Best Proxy Server Software

Additional Features:

• Security: Squid offers a variety of security features, including access control lists (ACLs), SSL bumping, and ICAP filtering. It also supports external authentication methods and can integrate with firewall systems for enhanced security.
• Configuration & Management: Squid is highly configurable and can be fine-tuned to suit specific needs. It offers a command-line interface for management and configuration.
• User Management: Squid supports user authentication and access control, allowing administrators to manage user access and monitor activity.
• Compliance: As an open-source tool, Squid can be configured to meet various compliance requirements, although specific compliance support may depend on the specific configuration and use case.
• Reliability: Squid is known for its stability and reliability. It has been widely used in production environments for many years.
• Support: Squid has a strong community support, and extensive documentation is available online. Commercial support options may also be available from third parties.
• Scalability: Squid can handle a large number of simultaneous connections, making it suitable for high-traffic environments. It can also be configured for high availability and load balancing.
• Customization: Being open-source, Squid is highly customizable. Administrators can modify its source code to add or change features as needed.
• Reporting & Analytics: Squid provides detailed logs and reports, which can be used for troubleshooting, user activity monitoring, and performance optimization.
• Cost: Squid is open-source and free to use, although there may be costs associated with setup, configuration, and maintenance, depending on the specific use case and environment.

Additional Features:

• Security: Træfik provides robust security features, including automatic HTTPS, Let’s Encrypt support, custom certificates, and authentication. It also supports IP filtering, ensuring secure access to your services.
• Configuration & Management: Træfik shines in its ability to dynamically and automatically configure itself based on your services. It also provides a built-in dashboard for easy management and observability.
• User Management: While Træfik does not directly handle user management, it integrates with your existing infrastructure and authentication mechanisms to ensure secure access control.
• Compliance: As an open-source software, Træfik complies with the MIT License. It also supports secure protocols and practices to help you meet your compliance requirements.
• Reliability: Træfik is trusted by numerous companies for its reliability. It provides active health checks and supports high availability and failover to ensure your services are always accessible.
• Support: Træfik has a strong community support, with over 700 contributors on GitHub. It also provides extensive documentation and resources to help you get started and troubleshoot any issues.
• Scalability: Træfik is designed to handle large, highly-complex deployments across a wide range of environments and protocols in public, private, and hybrid clouds. It supports dynamic scaling, ensuring it can handle your growing needs.
• Customization: Træfik offers a high degree of customization with its rich set of configurable middlewares. You can tailor its behavior to suit your specific needs and use cases.
• Reporting & Analytics: Træfik provides real-time traffic metrics and distributed tracing capabilities. It integrates with Datadog, Grafana, InfluxDB, Prometheus, and StatsD for comprehensive observability.
• Cost: As an open-source software, Træfik is free to use. However, there may be costs associated with running and maintaining it in a production environment, depending on your infrastructure.

Additional Features:

• Security: HAProxy provides robust security features, including SSL/TLS support, access control, DDoS protection, and intrusion detection. It also offers advanced logging for identifying potential security threats.
• Configuration & Management: HAProxy offers a wide range of configuration options and is easy to set up. It supports remote management and provides a robust API for automation. It also includes monitoring tools and an alerting system for efficient management.
• User Management: HAProxy allows for detailed user roles and permissions, user activity monitoring, and user bandwidth management. It also supports various user authentication methods and provides comprehensive user log management.
• Compliance: While specific compliance support may depend on your implementation and configuration, HAProxy can be configured to support various compliance requirements.
• Reliability: HAProxy is known for its high reliability and uptime. It offers redundancy features and disaster recovery options, ensuring your services remain available even in the event of a failure.
• Support: As an open-source project, HAProxy has a strong community for support. For enterprise-level support, HAProxy Technologies offers 24/7 assistance.
• Scalability: HAProxy excels in scalability, offering both horizontal and vertical scaling options. It also supports auto-scaling and load balancing for managing traffic efficiently.
• Customization: HAProxy is highly customizable, allowing you to tailor its features, performance, and security to your specific needs.
• Reporting & Analytics: HAProxy provides real-time and historical analytics, offering insights into traffic, performance, and errors. It also supports custom reports and export capabilities.
• Cost: As an open-source software, HAProxy is free to use. However, enterprise-level features and support are available through HAProxy Technologies at varying costs.

Additional Features:

• Security: Varnish provides basic access control features and supports SSL/TLS through separate modules. However, it's typically used in conjunction with other security tools for comprehensive protection.
• Configuration & Management: Varnish offers a flexible configuration language (VCL) that allows for highly customized caching rules. It also provides extensive logging capabilities for monitoring and debugging.
• User Management: While Varnish itself does not directly handle user management, it can be configured to work with other systems that do, such as web servers or application servers.
• Compliance: Compliance with various standards will depend on the specific deployment and configuration of Varnish, as well as the other components of the system it's a part of.
• Reliability: Varnish is designed for high availability and can handle high volumes of requests, making it a reliable choice for busy websites.
• Support: As an open-source project, Varnish has a strong community for support, as well as commercial support options.
• Scalability: Varnish is highly scalable and can handle sudden increases in traffic, making it a good choice for websites with variable traffic patterns.
• Customization: With its VCL, Varnish is highly customizable, allowing for specific caching rules and policies to be implemented.
• Reporting & Analytics: Varnish provides extensive logging capabilities, which can be used for detailed analysis of its performance and the traffic it handles.
• Cost: As an open-source tool, Varnish is free to use. However, there may be costs associated with setup, maintenance, and if opting for commercial support.

Additional Features:

• Security: Privoxy enhances security by modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing unwanted Internet content.
• Configuration & Management: Privoxy offers a flexible configuration that can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes, making it easy to manage.
• User Management: Privoxy allows for efficient user management with its advanced filtering capabilities and access control features.
• Compliance: As an open-source project, Privoxy adheres to the GNU GPLv2 or later license, ensuring transparency and freedom to modify and distribute the software.
• Reliability: Privoxy is a reliable solution for enhancing privacy and controlling web access, trusted by a wide range of users worldwide.
• Support: Privoxy has a strong community support, with resources available for troubleshooting and learning.
• Scalability: Privoxy's flexible configuration and customization options make it a scalable solution for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
• Customization: Privoxy offers a high degree of customization to suit individual needs and tastes, including the ability to modify web page data and HTTP headers.
• Reporting & Analytics: Privoxy's advanced filtering capabilities provide valuable insights into web access and content, aiding in effective decision-making.
• Cost: As an open-source software, Privoxy is free to use, making it a cost-effective solution for enhancing privacy and controlling web access.

Additional Features:

• Security: Polipo does not have advanced security features as it's no longer maintained. It's recommended to use it with the Tor network for anonymisation.
• Configuration & Management: Polipo is easy to install and configure. It can be managed through the command line interface.
• User Management: Polipo doesn't have advanced user management features as it's designed for personal or small group use.
• Compliance: As Polipo is no longer maintained, it may not comply with the latest security and privacy standards.
• Reliability: Polipo was known for its reliability, but it's no longer maintained, which may affect its reliability and support.
• Support: Polipo does not have active support as it's no longer maintained.
• Scalability: Polipo is not designed for large-scale use, so it may not be suitable for scaling.
• Customization: Polipo allows some level of customization through its configuration file.
• Reporting & Analytics: Polipo does not have built-in reporting and analytics features.
• Cost: Polipo is free software.

Additional Features:

• Security: Caddy offers best-in-class security with automatic HTTPS and TLS certificate management. It uses modern cipher suites and is written in Go for memory safety. It also supports client authentication and key rotation.
• Configuration & Management: Caddy supports dynamic configuration through a RESTful JSON API. It also allows for partial updates and efficient reloads. Configurations can be validated before applying, and the current configuration can be exported at any time.
• User Management: While Caddy does not directly manage users, it does support basic authentication and client authentication for access control.
• Compliance: Caddy's TLS configuration is PCI-compliant by default, making it a suitable choice for companies that need to meet these standards.
• Reliability: Caddy is designed to be robust and reliable, with features like automatic certificate renewal, OCSP stapling, and health checks for backends. It also supports graceful reloads of configuration changes.
• Support: Caddy is backed by Ardan Labs, which provides enterprise-grade support to clients. The Caddy community also offers support through forums and documentation.
• Scalability: Caddy is designed to scale well, supporting multi-core processing and load balancing. It can also coordinate the obtaining and renewing of certificates in cluster configurations.
• Customization: Caddy supports a high level of customization through its RESTful JSON API and configuration adapters. It also allows for custom load balancing policies and health check configurations.
• Reporting & Analytics: While Caddy does not directly provide reporting and analytics, it does support extensive logging of requests and errors, which can be used for analysis.
• Cost: Caddy is open-source and free to use under the Apache 2.0 license. However, enterprise-grade support from Ardan Labs is available for a fee.

Additional Features:

• Security: NGINX provides a number of security features such as IP-based access control, SSL/TLS support, and limit rate connections and requests. It also supports secure links with MD5 hash.
• Configuration & Management: NGINX offers a flexible and powerful configuration language that is easy to use. It also provides a command-line interface for managing the server. The configuration includes directives for server, location, and upstream modules.
• User Management: While NGINX itself does not have a built-in user management system, it can be integrated with third-party modules or systems for user authentication and access control.
• Compliance: As an open-source software, NGINX complies with the 2-Clause BSD-like license. Compliance with security and privacy standards would depend on the specific configuration and usage of NGINX.
• Reliability: NGINX is known for its high reliability and is used by many of the world's busiest and most demanding websites. It offers features like fault tolerance, failover, and automatic recovery.
• Support: Community support is available through various online forums and resources. Commercial support is also available with NGINX Plus.
• Scalability: NGINX is highly scalable and can handle thousands of simultaneous connections with a low memory footprint. It can be used in a variety of environments, from small servers to large distributed systems.
• Customization: NGINX is highly customizable with a modular architecture. Users can add or modify features by integrating with third-party modules.
• Reporting & Analytics: NGINX provides access and error logs for monitoring server activity. More advanced analytics and monitoring features are available with NGINX Plus.
• Cost: NGINX is free to use under its open-source license. The commercial version, NGINX Plus, comes with additional features and support, and is available under a subscription pricing model.

Additional Features:

• Security: Apache Traffic Server provides secure proxy services with its support for SSL and TLS protocols.
• Configuration & Management: It offers flexible configuration options and can be managed remotely. It also includes monitoring tools and an alerting system.
• User Management: While specific user management features are not detailed, Apache Traffic Server is designed to handle high volumes of traffic, indicating robust user connection management capabilities.
• Compliance: As an open-source project under the Apache Foundation, Apache Traffic Server is likely to adhere to standard open-source compliance regulations.
• Reliability: Apache Traffic Server is proven to handle over 400TB of traffic per day at Yahoo!, demonstrating its reliability and robustness.
• Support: Support for Apache Traffic Server is community-based, with users and developers communicating via mailing lists and a Slack workspace.
• Scalability: Apache Traffic Server scales well on modern SMP hardware, making it a suitable choice for growing businesses.
• Customization: Apache Traffic Server provides APIs for writing custom plugins, offering extensive customization options.
• Reporting & Analytics: While specific reporting and analytics features are not detailed, the extensibility of Apache Traffic Server suggests potential for custom analytics solutions.
• Cost: As an open-source software, Apache Traffic Server is free to use, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses of all sizes.

Additional Features:

• Security: Nuster provides robust security features, including SSL/TLS encryption and support for secure protocols.
• Configuration & Management: Nuster is highly configurable and can be managed via its command line interface.
• User Management: While Nuster itself does not directly handle user management, it can be integrated with other systems that do.
• Compliance: As an open-source project, Nuster complies with the GNU General Public License v2.0.
• Reliability: Nuster is built on the reliable HAProxy, ensuring high availability and robust performance.
• Support: As an open-source project, support for Nuster is community-driven. Users can contribute to the project and help resolve issues.
• Scalability: Nuster is designed to handle high traffic, making it highly scalable for growing businesses.
• Customization: Nuster is highly customizable, allowing users to configure it to meet their specific needs.
• Reporting & Analytics: Nuster provides detailed logs and statistics, aiding in performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Cost: As an open-source project, Nuster is free to use.

Additional Features:

• Security: TinyProxy has privacy features which can let you configure which HTTP headers should be allowed through, and which should be blocked. This allows you to restrict both what data comes to your web browser from the HTTP server (e.g., cookies), and to restrict what data is allowed through from your web browser to the HTTP server (e.g., version information). Note that these features do not affect HTTPS connections.
• Configuration & Management: TinyProxy can be configured to control access by only allowing requests from a certain subnet, or from a certain interface, thus ensuring that random, unauthorized people will not be using your proxy. With a bit of configuration, Tinyproxy can be made to run without any special privileges, thus minimizing the chance of system compromise.
• User Management: TinyProxy supports HTTP "Basic Authentication" username and password for accessing the proxy. If there are any entries specified, access is only granted for authenticated users.
• Compliance: TinyProxy is distributed using the GNU GPL license (version 2 or above), ensuring open-source compliance.
• Reliability: TinyProxy is designed with an eye towards preventing buffer overflows. The simplicity of the code ensures it remains easy to spot such bugs.
• Support: TinyProxy developers provide support via GitHub issues and IRC.
• Scalability: TinyProxy's performance scales linearly with the number of simultaneous connections, making it a scalable solution for various network sizes.
• Customization: If you're looking to build a custom web proxy, TinyProxy is easy to modify to your custom needs. The source is straightforward, adhering to the KISS principle.
• Reporting & Analytics: Using the remote monitoring facility, you can access proxy statistics from afar, letting you know exactly how busy the proxy is.
• Cost: As an open-source solution, TinyProxy is free to use, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses of all sizes.