Wondering how residential and ISP proxies compare? After all, both proxy types hide your IP address.
So, what’s the difference? And why should you choose one over another? Let’s find out.
Residential proxies are IP addresses owned by Internet service providers and
assigned to real people – their computers, phones or any other smart devices connected to Wi-Fi.
The way residential proxies hide your IP is simple. Instead of sending the connection
request directly to your wanted website, you send the request to a proxy server, which then
routes the request through a residential device and then connects to the website.
Because of this, residential proxies have many strengths:
Differently than datacenter or ISP proxies, resis rarely share the same subnet. So, you can forget
accidentally blocking a bunch of IPs at once. And get this, residential proxy providers control
thousands – or even millions – of different IP addresses. That’s why
you’ll hardly get the same IP address twice. You’ll also be able to select IP addresses
pretty much anywhere in the world. Most importantly, a residential
proxy is hard to block. Since it’s hosted on a real device, the IP looks like a regular user.
However, these proxies are several times slower than datacenter or ISP addresses. That’s because
they rely on the internet quality of end users and add an extra element to the connection path.
Also, resis aren’t a good choice if you need to keep the same IP for a long time.
Even if the provider offers a sticky session of 10 or more minutes,
end users can disconnect at any moment. And then there’s the whole sharing aspect…
Residential proxy providers give all customers access to the same proxy pool.
That means you’re gonna share those IPs with others. What’s wrong with that,
you ask? Watch our video about the difference between private and shared proxies to find out.
Getting back to residential proxies though. So, all things considered,
when should you choose this proxy type? First, if you need to access well-protected
websites. That would be social media platforms, sneaker stores and
highly-scraped sites like Wayfair. Second, residential proxies are very helpful
if you need to view localized content or work with multiple locations at once.
I’m talking - location-sensitive tasks like ad verification or SEO monitoring,
which sometimes even require such features as city-level targeting.
But enough about resis. What about ISP proxies? Are they a better option?
ISP or static residential proxies attempt to combine the best qualities of datacenter
and residential proxies. Like residential proxies,
they’re owned by internet service providers and not web hosting services;
like datacenter proxies, they’re hosted on servers at data centers, without involving end users.
What this means is that ISP proxies don’t need to rely on iffy end-user connections.
These IPs are fast, stable, and always available on-demand.
They’re also relatively hard to detect. It’s because ISP proxies are owned by
internet service providers, which have a much better reputation than cloud hosting services.
On top of that, some ISP proxy providers offer
unlimited traffic plans. This is very useful when carrying out data-intensive activities.
But let’s be real, ISP proxies are not perfect either:
Just like with datacenter proxies, it’s hard to get IPs in a wide
range of countries. So ISPs will give you fewer locations to choose from than resis.
It’s also hard to get big commercial ISPs on board, so many of the IPs end
up registered with small, regional companies. IP databases often identify them as datacenter IPs,
which negates the main benefit of ISP proxies. Besides, ISP proxies can’t escape one of the
downsides of datacenter IPs – they’re simply too organized. Having neat IP
ranges sacrifices diversity. So, you’re still at risk of getting your whole subnet banned.
Then when should you choose ISP proxies over residential?
When performing traffic-intensive tasks, definitely. A good example
would be sneaker copping. Since you can buy ISP proxies by IP address,
you won’t have to pay extra for bandwidth. ISP proxies are also the best pick when it
comes to protected websites that require a consistent identity.
What would that be? Facebook and Instagram are a few examples. That’s why multiple
social media account management often relies on the help of ISP proxies.
Already know which type you like better? If so,
here are the videos that will help you choose the best providers of residential and ISP proxies.
Click to watch and sleep soundly knowing damn well you made the right purchase. See you there!