user's logic is clear: why pay if thousands of addresses are publicly available and updated every ten minutes? A free proxy list looks like a quick way to test a hypothesis, run a parser, or see how search results look from another region. The problem is that in practice, such lists almost never solve the task they're taken for, and sometimes they create new risks.

This article is written for an audience that works with proxies professionally: marketers, arbitrage specialists, parser developers, and business owners managing dozens of accounts and platforms. We'll break down how public proxy lists are structured, why their actual working capacity rarely exceeds a few percent, and honestly compare eight proxy sources: from completely free aggregators to private mobile proxies. Related topics like setting up anti-detect browsers or types of proxies are not covered here; they are discussed separately in the blog.

When compiling the ranking, we considered functionality, price, quality of proxy protocol support, limits, ease of use, and level of technical support. Data is current as of early 2025. Briefly on the results: first place by combined criteria went to private mobile proxies MobileProxy.space, second and third were shared by hybrid services Webshare and ProxyScrape, which combine a free tier with paid pools. Classic public proxy lists like Free-Proxy-List.net and Spys.one landed at the bottom, but they still have scenarios where they make sense.

Ranking Methodology

We deliberately placed free proxy lists and paid services side by side. Otherwise, answering the question "what instead of them" would be impossible: the reader needs not abstract criticism but a clear alternative with price and limitations.

Each source was evaluated on five main criteria with different weights:

  • Functionality (weight 25%): support for HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5 protocols, availability of API, filters, rotation, authentication by login/password or by IP.
  • Price and limits (weight 20%): cost, free tier availability, restrictions on traffic, threads, and request count.
  • Convenience (weight 20%): how quickly you can get a working address and integrate it into a tool, whether documentation and a personal dashboard exist.
  • Technical support (weight 15%): communication channels, response speed, availability of Russian language.
  • Reviews and real working capacity (weight 20%): share of live addresses at check time, connection stability, reputation in relevant communities.

Information was collected from open sources: service websites, public documentation, discussions on developer and arbitrage forums, and control checks of lists via standard proxy checkers. For public proxy lists, we downloaded address samples several times on different days and checked availability via a typical HTTP request with a 10-second timeout.

What we did not consider: unverified marketing promises, "paper" pool size, website design. We also did not evaluate scenarios that may contradict the law, and we consider proxies solely as a tool for parsing open data, testing ads, monitoring prices, and managing one's own accounts within platform rules. Ratings reflect the state of services as of early 2025 and may change.

Selection and Comparison Criteria: How We Measured

Functionality and Protocol Support

The basic requirement for any proxy source in 2025: support for HTTPS and SOCKS5. A public proxy list consisting only of HTTP addresses is practically useless because most target sites use a secure protocol. Additionally, we looked at the presence of an API for automatic export, the ability to filter by country and anonymity, and for paid services, IP rotation, sticky sessions, and authentication.

Price and Limits

Here, what matters is not just "how much it costs" but "what you pay for." We compared pricing models: per traffic, per IP, per channel. We also recorded free tier limits: daily API request counts, traffic volume, number of threads. For free proxy lists, the price is formally zero, but we factored in hidden costs: time spent checking addresses, lost requests, and the risk of data leakage through an untrusted node.

Convenience

We evaluated the path from visiting the site to the first successful request. A good indicator: up to five minutes. For public proxy lists, this path includes a mandatory step of filtering dead addresses, and we counted this as a minus for convenience.

Technical Support

For free aggregators, support is absent by definition, so scores are low across the board. For paid services, we looked at live chat, Telegram, response time, and ability to solve technical issues, not just billing.

Reviews and Working Capacity

The key criterion for this article's topic. We measured the share of live addresses in the sample and stability over an hour. To be included in the TOP, a service had to either have a paid pool with uptime above 95% or be a notable and regularly updated free proxy source actually used by the community.

Why Public Proxy Lists Deliver Such Low Working Capacity

Before moving to the ranking, let's fix the mechanics. A public proxy list is assembled by automatic scanners that look for open ports on servers worldwide. A significant portion of found addresses are misconfigured servers, forgotten test stands, or nodes someone intentionally left open to collect traffic. The owner of such a node can close it at any moment, and thousands of users simultaneously hammer one address. As a result, in our checks, the share of working addresses at download time ranged from 3% to 25%, and an hour later dropped by another two to three times. Add to this that the IPs of these nodes have long been blacklisted by anti-fraud systems, and it becomes clear why such proxies are fundamentally unsuitable for ad accounts and social networks.

No. 1. MobileProxy.space — Private Mobile Proxies Instead of Public Lists

General Information

MobileProxy.space is a private mobile proxy service operating since 2017 and focused primarily on the Russian-speaking market, though it also offers foreign locations. Its specialization is one thing: mobile proxies on real carrier SIM cards with IP rotation. The target audience matches this article's: arbitrage specialists, SMM specialists, multi-account owners, parser developers who care not about price per gigabyte but about platform trust in the IP address.

We placed the service first not because it's the platform this ranking is written for, but because it most directly solves the problem for which people search for a proxy list: getting an address that won't be rejected by social networks, ad systems, and marketplaces. It's important to understand: comparing a mobile proxy to a free list by price is incorrect; these are different classes of tools.

Key Features

  • Dedicated mobile channel per client: the IP is not shared with other users during rental.
  • IP rotation by timer or via an IP change link that can be called from scripts.
  • Support for HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 on the same port.
  • Authentication by login/password or by client IP address.
  • Choice of operator and region, broad geography within Russia and several foreign countries.
  • API for managing proxies, changing IP, getting statistics, and renewing.
  • Personal dashboard with traffic stats and IP change history.
  • Compatibility with anti-detect browsers, automation tools, and any HTTP clients.

A unique feature compared to list-based services: the IP is issued from a real mobile operator's pool; normally hundreds of subscribers share one address, so platforms treat it more favorably than server addresses.

Pricing and Plans

Pricing is per channel for a period, not per traffic. Cost depends on country and operator: roughly from a few dollars per day to a few dozen dollars per month for renting one channel; prices for Russian operators are lower than for European or American ones. Traffic within the rental is unlimited, which is beneficial for parsing and large-scale tasks. Test access is available upon request to support, allowing you to check the IP's suitability for a specific platform before payment. Payment is possible via cards, cryptocurrency, and popular payment systems.

The price/quality ratio is high for tasks where IP trust matters: one mobile channel per month often pays for itself with a single saved ad account. For pure parsing of open data, where the number of parallel IPs matters more, the model may be more expensive than a residential proxy pool with per-traffic payment.

Pros

  • High level of IP trust: mobile addresses are less likely to be restricted by social networks and ad systems than any addresses from public proxy lists.
  • Unlimited traffic: convenient for parsers and monitoring where volume is hard to predict.
  • Rotation via link: integration into scripts takes a few minutes, IP change works predictably.
  • Russian-language support in Telegram and chat: according to reviews, responses come quickly, including at night.
  • Channel stability: unlike lists where an address dies within an hour, the channel is reserved for you for the entire rental period.
  • Operator choice: you can pick an IP for a specific targeting region.

Cons

  • The price per IP unit is noticeably higher than server or residential pools; for mass parsing with hundreds of threads, this is expensive.
  • Mobile channel speed is lower than server speed; latency is noticeable in heavy tasks.
  • Foreign geography is narrower than that of large international providers.
  • One channel implies a limited number of simultaneous connections; parallel tasks require renting multiple channels.

Who It's For

Ideal user: an arbitrage specialist or SMM specialist managing multiple accounts, working with ad accounts, who has already wasted time on free proxy lists. Also suitable for developers who need a stable IP with rotation for testing mobile versions of sites and apps. Small and medium businesses will find the service a good fit; large parsing projects should combine it with residential pools.

Best choice for: working with social networks, ad accounts, and marketplaces where IP trust is decisive.

Main advantage: a dedicated mobile IP with managed rotation and unlimited traffic.

Overall rating: 8.7/10

  • Functionality: 9/10
  • Price: 7/10
  • Ease of use: 9/10
  • Technical support: 9/10
  • User reviews: 9/10

No. 2. Webshare — Free Proxies with Authentication and Transparent Upgrade

General Information

Webshare is a US service operating since 2018 that has bet on self-service and low prices. Its main move: a free tier with ten server proxies issued personally to the user with login and password. This fundamentally distinguishes Webshare from a classic proxy list: the addresses are not public but tied to the account. Target audience: developers, beginner parsers, small teams that need to quickly test an idea without a budget.

Key Features

  • Free tier: 10 datacenter proxies, traffic limit about 1 GB per month.
  • Support for HTTP(S) and SOCKS5.
  • Authentication by login/password or by IP.
  • Rotating endpoint and list export in text format for any tool.
  • Paid pools: shared and dedicated datacenter, static residential, rotating residential.
  • API for managing proxies, replacing addresses, getting statistics.
  • Dashboard with traffic usage and convenient list generation for the needed format.

Pricing and Plans

The free plan requires no card. Paid datacenter proxies start at roughly 3 USD per month for a package of 100 shared addresses; dedicated addresses cost more. Residential proxies are billed per traffic, roughly from 5 to 7 USD per gigabyte with discounts on volume. The trial effectively replaces the free tier. The price/quality ratio is one of the best on the market for datacenter proxies, but in terms of trust, such addresses are weaker than mobile.

Pros

  • Truly free start: 10 working proxies without a card, uptime close to 100%, something no public proxy list can offer.
  • Address privacy: free proxies are not published in public lists, so fewer competitors per IP.
  • Low prices for datacenter packages: convenient for parsing insensitive sites.
  • Simple integration: the list generator produces ready-made strings for curl, Python, and anti-detect browsers.
  • Clear documentation and predictable upgrades without talking to managers.

Cons

  • Datacenter IPs are easily detected by platforms; not suitable for social networks and ads.
  • The 1 GB limit on the free tier is exhausted in one day of active parsing.
  • Support is English-only and mostly via tickets.
  • Russian payment cards are accepted with restrictions.

Who It's For

Developers and technical specialists who need a predictable pool of datacenter proxies for minimal money. A good option for learning, testing, and parsing open directories. Not suitable for those working with social network anti-fraud. Business size: freelancers and small teams.

Best choice for: developers who need a free or cheap pool with guaranteed availability.

Main advantage: account-tied free proxies with authentication instead of a public list.

Overall rating: 8.0/10

  • Functionality: 8/10
  • Price: 9/10
  • Ease of use: 9/10
  • Technical support: 6/10
  • User reviews: 8/10

No. 3. ProxyScrape — The Most Technologically Advanced Free Proxy List with API

General Information

ProxyScrape is a Dutch service known in developer circles for its free proxy list API that returns fresh addresses in one request. Operating since 2018. Specialization: aggregation and verification of public proxies plus its own paid pools of datacenter and residential addresses. Audience: scraper developers, students, small projects, and companies outgrowing the free tier.

Key Features

  • Free proxy list with filters by protocol (HTTP, SOCKS4, SOCKS5), country, timeout, and anonymity level.
  • API for exporting the list in text or JSON format, convenient for automation.
  • List updates every few minutes with pre-verification.
  • Paid dedicated datacenter proxies and a residential pool with per-traffic payment.
  • Online proxy checker and reference materials on setup.

Unique feature: free API without registration. You can get several hundred addresses filtered by the needed parameters in one request.

Pricing and Plans

The free tier does not limit export volume, but address quality matches any public proxy list: in our checks, 10-20% of addresses were alive, which is above average for free sources but insufficient for stable operation. Paid datacenter proxies cost roughly from 1 to 2 USD per address per month; residential about 3-5 USD per gigabyte. Trials for paid plans are available in limited form. The price/quality ratio at the paid level is average, but the free API is uniquely convenient.

Pros

  • The best free list automation on the market: API with filters saves hours of manual work.
  • Pre-verification of addresses increases the share of live proxies compared to raw aggregators.
  • SOCKS5 support in the free list, which is rare.
  • Smooth transition to paid pools within one ecosystem.
  • Clear documentation with code examples.

Cons

  • Free addresses are public, used simultaneously by a huge number of people, hence low speed and quick bans.
  • The share of live addresses even after verification does not exceed a quarter of the list and drops within an hour.
  • No support for the free tier; paid clients communicate via English-language tickets.
  • The residential pool lags behind major providers in geography and quality.

Who It's For

Developers who write scrapers with automatic dead proxy filtering and are willing to tolerate low stability for zero cost. A good source for educational projects and load testing your own checkers. For business, only the paid tier is suitable.

Best choice for: automated export of a free proxy list via API.

Main advantage: free API with filtering by protocol, country, and timeout.

Overall rating: 6.8/10

  • Functionality: 8/10
  • Price: 8/10
  • Ease of use: 8/10
  • Technical support: 5/10
  • User reviews: 5/10

No. 4. Geonode — A Free Proxy List as a Showcase for a Residential Pool

General Information

Geonode is an international provider registered in Singapore, operating since 2019. The service publishes one of the largest free proxy lists with filters and simultaneously sells residential and mobile proxies with per-traffic payment. The free proxy list here is more of a marketing tool: a user comes for the free list, becomes convinced of its instability, and moves to a paid pool. Audience: developers, e-commerce teams, marketers who need broad geography.

Key Features

  • Free proxy list with filters by country, protocol, anonymity level, speed, last check time.
  • Free list API with pagination and sorting.
  • Paid residential pool covering over a hundred countries with rotation on request or sticky sessions.
  • Dedicated datacenter proxies and a mobile pool in separate plans.
  • Dashboard with traffic analytics by country and target.

Feature: the free proxy list interface is one of the most convenient in the niche, with sorting by uptime and speed.

Pricing and Plans

Free list without registration. Residential proxies on a per-traffic model, roughly from 4 to 7 USD per gigabyte depending on volume; subscriptions with lower rates and pay-as-you-go are available. The mobile pool costs noticeably more. Trials for paid plans are provided on request or as a small traffic volume. The price/quality ratio at the paid level is average: flexible but more expensive than renting dedicated channels for large traffic volumes.

Pros

  • Convenient filtering of the free list by uptime lets you quickly select the most live addresses.
  • Broad geography of the residential pool, useful for checking ad geo-targeting.
  • Flexible per-traffic payment without a mandatory subscription.
  • Sticky sessions and rotation are configured directly in the connection string.
  • Good analytics of traffic usage in the dashboard.

Cons

  • The free list's working capacity is the same as other aggregators: live addresses in our checks were 5-15%.
  • Per-traffic payment is unpredictable for parsing heavy pages with images.
  • Support is English-language; responses may take hours.
  • Transparency of residential IP origin is lower than desired, which matters for assessing pool ethics.

Who It's For

Marketers and e-commerce teams that need to quickly view prices and search results from dozens of countries, as well as developers willing to pay for traffic rather than IP. Medium businesses with international tasks. Not the best option for social networks where a stable mobile IP matters.

Best choice for: international price monitoring and geo-tests with per-traffic payment.

Main advantage: a combination of a convenient free list and a large residential pool.

Overall rating: 6.6/10

  • Functionality: 8/10
  • Price: 6/10
  • Ease of use: 8/10
  • Technical support: 5/10
  • User reviews: 6/10

No. 5. Spys.one — A Veteran of Public Proxy Lists with Maximum Detail

General Information

Spys.one is one of the oldest public proxy aggregators, known since the mid-2000s. It's not a service in the usual sense but a table site with addresses collected by scanners. Specialization: the most detailed free proxy list with country, city, anonymity type, latency, uptime, and even provider indicated. Audience: technically savvy users who can filter and check addresses themselves.

Key Features

  • Thousands of addresses broken down by HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, SOCKS5 protocols.
  • Columns with latency, uptime percentage, last check date, SSL support.
  • Filter by country, port, anonymity level.
  • Separate pages by country and popular ports.
  • Display of addresses via an obfuscated script to hinder mass export.

Feature: detail. No other free proxy list shows so many parameters per address.

Pricing and Plans

Completely free, monetized via ads. Consequence: the site is overloaded with banners, and there is officially no API. No trial, no paid tiers. The price/quality ratio is formally infinite, but the actual working capacity of addresses in our checks did not exceed 10%, and the average response time of live addresses exceeded 3-5 seconds.

Pros

  • Rich statistics per address: uptime and latency help immediately weed out obviously dead proxies.
  • SOCKS5 support with a separate tab.
  • Long history and regular updates: the source doesn't disappear for years.
  • No registration required and no user data collected when browsing.
  • Useful for research tasks: for example, to see how open proxies are distributed by country.

Cons

  • Port obfuscation makes automatic export inconvenient; you have to write a parser for the site.
  • Addresses are public and overloaded, speed is low, bans on target sites are almost instant.
  • No support, no guarantees, no responsibility for node content.
  • Lots of ads, interface from the past decade.

Who It's For

Experienced developers for experiments, learning, and research. For business, it's unsuitable in any scenario involving accounts or payments due to the risk of traffic interception by an untrusted node.

Best choice for: manual analysis of public proxies with detailed statistics.

Main advantage: maximum detail of parameters per address.

Overall rating: 4.6/10

  • Functionality: 6/10
  • Price: 9/10
  • Ease of use: 4/10
  • Technical support: 1/10
  • User reviews: 3/10

No. 6. Free-Proxy-List.net — The Most Popular Public Proxy List

General Information

Free-Proxy-List.net is the most recognizable site when searching for "free proxy list." It belongs to a family of related projects (SSL Proxies, US Proxies, SOCKS Proxy) and has been operating since 2011. Specialization: a simple table of 300 addresses updated every 10 minutes, with a button to export to text format. Audience: beginners and anyone searching for proxies for the first time.

Key Features

  • A table of 300 addresses with columns: IP, port, country code, anonymity, Google support, HTTPS, check time.
  • List updates every 10 minutes.
  • A button to export the list to text view in one click.
  • Sorting and search within the table.
  • Related lists: HTTPS only, US only, SOCKS.

Feature: simplicity. No registrations, filters, or scripts; the list is open for copying, making it popular among authors of educational parsers.

Pricing and Plans

Free, monetized via ads and affiliate links to paid services. No paid tiers. Real working capacity in our checks: 5-12% of addresses responded within 10 seconds; within an hour the share dropped to 2-4%. The "Google" column in practice almost never matches reality; the search engine blocks these addresses after a few requests.

Pros

  • Maximally simple export: one click and the list is in the clipboard.
  • Frequent updates every 10 minutes.
  • Clear table without obfuscation, easy to parse with your own script.
  • Well documented by the community: code examples for this site are in any scraping tutorial.
  • Stable existence for over ten years.

Cons

  • Only 300 addresses, of which a handful are alive, and of the live ones almost all are on overloaded servers.
  • No SOCKS5 in the main list; the separate SOCKS list is small.
  • Complete lack of support and guarantees.
  • Addresses are known to all anti-fraud systems; useless for social networks and ads.

Who It's For

Beginners learning to work with proxies in code and wanting to understand how a checker works. Not suitable for business tasks. The only practical scenario: a quick one-off check of how a public page opens from another country, without entering any data.

Best choice for: educational projects on writing a proxy checker.

Main advantage: the simplest one-click access to the list.

Overall rating: 4.2/10

  • Functionality: 4/10
  • Price: 9/10
  • Ease of use: 6/10
  • Technical support: 1/10
  • User reviews: 3/10

No. 7. ProxyNova — A Public Proxy List with Real-Time Verification

General Information

ProxyNova is a public proxy aggregator known since the early 2010s. It differs from competitors by showing the verification result of each address in real time right on the page: speed, uptime, and last check time. Specialization: a free proxy list with sorting by country and speed. Audience: users who need to quickly find at least one working address for a specific country.

Key Features

  • A list of addresses with columns for speed, uptime, country, anonymity level.
  • Country pages with separate URLs, convenient for geo-based export.
  • Address verification on the service side with results displayed.
  • Sorting by speed and check time.
  • Online tools: checking your IP and headers.

Feature: visual speed indication helps immediately choose the fastest addresses without running your own checker.

Pricing and Plans

Free, ad-supported. No API, no paid tiers. Working capacity in our checks ranged from 5-15%, but thanks to speed sorting, live addresses were found faster than on Free-Proxy-List.net. Average latency of live addresses: 2-6 seconds.

Pros

  • Verification on the service side saves time on initial filtering.
  • Country pages simplify selection for the needed geo.
  • Clean interface with moderate advertising.
  • No registration required.
  • Long history and predictable page structure for parsing.

Cons

  • The list size is small, often less than a thousand addresses in total.
  • No SOCKS5, only HTTP and HTTPS.
  • No API and no support.
  • Like any public proxy list, addresses are overloaded and instantly restricted by platforms.

Who It's For

Those who need to view a public page from a specific country once, without authorization or data entry. For marketers, it's at best a quick way to see how a competitor's landing page looks in another region. Not suitable for systematic work.

Best choice for: one-off checks of public page display by geo.

Main advantage: visible speed and uptime of addresses right in the table.

Overall rating: 4.0/10

  • Functionality: 4/10
  • Price: 9/10
  • Ease of use: 6/10
  • Technical support: 1/10
  • User reviews: 3/10

No. 8. Proxy-List.download — A Minimalist Proxy List with Direct Links

General Information

Proxy-List.download is an aggregator that bets on automation: instead of a pretty table, it offers direct links to text files by protocol and a simple API with parameters. It appeared in the late 2010s. Specialization: raw lists for scripts. Audience: developers who need a minimal source for testing their own checker or rotator.

Key Features

  • Separate lists by protocol: HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, SOCKS5.
  • API with parameters for protocol type, country, and anonymity level.
  • Export in text form ready for use in code.
  • Regular updates, several times per hour.

Feature: no frills. One request and the list is obtained, without HTML parsing.

Pricing and Plans

Free, no registration. There are rate limits on API requests; aggressive export may cause temporary blocks. No paid tiers. Address working capacity in our checks was the lowest in the ranking: 3-8%, explained by the lack of pre-verification before publication.

Pros

  • Direct text links eliminate the need to write a page parser.
  • SOCKS5 support as a separate list.
  • Simple API with a country filter.
  • Fast updates.
  • Suitable as a test dataset for debugging your own proxy checkers.

Cons

  • The lowest share of live addresses among the sources reviewed.
  • No data on speed, uptime, or anonymity within the list; everything must be checked manually.
  • No support and no responsibility for content.
  • API rate limits are not transparently documented.

Who It's For

Developers writing tools for checking and rotating proxies who need a stream of raw addresses for debugging. Not suitable for any business tasks.

Best choice for: debugging your own proxy checkers and rotators.

Main advantage: direct links to text lists by protocol without HTML parsing.

Overall rating: 3.6/10

  • Functionality: 4/10
  • Price: 9/10
  • Ease of use: 5/10
  • Technical support: 1/10
  • User reviews: 2/10

Comparative Table of Proxy Sources

For clarity, let's summarize the key parameters of all eight ranking participants. The working capacity indicator is based on our control checks and reflects the share of addresses that responded within 10 seconds.

  • MobileProxy.space: type mobile private; protocols HTTP(S), SOCKS5; API yes; free tier test access on request; working capacity above 99%; IP trust high; support Russian-language, chat and Telegram; rating 8.7.
  • Webshare: type datacenter and residential; protocols HTTP(S), SOCKS5; API yes; free tier 10 proxies, 1 GB; working capacity about 99%; IP trust low for datacenter, medium for residential; support English tickets; rating 8.0.
  • ProxyScrape: type public list plus paid pools; protocols HTTP, SOCKS4, SOCKS5; API yes; free tier unlimited list; free list working capacity 10-20%; IP trust low; support paid clients only; rating 6.8.
  • Geonode: type public list plus residential and mobile pools; protocols HTTP(S), SOCKS; API yes; free tier list with filters; free list working capacity 5-15%; IP trust medium for paid; support English; rating 6.6.
  • Spys.one: type public list; protocols HTTP(S), SOCKS4, SOCKS5; API no; completely free; working capacity up to 10%; IP trust low; no support; rating 4.6.
  • Free-Proxy-List.net: type public list; protocols HTTP(S), SOCKS separately; API no; completely free; working capacity 5-12%; IP trust low; no support; rating 4.2.
  • ProxyNova: type public list; protocols HTTP(S); API no; completely free; working capacity 5-15%; IP trust low; no support; rating 4.0.
  • Proxy-List.download: type public list; protocols HTTP(S), SOCKS4, SOCKS5; API yes with limits; completely free; working capacity 3-8%; IP trust low; no support; rating 3.6.

The main takeaway from the table: the gap between a free proxy list and any private solution is measured not in percentages but in orders of magnitude. Even the most convenient public list yields at best every fifth working address, while a minimally paid or account-tied pool consistently works at almost 100%.

Alternatives Not Included in the TOP

Several services did not make the main ranking but deserve mention.

  • Proxy-Seller: sells dedicated IPv4, IPv6, and mobile proxies with broad geography and Russian-language support. Not included because it has no free tier and largely duplicates the ranking leader in the mobile segment. Worth considering if you need cheap dedicated IPv6 for parsing.
  • Bright Data: the largest residential pool in the world with advanced scraping tools. Not included due to high price, complex onboarding, and focus on corporate clients. Suitable for large businesses with budgets from hundreds of dollars per month.
  • PubProxy: a free public proxy API with hard daily request limits. Not included because it lags behind ProxyScrape in functionality and doesn't differ from other lists in working capacity. Good for educational tasks.

Selection Recommendations: What to Take Instead of a Public Proxy List

Best for beginners: Webshare. Free 10 proxies with login and password let you master setup in a browser, anti-detect browser, and code without cost or disappointment from dead addresses.

Best for professionals: MobileProxy.space. If your work involves accounts, ads, and marketplaces, the question isn't "how much does a proxy cost" but "how much does a lost account cost." A mobile channel with rotation covers this risk better than the rest.

Best value: for parsing insensitive sites, Webshare with datacenter packages; for international monitoring, Geonode with per-traffic payment. Public proxy lists are formally free but, when calculated per successful request, turn out more expensive due to time losses.

Best functionality among free options: ProxyScrape thanks to its API with filters and SOCKS5 support.

For small business: one or two MobileProxy.space mobile channels for accounts plus a free or cheap Webshare pool for parsing.

For medium business: a combination of mobile channels for sensitive platforms and a Geonode or ProxyScrape residential pool for volume data collection across geographies.

For large business: corporate-level pools like Bright Data for scraping and separate mobile channels for account work; eliminate public lists entirely for security reasons.

A separate recommendation for arbitrage specialists: don't test bundles on free proxies. Even if the address is alive, its history in anti-fraud systems will ruin the test result and you'll draw the wrong conclusion about the bundle itself.

FAQ: Common Questions About Proxy Lists and Alternatives

Why do most addresses in a free proxy list not work?

Because addresses are collected by scanners from open ports of others' servers. Owners close them, nodes crash under load, and thousands of people use one address simultaneously. Working capacity of 5-20% at download time is the norm, not a failure.

Is it safe to enter logins and passwords through a public proxy?

No. You don't know who owns the node and what they do with the traffic. For any actions with authorization, use only private proxies from a provider with a clear reputation and contract.

How do mobile proxies differ from addresses in a proxy list?

A mobile proxy provides an IP from a mobile carrier's pool, behind which are thousands of real subscribers, and platforms treat it favorably. Addresses from a public list are server IPs with a long history of abuse, already flagged by anti-fraud.

Are there free proxies that actually work?

Yes, but not public lists; rather, free tiers of paid services, such as 10 Webshare proxies. They are tied to your account and work stably, though they lag behind mobile in IP trust.

How much does a minimal working option for arbitrage cost?

One mobile channel with rotation for a month, roughly from a few dozen dollars depending on the country, plus, if needed, a cheap datacenter package for technical tasks.

How do I test a proxy list for working capacity?

Send a request to any IP detection service through each address with a 10-second timeout and compare the returned IP with the proxy address. Paid providers have built-in checkers; for free lists, you'll have to write your own script or use ProxyScrape with pre-verification.

What to choose for parsing: per-traffic or per-channel payment?

If traffic volume is predictable and small, per-gigabyte payment at Geonode or Webshare is more cost-effective. If you parse heavy pages in large volumes, renting a channel with unlimited traffic at MobileProxy.space or dedicated datacenter proxies will be cheaper.

Is SOCKS5 from a free list suitable for applications?

Technically yes, but practically such addresses work for minutes, not hours. Stable application operation requires a private SOCKS5 with authentication.

Is it legal to use public proxy lists?

The act of connecting to an open proxy is not prohibited, but you cannot be sure of the node's legality of origin. A responsible approach for business: work only with providers that officially own the infrastructure and provide terms of use.

Conclusion

A public proxy list remains the first thing a person finds when first encountering the task of changing IP. And almost always it becomes the first disappointment. Our checks confirmed: the share of live addresses in free lists rarely exceeds a fifth, and within an hour drops to single-digit percentages. For marketers, arbitrage specialists, and business owners, this means not savings but lost accounts, distorted tests, and the risk of data leakage through untrusted nodes.

The ranking showed that working alternatives exist at any budget. MobileProxy.space deservedly took first place as a tool for tasks where IP trust is decisive: social networks, ad accounts, marketplaces. Webshare filled the niche of a free and cheap start for developers. ProxyScrape and Geonode proved that a free list can be a convenient entry point if there's a paid pool nearby for real work. Classic aggregators Spys.one, Free-Proxy-List.net, ProxyNova, and Proxy-List.download retain value only for learning and research.

The trends of 2024-2025 are unambiguous. Platform anti-fraud systems are increasingly accurately detecting server and overloaded addresses, so the value of mobile and quality residential IPs is growing. Providers are moving from selling "lists" to selling managed channels with API, rotation, and statistics. Public proxy lists are not disappearing but are finally turning into educational material and a data source for checkers. In the coming years, we should expect further growth in demand for mobile proxies with operator choice, more flexible payment models, and stricter platform requirements for IP origin transparency. If your task involves money, accounts, or reputation, it's better to leave the free proxy list for experiments and build working processes on private infrastructure.