Why proxy users should avoid free proxies
12 August 2022
Free proxies might seem to be an effective and lucrative option for people and companies. Seemingly, by using them, users do not have to pay for all the advantages proxies offer to individuals and businesses, including anonymity, access to otherwise restricted content, better bandwidth, monitoring, capability to control the behaviour of employees online, protection against hacking attacks, etc. However, there is a range of significant risks associated with proxies available free of charge. Today, Astro, a trusted proxy website where you can buy residential and mobile proxies, will remind readers of the most important ones and explain that the only smart option is to collaborate with reliable paid proxy providers, so that they obtain new opportunities without putting themselves at risk. In other words, here is why proxy users should not use free proxies.
Free proxies at work
Starting with the basics, one can view a proxy as an intermediary link between their devices and the Internet sites they would like to use. When one buys a residential or mobile proxy, it reaches out to the page instead of the user, pulls the content, and sends it to the user. The key factor here is that the website sees proxies’ IP addresses, not users’ addresses. Hence, users are in the right position to work online safely and effectively. The main precondition here is that the proxy must be reliable and secure, taken from a trusted website. But what if it is not?
Here is what is likely to happen in this case.
Reasons not to trust free proxies
The list of potential shortcomings of free proxies is impressive. These are the main ones most users can face:
- First, most free proxies are notable for their poor performance. You can barely count on good residential and mobile proxies as they will be used by numerous users simultaneously, exactly because they are free. That is why, instead of enjoying greater speed and higher connection quality, users will get exactly the opposite, namely, an irritatingly slow connection. In addition, to generate revenue, proxy owners normally place ads hindering optimal user experiences;
- Second, with free proxies, users can literally lose money. One of the key advantages of using a proxy is that users’ households and businesses can get a subscription-based service at a more favorable price. Many service providers differentiate their price offerings depending on buyers’ locations. So it is reasonable to change one’s IP address with a free proxy. However, when anyone uses a proxy server, their devices generate cookies to ease the browsing process and store login info. If there is a free and unreliable proxy between a user’s device and the website accessed, cookies with sensitive payment data can be stolen;
- Third, when you don't buy residential and mobile proxies but get them for free, you would fail to pass the simplest possible security test. That is to say, there is no way to use the HTTPS protocol with many free proxies. If one’s browsing session is not protected by an HTTPS connection, there will understandably be absolutely no encryption. Thus, there is no problem with getting access to users’ data;
- Fourth, the threat of malicious malware is always near. On the one hand, proxy owners may try to capitalize on the popularity of their services by deliberately infecting the user's device to extract their data to sell it and impersonate the user. On the other hand, it is also possible that users’ computers will be infected by an accident. Ads shown by free proxies to earn money for their owners is a perfect ‘window’ for hackers.
Thus, even though there must be effective and reliable yet free proxies out there, the risk is not worth it. For example, with a trusted proxy website Astro, users get access to a perfectly legit proxy network to buy residential and mobile proxies, at an affordable price for any typical purpose. More than that, if you want to test the service, you can do it free of charge! Our company offers a free trial period so that you can explore every option to verify whether it suits your needs. Start your free trial and start benefiting with Astro and all the advantages the network offers.
