As a seasoned proxy user, you may have encountered terms such as HTTP proxy, Socks, proxies, or HTTPS proxy. However, for many in the industry, even those who have used proxies for years, these different proxies are a little confusing.
One of the main reasons you would use a proxy is to provide you or your company with a secure and untraceable connection. However, if you use the wrong proxy, you could provide nefarious characters and the opportunity to breach your security, or you may have issues with compatibility.
This article will review what an HTTP proxy is, the types of HTTP proxies, and the difference between HTTP and HTTPS proxies.
What is an HTTP Proxy
First, let's look at the very definition of HTTP.
HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the standard internet protocol you would use to access the web. However, when talking about an HTTP proxy, we can define this as a type of proxy that acts as an intermediary between a client and a web server. So, what happens when you use an HTTP proxy?
- When you send a web request to the website, the request does not go to the website. Instead, it goes to the proxy server as plain text.
- Then, the proxy server analyzes it and sends a new request to the website using the data bundled with the request and masks your IP.
- The website then receives your data bundle and responds to the proxy server.
- Finally, the proxy server forwards the response to you
This might seem like a fair bit of work and might take some time, but with the leading providers' proxies, it takes mere milliseconds.
Types of HTTP proxies
In general, you will find three types of HTTP proxies. The differences come down to the level of anonymity you are looking to have when browsing.
Transparent Proxy
Schools, businesses, and governments use a transparent proxy to control internet usage and restrict access to specific data. You may have encountered this type of proxy when trying to get onto a flash game site or access a streaming site to watch a movie on your school or work laptop.
These proxies do not require a log-in and, instead, are active at all times. These proxies do not modify website requests, and sites you visit can still see your IP. Transparent proxies are, by design, a tool to limit usage and ensure riskily or otherwise deemed inappropriate websites are not accessed by workers, users, or citizens on the network.
Anonymous Proxy
An anonymous proxy is a tool many use to mask their IP and is generally used by free VPN and IP proxy services. It works by stripping your IP address and replacing it with a proxy IP when a server requests information. The proxy identifies itself as a proxy to the website and can run into problems with streaming sites and other sites that need to enforce geo-blocks or other restrictions.
As such, users of an anonymous proxy may run into blocks as not all sites allow proxy IPs to visit or stream from it. So, if you are looking to finally access US or UK Netflix from outside of these countries, it might not be the best tool for the job.
Elite Proxy or Highly anonymous proxy
This proxy type has two names, but they take HTTP proxies to the next level. Like an anonymous proxy, these proxies will hide your IP address and substitute their own. However, elite proxies will not do that, unlike an anonymous proxy that will tell the server it is a proxy. Instead, they will use techniques to avoid getting detected as a proxy.
Although elite proxies are great for keeping your browsing anonymous, they are still not the best tool for doing anything with money or when security is needed since you send data with the HTTP protocol, missing the S (Secure).
HTTP Proxies are relatively cheap and are suitable for testing your app or scraping data internally. But not recommended for automating Instagram or scraping Amazon.
HTTP vs. HTTPS
It would be amiss not to touch on the difference between an HTTP and an HTTPS proxy.
One of the most significant differences between the two styles of proxy is the communication between yourself and the proxy. For HTTPS proxies, requests are not sent to the HTTPS proxy to echo the website you intend to visit. Instead, when you send a web request, your proxy server creates a TCP connection, after which your request data can reach the website. Only your IP address is checked and notified, which allows for proper end-to-end security.
What proxy server is better
Naturally, the best proxy for your situation will depend on what you want.
Great uses for HTTP proxies:
- Streaming video or music content
- Collecting large amounts of data with scraping proxies
- Monitoring websites or e-commerce platforms
- Working with automated tools
- In-depth market research
Great uses for HTTPS proxies:
- Everything an HTTP proxy does, and more
- Secure and anonymous browsing
- Completing banking or credit card transactions
- When avoiding website tracking is essential.
Conclusion: Data volume vs. security
HTTP proxies were among the most popular options for many in the past decade. As technology has changed and many users are hyper-focused on security, they have generally fallen out of favor. The HTTP proxies are great when you use them as a VPN for streaming videos, but if you want to harvest data, HTTPS is the way to go.
With AnyIP, our HTTPS proxies provide an HTTP-compliant option, with the bonus of being HTTPS. Thus, an AnyIP proxy is a win-win, which is rare nowadays in the proxy and VPN world.
Our two lead words are security and speed. We have the fastest residential proxy infrastructure in the industry. To complete your scraping needs today, check out our pricing plans.
