There are many proxy types available at present, so choosing the proxy type may be overwhelming. Residential proxies always stand out from the rest. But there are many misunderstandings and questions around this specific agent type. For example, why choose a residential agent? Are they legal? Why are they so expensive? Today’s article will answer all the above questions and clarify common misunderstandings. Let us briefly explain what a residential IP is, so that the follow-up questions can get the answers.

Residential IPs are associated with physical devices, including phones, tablets, and computers. These IP addresses are assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and registered in public databases, allowing websites to identify the device’s ISP, network, and geographic location.

A residential proxy is an intermediary server between users and websites. The only difference is that they use real IP addresses assigned to actual users by Internet Service Providers. These proxies can be used to enhance your online privacy or to scrape public online data from harder-to-reach targets that other types of proxies cannot. With residential proxies, you can simulate visits from different countries and regions, accessing global content with real regional IPs.

While a residential proxy server in itself is a specific type, these proxies can also be split into different sub-categories.

Mobile proxies use the IP addresses of mobile devices. Similar to dedicated residential proxies, mobile residential proxies are highly reliable and speedy. Of course, that comes at a cost – these proxies are known to be on the more expensive side. However, it’s not uncommon for mobile proxies to get blocked by websites.

Rotating residential proxies automatically switch IP addresses randomly after certain periods of time. As a result, they’re highly secure and difficult for websites to detect, making them one of the priciest proxies on the market.

Static residential proxies use a real residential IP address from an actual internet service provider (ISP) rather than proxy server farms. Since these IP addresses are under contract from an actual ISP, your online activity appears to be regular traffic to any server you visit.

Solve IP Blocking Problem: Powerful proxies are able to bypass the IP blocking mechanism of the target website and prevent scraping activities from being blocked. When you use a proxy to browse or scrape a web page, the website will treat you as a real user, not an automated robot. Therefore, the success rate of scraping can be greatly improved.

Increase Scraping Speed: Residential proxies generally provide more stable network connections, which are more reliable than data center proxies.
A good residential proxy service can ensure 99% uptime, without sudden slowdowns or disconnections.

Improve Privacy And Anonymity: When you use proxies, rotating IPs prevent websites from tagging your activities, ensuring that your data is protected from potential threats. Safe browsing is essential, especially when scraping sensitive data or conducting competitive analysis.

Another very common type of proxy, which is often compared to residential proxies, is the datacenter proxy. While they both have the same core functionality – changing your original IP address and routing your traffic through it – they differ significantly in terms of origin, pricing, and other factors. Let’s look at the main differences.

Unlike residential proxies, which are provided by Internet Service Providers with real people’s IP addresses, datacenter proxies come from data centers or cloud hosting services.

Blurpath’s residential network still offers the cheapest residential proxies, providing premium quality, powerful features, and unmatched stealth, which datacenter proxies lack when crawling challenging websites.

Residential proxies allow you to simulate natural behavior, so it’s harder for websites to detect and block you.

Residential proxies can be used for most use cases related to web scraping. Here are some specific examples:

The process of collecting, processing, and analyzing competitor prices. With residential proxies, you can simulate real-life scraping and collect public data from any e-commerce marketplace while avoiding being blocked.

Ad verification can be performed for different goals; therefore, it is often divided into types such as Facebook Ad Verification, Amazon Ad Verification, Google Ad Verification, etc. Residential proxies are a perfect digital ad verification solution as they provide unique, organic, and geographically diverse IP addresses for accessing overseas content.

Review monitoring is the process of checking what customers are saying about a brand on the internet. It involves monitoring brand mentions, negative reviews, or customer feedback on multiple review sites. Residential proxies allow you to collect reviews from anywhere in the world without any hindrance.

As an efficient and stable proxy type, residential proxies can effectively help data crawlers bypass IP blocking, increase crawling speed, and ensure the long-term stability of crawling activities. By choosing the right residential proxy service provider, setting up proxy pools, and controlling crawling frequency and latency, you can greatly improve the efficiency and success rate of data scraping.