Did you know that there were over 4,000 security breaches in 2021 alone?
Security breaches are on the rise. Hackers are more tenacious than ever, and small businesses suffer as a result. The only way to survive in today’s internet is to have the best security tools available.
There’s a lot you can do to improve online security. However, today we’ll focus on just one: proxy servers.
Proxy servers do a lot for your internet security. Unfortunately, there are so many to choose from. We’re here to help.
Today we’ll be discussing the best proxy servers out there.
What to Look for in the Best Proxy Servers
Not sure what a proxy server is? In short, it’s an intermediary through which you access the internet. Before it returns your requested internet traffic, it filters for malicious content.
A proxy server is essential for a small business because it protects it from a multitude of internet threats. It helps unsuspecting employees from navigating into dangerous territory. It can speed up your network, too.
Many businesses rely on proxy servers to conduct market research. Without a proxy server, they might experience blacklisting or throttling.
Let’s discuss just a few of the things you want to look for in a proxy server.
The Highest Security Standards
A proxy server should prevent any and all threats from entering your network. That includes anything from suspicious network requests, to viruses.
Look for a proxy provider that has the highest security standards. One of the best ways to do this is to find an audit. An audit means an independent third party has verified that they live up to their security standards.
A Large Server and IP List
The more servers in more locations, the better. More servers mean it’s less likely that you’ll get high latency since traffic will be distributed. Plus, it means that when servers go down for maintenance, there will be plenty leftover to use.
A large pool of IP addresses is also a must. These are the IP addresses that a proxy uses when accessing your traffic’s destination. These allow you to maintain anonymity and help when performing analytics and other analyses.
Ease of Use and Feature Functionality
A proxy with great speeds and a big list of IPs won’t help if it’s lacking in features. Being able to fine-tune a proxy and ensure it works well with your network will be crucial.
Features include anything from auto-connect to fast servers, to streamlined web scraping. An intuitive user interface is also a major plus. A proxy server that rides the line between ease of use and advanced user features will help as well.
With all that covered, let’s take a look at some of the best proxy servers for small businesses.
SOAX Proxy
SOAX boasts a whopping 8.5 million proxies worldwide. It gives you the option to choose from residential, mobile, or data center IPs.
SOAX claims to have very precise geo-targeting. It allows you to pin down a city or region. The powerful user interface allows you to do this with ease.
Like many proxy servers, it provides rotating proxies. This means that proxies are not used repeatedly, reducing the likelihood that they’ll be blacklisted. They claim that all of their IPs are legitimate and that they drop blacklisted IPs from the pool.
This is especially helpful if you want to do analytics on competitor websites. It makes it ideal for price checking, SEO, and market research.
SOAX does offer a free trial starting at $1.99. Their plans range from $99 to $700, depending on how many ports and data you need.
Smartproxy
Smartproxy’s focus is on having high-quality IPs from any area or region. They boast a shocking 40 million proxies, an impressive amount that blows the competition out of the water. Smartproxy ticks all the boxes when it comes to the last two necessary features.
Smartproxy offers one of the cheaper plans compared to other proxies. 1GB will only run you about $15. Like their competitors, their plans scale up to accommodate your needs.
Despite having a very large pool of IPs, Smartproxy stays on top of blocking blacklisted IPs. There’s a very small chance that you’ll ever run into a blacklisted IP. If you do, then Smartproxy will make sure to remove it from the pool ASAP.
Going above and beyond the competition, Smartproxy offers browser extensions. You can install these Chrome-based extensions to continue your work in Chrome and Edge. They also offer the X Browser, their own custom browser that provides unique fingerprints for every user visit.
Oxylabs
One of the largest providers on the market, Oxylabs offers more than 72 million different residential IPs.
What sets them apart from their competitors is the focus on dedicated proxy servers. This means you essentially get a proxy server to yourself that you won’t share with other customers. That guarantees you get the fastest speeds possible.
For networks in search of a robust subnet, Oxylabs is the best choice. They provide real IPs from customers that sell their network availability. That means you can do market research from IPs belonging to actual individuals, rather than servers.
They also have a strong focus on reliability. Oxylabs claims that they have an impressive 99.99% uptime. That means faster speeds for you and a much smaller likelihood of being kicked from a server.
Oxylabs also offers a next-gen residential proxy service. Making use of AI, these proxies can overcome many hurdles like CAPTCHA and other human verification services. The result is a very low rate of connection failure.
Find the Right Proxy Today
Proxies help businesses to keep up with security and protect them while they’re doing research and SEO. The best proxies have strong security, large IP pools, and efficient servers that almost never go down.
One Google search for “best proxy servers” can turn up hundreds of results. Thanks to My Software Bee, you no longer have to keep searching. Check out our list of the best proxy services available.
