6 Best ProxyScrape Alternatives for Free Proxy Lists

ProxyScrape is the best-known free proxy list on the web. It's fast, it has a free API and it's refreshed every minute. But a huge, constantly churning list isn't always what you need. If half of what you copy times out on the first request, a smaller list of proxies that actually connect saves more time.

This guide compares the six free proxy lists worth using instead of ProxyScrape or alongside it. For each one we cover what it does well, where it falls short and which tasks it suits.

Disclosure: ProxyVerity is our own project, so it's listed first. We've tried to keep the comparison fair: every competitor figure below comes from that service's public page on the date above, and we point out where other lists beat ours.

TL;DR: the quick answer

Comparison table

*Counts from each service's own page on October 13, 2026. Public proxy pools change by the minute, so read them as orders of magnitude, not exact figures.

How we compared these lists

A free proxy list is only as useful as the share of its entries that work when you use them. We looked at six things:

1. Verification depth. Does the service only check that a port is open, or does it route real traffic through the proxy to a judge server?

2. Freshness. How often each proxy is re-tested and how fast dead ones are removed.

3. Anonymity accuracy. Whether "elite" means no X-Forwarded-For or Via header leaks.

4. Geolocation accuracy. One GeoIP database, or several cross-checked against each other.

5. Safety screening. Honeypot filtering, and whether CDN or VPN endpoints are excluded so they don't pose as proxies.

6. Developer access. Export formats, API, filters, and whether any of it sits behind a paywall.

ProxyScrape is the baseline: excellent on freshness and developer access, and average on the depth of checking behind each entry.

1. ProxyVerity: best for proxies that actually connect

Website: proxyverity.com/free-proxy-list

ProxyVerity takes the opposite approach to ProxyScrape. Instead of listing everything that answered a ping in the last minute, it publishes only proxies that pass a multi-step verification. That's why the list is smaller (about 1,500 live proxies in 63 countries on the day we checked), but the share of usable entries is higher.

What's different

• 8-parameter verification every ~2 hours from checking nodes in 10 countries: reachability, protocol detection (HTTP → HTTPS → SOCKS4 → SOCKS5), anonymity, geolocation, speed, uptime, response consistency, and safety. The full process is documented on the methodology page.

• Tested through independent judges. Traffic is relayed to neutral judge servers, so a proxy appears only if it actually forwards requests, not just because its port is open.

• Real anonymity grading. Forwarded headers (X-Forwarded-For, Via) are inspected to classify each proxy as elite, anonymous or transparent.

• Geolocation cross-checked against MaxMind, IP2Location and DB-IP plus WHOIS and TTL analysis, with up to 20 km accuracy for about 92% of proxies.

• Honeypot and abuse-list screening, plus filtering of CDN and VPN endpoints that other lists often show as "proxies".

• Manual audits of a random 5% sample every day.

• Uptime history and response time for every entry, so you can pick stable proxies instead of guessing.

• Free bulk Proxy Checker for testing mixed HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 lists with no signup. It's also available as an embeddable widget for your own site.

Where it falls short

• A smaller pool than ProxyScrape or Proxifly. If you need tens of thousands of IPs to rotate through blindly, this isn't that list.

• No bulk TXT, JSON or CSV export or public API yet. You filter, then copy each IP:PORT with one click.

Best for: scraping public data, ad verification, checking localized content and quick anonymity tasks, where a working proxy matters more than list size.

👉 Open the verified free proxy list · SOCKS5 only · By country

2. Geonode: best filters in a web UI

Website: geonode.com/free-proxy-list

Geonode's free list is probably the closest like-for-like replacement for ProxyScrape. About 9,400 proxies from roughly 109 countries, all four protocols, and the most detailed filtering of any service here.

Pros

• Filters by country, port, protocol, uptime threshold (10–100%), "last checked" window, anonymity, speed, and a "Google passed" flag.

• Shows ORG and ASN, latency, response time and uptime for every proxy.

• Free export to TXT (ip:port) and CSV with full metadata, plus a free API endpoint.

Cons

• Mixed signals on freshness: the page says the list is checked every minute, while the FAQ says the database updates every 24 hours.

• Uptime varies widely (sample entries ranged from under 20% to 100%), and Geonode's own comparison table puts free-pool uptime at about 30–50%.

• The page is built to sell Geonode's paid residential and ISP proxies.

Best for: users who want to slice a large list by quality signals in the browser.

3. Proxifly: best for raw volume in code

Website: github.com/proxifly/free-proxy-list

Proxifly is a GitHub repository rather than a website. Every 5 minutes it pulls and validates proxies from around the web and commits them as files. On October 4, 2026 it listed about 47,000 working proxies in 141 countries, around 41,500 of them SOCKS5.

Pros

• The biggest free pool in this comparison by a wide margin.

• Files are split by protocol and country, in TXT, JSON and CSV, served through the jsDelivr CDN.

• An npm package (proxifly) with getProxy() filters for protocol, anonymity, country and HTTPS. An optional API key removes rate limits.

• Open source (GPL-3.0), with about 6.8k GitHub stars.

Cons

• There's no web interface for browsing, sorting or checking proxies.

• Volume comes first, so you'll need your own checker to filter out dead or slow entries before use.

• Without uptime history, you can't tell a stable proxy from one that worked once.

Best for: developers who want a large, automatically refreshed list pulled straight into scripts.

4. Spys.one: best long-running list with deep breakdowns

Website: spys.one/en

Spys.one has been running since 2008, and it shows, for better and for worse. On the day we checked it had about 32,700 checked proxies in 178 countries.

Pros

• The widest geographic coverage, with breakdowns by country, city, ASN or organization, and port.

• Specialized lists, including Squid and MikroTik open proxies, plus a TXT list.

• Uptime is shown as a percentage together with the number of checks, which is a useful honesty signal.

Cons

• A dated, cluttered interface that's hard to use on mobile.

• A large share of entries are NOA (non-anonymous), meaning they forward your real IP. You have to filter for HIA yourself.

• Many listed proxies have low uptime (below 30% is common in the "latest" feed).

Best for: experienced users who need proxies from rare countries or a specific ASN.

5. HideMy.name: best interface, but export is paid

Website: hidemy-name.com/en/proxy-list

HideMy.name (formerly hideme.ru) is a VPN provider that also maintains a public proxy list. It covers 76 countries and all four protocols, and it comes with a set of useful tools: proxy checker, port scanner, DNS and WebRTC leak tests, and IP lookup.

Pros

• A clean, fast UI with filters for country, speed, port, type and four anonymity levels.

• City-level location for many entries.

• A good set of free diagnostic tools on the same site.

Cons

• Export (TXT or CSV) and API access require a paid subscription. For free users, everything is manual.

• On our check, a large part of the US HTTP results on page one were Cloudflare IP ranges (172.64.0.0/13) on port 80. These are CDN edge servers, not usable open proxies.

• The site redirects by region and is focused on selling its VPN.

Best for: occasional manual use, when you need a few proxies and a leak test in the same place.

6. Free-Proxy-List.net: best for a tiny, simple HTTP list

Website: free-proxy-list.net

One of the oldest names in this space. The free list is intentionally small: about 300 HTTP proxies, refreshed every 10 minutes, with an HTTPS flag, anonymity level and "Google" compatibility column.

Pros

• It doesn't get simpler: one table, plus a "Get raw list" plain-text dump.

• Columns for anonymity, Google support and HTTPS support.

Cons

• HTTP only in the free table. SOCKS lists are separate or paid.

• No filters on the free list. Filtering by country, anonymity and port is part of the paid plans (from about $9.92/month).

• The site states that its proxies are datacenter-based, shared by many users and often slow, and that they don't work with Google, Instagram or Craigslist.

Best for: quick one-off tests where you just need a couple of HTTP proxies right now.

ProxyScrape vs ProxyVerity: head-to-head

Bottom line: pick ProxyScrape when you need a big feed through an API and you'll validate it yourself. Pick ProxyVerity when you want the validation done for you and need each proxy you copy to work on the first try.

Which ProxyScrape alternative should you choose?

• Scraping a few sites with no bans and no time to debug? Use ProxyVerity, then confirm your picks in the Proxy Checker.

• Building a scraper that rotates through thousands of IPs? Pull Proxifly or the ProxyScrape API, and run everything through a checker first.

• Need a proxy from a specific city or ASN? Try Spys.one, or ProxyVerity's proxies by location.

• Need consistent, business-critical uptime? No free list will give you that. Use a paid residential or ISP provider.

Safety note on free proxies

Every list above, ours included, publishes public proxies run by third parties. Whoever runs a proxy can see unencrypted traffic, log requests or inject content. So:

• Never send passwords, payment details or personal data through a free proxy.

• Prefer elite proxies and SOCKS5h (remote DNS) to avoid DNS leaks.

• Re-check a proxy just before you use it. Public proxies go up and down all the time.

• Respect each site's terms of service and robots.txt.

FAQ

What is the best alternative to ProxyScrape?

It depends on your priority. For proxies verified to actually connect, with real anonymity grading and accurate geolocation, ProxyVerity is the strongest alternative. For the largest raw volume, use Proxifly. For a full web UI with detailed filters and a free API, use Geonode.

Is there a free ProxyScrape alternative with an API?

Yes. Geonode offers a free API endpoint, and Proxifly provides TXT, JSON and CSV files over a CDN, plus an npm package. HideMy.name and Free-Proxy-List.net put API access and filtered exports behind paid plans.

Why do so many proxies from free lists not work?

Most lists only check whether a port responds. That doesn't mean the proxy relays traffic, hides your IP or stays online. Public proxies also churn constantly. Lists that route test traffic through judge servers and track uptime over time, as ProxyVerity does, show far fewer dead entries.

Which free proxy list has the most proxies?

On the day we checked, Proxifly had the largest pool (about 47,000 working proxies), followed by Spys.one (about 32,700 checked) and ProxyScrape (up to 20,000+ by its own estimate).

Are ProxyScrape alternatives safe to use?

They're as safe as any public proxy: fine for public-data scraping and geo-checks, not for logins, banking or personal data. Choose lists that screen for honeypots and grade anonymity, and test each proxy before you use it.

How often should a free proxy list be updated?

Short re-check cycles matter less than how deep each check goes. A proxy re-tested every minute but only for an open port can be less reliable than one tested every two hours on eight parameters, including real traffic relay and header leaks. Ideally you want both, plus uptime history.

Get a verified proxy now

Skip the dead entries. Browse ProxyVerity's free, verified proxy list, filter by country, protocol and anonymity, and test any proxy in the free Proxy Checkerwith no signup.

ProxyScrape, Geonode, Proxifly, Spys.one, HideMy.name and Free-Proxy-List.net are trademarks of their respective owners. Data reflects each service's public pages on October 13, 2026 and may have changed since.