Proxy browser extensions do something genuinely useful that no other layer does well: they let you route different sites through different proxies, from one browser, switchable in two clicks.
They are also, by a considerable margin, the highest-trust piece of software most people install in a browser, and the current state of the category makes that a live problem rather than a theoretical one.
We are Geonode and we sell proxies, so the disclaimer first: an extension is a way to use proxies, not a source of them. Almost every extension in this article is free and does not provide any proxy service — you supply the proxy details. The exceptions are extensions published by proxy providers, including the sort of thing we and our competitors offer, and those are conveniences rather than products. If you are looking for free proxies bundled inside an extension, the section on business models below is the one to read, and it is not encouraging.
The thing that has changed, and that most guides on this subject have not caught up with: SwitchyOmega — the extension recommended in essentially every list of proxy extensions ever written — is no longer maintained. Its own repository says so. It was disabled in Chrome over the Manifest V3 migration, and its author has said publicly they did not have time to make a change of that size.
What filled the gap is a scattering of forks with nearly identical names. Several are legitimate. At least one publicly describes itself as fake in its own repository description. The original project's maintainers also warn that switchyomega.com and similar sites are not affiliated with the project.
So choosing a proxy extension in 2026 is a security decision first and a feature comparison second, and this article is ordered accordingly.
What a Proxy Extension Actually Does
Understanding the mechanism explains why the trust question is as sharp as it is.
The Permission
A Chrome extension that manages proxy settings uses the chrome.proxy API, and per Chrome's own documentation it must declare the proxy permission in its manifest.
That permission lets the extension set Chrome's proxy configuration across five modes: direct connections, auto-detection, a custom PAC script, fixed server rules, or system settings. Under fixed server mode it can specify different proxies for HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, plus a fallback and a bypass list.
A PAC script is the part worth pausing on. It is JavaScript that Chrome runs to decide, for every single request, which proxy to use. An extension that can install a PAC script can route any request anywhere, based on any logic it likes.
It Covers Incognito Too
From the same documentation: proxy settings apply to both regular and incognito windows, because incognito windows inherit settings from regular ones. There is a scope parameter allowing an extension to target one or the other.
This is worth knowing because people frequently assume incognito is a clean slate. For proxy configuration it is not, by default.
What This Adds Up To
An extension with the proxy permission decides where your browser's traffic goes. If it also holds host permissions for all sites, it can read and modify page contents.
That combination is more powerful than almost anything else you can install without administrator rights. The extension does not need to be malicious to matter — it needs only to be compromised, sold, or updated by someone with different intentions than the person who wrote it.
And Also: This Is Genuinely Useful
None of which means avoid them. The capability is exactly what makes per-site proxy rules possible, and per-site rules are the reason the category exists. Browser settings are all-or-nothing; extensions are the only way to say "this domain through Germany, that one direct, everything else through the office proxy".
The point is to choose deliberately rather than by download count.
The SwitchyOmega Problem
The most-recommended tool in this category, and what actually happened to it.
What It Was
SwitchyOmega let you "manage and switch between multiple proxies quickly and easily". Profiles, auto-switch rules based on URL patterns, PAC support. Licensed GPLv3, open source, and for years the default answer to this question.
What Happened
The repository now states plainly that the project is "No longer maintained", pointing to its pinned issues. The relevant one is titled, in part, "Extension disabled in Chrome".
The cause was Chrome's migration to Manifest V3, which changed the extension platform substantially enough that extensions had to be rebuilt to keep working. Extensions that were not updated stopped functioning and were removed from the Chrome Web Store. SwitchyOmega's author has said they did not have time to undertake a change of that scale.
This is nobody's scandal — it is what happens when a widely used piece of free software meets a platform migration and a maintainer with a life. But the consequence for anyone following an older recommendation is real: the extension you were told to install is gone.
What Filled the Gap
Several projects. ZeroOmega is the most commonly cited successor, essentially SwitchyOmega rebuilt for Manifest V3, keeping the profile and auto-switch model. OasisProxy describes itself as a substitute for SwitchyOmega under Manifest V3 and supports Chrome only.
There are also numerous repositories named SwitchyOmega-V3 from different authors. Some are genuine ports. At least one carries the word "fake" in its own repository description.
Why This Is Worse Than an Ordinary Fork Situation
Because of the permission involved. A fork of a text editor that turns out to be untrustworthy is an inconvenience. A fork of a proxy extension that turns out to be untrustworthy can route every request your browser makes.
The original project's maintainers also warn explicitly that switchyomega.com and similar websites are not affiliated with the project and that the project does not cooperate with proxy providers or display advertisements — a notice that exists because sites using the name do exactly those things.
Practical advice: if you are installing a SwitchyOmega successor, get it from a repository you have actually looked at, check the commit history and the author, and treat name similarity as worth nothing at all.
The Extensions Worth Considering
A deliberately short list, because the honest position is that few options in this category clear the trust bar.
| Option | What it is | Cost | Notes |
|---|
| Browser's own settings | Built in | Free | No extension, no permission, no rules |
| ZeroOmega | Manifest V3 successor to SwitchyOmega | Free | Profiles and auto-switch rules preserved |
| OasisProxy | Manifest V3 SwitchyOmega substitute | Free | Chrome only |
| FoxyProxy | Long-established proxy manager | Free extension | Open source; company also sells proxies and VPN |
| Your provider's extension | Vendor-supplied convenience | Free with account | Only routes to that provider |
SwitchyOmega | The original | — | No longer maintained; disabled in Chrome |
Reading the Table
Start with the browser's own settings. If you need one proxy for everything, Firefox has proxy settings built in and Chrome defers to the system. No extension means no permission granted and no third party in the path. This covers more requirements than people expect.
ZeroOmega and OasisProxy are the live successors to the profile-and-rules model. Both are free and open source, both rebuilt for Manifest V3. Look at the actual repository before installing either — not because there is anything known to be wrong with them, but because the name space around SwitchyOmega is now crowded with imitations and "I found it in a list" is not a security review.
FoxyProxy has the longest continuous history in this category, describing itself as operating since 2006, and publishes free open-source proxy management tools in many languages. The company also sells proxy and VPN services, which is worth knowing when reading its own recommendations — exactly as it is worth knowing about ours. Pricing is not displayed on its homepage; you have to go to the order page.
Provider extensions, including ours and our competitors', are convenience wrappers. They configure their own service, save you typing credentials, and typically cannot be pointed at anyone else. Fine if you use that provider and useless otherwise. They are not a reason to choose a provider.
What Is Deliberately Absent
The large category of free extensions that supply proxies themselves — "free VPN" and "unblock any site" extensions with millions of users. There is a section on why below. The short version is that the business model does not permit them to be what they appear to be.
The Trust Question Nobody Asks
The section we would most like people to read, and it applies to our own extension as much as anyone's.
What You Are Granting
Installing a proxy extension grants a third party the ability to decide where your browser's traffic goes. If it also has host permissions, it can read and alter what is on your pages.
Rephrase that as a question you would ask about a person rather than software: would I let this stranger choose which server my bank's website actually resolves to? Because that is the permission, stated accurately.
HTTPS limits the damage — an extension routing your traffic elsewhere cannot silently read an encrypted connection to a correctly verified server. But it can see every hostname you visit, when, and how often. And an extension with host permissions operates inside the page, after decryption, where TLS is no longer protecting anything.
The Update Problem
This is the part that makes download counts and star ratings misleading.
Extensions update automatically. The code you reviewed is not necessarily the code running next week. Ownership of a popular extension can change hands, and it is a known pattern across browser ecosystems for a well-regarded extension to be acquired and subsequently updated with behaviour its original users would not have accepted.
A popular extension is therefore a more attractive target than an obscure one, not a safer one. Popularity means the acquisition is worth making.
What Actually Reduces the Risk
Prefer open source with a real repository. Not a name that sounds open source — an actual repository with history, issues and identifiable people.
Prefer extensions that do not supply the proxy. A tool that configures a proxy you already have has a much smaller reason to be interested in your traffic than one giving away free bandwidth.
Grant the narrowest permissions offered. If it can be restricted to specific sites rather than all of them, restrict it.
Use a separate browser profile for proxied work. It limits what an extension sees to that profile's activity, and it is free.
Review your installed extensions periodically. Remove anything you no longer use. Every one you keep is a permission you are still granting.
Applied to Us
We publish proxies rather than a browsing product, and we would rather you configured our service in the browser's own settings than installed anything at all. If an extension makes your workflow better, use one — but choose it on the basis of the repository and the permission model, not on which provider's logo is on it.
Extension vs Browser Setting vs System Proxy
Three layers, and picking the right one avoids installing anything.
The Browser's Own Settings
Firefox has proxy settings in its network preferences — manual configuration, PAC URL, SOCKS support including whether DNS goes through the proxy. Chrome defers to the operating system, which is why extensions are more prevalent in the Chrome ecosystem.
Use this when: one proxy for all browsing, no rules needed. It is free, no permission is granted, and there is nothing to be compromised.
Limitation: all or nothing. No per-site rules.
An Extension
Use this when: you need different proxies for different sites, quick switching, or per-domain rules. This is the only layer that provides them, and it is a genuine capability gap in the built-in settings.
Cost: the permission grant described above.
The System Proxy
Set at the operating system level, affecting applications that respect it.
Use this when: you want everything on the machine proxied, not just the browser.
Limitation, and it is significant: applications are not obliged to respect it. Many use their own networking and ignore it entirely, so traffic you believe is proxied may not be. Verify rather than assume.
Choosing
Work down the list and stop at the first layer that does the job.
One proxy, browser only — browser settings. Different proxies per site — extension. Whole machine — system proxy, with verification. An application that ignores the system setting — that is proxy client software, a different category entirely.
The majority of people who install a proxy extension needed the first option. It is worth thirty seconds to check.
What to Check Before Installing
A short checklist, in the order that eliminates candidates fastest.
Is it maintained? Check the repository's last commit and the store listing's last update. This is the check that would have saved everyone still recommending SwitchyOmega, and it takes ten seconds.
Is the repository the real one? Name similarity means nothing in this space. Look at the author, the commit history, whether issues are real conversations or empty. A repository created recently with no history and a familiar name deserves suspicion.
What permissions does it request? The store listing tells you. proxy is unavoidable for this category. Access to data on all websites is not always necessary, and an extension asking for more than it needs has told you something.
Does it supply proxies itself? If yes, ask how it is funded. See the next section.
Is it open source in a way you can verify? "Open source" claimed on a store listing with no linked repository is a marketing phrase.
Does it handle DNS the way you need? With SOCKS proxies specifically, some configurations resolve hostnames locally, which means your resolver sees every site you visit even though the traffic is routed through the proxy. It can also hand you a regionally wrong address for sites with location-dependent infrastructure. Firefox has an explicit preference for proxying DNS with SOCKS; check the equivalent wherever you land.
Does it actually work? Install it, configure it, and visit an address-reporting page. Then check that a site you expect to be excluded by your rules is genuinely going direct. Rule systems evaluate in order and a broad rule near the top quietly swallows everything below it.
The Verification That Matters Most
After configuring per-site rules, test both directions: that a site you want proxied shows the proxy's address, and that a site you want direct shows your own. People check the first and assume the second, and the second is where the surprises are.
Free Extensions and the Business Model
The uncomfortable arithmetic behind the largest category of proxy extensions.
The Question to Ask
An extension that provides free proxy or VPN access to millions of users is paying for servers and bandwidth. Bandwidth is not cheap and it scales with usage.
So: where does the money come from?
There are only a few possible answers, and it is worth knowing which one applies before installing.
A paid tier subsidises the free one. Legitimate and common. The free tier is limited enough to be a sample rather than a service. Check that the limits are real.
Advertising. Sometimes disclosed, sometimes injected into pages the extension can modify.
Selling usage data. Which sites you visit, when, how often. A proxy extension is perfectly placed to collect this and it is a saleable asset.
Selling your bandwidth. Your connection becomes an exit node for someone else's traffic. This is how some residential proxy networks are built, and when it is disclosed clearly and compensated it is a legitimate arrangement. When it is buried in a terms document nobody reads, it is not — and it means requests from other people are appearing to come from your home connection.
Nothing yet. A hobby project, or a user base being accumulated for later sale. The second case is the update problem from earlier, waiting to happen.
The Practical Position
Extensions that manage proxies you supply — ZeroOmega, OasisProxy, FoxyProxy's tools — have modest running costs and a much smaller incentive to be interested in your traffic. That is a structurally safer category.
Extensions that provide free proxy access have substantial running costs and must monetise somehow. That does not make them malicious. It makes the question unavoidable, and "I could not find the answer" is itself an answer.
We sell bandwidth, so we know precisely what it costs. Nobody is giving away meaningful quantities of it for nothing.
When You Should Not Use One
Against our own topic, and it covers a good share of readers.
You need one proxy for all browsing. Use the browser's own settings. No extension, no permission, no third party.
You want privacy. An extension does not encrypt your traffic from your device, and it hands a third party visibility over where you go. If privacy is the requirement, a reputable VPN or Tor Browser is the correct tool, and the difference is not a detail.
You are automating anything. Scraping, monitoring, testing at scale. Extensions are for interactive browsing. Use an HTTP library with a proxy parameter, or a headless browser configured directly.
Your traffic needs to be proxied outside the browser. Extensions cover one browser. Other applications are unaffected.
You cannot verify the extension. No repository, no visible maintainer, no update history. Given the permission involved, unverifiable should mean not installed.
You are on a managed device. Corporate policy may override extension proxy settings, and installing one may itself breach an acceptable use policy. Chrome's documentation notes that the effective proxy configuration can be determined by another extension or by policy — so your settings may not even be taking effect.
You are trying to reach one geo-restricted site occasionally. The permission you grant is permanent and broad; the need is narrow and temporary. The proportions are wrong.
When One Genuinely Helps
Per-site rules. Different proxies for different domains, automatically. The real reason this category exists.
Frequent switching. Testing how a site behaves from several countries, several times an hour. Two clicks beats reopening system preferences.
Keeping proxied and unproxied browsing separate in one browser, without touching anything else on the machine.
Development and QA work where you need to compare regional behaviour repeatedly.
People Also Ask
What happened to SwitchyOmega?
It is no longer maintained — its own repository says so — and it was disabled in Chrome and removed from the Chrome Web Store because it was not migrated to Manifest V3. Its author has said they did not have time to make a change of that size. ZeroOmega and OasisProxy are the commonly cited Manifest V3 successors.
Is ZeroOmega safe?
It is the most commonly cited successor and is open source. Given that many repositories now use SwitchyOmega-adjacent names, and at least one describes itself as fake, verify the specific repository you are installing from rather than trusting the name. The original project also warns that switchyomega.com and similar sites are not affiliated with it.
What is the best proxy extension for Chrome?
For per-site rules, the Manifest V3 successors to SwitchyOmega — ZeroOmega or OasisProxy. FoxyProxy has the longest track record in the category. If you only need one proxy for everything, use the system proxy settings and install nothing.
Are free proxy extensions safe?
Ones that manage proxies you supply are structurally safer, because their running costs are low. Ones that provide free proxy access have real bandwidth costs and must be funded somehow — by a paid tier, advertising, data sales, or by using your connection as an exit node for other people's traffic. Establish which before installing.
What permissions does a proxy extension need?
The proxy permission, which lets it set Chrome's proxy configuration including PAC scripts that decide the route for every request. Note that these settings also apply to incognito windows, which inherit from regular ones. Many extensions additionally request access to data on all websites, which is a much larger grant.
Does a proxy extension work in incognito mode?
The proxy configuration does apply, since incognito inherits settings from regular windows, though the extension itself must be permitted to run in incognito. Do not assume incognito is unproxied.
Do proxy extensions hide my IP address?
They change which address the sites you visit see, for traffic from that browser. They do not encrypt your connection, do not affect other applications, and the extension's author can see where you go. That is a narrower guarantee than most people assume.
Extension or browser proxy settings?
Browser settings if one proxy covers everything — free, built in, nothing granted. An extension only when you need per-site rules or frequent switching, which the built-in settings cannot express.
Wrapping Up
The most important thing to know about this category right now is that its default recommendation expired. SwitchyOmega is no longer maintained and was disabled in Chrome over the Manifest V3 migration, and the space around its name has filled with forks of wildly varying provenance — including one that says "fake" in its own description, and websites the original project explicitly disclaims.
That turns choosing a proxy extension into a security decision. The proxy permission lets an extension decide the route for every request your browser makes, including in incognito windows, which inherit the configuration. Add host permissions and it can read and modify pages after decryption. There is not much you can install in a browser that matters more, and download counts do not measure trustworthiness — if anything they measure how worthwhile an extension would be to acquire.
So: check the repository, not the name. Check the last commit. Grant the narrowest permissions offered. Prefer extensions that manage proxies you supply over ones that provide free bandwidth, because the second group has real costs and must be funded by something you have not been shown.
And check whether you need one at all. If a single proxy for all browsing is the requirement, the browser's own settings do it with no extension, no permission and no third party. That covers a large share of the people who arrive at this question, and it is the recommendation we would give even though it means recommending nothing.
Where an extension earns its place is per-site rules and rapid switching — genuinely useful, genuinely unavailable elsewhere. Just pick it the way you would pick something with root access to your browsing, because functionally that is what it is.
