SOCKS5 vs HTTP Proxy

Page explaining the pros and cons of using SOCKS5 vs HTTP

Intro

GoProxies now added a SOCKS5 (TCP) proxy , which allows you to have another way to connect. Below we will explain in greater detail how to actually set your environment to use this proxy type.

SOCKS5

SOCKS5 proxies operate on a lower level than HTTP proxies, making them useful in more protocols and applications. That being said, HTTP proxies still have their own strengths.

Why Use SOCKS5 Over HTTP?

It is protocol-agnostic (not just HTTP/HTTPS)

SOCKS5 works at the TCP level, meaning it supports any application protocol (HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, FTP, SSH tunnels, WebSockets, custom TCP apps).

Better for non-browser traffic and scraping

When dealing with API scraping, automation tools, or TCP-based clients, SOCKS5 has a tendency to be more reliable.

No content editing

HTTP proxies may modify or inject headers. SOCKS5 simply forwards bytes, making it ideal for applications that are sensitive to header integrity.

Faster in some scenarios

Because SOCKS5 is simpler (no request parsing), it can reduce overhead for certain types of traffic.

Why Use HTTP Proxies Instead of SOCKS5?

Built-in support in web technologies

Browsers, HTTP clients, and many SDKs natively support HTTP proxies without extra libraries.

Easier debugging

HTTP proxies can log or inspect HTTP traffic. SOCKS5 merely passes raw TCP which isn’t visibile.

Ideal for web-only workloads

If your workload is pure HTTPS/REST API traffic, HTTP proxies are often sufficient and simpler.

Code Examples:

Below are some example snippets for SOCKS5 use written in various coding languages:

curl -x socks5://customer-username:[email protected]:10003 https://ipinfo.io

import fetch from "node-fetch";
import { SocksProxyAgent } from "socks-proxy-agent";

const agent = new SocksProxyAgent("socks5://customer-username:[email protected]:10003");

const res = await fetch("https://ipinfo.io", { agent });
console.log(await res.text());

import requests

proxies = {
    'http':  'socks5://customer-username:[email protected]:10003',
    'https': 'socks5://customer-username:[email protected]:10003'
}

response = requests.get("https://ipinfo.io", proxies=proxies)
print(response.text)

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"

	"golang.org/x/net/proxy"
)

func main() {
	auth := proxy.Auth{
		User:     "customer-username",
		Password: "password",
	}
	dialer, _ := proxy.SOCKS5("tcp", "proxy.goproxies.com:10003", &auth, proxy.Direct)

	httpTransport := &http.Transport{
		Dial: dialer.Dial,
	}

	client := &http.Client{Transport: httpTransport}

	resp, _ := client.Get("https://ipinfo.io")
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Proxy proxy = new Proxy(Proxy.Type.SOCKS,
                new InetSocketAddress("proxy.goproxies.com", 10003));

        Authenticator.setDefault(new Authenticator() {
            protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {
                return new PasswordAuthentication("customer-username", "password".toCharArray());
            }
        });

        URL url = new URL("https://ipinfo.io");
        URLConnection conn = url.openConnection(proxy);

        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
        System.out.println(in.readLine());
    }
}

require 'socksify/http'

uri = URI("https://ipinfo.io")

Net::HTTP.SOCKSProxy("proxy.goproxies.com", 10003, "customer-username", "password")
        .start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: true) do |http|

  res = http.get(uri)
  puts res.body
end

<?php

$ch = curl_init("https://ipinfo.io");

curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_PROXY => "socks5://proxy.goproxies.com:10003",
    CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD => "customer-username:password",
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true
]);

echo curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

PreviousFAQ NextGeneral Questions

Last updated 6 days ago

Was this helpful?