Best Web Proxies for Safer and Anonymous Surfing

Privacy is increasingly demanded in the context of global society. Contributing to this are the notorious cases of massive infiltration and security breaches that have ended up filtering users' private data. But there is also a widespread suspicion that someone is "watching" everything we do. For that reason, the use of tools such as VPN or proxy has grown. Here we explain what they are for and which are the best free proxies in 2020.

What is a proxy server?

A proxy server acts as a gateway between you and the internet. It’s an intermediary server separating end users from the websites they browse. Proxy servers provide varying levels of functionality, security, and privacy depending on your use case, needs, or company policy.

If a person requests to visit a web page, he or she will do so through a request to the proxy server. The proxy server will move the request to the destination website, which will not be known by the user who actually requested it.

The advantages of using a proxy lie in the anonymity of the users since, if they all identify themselves as one, it is difficult for the destination server or web site to differentiate them. However, not everything is an advantage since, unlike VPNs, a proxy hides the original IP, but does not encrypt our connection.

Differences between VPN and Proxy

A proxy acts as a mere intermediary between the user and an application, web or service (your server), but does not change anything else in the connection. It does not encrypt the connection or its content, hiding only the original IP.

A VPN is a more complete solution that protects our connection by encrypting its content, but also hides the IP. It allows us to bypass geographic blocking or access portals blocked by our operator. This is the recommendation when using a public WiFi.

We must know very well what we want to do in order to choose one solution or another. If we simply want to hide our IP quickly and cheaply (free with the proxies in this article) a proxy server will suffice. If, on the other hand, we want a solution for security, privacy and anonymity, we will have no choice but to opt for a VPN.

Best free proxy for anonymous surfing

Once we know the differences, it's time to find out the best free proxies for anonymous Internet browsing. As we have said, they are online solutions that allow us to hide our IP, but they are not real answers to a completely untraceable navigation.

ProxySite

A free web proxy that advertises itself as offering maximum speed and security with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. In addition, its website does not offer any type of advertising and even has direct access to the most famous portals such as YouTube or Facebook. In a drop-down list we can choose 15 servers in the United States and 10 in the European Union.

KProxy

Another free alternative that even has a portable browser that we can use from any computer without installation. This proxy has a Chrome and Firefox extension, besides allowing to choose between ten different proxy servers. It has a paid pro version with more speed and without advertising.

Hidester

It allows you to select a server in Europe or in the USA, in addition to being able to allow or disable cookies, encrypt the URL and other functions. It has an exstension for Google Chrome and 128-bit SSL encryption.

Hide My Ass

One of the best known has servers in the United States, Germany, Holland, London or the Czech Republic. Its options include the ability to encrypt URLs, disable cookies or delete scripts.

Hide Me

Free proxy with a good reputation offering three servers in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States, in addition to the usual options. It even offers us the possibility to download your VPN for free.

Proxy Free

This free proxy stands out for giving us the intermediate server latency, something that will help us choose one or the other. We can allow cookies, remove page headers and much more.

VPN Book

Servers in the UK, USA, Canada and France along with 256-bit SSL encryption.

Filter

Proxy server that advertises for YouTube, although we can use it with more services. Unlike others, it does not allow to choose the server, but it does allow to activate or deactivate certain options.

Hideoxy

A free proxy without too many options, to say the least. It can be a backup option if we've had problems with more comprehensive ones.

Anonymouse

Good solution for the anonymity that has been active since 1997. Despite this, we have to skip a series of steps to get to the free version which, on top of everything else, does not allow either to choose a server or to customize anything.

Fast USA

A web proxy server with a somewhat dark and gloomy look, but with options to encrypt the URL or allow cookies. We can't choose a server.

Site2

Simple proxy and no options for anonymous access, although it does not work sometimes.

NNTime

Free proxy with paid version of $3.43 per month. It offers us a huge list of servers with a lot of information about them.

Yellow

It allows you to encrypt URLs, encrypt landing page, remove scripts, allow cookies and more. It has shortcuts to popular services.

4everproxy

Many web servers and many options to choose an IP from different countries, in addition to the traditional options to allow cookies or remove scripts.

CroxyProxy

With web version or also extension for Chrome. It offers shortcuts to the most visited portals, but lacks advanced options or the possibility to change the server.

Whoer

It only offers extensions for the major browsers and no web version. The extension for Google Chrome has been rated more than 4 stars (out of 5) by 38 users and has been downloaded by more than 13,000 users.

Netmap Anonymizer

Servers in Holland, Italy and the United States, in addition to allowing you to change the navigation agent, something that we have not seen in many of the other alternatives that we propose.

Zalmos

Clean and neat appearance for a web proxy without too many options, but with direct access to the most visited pages on the planet.

Which of these free proxies do you use? Do you know or use other solutions for Internet anonymity?

Leave us a comment with everything you want to tell us below.

Silvia Mazzetta

Web Developer, Blogger, Creative Thinker, Social media enthusiast, Italian expat in Spain, mom of little 9 years old geek, founder of  @manoweb. A strong conceptual and creative thinker who has a keen interest in all things relate to the Internet. A technically savvy web developer, who has multiple  years of website design expertise behind her.  She turns conceptual ideas into highly creative visual digital products.