The first thing you will notice when you are searching for free proxies is that you are always reminded that you should never use free proxies. You can find these warnings on almost every corner and hardly anything contradicting this view.
Yet, you might wonder how it happens that some big companies that provide proxies are offering some of it for free. Are those unreliable too and should never be used? That’s what we are going to discuss today.
Paid proxies versus free
If you can afford to pay for proxies, you should do that. There is no question about that. You will get a better-quality service with more features and customer support that will help you make sure of uninterrupted work that overcomes any issues if there are any to occur.
In most cases, you should avoid using free proxies.
After all, these myriads of warnings are not baseless. Most free proxies are unsafe and are just there to steal your data, pollute your browsing with malware, or make use of you without giving you anything valuable in return.
However, this rationale for avoiding free proxies is not applicable in cases when a big name among proxy providers offers some sort of their services free of charge.
If they would harm you the same way unsafe free proxies do, the harm inflicted upon themselves would be even more detrimental. Their reputation would be compromised, along with their potential customers blacklisting this company as something not to have any business with.
Therefore, using free proxies from a company that is a profit-making proxy provider is worth considering. And if you want to get free proxies without compromising your data or losing anything else, that’s the only viable option.
Indications of trustworthy providers
Before deciding whether to use a free proxy from a certain provider, you must make sure that this provider is reliable.
The first indication that a provider is trustworthy is their reputation. It can be gained only by selling high-quality proxies that make their users satisfied with the service. You need to pay attention to what services the provider is offering and are these valued among different users.
Only providers that sell paid services are to be trusted. So, use free proxies only from providers that have other paid services as well.
Two basic ways to identify that are by reading reviews by the users and reading the articles where this provider is mentioned. Of course, you must bear in mind that competitors might exaggerate things a little bit and misrepresent the whole situation in the market and what can be found there, but it can be a good indicator in general.
Noteworthy features of free proxies
You should never trust proxy providers if they offer you a free service with unlimited features. If something feels off and the offer seems too good, probably that’s because something is certainly wrong there.
First, you must ascertain that only a limited number of proxies are given, and you will be able to use them for a while. That’s the only way to get a reliable free proxy. If you get an unlimited number of GBs or unlimited threads, you can be sure that you will get taken advantage of.
Most free proxies don’t provide good encryption. Or they don’t provide any at all. That’s also one of the key features that you must look for. If proxies don’t provide you with any safety, why use them at all? It’s another reason why only big names are to be trusted because they will not engage in dubious services that will only have mutual damage.
Again, most free proxies are keen to make use of you. Therefore, they modify your browsing by inserting certain ads, and changing JavaScript or HTTPS. It makes you more vulnerable to various malware and your browsing is stuffed with unwanted content.
You need a free proxy that doesn’t make any such modifications. You can trust big companies that they won’t do that, but you should always take a thorough look at the free proxy before deciding to use it.
Why are there reliable free proxies?
Proxy providers must make money one way or the other. If a company is selling paid proxies, why would it also offer free proxies and put the effort into ensuring their safety? So that they would get more future customers.
Providing free proxies for limited use is a good way to advertise their product. If you can see that the service is useful, reliable, and comfortable to use, when you are out of a free pass, you will most likely consider whether you should sign for retrieving the service for the money if the product seems worth it.
A good reputation is not only a key indicator of a trustworthy provider, but this free service can also boost the reputation and enlarge the base of people who are aware of it.
Free service lets more people that are not willing to pay money at first get familiar with the product and its quality. Sure, that helps to build future customers, but more importantly, it creates a new domain for their product where people can use it for free and end their collaboration after the free deal is over. That makes the company look better in everyone’s eyes.
Especially if it’s hard to compete with the best proxy providers for paid services, it’s way easier to get a good name among free proxy providers since most of them are bad and do a lot of harm to their users. A provider of a free proxy that doesn’t do anything bad and gives good quality of their product will distinguish itself to the extent that it will certainly pay off.
Final thoughts
Free proxies are to be avoided in most cases. Unless you can find a trustworthy provider that also has paid services as its main source of income. Good encryption and no additional modification are a must if you want to get anything from a free proxy.
