A Socks proxy is proxy that can be used for all activities. You can use socks proxy to load websites, connect to various software applications, transfer and send files, chat online, play online games, and much more. These proxies are frequently used in browsers and software applications (and mobile applications). A SOCKS proxy does not work with the network traffic between client and server in any way, and a socks proxy is more often used when you are behind a firewall that won't allow TCP connections unless you are on a socks proxy.

An HTTP proxy is somewhat similar to socks in that it can be used for the same purpose as a socks proxy. However, the HTTP proxy can work with traffic happening on the HTTP protocol only. If traffic isn't going to be happening through the HTTP protocol, it is more recommended to stick with the more versatile socks protocol. Internet service providers will frequently route all traffic through port 80, which is common for an HTTP Proxy. Be sure to find out what kind of proxy your application requires, as there is different kinds of proxies.

Many programs (such as Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Skype, and IRC clients) and Android and iOS operating systems support socks proxies. When you setup the socks proxies in the program or settings, the proxy will mask all of the traffic through that IP. The proxy IP takes place of your real IP in the data transferring, thusly keeping your true IP safe. We recommend using Private Socks Proxies for the fastest, most stable anonymization.

The simple logic is that Socks5 (Socks version 5) supports UDP, name resolution, and authentication (such as by username and password) while Socks4 does not support any of that. In most cases of private proxies, socks5 is more popular. In terms of free public proxy servers, you will find both are available. We recommend using Socks5 when possible.

All proxies on the list are transparent, anonymous, or elite anonymous. Transparent proxies can possibly leak your real IP whereas anonymous proxies and elite anonymous proxies are a bit more safer to use.

For each proxy on the list, we give a speed indicator based on our test rules. A full green bar indicates these are the fastest proxies on the list. An orange bar means they are good speed. A red bar means they are a slower proxy than our tested average speed. You can also use a proxy checker to check the speed as well. If you want the fastest private proxies that are stable, then use our private proxies for both socks and http(s) proxies.