The proxy market is growing daily since proxy services are used for many various reasons and have great importance in the business world — for business to grow and to always have the necessary knowledge on where the market is going. Because of that, we can find free proxy services and the paid ones that offer you high-quality proxies from all over the world that you can use for web scraping, working on social marketing, retailing, etc. The only thing is that usually, people know just plain basics about proxies and what it is.
Through this article, I will try to explain what kind of proxies exist and for what reasons they can be used.

Most useful types of proxies

Most of you know that residential proxies and datacenter proxies exist. These titles are commonly used by many and reveal the main difference between these two kinds. All other proxy types are just some types of proxies that belong to one or other kind. But what are those types?

Anonymous Proxy
The anonymous proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server but does not make the original IP address available. An anonymous proxy server is detectable but provides reasonable anonymity for most users.
Anonymous proxies forward connection requests without any information about the client. This means that an anonymous proxy connects to the target server as if it was doing it on its own. It is the proxy type that will most reliably hide your IP and location. You could use an anonymous residential or an anonymous datacenter proxy. The term ‘anonymous’ will show the way your proxy server mediates a connection request.

Reverse Proxy
A reverse proxy is tech­ni­cally defined as being a proxy server, how­ever it does not enforce any local poli­cies. Reverse proxies are com­monly used to pass requests through the Inter­net, through a fire­wall iso­lated by pri­vate net­works. Reverse proxy servers are used to pre­vent Inter­net clients from hav­ing direct, un-mon­i­tored access to sen­si­tive data resid­ing on con­tent on iso­late servers.

Transparent Proxy
Transparent proxy servers are proxies that authenticate you on public Wi-Fi networks, work networks, and any other servers. A transparent proxy server tells the remote computer the IP address of your computer. This provides no privacy. These are generally used for their ability to cache websites and do not effectively provide any anonymity to those who use them. However, the use of a transparent proxy will get you around simple IP bans. Although this type of proxy server has its shortcomings, transparent proxies are very widely used today. Transparent proxies do not provide any privacy or change your IP, as it forwards the whole connection request to servers you want to connect to.

Socks Proxy
Depending on SOCKS protocols, a socks proxy server is a newer protocol that allows relaying of far more different types of data, whether.
SOCKS really stands for SOCKets and is different than a normal proxy since it is considered to be an application. When you compare a SOCKS proxy to an HTTP proxy, the HTTP proxy handles the request you send to access content on the Internet. On the other hand, when you contact a SOCKS proxy server the connection is established through the exchange of messages which establishes the proxy connection.
In order to use a SOCKS proxy, your PC must have the capability to handle SOCKS protocol plus it is necessary to operate and maintain a SOCKS server. SOCKS technology was originally developed to access the Internet and its main features are the ability to bypass default routing on a LAN (Local Area Network) or internal network plus, it can provide authentication for protocols that you would otherwise be unable to access.

HTTP Proxy Server
An HTTP proxy provides for the caching of web pages and files which allows you to access them faster. Most browsers utilize an HTTP proxy to cache websites you frequently visit so you can quickly access them without having to completely download the page all over again.
The downside of an HTTP in some instances is that the cache can build up which slows down your browsing activity. To get around this you must send instructions to clear the cache to speed up your browsing activity. Additionally, an HTTP proxy is capable of filtering content from web pages and reformatting pages to suit the device you are using to access the page.

FTP Proxy Server
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is used in many different applications where you are uploading data to a server. A prime example of how FTP works are when you are building a website. In order to make the website visible to the world, you must make a connection with the server space you reserved and then upload the website folders to the server to make the site live on the Internet.
An FTP proxy server in advanced mode will offer enhanced security for uploading files to another server. The server typically offers a cache function and encryption methods which make the transmission process secure and safe from hackers. In addition to relaying traffic in a safe environment, an FTP server keeps track of all FTP traffic.

Proxy service providers in 2020

Not every proxy service provider can offer you all the types of proxies, this is why I did some research to find the most reliable proxy providers in the market at the moment and review their services. Here are my top suggestions:

Smartproxy — this is one of the well-known brands in the proxy market. Smartproxy can offer you more than 10 million IPs from all over the world and have all types of proxies to offer for any of the use cases — would it be market research, working with automatic services for social networks, SEO matters, ad verification or something else. Smartproxy has 4 different plans for their services and if you’ll use coupon SMARTPRO you can get a 20% discount for your first purchase.

Luminati — the provider that can offer you more than 40 million IPs. This provider can offer you residential, datacenter and mobile proxies. Luminati services are reliable and highly appreciated by those who used it at least once. But despite many features that Luminati holds, this is one of the most expensive proxy providers out there — their cheapest proxy plan starts with $500 so that might not be affordable for private users or small businesses.

Flipnode — they are providing you a backconnect proxies that are safe to use and rarely get banned or blocked from the websites. This provider has a big pool of IPs and you’re charged for the number of IP ports used. The starting price for 10 proxy ports is $225 per month.