Choosing Between SOCKS vs HTTP Proxy

What are SOCKS proxies?

SOCKS is another internet protocol. It stands for SOCKet Secure and is commonly used for traffic-intensive tasks, like content streaming or P2P sharing. SOCKS uses a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection that is designed to send and receive data packets across the internet, as well as to guarantee successful delivery of resources over networks. 

When using SOCKS proxies, the internet traffic is routed through a proxy server via TCP connection on behalf of a client. Just like most other proxy types, SOCKS proxies hide the client’s IP address and serve when bypassing geo-restrictions.

Unlike HTTP, SOCKS cannot interpret web data. However, they are mostly used to facilitate communication with websites that have a firewall and limit regular client access. Most importantly, SOCKS proxies work on any kind of network protocol on any port. 

SOCKS4 vs SOCKS5 vs HTTP

SOCKS4 is an older protocol that provides basic proxy functionality but lacks support for advanced features like authentication and UDP. SOCKS5 is an upgraded version that offers improved security and authentication. SOCKS5 also supports various types of traffic, including TCP, UDP, and IPv6. 

HTTP is a protocol primarily used for web communication and can also be used as a proxy. While HTTP proxies are simpler to set up and widely supported by web browsers, they may not be suitable for all types of traffic. SOCKS5 is often preferred when advanced features and broader support for different protocols are required, while HTTP is commonly used for web browsing.

Reasons to use SOCKS and HTTP proxies 

Now we are going to outline why you should use SOCKS or HTTP proxies.

HTTP proxies are a reliable choice for many businesses that need to cover numerous goals and use cases. The HTTP proxy’s server configuration can be set according to your needs.

HTTP proxies

• Clean data. While operating as a middleman between a client and its destination, an HTTP proxy has the ability to understand data. This means that an HTTP proxy can be set up for content filtering or caching web data. Therefore, HTTP proxies help extract relevant data from websites and avoid collecting what is unnecessary. 

• Advanced security. HTTP proxies add an additional layer of security while detecting and denying suspicious data packets, such as spyware or malformed content, trying to enter your server.

• Increase your scraper’s success rate. HTTP proxies are used for configuring HTTP request headers. This practice can help you to facilitate access to restricted targets and lower your chances of getting blocked. If you are interested in how to enhance your web scraping operations, read our article on “5 Key HTTP Headers for Web Scraping.”

Since SOCKS proxies are compatible with any network protocol or port, they can be used in multiple applications and in a wealth of scenarios.

SOCKS5 proxies

• Firewalls. As we already mentioned, SOCKS proxies can be an excellent choice for cases that involve firewalls. Whenever clients are behind a firewall and want to initiate arbitrary TCP connections to servers that are outside, they might not be able to. This is where SOCKS proxies come to play and make it happen. (In fact, this also applies to HTTP proxies – the firewall may restrict a client’s access to certain websites via an HTTP connection.)

• Compatibility with any network protocol or port. Unlike an HTTP proxy that establishes only an HTTP connection, SOCKS can go through TCP. Also, a SOCKS5 server can use User Datagram Protocol (UDP) connection to deliver datagrams over a network, ensuring efficient performance. Click the link here if you'd like to learn more about our available UDP proxy choices.

SOCKS vs HTTP proxies: the main differences

The final decision on which proxy type you should choose depends mainly on your goals and needs. Our proxies enable integration through multiple protocols; you can switch between them when needed. Residential and Mobile Proxies support HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 connections, while Dedicated Datacenter Proxies allow connections through HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols. So, equipped with the knowledge of both proxy types, we can highlight their main differences.

Security

Ensuring privacy and security play an important role in the whole purpose of using a proxy. Both HTTP and SOCKS proxies act as mediators between a client and a server in order to secure your online activities and make them harder to be traced.

HTTP proxies are widely used for email protection and cybersecurity projects due to their ability to understand data packets and filter them according to specific needs. This also can be useful for web scraping and data mining activities. 

Functionality

Although HTTP proxies can only handle HTTP(S) traffic, their configurations can be set according to numerous use cases. Since HTTP proxies can interpret network traffic between a client and a web server, they can spot repeated requests or cache responses. 

As for SOCKS proxies, they are not liable to specific network protocols, thus can be more flexible to employ. As they are unable to understand network traffic, they are perfect for accessing connections behind the firewall.

Performance

As with any other proxy type, we generally advise on choosing private proxies if speed measures are of great importance to you.
Due to their ability to filter data or cache web pages, HTTP proxies can fuel your scraping operations, as well as enhance load speeds and performance. As a result, these proxies allow you to manage more requests per second.

On the other hand, SOCKS proxies are widely appreciated for their speed as they are easier to apply: this makes them a right fit for downloading, transferring, and uploading web data online. 

Wrapping up

There is no question of rivalry since selecting between SOCKS vs HTTP proxies depends on your use case and needs. SOCKS may be a reliable choice for projects that involve downloading and transferring large amounts of data. On the other hand, HTTP proxies may be ideal for filtering data for security or performance reasons. If in doubt, if your target is HTTP(S), HTTP proxies should work just fine for you. 

Oxylabs’ HTTP(S) proxies are considered as one of the most stable proxy types on the market. We also have an article comparing WebSocket vs HTTP, make sure to check it out. Also, check step-by-step integrations with various tools if you're interested in integrating our proxies with third-party solutions. 

If you want to learn more about web scraping, read our step-by-step Python Web Scraping Tutorial. And if you consider which solution meets your business needs, do not hesitate and contact our sales team for further advice and assistance.