HotProxyList — best free proxy servers

A proxy server works as a boundary wall between you and the websites you visit. When a network or server administrator blocks selected sites, you can still open them without installing any extra software. You type the address of a blocked site into a proxy, your computer sends the request to the proxy server, and that server — on which the proxy is hosted — fetches the page from the website you wanted and passes it back to you.

People benefit from proxies in different ways. First, you get access to your favourite sites even when they are filtered. Second, you can browse the web anonymously — and anonymity matters in today's world. Suppose you live in a European country and open a website through a proxy located in the USA: the site owner never sees your real details such as your IP address or location. The only IP he gets is the one of the server hosting that proxy.

A proxy is a very useful thing for anyone who wants to keep their privacy online. HotProxyList.info provides you with a daily-updated list of fresh, working HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS proxies — every entry is an IP:port we verify before it goes on the list, with country and protocol type.

Types of proxy on this list

Not every proxy is the same, and the right one depends on the job:

• HTTP — the classic web proxy. Great for browsing, simple scraping and unblocking pages over plain HTTP. It only understands web traffic.
• HTTPS (also called SSL or CONNECT) — tunnels encrypted traffic, so it works with secure https:// sites and keeps the payload private between you and the destination.
• SOCKS4 — a lower-level proxy that forwards any TCP connection, not just web traffic. Handy for apps beyond the browser, though it has no authentication and no UDP.
• SOCKS5 — the most flexible: TCP and UDP, authentication, and works with almost any protocol (browsers, torrents, game clients, custom tools). Usually the best pick when a site or app is picky.

Anonymity levels explained

The list also shows how much a proxy hides about you:

• Elite (high-anonymity) — hides your IP and does not reveal that a proxy is in use. The most private of the public options.
• Anonymous — hides your real IP but a site can tell you are on a proxy.
• Transparent — forwards your real IP in the headers; fine for caching or geo-tests, not for privacy.

What people use free proxies for

Common uses are web scraping and price monitoring, checking how a site looks from another country, light SEO rank tracking, accessing region-blocked content, app and bot testing, and simply learning how proxies and networking work. They are perfect for short, throwaway tasks. For anything that must run for hours without interruption — large crawls, account automation, ad verification — a managed residential or mobile pool is the realistic choice, because public proxies are shared and short-lived by definition.

How to use a proxy from this list

Pick an IP:port that matches the type you need, copy it (just click the row in the live list), and paste it into your browser's proxy settings, your scraper's configuration, or any tool that accepts a proxy. Set the protocol to match the Type column (HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS4/SOCKS5). Always test the proxy first, and never send passwords or other sensitive data through a public proxy you do not control.