A free proxy, a VPN and a residential proxy all change the address a website sees. They differ in what else they cover, and in who stands in the middle. NIST describes a VPN as "A virtual network built on top of existing networks that can provide a secure communications mechanism for data and IP information transmitted between networks." A proxy relays the traffic of the programs that use it. An ordinary HTTP proxy carries https:// sites without opening them; in Chromium's words, "HTTP proxies can proxy http:// , https:// , ws:// and wss:// URLs."
We read NIST, Chromium's documentation, three peer-reviewed measurements and five other guides on October 13, 2026, from our server, and add our own measurement of free proxies from September 28, 2026. We used no proxy or VPN for this page.
What a free proxy is (and what it hides)
A proxy is a middleman server. Your program sends a request to the proxy, the proxy forwards it, and the website sees the proxy's address instead of yours. A free proxy is one that someone runs at no charge, usually posted on a public list, so you rarely know who that someone is.
What the operator can see depends on the site. Chromium's documentation is direct: "Communication to HTTP proxy servers is insecure, meaning proxied http:// requests are sent in the clear." An https:// site stays encrypted between you and the site, and the operator still learns which site you visited.
Measurements of free proxies are not kind. A 2018 study of more than 107,000 listed open proxies found "more than 92% of open proxies that appear on aggregator sites are unresponsive to proxy requests". Among the rest it found pages "manipulated to mine cryptocurrency" and TLS man-in-the-middle attacks. Another 2018 study, presented at NDSS, watched open HTTP proxies for two months: 38% modified content in some way, and "5.15% of the tested proxies were found to perform modification or injection that can be considered as malicious or unwanted". Of those, 47% injected ads, 39% injected tracking code and 12% redirected users to malware.
Our own pool tells the same story. On September 28, 2026, 925 of 3,870 working free web proxies on ordinary addresses passed the user's own address on to the website, and 1,708 opened no HTTPS tunnel at all. An older test of 443 free proxies, from 2015, found "Only 21% proxies were allowing HTTPS traffic". Our page on whether free proxies are safe has the full measurement, including the fake certificates.
What a VPN is (and what it hides)
A VPN carries every program's traffic on a device through a tunnel to a VPN server. NIST's glossary gives a second definition: a network "constructed from the system resources of a physical network by using encryption and/or by tunneling links of the virtual network across the real network". That definition allows a tunnel without encryption. Modern protocols are built to encrypt; WireGuard, for one, describes itself as "an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography".
With an encrypted tunnel, your internet provider and anyone on your Wi-Fi see only encrypted data going to the VPN server, and websites see the server's address. The VPN company sees everything instead, so its logging and its track record decide the privacy you get.
Free VPN apps were measured too. A 2016 study, presented at the Internet Measurement Conference, examined 283 Android apps using the VPN permission. Over 38% contained some malware presence according to VirusTotal. 18% implemented tunneling protocols without encryption despite promising anonymity and security. About 84% did not tunnel IPv6 traffic and 66% did not tunnel DNS. And 16% may have forwarded traffic through other users' devices.
What a residential proxy is (and what it hides)
A residential proxy relays your requests from an address that an internet provider assigned to a home connection. Like any proxy, it changes the address a website sees and adds no encryption layer of its own, so your https:// traffic stays protected by the site's TLS and your plain http:// traffic does not. It is paid, from a provider you can name, which makes it the opposite of a free list on the question of who stands in the middle. For where the addresses come from, see what is a residential proxy.
At a glance
What each one covers
| Tool | Covers | Encrypts first hop |
|---|---|---|
| Free proxy | One program | No |
| VPN | The whole device | In most apps |
| Residential proxy | One program | No |
NIST, Chromium's proxy documentation and the IMC 2016 study, read October 13, 2026
Who stands in the middle, and what it costs
| Tool | Who runs it | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free proxy | Usually unknown | Nothing |
| VPN | One company | Free or paid |
| Residential proxy | A named provider | Per gigabyte |
HProxy, October 13, 2026
Which one should you use?
Match the tool to the job.
A VPN fits privacy on networks you do not control: public Wi-Fi, a hotel network, or keeping your own internet provider out of your browsing. Pick one whose app encrypts its tunnel and whose company you can name.
A free proxy fits a quick, low-stakes look at a public page, where a dropped connection or a curious operator costs you nothing. Never a login, a payment or a form with your name in it. Our page on when free proxies are fine maps the cases.
A residential proxy fits business work on the public web from a given country, such as checking how your own ads or prices appear to visitors there. Accounts are another matter: each platform sets its own limits, and GitHub's terms, for one, say "One person or legal entity may maintain no more than one free Account". This page gives no way around such rules.
For privacy as such, the wider comparison is proxy vs VPN vs Tor, which sorts the three by whom you have to trust.
What other guides get wrong
- Panda Security writes that proxies leave "your data unencrypted". Data to an https:// site stays encrypted through a proxy, and the 2016 study found 18% of free VPN apps tunneling without encryption, so the line runs between tools you can check and tools you cannot.
- Norton says proxies "lack encryption and robust security protocols", while "VPNs provide both", and that "Free proxies often log user activity". It cites no measurement for either.
- TechRadar warns that HTTPS support "should not be assumed or relied upon". For free lists that holds: 1,708 of 3,870 free web proxies in our pool opened no HTTPS tunnel. For proxies in general, Chromium documents HTTPS through any HTTP proxy.
- Wave Browser says a proxy "keeps your online actions safe from others". The measured open proxies injected ads, tracking code and malware redirects, which is the opposite.
- VPNAlert tells readers in Australia to "connect to a US proxy server" to watch US Netflix. That is a route around a service's licensing, and it gives no word on the service's own rules.
Where HProxy fits
We run a free proxy list and sell paid proxies, so both sides of this page are ours. The free proxy list re-checks its entries every few minutes; use it for public pages only. Our residential proxies cost $0.44 per GB, from a provider you can name and pay by the gigabyte. The proxy checker tests any proxy before you rely on it.
What we could not find out
- How today's free VPN apps compare with those of 2016. We read no newer study.
- What any named VPN logs. Its own policy is the only source, and we read none for this page.
- How often people search for VPN comparisons. Keyword Planner returned no figure for any VPN phrase we asked.
Our next check of these figures is due by April 13, 2027.
Sources
Every page below was read on October 13, 2026, from our server.
- NIST: virtual private network (VPN), CSRC glossary.
- Chromium: Proxy support in Chrome.
- An Extensive Evaluation of the Internet's Open Proxies, Georgetown University, ACSAC 2018.
- A Large-scale Analysis of Content Modification by Open HTTP Proxies, NDSS 2018.
- An Analysis of the Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps, Internet Measurement Conference 2016.
- Analyzing 443 free proxies (June 2015).
- WireGuard: project page.
- GitHub: Terms of Service (effective April 27, 2026).
- HProxy: are free proxies safe, our pool measurement of September 28, 2026.
- Google Keyword Planner: "free proxy", 368,000 searches a month worldwide, pulled October 13, 2026.
- Guides we judged, read the same day and deliberately left unlinked: Panda Security, Norton, TechRadar, Wave Browser and VPNAlert.
