In the world of TikTok e-commerce, many Chinese sellers are actively searching for reliable IP solutions. Among these, residential IPs have become highly popular. Most sellers believe that residential IPs are far superior to datacenter IPs in many aspects. But is that really the case?

Let's break down the differences between ISP (residential) IPs and hosting/IDC (datacenter) IPs by first understanding what they are and how they differ.

Residential IP (also called a home IP): This is the IP address assigned by an internet service provider (ISP) to a home broadband user. The IP of the user device is the same as the IP of the network connection—it's a genuine IP used by real people at home.

Datacenter IP (also called a hosting or IDC IP): These are IP addresses provided by data centers, built with large server clusters. A major characteristic of datacenter IPs is that they often come in sequential ranges (i.e., one after another), and they are marked as commercial-use IPs by ISPs.

We can compare them from three major perspectives: IP Resource Distribution, Business Scenarios, and Pricing.

From the table above, it's clear that residential and datacenter IPs serve different purposes and are not directly interchangeable.

Residential IPs are focused on IP diversity and are more suitable for scenarios that require frequent IP rotation or location-based targeting.

Datacenter IPs prioritize network stability and low cost, making them a better choice for corporate infrastructure or fixed-IP applications.

For example, based on real testing in the U.S. TikTok market:

When posting the same video template on a new account, we observed that a residential IP could reach a base view count of 800–1000, while the datacenter IP typically achieved 500–800 views

So yes, there's a slight performance difference, but it's not dramatic. There's no absolute need to chase residential IPs—you should choose based on your actual business needs.

Many users also ask us:
What's the difference between dynamic IPs and static IPs? And which one does your product use?
Our TK-Box system always uses static IPs. Here's a simple breakdown of the difference:

Dynamic IPs require reassigning a new IP each time the device connects to the network. They're suitable for users who don't require high stability and are mainly browsing the internet.

Static IPs, on the other hand, are fixed and pre-assigned during ISP installation. They provide stable connections, which is crucial for consistent online performance.

That's why static IPs generally offer better quality—they're more reliable, stable, and secure, whereas dynamic IPs can be unpredictable.