so tbh i posted before about free vpns costing me ad spend a while back and got some replies well today im talking about free proxies again i just ran a quick test on a simple ecommerce site with like 200 free public proxies from the usual sources like i did like 6 months ago just to see if anything changed spoiler it hasn't heres the quick numbers using a basic python script with requests trying to hit the same product page 200 times one request per proxy only 3 went thru so thats like 1.5% success rate and those that did were taking around 8.7 seconds to respond which is totally useless for real automation or scraping the rest either timed out after my 10 sec limit or gave a connection error right away this isnt even about anti-detection this is just basic connectivity then i did the same thing with 200 ips from my usual residential proxy provider which costs me like 2 bucks for the data and got a 98% success rate with an average response of 1.2 seconds so yeah u can say bandwidth costs matter but if ur doing anything serious ur time and reliability matter too those free lists are scraped by everyone and blacklisted on basically every cdn and firewall instantly i keep seeing folks in different places recommending free proxies for small projects lol dont do it it will waste more hours than its worth better to just find a cheap reliable provider with pay as you go pricing even if its just for testing cause debugging why your scraper failed cause of bad proxy 147 isnt worth it ymmv but these results are pretty consistent in my tests.

Been doing this 4 years, and I gotta say I've had decent luck with free proxies for quick testing, especially if you're just debugging or doing light scraping. Yeah, they're slow and blacklisted fast but if you're not running 24/7 or high volume, they can save you bucks. Honestly, sometimes pay proxies are overkill for small temp stuff,

quick thought: i tried the same, used free proxies for some quick debug stuff and it kinda worked at first but then i wasted a ton of time chasing flaky responses and blacklists. like bruh, how many hours u wanna lose to that? ever actually got reliable long term results with free proxies?

Do you actually get reliable results with free proxies for anything more than quick tests? I've found even for small volume stuff, they are just a pain in the ass with the timeout and blacklisting. If you're trying to scale or get decent uptime, cheap paid proxies are pretty much a must.

i actually think free proxies can be worse than useless for anything serious. had the same 1-2% success rates and blacklisting everywhere. spent more time fixing issues than actually scraping. better off just saving up for legit proxies, even if just for testing, saves mad headaches.

just my 2 cents, but i've had decent luck with rotating free proxies for small scale projects where i don't care about speed or reliability. sure, they're flaky but sometimes you just gotta get quick data w/o breaking the bank. if u need serious uptime, pay for it.

this right here.

agree. if u rely on proxies for anything that matters, just pay for good ones. wasting time troubleshooting flaky free proxies is a big no-no when uptime and data quality matter. no freebie is worth the headache long term. keep it simple.

Thanks for the input guys, appreciate the different experiences. Yeah, I agree, free proxies can be decent for quick debugging but anything beyond that they're pretty much useless unless you like wasting time. The blacklisting and slow response times just kill productivity. I've tried some paid proxies and the difference is night and day, way more reliable. ymmv but for serious scraping I'd stick with paid unless it's a one-off quick test.

how do you measure actual block rates? do you just track how many proxies get banned or is there more to it?

Sounds like you're trying to do the proxy count dance, but don't forget that ban reasons can vary and sometimes it's not just about the count.

i disagree, do you think block rates are really just about count? like maybe some proxies get banned faster because of their IP reputation or other factors? ever looked into why some proxies last longer even if they get used a lot?

ok so been doing this 3 years and agree, the OP's got the focus kinda off. block rate isn't just about how many proxies get banned but why they get banned, IP reputation, rate limits, etc. all play into it.

Maybe it's not just about how much they get used but the IP's history and reputation. Some proxies are like the popular kid, gets used a lot but still lasts because no one rats them out. It's all about the context behind the usage, not just raw numbers

Free proxies often seem tempting but honestly they can be more reliable long term than some scraping sites I've tried. I once used a free proxy for a week straight with almost no blocks while paid scraping sites kept getting banned after a few hours. It's all about how they're managed, not just the price tag

Last month I tried tossing some free proxies into the mix and honestly they hung in there longer than I expected, even with the usual red flags flying around.

+1

Different angle: I've noticed that some free proxies actually stick around longer than I'd expect but the catch is they're usually slower and more sus about my traffic which can lead to more blocks in the long run. Scraping sites might be more predictable but usually come with higher costs and risk of getting banned if they get caught. So depends if you wanna gamble with slow but stable proxies or pay more for tools that can be faster but riskier.

Last month I threw some free proxies into my scrape and was surprised they lasted longer than I thought but yeah they were slow and got flagged more often. kinda feels like a tradeoff between speed and safety. never really found a sweet spot yet.

different angle: sometimes free proxies seem sus but if you tweak your timeout and request rate they actually work decent for low-volume stuff, but yeah they still tend to get flagged quicker than legit paid ones.