3 Ways to Use Proxies in Node.js: Impit, Axios, and Fetch

When building Node.js applications that need to route traffic through proxies, you have several excellent options. Here's a comprehensive guide to the three most effective methods for implementing proxy support in your Node.js applications.

Why Use Proxies in Node.js?

Before diving into implementation, it's worth understanding when and why you'd want to route your Node.js requests through proxies:

• Web Scraping: Avoid IP bans and rate limiting by rotating through different proxy servers
• Geographic Restrictions: Access region-locked content or APIs from different locations
• Corporate Networks: Route traffic through company proxies when required by network policies
• Privacy and Anonymity: Hide your application's real IP address from target servers
• Load Distribution: Spread requests across multiple exit points to avoid overwhelming single IPs

Method 1: Impit - The Modern Browser-Like Solution

Impit represents the evolution of browser automation and HTTP client libraries, offering a more sophisticated approach to proxy management with browser-like capabilities.

Basic Impit Implementation

 import { Impit } from "impit";  // Configure the Impit instance with proxy settings const impit = new Impit({  browser: "chrome", // or "firefox"   proxyUrl: "http://username:password@ip:port",  ignoreTlsErrors: true, });  // Make requests through the configured proxy const response = await impit.get("https://example.com"); console.log("Response:", response.data);

Impit Advantages

• Browser Emulation: Impit provides browser-like behavior, making it excellent for scraping JavaScript-heavy sites
• Built-in Proxy Support: Native proxy configuration without additional dependencies
• TLS Flexibility: The ignoreTlsErrors option helps with proxy configurations that have certificate issues
• Multiple Browser Engines: Support for both Chrome and Firefox behavior patterns

When to Use Impit

Impit is ideal when you need browser-like capabilities combined with proxy support:

• Scraping single-page applications that rely heavily on JavaScript
• Accessing sites with complex authentication flows
• When you need to maintain sessions across multiple requests
• Sites that detect and block non-browser user agents

Method 2: Axios with HTTPS Proxy Agent - The Reliable Classic

Axios remains one of the most popular HTTP clients for Node.js, and combining it with https-proxy-agent provides robust proxy support with familiar syntax.

Implementation

 import axios from "axios"; import { HttpsProxyAgent } from "https-proxy-agent";  // Create the proxy agent const agent = new HttpsProxyAgent("http://username:password@ip:port");  // Make requests through the proxy const response = await axios.get("https://example.com", {  httpsAgent: agent, });  console.log("Response:", response.data);

Advanced Axios Proxy Configuration

For more complex scenarios, you can configure different agents for HTTP and HTTPS:

 import { HttpProxyAgent } from "http-proxy-agent"; import { HttpsProxyAgent } from "https-proxy-agent";  const httpAgent = new HttpProxyAgent("http://username:password@ip:port"); const httpsAgent = new HttpsProxyAgent("http://username:password@ip:port");  const response = await axios.get("https://example.com", {  httpAgent: httpAgent,  httpsAgent: httpsAgent,  timeout: 10000, // 10 second timeout });

Axios Advantages

• Mature Ecosystem: Extensive documentation, middleware, and community support
• Flexible Configuration: Detailed control over request/response interceptors, timeouts, and headers
• Error Handling: Built-in error handling and retry mechanisms
• Familiar API: Most developers already know Axios syntax

When to Use Axios

Axios with proxy agents works best for:

• API integrations that don't require browser-like behavior
• High-performance applications where you need fine-tuned control
• Applications already using Axios throughout the codebase
• When you need advanced features like request/response interceptors

Method 3: Native Fetch with Proxy Agent - The Lightweight Approach

Node.js's native fetch (available from Node 18+) or the node-fetch library provides a lightweight alternative that closely mirrors the browser's Fetch API.

Using Node-Fetch (For Older Node Versions)

 import fetch from 'node-fetch'; import { HttpsProxyAgent } from "https-proxy-agent";  const agent = new HttpsProxyAgent("http://username:password@ip:port");  const response = await fetch("https://example.com", {  agent, });  const data = await response.json(); console.log("Data:", data);

Using Native Fetch (Node 18+)

 import { HttpsProxyAgent } from "https-proxy-agent";  const agent = new HttpsProxyAgent("http://username:password@ip:port");  // Note: Native fetch in Node.js uses 'dispatcher' instead of 'agent' const response = await fetch("https://example.com", {  dispatcher: agent, });  const data = await response.json();

Fetch Advantages

• Lightweight: Minimal overhead compared to full-featured HTTP clients
• Standard API: Matches browser fetch API for code portability
• Promise-Based: Clean async/await syntax
• No Dependencies: Native fetch eliminates external dependencies (Node 18+)

When to Use Fetch

Fetch with proxy agents is perfect for:

• Simple HTTP requests that don't need advanced features
• Applications prioritizing minimal dependencies
• Code that needs to work in both browser and Node.js environments
• Microservices where bundle size matters

Choosing the Right Method

Use Impit when:

• You need browser-like behavior
• Scraping JavaScript-heavy sites
• Session management is important
• You want built-in proxy configuration

Use Axios when:

• You need advanced HTTP client features
• Your application already uses Axios
• You require request/response interceptors
• Fine-grained control is important

Use Fetch when:

• You want minimal dependencies
• Making simple HTTP requests
• Code portability between browser/Node.js is important
• You're using Node.js 18+ and want to avoid external dependencies