In an ideal world, browsing the web would be one straight shot from point A to point B, but unfortunately things don't work that way. A geographic restriction here, a blocked IP there, or simply the desire for privacy can throw obstacles into any session. That's when the concept of a proxy comes to the rescue—a "man in the middle" that processes requests between clients and servers. The web offers a healthy selection of these tools with different features, but today we're going to pick out six of the best free proxies.
Free proxies: More useful than they seem
I imagine this has happened to you more than once: you try to access a page only to discover it's not available in your country, or it uses features with meaningless geographic restrictions. Another possibility is dodging an ISP block that forbids visits to specific portals, and we can't forget the ever-desired privacy. HTTPS may encrypt our connections, but your assigned IP number is always exposed.
A free proxy can be enough to fix those situations. Obviously, they're not perfect, and sometimes they cause more problems than they solve, breaking sites completely or drowning the user in a sea of errors. The direct alternative is VPN services, but those require an additional investment. If you don't know where to start, don't worry: among the best free proxies on the web, today we've chosen these six:
HMA (Hide My Ass)
Hide My Ass began its journey in 2005, but it was in 2016 that it passed into the hands of Avast. The company now prioritizes its VPN, but the free proxy service hasn't gone anywhere, with servers available in five countries (United States, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Czech Republic), and advanced options that encrypt the URL, disable cookies, and remove scripts. Being one of the most well-known also makes it one of the most resisted by certain services, and the company warns that it collects some data.
KProxy
One of the main features of KProxy is the availability of extensions compatible with Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox, designed to improve integration, or as a secondary option, we can download its portable browser. KProxy's public servers total ten, but they don't report their geographic location on the website, and you'll have to use one of the extensions if you want more precise control in that regard.
Hidester
One of the simplest on this list, Hidester enables two servers, one in the United States (with optimizations for China, though in some cases it sent us to Canada), and the other European (which usually prioritizes France and Belgium). The advanced options go a bit further compared to HMA: encrypt URL, disable cookies, remove scripts, and block object loading.
(Editor's note: The official page offers a Chrome extension but it's not available, and the service isn't working well at the time of writing, with multiple 429 errors.)
FilterBypass
FilterBypass deserves a spot on this list for one reason: it's one of the few that makes YouTube work to a certain extent: the lack of JavaScript breaks the site, but it manages to serve the videos anyway. While other proxies usually fail midway through loading or never display the videos, FilterBypass does a good job. This support also extends to Facebook and Twitter (in mobile versions), and it has advanced options similar to Hidester.
ProxySite
Our selection continues with ProxySite, which offers a total of 17 servers in the United States and 18 in the European Union. It has several shortcuts for services like Imgur and Facebook, though not all of them are working well (there are 429 errors on Google, and YouTube repeatedly says the browser is incompatible). Still, you should definitely add it to your list of free proxies and visit it in case the others fail.
Hide.me
Hide.me promotes its VPN service above everything, but the free proxy is one of the most pleasant to use, regardless of its limited server selection (three in total: Netherlands, Germany, and Finland). Besides removing scripts and objects, it can also encrypt the URL and page content, and gives us the option to permit cookies or not.
The best free proxies: In summary
As you might imagine, even the best free proxies must play an eternal game of chess with the major services on the web. Google throws up many obstacles, and loading YouTube with the traditional cleaning of a proxy is almost impossible… but only "almost". Our recommendation is to explore each entry we've mentioned here; however, our comments are also open if you'd like to recommend another option. Good luck!
