Today’s proxies have an ever-growing range of uses – from safeguarding digital security, providing faster speeds, and saving bandwidth to improving email security and enabling web scraping. Although various types of proxies work similarly, SOCKS5 proxies take the lead due to their versatility.
In this guide, we’ll explain what makes a good SOCKS5 proxy provider and how to choose one based on your needs and priorities. Of course, we’ll also review the best proxy services for SOCKS5, explain how to integrate them, and more.
What Makes a Good SOCKS5 Proxy Provider?
A capable SOCKS5 proxy should offer high-end security features, fast performance, easy setup, reliable customer support, and a reasonable price. Here’s everything you need to keep in mind while browsing SOCKS5 proxy providers:
- Reliable Digital Security: SOCKS5 proxies hide your IP address and location. They’re also paired with encryption protocols to scramble your Web traffic, and today’s many proxy providers also offer anti-malware and DDoS protection. If you need more information, here’s our SOCKS5 explainer with more details.
- Speedy Performance: In general, SOCKS5 proxies are among the fastest types of proxies. However, each provider offers a different server network, so aim for those that offer evenly distributed networks, which usually perform better overall.
- Easy Integration: There are many ways to integrate a SOCKS5 with your device’s operating system, applications, or Web browsers. So, whether you’re a home or enterprise user, a good SOCKS5 provider should offer a straightforward setup process.
- Knowledgeable Customer Support: As a complex technical solution, especially when used on a large scale, SOCKS5 proxies require thoughtful integrations with devices and systems. So, having reliable customer support is crucial.
- Reasonable Price: Everything listed above should come at an affordable price. Since today’s competition among SOCKS5 proxy services is tough, you can expect a lot of fantastic features and high-end security without breaking the bank.
Top SOCKS5 Proxy Providers in 2024
It’s finally time to show you the top SOCKS5 proxy providers in 2024 based on our hands-on research and testing. Before we jump to explaining each of our recommendations, we’ll go over our quick SOCKS5 proxy comparison. Let’s get started!
| SOCKS5 Supported | Types of Proxies | IP Pool | Free Trial | Customer Support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile ISP | 72M+ | YES | Documentation Webinars E-mail support |
| Oxylabs | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile ISP | 100M+ | YES | Documentation FAQ Live chat support |
| Smartproxy | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile ISP | 55M+ | YES | Documentation FAQ Live chat support |
| Webshare | YES | Residential Datacenter | 30M+ | NO (there’s a free version) | Documentation Tutorials E-mail support |
| IPRoyal | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile ISP | 34M+ | YES | Documentation Guides Live chat support |
| ProxyJet | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile | 75M+ | NO | Documentation Tutorials E-mail support |
| PrivateProxy | YES | Residential Datacenter ISP | N/A | YES | Documentation FAQ Live chat support |
| MarsProxies | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile ISP | 1M+ | NO | Documentation Tutorials Live chat support |
| SOAX | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile USA ISP | 135M+ | YES | Documentation Tutorials Live chat support |
| NetNut | YES | Residential Datacenter Mobile ISP | 85M+ | YES | Documentation Tutorials Live chat support |
Bright Data
Featuring over 72 million IPs, Bright Data offers residential, datacenter, mobile, and ISP proxies. Furthermore, this proxy provider covers 195 locations, many of which country-, state-, and city-level geo-targeting. And yes, you can use SOCKS5 proxies with any type of IP offered by Bright Data, giving you a high level of customization and control over your browsing experience.
Expect a high level of fine-tuning, as Bright Data uses the open-source Proxy Manager. It also offers its proxy browser extension for Chromium-based browsers. This provider is known for its performance, making it more than suitable for bandwidth-demanding tasks. In addition to proxies, it offers scrapers, datasets, and more.
Bright Data’s residential SOCKS5 proxy services and mobile proxies start at $5.88/GB, datacenter proxies cost $0.42/GB, and ISP proxies cost $10.50/GB.
Oxylabs
Aside from HTTP and HTTPS proxies, Oxylabs also offers an army of SOCKS5 proxies. More precisely, this provider hosts 100M+ IP addresses and supports residential, datacenter, mobile, and ISP proxies. A network spanning 195 countries allows you to route your traffic through a specific country, city, ZIP code, coordinates, and ASN.
We’ll also mention that integrating Oxylabs’ proxies is easy. You can use its endpoint generator, rely on extensive documentation, and create custom integrations with your own software. Furthermore, this provider is known for its web intelligence collection features, which are now powered by artificial intelligence.
You can start with residential proxies for $8.00/GB, while datacenter proxies cost $0.65/GB. OxyLabs’ mobile proxies are $9.00/GB, and ISP proxies cost $2.10/GB.
Smartproxy
Smartproxy delivers 55M+ residential proxies, as well as 500K+ datacenter proxies and 10M+ ethically sourced mobile IPs. Its SOCKS5 proxies support all kinds of protocols, including UDP, TCP, SMTP, and FTP. Furthermore, Smartproxy offers unlimited connections and threads, IP randomization, and it’s one of the ultra-fast SOCKS5 proxies.
It’s important to mention that Smartproxy’s network spans 195+ locations worldwide. So, if you need a SOCKS5 proxy for Web browsing without geo-blocks, you’ll undoubtedly find it here. Regarding other strengths, this provider offers easy integrations, in-depth documentation, and 24/7 live chat support.
Smartproxy’s residential proxies cost $2.20/GB, while mobile proxies cost $4.50/GB. It’s also one of the most affordable datacenter SOCKS5 proxy providers, priced at $0.09/IP.
Webshare
If you need a custom SOCKS5 proxy solution, Webshare offers something enticing. You get complete control over your network, allowing you to pick the number of proxies and their locations, allowing a certain amount of traffic, and reserving network priority. That makes Webshare applicable to any use case imaginable.
Aside from flexible pricing, verified proxies, and an intuitive dashboard, Webshare is also known for the size of its network. It features 30M+ proxies, all of which are ethically sourced, and they cover 195 countries. You can use residential or datacenter proxies, with an aggregate network SOCKS5 proxy speed of 100+ Gbps.
Residential proxies start at $7.00/GB, and you can get significant discounts if you get a large volume of bandwidth at once. Data center proxies start at $2.99/month for 100 proxies.
IPRoyal
IPRoyal is a well-known brand in the world of proxy providers. It promises lightning-fast speeds and over 34 million IP addresses. You can choose from rotating and static residential proxies, datacenter proxies, and mobile proxies. Furthermore, this provider covers 195+ locations, making it suitable for geo-unblocking.
Thanks to nicely written quick-start guides, IPRoyal’s services suit developers and everyday users. If you’re a more advanced user, you’ll love this provider’s centralized dashboard. That’s how you can review detailed data usage insights, allocate more bandwidth, or remove problematic IPs.
IPRoyal’s residential proxies start at $1.75/GB, while datacenter proxies cost $1.39/proxy. ISP proxies will cost you $2.40/proxy, while mobile proxies cost $117.00/month.
ProxyJet
This US-based proxy provider offers 75M+ proxies in 180+ countries. As you can expect from any capable SOCKS5 proxy service, ProxyJet supports residential (rotating and static), datacenter, and mobile proxies. It offers a very easy-to-use dashboard that promises to help you set up proxy connections in less than 20 seconds.
Unlike most other proxy services, this one doesn’t charge for failed requests, which seems quite fair. Furthermore, it boasts a 0.3-second proxy response time, which makes its servers suitable for an extensive range of possible uses. You’ll also like the fact that ProxyJet guarantees 99.9% network uptime and is one of the ultra-safe SOCKS5 proxies.
ProxyJet’s residential proxies start at $5.00/GB, datacenter proxies cost $0.90/GB, while mobile proxies cost $7.00/GB. You can reach heavy discounts if you buy more bandwidth at once.
PrivateProxy
The most important thing to know about PrivateProxy is that it covers the US and Europe. It’s also worth noting that PrivateProxy offers ‘Elite’ proxies, which means they’re fully anonymous and ethically sourced. Plus, you won’t encounter bandwidth limitations and can choose from residential, datacenter, and ISP proxies.
As you can imagine, this provider uses a subscription-based model. So, you pay a flat monthly rate to get all its features. You can also choose from static and rotating IPs. That said, know that PrivateProxy’s instant rotation guarantees that you get new IPs with each new request. However, you can also opt for non-instant rotation.
PrixateProxy’s rotating residential IPs start at $150.00/month, datacenter IPs are priced at $59.00/month, while ISP proxies will set you back $150.00/month.
MarsProxies
This peculiar SOCKS5 proxy service offers 1M+ residential IPs in 190+ countries. It also supports data center, ISP, mobile, and sneaker proxies. MarsProxies’ sneaker proxies are found in 40+ countries, support unlimited traffic, and can be paired with practically any sneaker bot.
It’s worth noting that MarsProxies promises up to a 98.4% success rate when using its sneaker proxies. As expected, you can use them to get around geo-restrictions and create multiple accounts to increase your chance of buying limited-edition products. Also, this provider allows you to buy a certain number of proxies for a certain period.
Buying less than 48 proxies for 30 days will cost you $1.74/proxy. If you go for more proxies, you’ll decrease the price to $1.47/proxy, making it one of the most affordable SOCKS5 proxies.
SOAX
SOAX offers 135M+ residential proxies, all of which are ethically sourced. It promises a 0.55s proxy response time and a 99.55% success rate. It also supports datacenter, mobile, and US ISP proxies. All of them come with many customization and targeting options.
This is one of the ultra-private SOCKS5 proxies, as it’s designed to work with HTTP(S), SOCKS5, and UDP/QUIC. You can opt for automatic rotation, which is excellent for evading Internet blocks and scraping. Sticky sessions also allow you to stick to the same entry point and a single IP address if you want your online identity to remain the same.
SOAX’s proxies start at $6.60/GB, which applies to all its supported proxy types. You can lower that price to $4.00/GB by upgrading to a 250GB.
NetNut
With other 85M+ proxies in its network, NetNut offers a sizable SOCK5 network spanning 195 countries. There are also datacenter proxies with 150K IPs and mobile proxies with over 5 million IPs. This proxy provider is known for its speed and performance, and it allows IP rotation and auto-retry.
If you need high-end performance, NetNut offers hybrid ISP/P2P servers optimized for large traffic volumes and high-end Internet speed. They can be used for practically any purpose and work great for bypassing digital roadblocks. For example, you won’t have to worry about CATCHAs, reCAPTCHAs, and anti-bot activities.
You can become a user for $5.00/GB for residential proxies or $1.00/GB if you opt for datacenter proxies. Lastly, mobile proxies cost $6.46/GB.
Best SOCKS5 Proxy Providers for Specific Use Cases
By now, you know our recommendation for 10 of the most capable SOCKS5 proxy services in 2024. However, we’ll use this segment to recommend specific proxy services based on your priorities and needs, so here’s more information.
- High-End Customization: Providers such as Bright Data and Oxylabs are among the most powerful when it comes to customization, third-party integrations, and creating in-depth data handling rules.
- Data Scraping: Practically all our recommendations are great for web scraping. That said, SOAX has the most extensive network, with 135M+ proxies. Bright Data also supports high-end scraping with a high success rate overall.
- Bypassing Geo-Blocks: IPRoyal is excellent for bypassing geo-blocks, offering servers in 195+ locations. NetNut, ProxyJet, and Webshare closely follow it. All those providers can bypass even the strictest geo-based roadblocks.
- Sneaker Shopping: SOCKS5 proxies are often utilized to bypass limited edition products, like sneakers, for example. That said, MarsProxies is a great pick as it targets 40+ locations, offers specialized proxies, and allows integration with sneaker bots.
- Speed & Performance: For the best speed and performance, we recommend Webshare and Oxylabs, which are known for their well-optimized servers. ProxyJet is also a worthy alternative.
How to Choose the Right SOCKS5 Proxy Provider
There are several crucial things to remember when choosing a SOCKS5 proxy. For example, pay attention to the proxy provider’s reliability, security, performance, server locations, and compatibility. Let’s take a closer look:
- Reliability and Uptime: We highly recommend picking a well-known provider with a high availability score. More precisely, aim for those that guarantee 99.9% uptime. That said, it’s also wise to check user reviews on the Web to verify that information.
- Adequate Privacy and Data Encryption: Based on your needs and priorities, you should also emphasize digital security. So, use providers that promise to encrypt your data using high-end protocols and without logging it.
- Server Locations & Geo-Unblocking: Having many servers typically translates to better performance. Plus, if you’re interested in bypassing geo-blocks, you’ll want a provider with a server network that targets specific parts of the world.
- Device/System Compatibility: Consider the devices you want to include in your SOCKS5 network. You’ll want a proxy provider that offers easy integration with any operating system you use or any software you plan on utilizing.
- Documentation & Support: Customer support and extensive documentation will help you learn the most effective way to utilize your provider’s SOCKS5 network. Plus, you’ll always have a team waiting to answer your questions.
Integrating SOCKS5 Proxies with Browsers and Software
There are several ways to integrate SOCKS5 proxies with your devices and software, giving you an excellent range of options regarding re-routing your Web traffic. For example, you can set up a browse extension, configure a proxy directly within your operating system, or use specialized software. Let’s go over everything.
- Browser-Based Setup: Many SOCKS5 proxy providers offer browser add-ons for Chrome, Firefox, and related browsers (Opera, Vivaldi, Brave, etc.). These allow you to access your provider’s entire server network, configure individual connections, and review your connection’s status. Plus, you’ll find many free-of-charge add-ons for adding proxy connections and manually configuring connections.
- Operating System-Based Setup: Operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS allow you to configure individual proxy connections via their centralized settings panel. That way, you’ll instruct your device to route your entire Web traffic through a SOCKS5 proxy, and you can pause that connection at any moment.
- SOCKS5 Through Third-Party Software: In addition to using custom solutions for managing proxies, as is often done in enterprise environments, you’ll also find open-source proxy managers for Windows, Linux, and macOS. These typically allow you to perform deep fine-tuning, gather analytics, and quickly review your connection’s status. This kind of setup is great for more advanced/demanding users.
Conclusion
Picking the right SOCKS5 proxy depends on your primary goal – whether you want to secure your IP address, unblock geo-restricted services, manage specialized operations like web scraping, and more. However, the good news is that today’s market of SOCKS5 proxies offers a healthy range of options, as this guide has shown.
We’ll remind you that Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Smartproxy are the most widely used proxy providers, with SOCKS5 proxy networks and features suitable for practically any use. That said, our other recommendations also have many tricks up their sleeves, and based on your end objectives, they might help you reach your goals more affordably.
