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Proxy basics

Residential vs Datacenter vs Mobile Proxies

The three kinds of proxy differ in one thing: who the IP address belongs to. That decides how a website treats it, and what it costs.

Updated · 2 min read

Who owns the address

Every IP address is registered to a network. Websites look that network up, and the answer falls into one of three groups.

  • A residential address belongs to a home internet provider. It is what an ordinary visitor at home has.
  • A mobile address belongs to a phone carrier. Carriers put many phones behind each address, so one address stands for a crowd of real people.
  • A datacenter address belongs to a hosting company. It is fast and cheap, and it plainly is not somebody's home.

How websites treat each kind

A site that wants only human visitors is strict with datacenter addresses, because few people browse from a server. It is careful with residential addresses, since blocking one may block a customer. It is most careful with mobile addresses: blocking one carrier address can lock out hundreds of phones at once.

A site that does not mind automated visitors treats all three the same, and then the cheapest one is the right one.

What they cost

Residential and mobile traffic is sold by the gigabyte, because each gigabyte passes through a real connection somewhere. Datacenter traffic costs little to carry, so it can be sold by time instead, with no limit on the amount.

Which to choose

  • Managing accounts, checking ads, or seeing a site as a local visitor: residential.
  • Apps and platforms that are used mostly on phones: mobile.
  • Large downloads, or targets in the United States that accept any address: unlimited datacenter.
  • Collecting public pages in volume, where only the country matters: residential lite.
  • Targets that are reachable over IPv6: the IPv6 plans, which cost far less per gigabyte.

If you are not sure, start with one gigabyte of residential and try it on your target. A proxy either works there or it does not, and a small plan answers the question for very little.

Questions

Are residential proxies always better?

No. They are better at being accepted, and worse on price and speed. For a target that accepts datacenter addresses, paying for residential traffic gains you nothing.

Can I mix them?

Yes. Each plan is separate, so you can keep a datacenter plan for heavy downloads and a residential one for the sites that need it.