Published 2026-10-05
SOCKS5 vs HTTP proxies
For most web scraping the two behave the same. The difference shows up when you use something other than a browser.
HTTP and HTTPS proxies
They understand web requests. An HTTPS request passes through a tunnel the proxy sets up with CONNECT, so the proxy sees the destination host but not the contents.
SOCKS5 proxies
SOCKS5 forwards TCP connections of any kind, so it fits email clients, chat apps and database tools. It does not interpret the traffic.
curl --proxy socks5h://USER:PASS@HOST:PORT https://example.comWhich to pick
If your tool supports both, use HTTP for web scraping because the tooling is more mature. Use SOCKS5 when the application is not a web client. The price is the same on all our lines.
Frequently asked questions
What does socks5h mean?
The h tells curl to resolve DNS names on the proxy side instead of on your machine.
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