Best Linux Proxy Server

Which proxy for which job

A forward proxy sits in front of users and sends their requests out to the internet. A reverse proxy sits in front of your servers and takes requests from the internet. "Linux proxy server" usually means the first kind, so the forward proxies come first below.

Linux Proxy Servers

Squid

This is the best Linux proxy server, supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and other protocols. It can reduce the network bandwidth and speed up site response time by caching resources and pages. The page and site requests can often be reused. You can configure the cache to be stored in RAM or on an SSD if you need to cache a lot of data over a slow Internet connection.

Also, IP rotation could be implemented to have multiple outbound IPs when you surf the web. Withal, Squid has a variety of opportunities for controlling access to network resources. You can block not only queries to domains or specific file sizes, but also network access at specific times, the work of protocols and ports, and much more. And finally, Squid is supported by many operating systems, not exclusively Linux.

One thing to keep in mind: most web traffic today is HTTPS. By default, Squid passes it through as an encrypted tunnel (the CONNECT method). It can still allow or block a site by its domain, but it can't cache or filter what's inside. To look inside HTTPS, you need SslBump: Squid generates certificates on the fly, and every client device has to trust your CA certificate. HTTPS interception also raises legal and privacy questions, so check them before you turn it on.

In cloud setups, Squid is often used for egress control: servers in private subnets can reach only the domains you allow, and every request is logged. That is a typical requirement in a cloud security and compliance setup for SOC 2 or PCI DSS.

A minimal Squid config

On Ubuntu, install Squid with sudo apt install squid. This /etc/squid/squid.conf gives you a caching proxy on port 3128 for your local network:

shell
1http_port 3128
2
3acl localnet src 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/12 192.168.0.0/16
4acl SSL_ports port 443
5acl Safe_ports port 80 443
6acl CONNECT method CONNECT
7
8http_access deny !Safe_ports
9http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports
10http_access allow localhost
11http_access allow localnet
12http_access deny all
13
14cache_dir ufs /var/spool/squid 2000 16 256
15maximum_object_size 50 MB

Squid reads http_access lines from top to bottom and stops at the first match, so deny all has to stay last. Replace the localnet ranges with your own network. Check the file with sudo squid -k parse, create the cache folders with sudo squid -z while Squid is stopped, then start it with sudo systemctl start squid. To test, point a client at it: curl -x http://proxy.internal:3128 -I https://example.com/.

We ran this config with Squid 7.7 on Ubuntu 26.04. Plain HTTP went through (TCP_MISS/200 in /var/log/squid/access.log), HTTPS went through as TCP_TUNNEL/200, and a request to port 8080 was refused with TCP_DENIED/403, as the Safe_ports rule says.

Privoxy

Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy. It doesn't store content at all. Its job is filtering: it protects user privacy and cleans up the web traffic that goes through it.

Thanks to it, you can change web pages, cut out advertisements, control the cookies, limit access to several websites, also delete any objectionable content and manage the headers sent by the browser.

Privoxy is configured through text files: the main config file plus .action and .filter files. When your browser goes through Privoxy, it also serves a small web interface at config.privoxy.org (or the short p.p) where you can check its status and settings. These addresses work only through Privoxy, not on the open internet. Editing actions in the browser is turned off by default (enable-edit-actions 0), so in practice you'll mostly edit the files. Like Squid, Privoxy can filter HTTPS content only if it's built with HTTPS inspection and has its own CA certificate.

Privoxy is also often chained with Tor. One line in the config sends all traffic through a local Tor client:

shell
1forward-socks5t / 127.0.0.1:9050 .

Tinyproxy

Very simple and easy Linux proxy server with basic settings. Tinyproxy is a lightweight HTTP/HTTPS proxy daemon. HTTPS goes through the CONNECT method without any changes to the traffic. All settings live in one text file, /etc/tinyproxy/tinyproxy.conf, one directive per line. You can limit who may connect (Allow) and filter sites by URL or domain (Filter, FilterDefaultDeny).

There is no web interface for management. The closest thing is a built-in statistics page that opens at the StatHost address (tinyproxy.stats by default). The project is alive: version 1.11.3 came out in March 2026.

3proxy

3proxy is a small free proxy server that packs several proxy types into one program: an HTTP proxy with HTTPS and FTP support, a SOCKS4/SOCKS5 proxy, and TCP/UDP port mapping. On top of that, it gives you access control, bandwidth limits and daily, weekly or monthly traffic quotas. It runs on Linux, BSD and Windows.

The project is actively developed: version 1.0.2 came out in October 2026, and there are official deb and rpm packages for Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux.

Dante

Dante is a SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 server from Inferno Nettverk. A SOCKS proxy doesn't read HTTP at all: it forwards any TCP connection (and UDP with SOCKS5), so it works for mail clients, SSH, database tools and anything else that supports SOCKS. Dante can require a username and password and limit which clients reach which destinations.

The current release is 1.4.4 (December 2024), and Ubuntu ships it as the dante-server package. If you only need a SOCKS5 proxy and nothing else, Dante is the focused choice.

Artica Proxy

It is a powerful yet easy-to-use proxy appliance. It doesn't replace Squid: Artica is built on Debian and Squid and gives you a web console to manage them. It filters web and DNS traffic (more than 55 million websites in about 150 categories), scans content for viruses through ICAP (for example, with ClamAV), and applies group-based browsing policies with LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory.

Moreover, here you can find detailed statistics about how your users use the bandwidth. Note the licensing: the proxy itself is free in the Community Edition, but advanced filtering, statistics, caching and the Active Directory connection need a paid Enterprise Edition subscription. If you'd rather manage your proxy from a browser than from config files, Artica is the one to look at.

Polipo, ExaProxy and Gate.js still appear in older "best proxy" lists. All three stopped development years ago (Polipo's repository is archived, ExaProxy takes bug fixes only and runs on Python 2.7, Gate.js was last released in 2017), so they aren't in this ranking.

Best Linux Proxy Distros

Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux (instead of CentOS)

CentOS Linux used to be the go-to free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but it's gone: CentOS Linux 8 reached end of life on December 31, 2021, and CentOS 7 on June 30, 2024. What's left is CentOS Stream, which tracks just ahead of RHEL. It's not a free copy of a released RHEL version. If you're not sure which release an existing server runs, check the CentOS version first.

For a stable and free OS in the RHEL family, use Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux. Both are built by the community and are compatible with RHEL, so RHEL packages and guides work on them too.

Features:

• Both follow RHEL release by release, so you get the same stable, conservatively updated packages.
• Each major version gets about 10 years of updates. Rocky Linux 10 and AlmaLinux 10 came out in 2025 and get security updates until May 2035.
• Includes a wide range of security features, including a powerful firewall and SELinux.

Ubuntu

This is one of the most popular and best Linux server distros. Even if it’s not at the top of the list among experienced users, newcomers definitely like it! This distribution is based on Debian and has a regular cycle of new version releases.

For a proxy server, pick Ubuntu Server LTS. The current one is 26.04 LTS (April 2026), with standard security updates until May 2031. If you prefer to stay closer to the source, Debian 13 "trixie" works just as well.

Features:

• There is an easy and simple installer.
• Ubuntu Server comes without a graphical interface, which is what you want on a proxy. (The desktop edition dropped Unity for GNOME back in 17.10.)
• After the system is installed, you will get a wide range of software.
• The popularity of Ubuntu caused a huge amount of software that suits perfectly; you can find it not only at official repositories but also at side PPA and on the Internet.
• There is also a huge number of documentation and articles available on the Internet that describes how to configure a system. If you are facing any problem just try to look for a solution on the Internet and likely, you will find the answer.

Web Page Caching Servers

Varnish

In contrast to the above-mentioned programs, this proxy is designed for the server side. It's a caching HTTP reverse proxy that sits in front of your web server and speeds up websites.

Varnish cache saves web pages in the server's memory, so Apache or Nginx doesn't have to generate them again. The web server is asked for a page again only when the cached copy expires (its TTL runs out) or you purge it. Getting content from the memory is much faster than using full generating.

A note on the name: in 2026, the open-source Varnish Cache project was renamed Vinyl Cache (starting with version 9.0, released in March 2026). The "Varnish Cache" name now belongs to Varnish Software's downstream distribution. In Vinyl Cache, binaries, config paths and package names changed (for example, varnishd became vinyld), so check which one your distro ships before you follow an older guide.

Nginx

Everyone knows how great this HTTP web server is. It's designed for operation under heavy load, and it can be used as a proxy server too. Nginx is a reverse proxy, content cache and load balancer: it accepts requests from clients, passes them to backend applications, and returns their responses to the clients. Along the way, it can cache those responses (proxy_cache) and even rewrite page content (sub_filter, from a module that isn't built by default).

Here's a minimal caching setup inside the http block:

nginx
1proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx keys_zone=app:10m;
2
3server {
4    location / {
5        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
6        proxy_cache app;
7        proxy_cache_valid 200 10m;
8    }
9}

Nginx isn't meant to be a forward proxy for your users' web browsing, though. For that, use Squid.

Why is it beneficial to use? Because the program is optimized for maximum performance and uses very little memory per connection. According to nginx.org, 10,000 inactive keep-alive connections take about 2.5 MB of memory.

Conclusion

In this article, we reviewed and described the best Linux proxy servers and maybe there are not all the programs that would be worth adding to the list. We hope that this information will be useful to you and if you have any questions concerning the mentioned topic, just contact ITsyndicate team to specify the details.

If what you really need is a reverse proxy or load balancer in front of your apps, that's a different job. Look at HAProxy, Envoy and Traefik instead: they are built for it. We compare the algorithms and setups in our guide to load balancers and high-volume traffic, and the difference between the two most common web servers in Apache vs Nginx.