Which proxy to buy

Start with the target, not the price list

Every line here reaches the open web. What differs is how the site at the other end treats the address. Some targets serve a datacenter address like any other visitor. Others answer it with a check page or refuse it outright, because hosting ranges are easy to recognise.

So the first question is whether your target accepts a datacenter address, and the cheapest way to find out is one shared datacenter IP at $1.25 for 30 days. If the target accepts it and nothing below rules it out, stop there: datacenter is the lowest price per IP on this site.

If the target turns it away, the choice narrows to the two lines that look like home connections: ISP and residential. Whichever line you pick, the allowed-use policy applies, and so do the target’s own terms.

One steady address, or a different one each time

Some work has to look like one visitor over days: an account you manage, a basket that must survive the session, a page you check from the same place every morning. That needs a static address, which here means ISP proxies: a fixed IP on a consumer internet provider’s network, sold per IP from $2.10 a month. Other sellers often list the same kind of address as static residential proxies. An ISP order can pick the carrier, and a region and city where stock allows.

Other work is many unrelated requests, where it helps if each one arrives from a different household connection. That is the rotating residential pool, billed by the gigabyte instead of by the address.

Whether the country matters

Residential comes as one rotating pool with no country to pick. If the job is about one market, such as German shop prices or Japanese search results, residential is out and the per-IP lines are in. Both take a country, and a region and city where stock allows.

The country list shows where each per-IP line sells and the date that list was captured. Live stock decides what the order form offers on the day.

Bytes or addresses: pick the meter

Residential charges for traffic, from $5.50 for one GB down to $1.75 per GB on a 1,000 GB order. The ISP and datacenter lines charge per IP per term instead. Their shared plans include 1 GB per IP, and the dedicated and virgin plans are not metered by the gigabyte.

That gives a rough rule. Heavy pages fetched through a few addresses favour a per-IP plan, because on a metered line the page weight is the bill. Light requests spread across many addresses favour residential by the GB. The traffic guide turns page weight into a GB figure before you commit.

Fit the first order to the budget

Top-ups start at $5. At current prices that buys 4 IPs on the shared datacenter plan or 2 IPs on the shared ISP plan for 30 days. The smallest residential order is one GB at $5.50.

Once a line has proved itself, the per-IP price falls with quantity and with a longer term, up to 20 percent off for 365 days, and the per-GB price falls with the size of a residential order. The pricing page carries the full ladder. Before you buy at a higher rung, run the five checks on the small order.

Three orders this walk-through tends to produce

Each of these comes from a different set of answers. Treat them as starting points; your own checks have the final say.

• Daily price checks on a retailer that accepts datacenter traffic, in one country: shared datacenter IPs in that country, moved to a longer term once they work.
• Accounts you manage, each of which should keep one address: dedicated ISP IPs, one per account, with the carrier chosen where stock allows.
• Public data from many sites, collected at a reasonable rate where each site allows it and with no country requirement: rotating residential, bought at the GB rung the job needs.