Are you looking for the best proxy manager application that you can use to ease the process of using proxies? Then stick around on the page to discover the top 10 solutions in the market.
Proxies have come to stay, and their usage will only increase with increasing demand to keep IP addresses masked and access geofenced content. While the importance of proxies cannot be overemphasized, they have one inherent problem – they are not as easy to use as proxies are.
For you to make use of proxies, you will need to be logged into your dashboard to make changes anytime you want to change geo-location and even other minor settings. It is for this reason that you need the service of a proxy manager.
In this article, we will be providing you recommendations on some of the best proxy managers you can use that make setting up proxies on your device easy to use.
Some of these proxy managers are owned by proxy service providers, and as such, their features might be highly targeted towards the provider that offers them. Before the recommendation, let take a look at an overview of proxy manager.
What is a Proxy Manager?
Proxy managers are applications that make the setup and usage of proxies easy. It might interest you to know that some people still find proxies difficult to use, or the repetitive nature of logging into their dashboard just to make small changes bore them. With the help of a proxy manager, you can get all of these done in just a few steps.
Proxy managers can be in different forms – they can be regular software installable as standalone apps or as browser extensions. From our research, a good number of proxy managers are available as browser extensions, with only a few ones coming as standalone installable software.
Why Use a Proxy Manager?
Are you wondering why you will want to make use of a proxy manager? To be honest with you, there was a time I considered proxy managers as being useless since I could do all I wanted from the dashboard of the proxy provider I am using their proxies.
However, soon enough, I discovered that proxy managers have their place. Let take a look at why you need proxy managers.
-
Switching Between Multiple Proxies
Most browsers and operating systems only have support for setting up one proxy at a time. If you need to use another proxy, you will have to delete the first configuration and enter the new one.
However, if you have the need to have multiple proxies setup and then use each for different purposes, then proxy managers are the tool for you to use.
-
Makes Proxies Easy to Use
With the way proxies are, their usage can be time-wasting. If you have tried setting up multiple proxies to use, you will know how repetitive the tasks of managing proxies are. Tasks as simple as changing geo-location would require you to log into my dashboard to effect that.
Setting proxies can also be inefficient when done repetitively. With the help of a proxy manager, setting proxiesbecome easy. Some proxy providers provide proxy managers to make the usage of their proxies easy.
Best Proxy Managers in the Market
There are a good number of proxy managers in the market that you can use. If you’re to check the Chrome extension store, you will see many. However, not all are worth your time, even though they are free tools.
We have compiled a list of some of the best proxy managers in the market, which you can use for managing proxies and making proxy usage easier. Let take a look at them below.
Luminati Proxy Manager
- Platform Support: Windows, Mac, browser extension
- Pricing: Free
Formerly known as the Luminati Proxy Manager (LPM), this proxy manager is the most advanced proxy manager in the market when you look at the features it comes with that other proxy managers lack. This tool has been developed to make the managing of Bright Data proxies easy. Interestingly, this proxy manager works perfectly with other proxies even though it has been designed for Bright Data proxies.
This proxy manager is an open-source tool which means you can verify the content of the code that powers it. Aside from the LPM, which is obviously meant for developers and web scrapers, Bright Data also provides a browser extension that you can use to manage proxies, rotate them, and switch locations.
Proxifier
- Platform Support: Windows, Mac
- Pricing: $39.95
The LPM tool comes first because of how well it integrates with Bright Data proxies and the advance features it offers, which is unrivaled if not, Proxifier would have been the first on the list Proxifier is even more than just a proxy manager for switching between proxies.
Proxifier is the most advanced proxy client that helps force all web requests through proxies regardless of if an application has support for proxies or not. One thing you will come to like about Proxifier is that it has been developed to make integration with other applications easy, making it possible to be used together with other proxy clients.
Related,
- Advantages of Using Proxies with Proxifier
- How to use Proxifier with 911 SOCKS5 Proxies (in 6 Simple Steps)
Proxy SwitchyOmega
- Platform Support: Browser extension (Chrome and Firefox)
- Pricing: $39.95
Switching between proxies has never been easy, especially if you are using them on regular web browsers that only have support for one proxy at a time. That is why the Proxy SwitchyOmega extension has been developed to make it easy for you to switch between proxies easily and quickly. The tool does not provide you proxies – you will have to do that on your own.
This tool is easy to use and has been downloaded by over 1 million users from the Chrome web store. As of the time of writing this article, the extension has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 from over 3.5K users, making it one of the most favored proxy switchers in the market.
Proxy Switcher
- Platform Support: Browser extension
- Pricing: Free
One of the popular proxy managers available as a proxy browser extension is the Proxy Switcher extension. This proxy manager has over 50K downloads and comes with a good number of features such as support for inline PAC script, display failed resource info, and even badge text.
This tool has support for automatic proxy mode detection but does allow you to choose whether the proxy is socks or HTTPS. From the name of this tool, you can tell that it has support for multiple proxy profiles, making it possible for you to choose between proxies at will without going through the stress of manually setting proxies in your browser.
Postern Proxy Client
- Platform Support: Android
- Pricing: Free
The mobile platform does not have much support from developers in terms of proxy managers and applications as much as the PC platforms do. Postern is one of the few applications that have been developed to make proxy usage and management easy. The Postern application is only available on Android and has support for SSH tunnels and shadowsocks.
You can see the Postern application as the mobile Proxifier version even though it is not from the same developer. With this application, you can proxy every network traffic via proxy servers of your choice. Also important is the fact that it does have support for packet sniffing, making it possible for you to inspect and analyze packets.
Smartproxy Extension
- Platform Support: Browser extension (Chrome and Firefox)
- Pricing: Requires an active Smartproxy subscription
The Smartproxy Proxy Extension is available for the Chrome and Firefox browsers. If you have been in the proxy market for a while, there is a high chance that you already know of Smartproxy, which is one of the premium proxy providers in the market that offers high-quality residential and datacenter proxies are rotating proxies.
With this browser extension of theirs, you have a powerful proxy manager that is easy to use. The extension is not meant for all proxies but meant to work with their proxies alone. With this extension, you can change geo-location easily from the extension interface. You can also choose whether to use sticky or rotating ports.
FoxyProxy
- Platform Support: Browser extension (Chrome and Firefox)
- Pricing: Free
In terms of download count, the FoxyProxy is one of the most downloaded proxy managers in the market, with over 200K downloads in the Google Chrome store. Aside from Chrome, this tool is also available as an add-on for the Firefox browser. FoxyProxy us has been developed to make the process of changing proxies on browsers easy.
But no, that is not all – it does have support for other features that makes it a better tool for managing proxies than many of the other proxy managers in the market. FoxyProxy has support for importing proxies has support for rule-based routing of requests via proxies has an excellent event handling support.
Proxy Switchy Auto
- Platform Support: Browser extension (Chrome only)
- Pricing: Free
The Proxy Switchy Auto browser extension is available only for the Chrome browser. As its name implies, all it does is help users to switch between multiple proxies they have – and this is done from the easy-to-use interface they offer.
You can liken this extension to the likes of Proxy Switcher and FoxyProxy extension as the service does nothing more than just make it easy for you to switch between proxies and allow you to create a rule-based system for routing proxies. Just like it likes, the tool is a free tool and does the job it was developed to do perfectly.
ProxyCap
- Platform Support: Windows and Mac
- Pricing: $29.99
The ProxyCap application is more of a proxy client than most of the other tools being described as proxy managers, so we would be putting it in the class of Proxifier and Postern. Just like the others, it does not provide you proxies which you will use. Instead, all it does is force applications that do not have support for proxies by default to route their web traffic via proxies.
One thing you will come to like about this tool is that it comes with advanced features, which include a proxy checker, flexible routing rules, supports proxy chain, and provide you centralized management support.
Conclusion
Unlike VPN services, proxies can be difficult and time-wasting to manage as you do not have an interface to quickly change geo-location without configuring it from your proxy settings.
However, with the help of proxy managers, you are able to create multiple proxy profiles, with each has its own set of rules of when they would be used. The above are some of the best proxy managers that make the management of proxies easy.
