Datacenter vs. Residential Proxies: A Buyer’s Guide

Datacenter proxies and residential proxies can hide IP addresses, but the real question lies in how practical each proxy is and how suitable they are to your business needs. To check this, make sure you try thepirateproxybay.

This article will give you a basic idea of what both proxies do and which of the two is best for you, considering the type of business you have.

What are Datacenter Proxies?

Although these proxies aren’t affiliated with any ISP (Internet Service Provider), some users testify that they still serve their purpose when it comes to data privacy. They originate from secondary corporations and thus can still provide users with an entirely private Internet Protocol address anonymity and authentication (depending on the company’s legitimacy).

However, these proxies also originate from cloud servers and are utilized by many users at the same time. Since they aren’t listed as Internet Service Providers, these IP addresses can actually be flagged by targets, which is why specific precautionary measures should be taken.

Nevertheless, users should remember 5 best residential proxy providers this shouldn’t be generalized as this isn’t the case with other datacenter proxies. Some proxies are well-optimized and private to ensure minimal to no Internet Protocol blacklisting.

What are Residential Proxies?

Dedicated residential proxies are IP addresses that are given by Internet Service Providers (ISP) to homeowners. They provide a real Internet Protocol address that’s linked to a geographical area and physical location. Basically, every time an internet user moves to another house or town and resets their internet settings, their Internet Service Provider will give them a new IP address.

Informed consent is a part of the legal process that’s required for a proxy service provider to obtain residential and mobile Internet Protocol addresses. This is to assess review tracking, scrape public data, or other purposes people might need a proxy server for. If you’re looking for high-quality proxy servers, check the Best Proxy Provider with 30M+ IPs | Oxylabs.

The proxy service provider’s network should include readily and voluntarily chosen associates only. The primary difference between residential and datacenter proxies depends on the IP source. The rest of their differences lie in their varying servers and household machines.

Datacenter vs. Residential Proxy Service

All the aforementioned descriptions might have given you a rough insight as to what datacenter and residential proxies are. Here, let us dissect their differences in terms of security, reliability, performance, and affordability.

Basically, residential proxies are:

1. Difficult to blacklist

This is probably one of the most common reasons why internet users prefer residential proxies over datacenter proxies. Since they are provided by real and reliable internet service providers, these proxy servers are more legitimate, making them more difficult to blacklist compared to their counterparts.

2. Used for monitoring and data collection

Residential proxies are often used for social media tracking, SEO monitoring, ad verification, and alternative information collection. So, if you are investing in more complex search engine monitoring, you might need a residential proxy to increase the visibility of your website and draw more traffic to your page.

With residential proxies, you can retrieve lots of relevant information within minutes. You can extract lots of data from hundreds or thousands of websites (which isn’t easily done manually). This means you can quickly track consumer sentiments, customer behavior, and actionable insights.

All of these cases are due to their ability to bypass geographical restrictions and completely secure and encrypt IP addresses.

Thus, if your business requires a more complex network security system to perform data crawling, extensive search engine monitoring, and data collection to reach out to a wider audience around the world, residential proxies are recommended.

More expensive

Any product or service that comes with high quality and promotes customer convenience can be pricey. So, it is only natural and justifiable for residential proxies to be more expensive than Datacenter proxies. With minimal chances of being blacklisted and a high degree of anonymity, residential proxies are really worth their price.

On the other hand, datacenter proxies are:

1. Not so reliable, but still secure

Datacenter proxies are obtained in bulk and originate from cloud providers; thus, they can be quickly identified and blacklisted, especially when acquired from an unreliable and untrusted provider.

However, if your company doesn’t have to secure any confidential data in your visited sites, a Datacenter proxy might be enough for you. Even though your visited sites can identify whether or not you are utilizing a datacenter proxy, datacenter proxies can still protect your IP address.

Also, if you utilize a private and secure datacenter proxy (you have to know how to obtain this), getting blacklisted or banned might no longer be a cause for concern.

2. Used mostly for email-related purposes

One of the most known use cases for a datacenter proxy is email security or email protection. Moreover, it can also be used for simple anonymous browsing, budget restrictions, gaming, and any other projects where connection speed is an essential factor.

3. Faster and more affordable

If you are on a budget, you may resort to bulk proxy service providers. They’re obviously cheaper compared to residential proxies — and also faster. Some online activities need faster proxy service performance. Thankfully, a datacenter proxy isoften faster than a residential proxy.

This allows you to finish your online tasks in a shorter time. Also, if you acquire them from reliable providers, you can enjoy the security you need.

Final thoughts

The decision of which proxy you should obtain lies in your business needs. For example, if complex functions like ad verification and data crawling aren’t very applicable to your business, but you need to invest in faster operations (quantity-focused), data centers are practical for you.

After all, they’re faster, more affordable, and can still keep your IP address secure as long as you obtained it from a reliable provider.

On the other hand, if your business demands extensive social media monitoring, data collection, and SEO monitoring, residential proxies are best for you. They are widely used to bypass geo-restrictions and track or reach potential customers across the globe.