ProxySite.com Review

ProxySite is one of the quickest free web proxies we timed, and both of its server regions sent us where they promised. It only offers the US or the EU, YouTube failed in our test, and we could not find a privacy policy that says what it keeps.

The short version

• Fast: a median of 1,335 ms from click to visible content, among the quickest proxies in our benchmark.
• 8 of the 10 test page loads worked; both YouTube loads ended on ProxySite's own Content Unavailable page.
• Two regions only, US and EU; both exited where promised in our check, on hosting company IPs.
• No visible ads inside proxied pages, but a median of 4 ad-network requests per page, and no privacy policy we could find.

At a glance

Facts checked on each site's own pages.

What we measured

Results from the scripted browsing session every proxy in this series goes through. Measured from a single connection in the EU, using test method wpb-1.1. Every proxy ran the same scripted session.

What ProxySite is

ProxySite.com is one of the longest-running free proxy sites and one of the most visited. The homepage has a URL box, a server dropdown and quick links to sites such as YouTube, Reddit, Facebook and Google, with the interface in 16 languages. The site footer names Pryvacy as the owner, and there is an optional MyProxySite account whose terms we could not check.

The server list looks long, with numbered servers marked US and EU, but those numbers add up to two regions. You can choose an American or a European server, not a specific country, and nothing outside those two regions.

How it performed in our test

Speed is ProxySite's strongest point. Across the pages that loaded, it took a median of 1,335 ms from the Go button to visible content, one of the quickest results in our benchmark. Every non-video target opened promptly, and the TodoMVC demo app drew its input box and kept the to-do we typed.

Two loads out of ten failed, and both were YouTube. Instead of the video, ProxySite showed its own Content Unavailable page, saying YouTube content needs special handling it is still working on, with YouTube asking to sign in to confirm you are not a bot. If YouTube is your main reason for a proxy, ProxySite did not deliver it on the day.

One more detail from the run: ProxySite answered our automated headless browser with a Cloudflare challenge page. In a normal visible Chrome window the challenge cleared on its own without us solving anything, and every number here comes from that visible run. A regular visitor in a normal browser should not notice it, but a script or a privacy-hardened browser may.

For each region we opened an IP lookup page through the proxy. The US server exited in the United States on the tzulo network, and the EU server exited in France on OVH. The lookup tagged both as corporate connections, the usual sign of a hosting provider rather than a home line. We did not run a formal IP-type classification.

Ads and privacy

The homepage carries a Google ad slot. On the proxied pages we counted no ad slot, pop-up or interstitial added by ProxySite, but the script did log a median of 4 requests per proxied page to known ad networks, twice the median we saw on CroxyProxy, Proxyium or BlockAway. The ad code loads even when you do not see an ad.

On privacy we cannot give a clear answer, because ProxySite does not give one. The connection to the proxy is HTTPS, and the site says it uses SSL even for plain HTTP sites. We found no privacy policy: the archived policy page returned a 404, and the live site blocks automated fetches. So what it logs, and for how long, is an open question. Treat it as a tool for public pages and keep passwords and personal details out of it.

Who ProxySite suits

ProxySite suits quick, casual browsing where any American or European IP will do: reading a blocked article, checking a forum, opening a site that is filtered on your network. It is quick, it loaded every non-video page we tried, and it has no published daily time or data cap.

It is a poor fit if you need a specific country, any location outside the US and Europe, or video. Our own tool, Shifter Web Proxy, lets you choose among 54 countries on residential IPs, shows no ads and does not log the pages you visit. It is free within 30 minutes and 100 MB a day and asks for a reCAPTCHA check before each session, so ProxySite remains the better choice for long free sessions.

Pros and cons

Who ProxySite.com is for

How we scored it

Measured from a single connection in the EU, using test method wpb-1.1. Every proxy ran the same scripted session. Countries are scored on a log scale, because a jump from 3 to 20 countries matters far more to a visitor than one from 100 to 200, and only countries with residential exits count: every exit we observed is classified by its network, consumer ISP or hosting provider. Ads are scored on three parts: ads on the landing page (25%), ad slots added to proxied pages, filled or empty (45%) and ad-network code loaded while you browse, seen or not (30%). Any ad-network request caps that part at 6 out of 10.

Every criterion is calculated from published facts or our own measurements and normalised across all the free web proxies we track, Shifter included. Nothing is scored by hand, so a proxy that beats ours on a criterion scores higher on it.

• Speed measured

  Weight 22% 7.5/10

  1335 ms median page load against 16 proxies we timed, multiplied by the 80% of test pages that loaded.

• Countries measured

  Weight 17% 0/10

  Every exit we observed was on a hosting or cloud provider's network, so none count as residential. Log scale against the widest residential choice in the field (54).

• Ads measured

  Weight 22% 6/10

  Landing page ads: yes. Ad slots added to proxied pages, filled or empty: 0. Ad-network requests per proxied page: 4.

• Compatibility measured

  Weight 22% 5/10

  Passed 1 of 2 checks (YouTube playback, staying logged in, a JavaScript app).

• Privacy

  Weight 17% 5/10

  Operator named: yes. Logging: no policy published. HTTPS to the proxy: yes.