Comparison of paid and free proxy servers

Advantages and disadvantages between paid and free proxy servers.

Why are proxies used? Mostly, to separate requests in professional SEO, SMM, and other tools, ensuring parallel processing. In this article, we will look at which proxies are most suitable for these purposes - paid or free.

Proxy servers are able to bypass geographical restrictions and perform specific functions, such as traffic cleaning and compression, as well as load balancing. However, to do this, you need to rent a full-fledged web server and configure the appropriate software on it, creating your own proxy server. This process requires experience and competence, and it is focused on a narrow specialisation.

In summary, proxy servers are best suited for business-related tasks, such as collecting data on competitors, tracking positions in search results, analysing prices, checking the effectiveness of advertising, and similar operations.

Choosing the right proxy server is an important decision because there are both paid and free options available on the market. The decision depends on your specific needs and budget. In business, it is really important to manage resources efficiently, and the money saved can be invested in development.

Let's take a closer look at the differences between free and premium proxies. Let's start with free options.

Free proxies

Free proxies are widespread and not uncommon. They can be of different types. For example, such proxies can be included in software to extend its functionality, or they can be responsible for providing access (and at the same time implementing traffic balancing) to specific services/websites, etc.

However, such free proxies cannot be used to solve your personal tasks, especially if they relate to commercial activities.

If you put it this way, there will be not so many free proxies, mostly general server proxies. It will be extremely difficult to find free resident proxies, let alone mobile proxies. However, the latter are the most reliable and convenient for parsing or other tasks related to mass requests.

Another option for free proxies is a demo version or a special marketing offer from a paid service. However, in this case, proxies will be provided with various restrictions: either the list of addresses will be very small, or proxies will be issued for a short time.

Advantages of free proxies

• The main and most prominent advantage of free proxies is that they are free. Without investing in a rental, you can save money, and this fact is easy to understand, so there is no point in arguing about it.
• Free proxies also have the advantage of being easy to replace. With a large list of free proxies, you can easily switch between them, even for each individual request, and their availability makes this process easier. However, the main challenge is to find a list that is so large that it meets all your needs without restrictions.
• Just like with their paid counterparts, free proxies allow you to find options from the right geographical locations. There are even specialised services that provide a filtered list of free proxies based on geography and server type (SOCKS, HTTP, HTTPS, anonymous, etc.).
• Free proxies can also serve as a trial version of paid services, allowing you to evaluate the quality, functionality, and reliability of the proxy before making a payment.

Disadvantages of free proxies

• Free proxy servers that work fast seem like something unattainable and often turn out to be more of a myth. Their widespread use by many users looking for convenience without the cost leads to a rapid decrease in bandwidth as resources are shared among everyone. As a result, the use of such proxies becomes almost impossible. To continue working, you either have to look for a new free address or wait for the influx of users to subside, which can take a long time, and time in business is also money. If you decide not to look for a proxy yourself, you may have to pay for the services of a specialist.
• Connections with free proxies are usually unstable. Even if the proxy was working correctly a few minutes ago, it may be overloaded or inactive now. The long-term performance of a particular proxy server is difficult to predict.
• Most free proxies are server-based, and their IP addresses can easily be detected by anti-fraud systems and blocked as suspicious. This can lead to additional delays due to cracking the captcha or waiting for the block to be lifted.
• The level of privacy when using free proxies is very low and cannot be verified. Even if a proxy is anonymous, this does not guarantee that the proxy provider does not log your requests and does not sell your personal information to third parties.
• No one makes any guarantees about the performance, throughput or security of free proxies. They are always provided "as is" and there are risks involved in using them.

Conclusion.

Free proxies may be suitable only for certain types of tasks that do not require the transmission of important and confidential information. In this case, it is important to have access to a sufficient number of free IP addresses, conveniently sorted by their type and traffic.

However, the availability of such proxies is always a problem. With a large number of people wishing to use free proxies, the channels can quickly become overloaded, and the proxies can fail. The time spent searching for new address lists can sometimes be higher than the cost of paid proxies.

Paid proxies

When financial relations between the parties arise, additional obligations and guarantees also arise: formal agreements, setting service quality standards (SLAs),etc.

The choice of paid proxy servers offers much more options than free alternatives. There is a wide range and variety of proxy types available, which can be created specifically for specific business tasks.

For example, you can rent IP addresses in the required geographical locations and use all traffic exclusively for your own needs, without sharing it with other users.

Among the most convenient options for business tasks are resident and mobile proxies. They allow you to efficiently manage tasks such as running snacker bots or launching multiple accounts on social media such as Instagram.

Advantages of paid proxies

• In many cases, when you use paid proxy servers, you do not share an Internet channel with other users (except for paid shared proxies). This ensures a stable and unloaded Internet channel without any restrictions. The speed of paid proxies can reach an impressive 100 Mbps or even 1 Gbps, depending on the characteristics of the endpoint equipment and the route.
• Paid proxy providers usually provide official guarantees of service availability and quality. If something does not work properly, the client can contact technical support. Specialists can take measures to fix the problem, replace the problematic proxy, or refund the money in case of poor service.
• Paid proxy providers do not sell their client data to third parties, which ensures a higher level of security and confidentiality. However, it should be remembered that proxies cannot completely exclude or erase your confidential information from the data stream.
• When renting resident and mobile proxies, you can expect a wider range of functionalities: the ability to filter addresses in detail by geographic parameters (even down to the choice of city and telecom provider),automatic or manual IP address rotation, convenient data download in the required format, access to APIs, and other features.

Disadvantages of paid proxies

• One of the main differences between paid proxies is that they require payment. At the same time, the price of the service largely depends on the quality of the service and the demand for the service. For example, proxies are often priced by the volume of traffic transmitted, which can significantly affect the budget.
• It is important to note that even the most anonymous proxies are not able to hide traffic. This task is solved only with the use of encrypted tunnels, which is available in VPN services, but they are not always suitable for mass tasks.
• The technical features strongly depend on the type of proxy, and whether they are paid or free does not always affect the solution of these problems. For example, you cannot increase the speed of mobile proxies. These types of proxies have a short life cycle.
• In addition, if the operator does not have a proxy in a particular location, it will not expand the geography solely at your request. Network development is a process that is certainly progressing, but it does not always immediately meet all the requirements and wishes of users.

Conclusion.

Of course, the operation of paid proxy servers is subject to various technical aspects, but it is important to note that in this case, the client receives official guarantees and high quality of service.

For the effective performance of business tasks, elements such as technical support, a convenient personal account, access to APIs, clear technical documentation, and a diverse selection/assortment of proxies are also important. All of these aspects are available only with premium proxies, making them the best choice for business tasks.

Stableproxy offers mobile and resident proxies for rent. They are better than other types of proxies for parsing, SEO and SMM tasks.

We have datacentre proxies, which can be regular and private with different tariff packages and countries, with a large resident pool of countries.

Only resident and mobile ones are best suited for SMM and CEO.