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Affiliate Marketing Proxies · Editorial review

Squid review: running your own proxy on a VPS

squid-cache.org

Squid is a free, open source caching proxy licensed under GPLv2 or later and maintained by the Squid Software Foundation. You install it on your own server, it comes with no IP addresses of its own, and the current stable release is 7.7 from August 2026.

Self-hosted proxyOpen sourceWeb caching

Our verdict on Squid

Squid suits a webmaster who wants a private proxy with no subscription, for example to route checks through a VPS in a given country. It is not a substitute for a residential IP provider: it only has the address of the server it runs on.

It also needs care. Default headers expose the client, and the 2026 security advisories mean you should run the latest release.

The squid-cache.org homepage showing the cartoon squid banner, the heading Squid: Optimising Web Delivery, the docs, download, donate and support menu, and the introduction to the caching proxy
Squid

Is Squid an anonymous proxy?

Not out of the box. By default Squid appends the client's IP address in X-Forwarded-For and adds a Via header. Turn off forwarded_for and via in the config if the sites you visit should not see the address behind the proxy. Squid handles HTTP and HTTPS, but has no native SOCKS support.

Where the IP address comes from

Squid is software, so traffic exits through the IP of the server it runs on. To check an affiliate offer geo-targeted to the US or a campaign limited to Brazil, you need a VPS in that country. For hundreds of rotating or residential IPs, use a provider such as Webshare.

Keep Squid on the latest release

The project supports only the latest stable version. In September 2026 it published several security advisories, including FTP command injection fixed only in the latest release and HTTP request smuggling fixed in 7.6. Distributions often ship older series with backported fixes, so check what your package actually contains.

What Squid can do

  • Forward proxy and cache for HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, over IPv4 and IPv6.
  • Access rules and password authentication.
  • Choice of outgoing address on servers with several IPs.
  • Chaining to upstream proxies.

The Squid Software Foundation, a Colorado non-profit incorporated in 2011, backs the project, whose code dates from 1996.

Squid strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Free and open source.
  • Mature project, still maintained.
  • Fine-grained access rules.

Limitations

  • No IPs included.
  • Client IP exposed by default.
  • Security fixes require the latest release.
  • No native SOCKS.

Squid or a proxy provider?

Webshare sells ready-made datacenter and residential proxies, with ten free proxies to start. Squid stays free but only gives you your own server's address. Squid Proxies (squidproxies.com) is a separate company that sells paid datacenter and residential proxies and has no link to the Squid software.

Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a Vilnius proxy provider founded in 2015 that claims more than 175 million residential IPs across 195 countries.

Read the review Oxylabs →Decodo

Decodo is the Lithuanian proxy provider known as Smartproxy until April 2025.

Read the review Decodo →Webshare

Webshare sells datacenter, static ISP and rotating residential proxies over HTTP and SOCKS5.

Read the review Webshare →SOAX

SOAX is a UK company selling residential and mobile proxies paid in credits, with a per-GB rate that depends on your plan and the exit country.

Read the review SOAX →
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