To hide your IP address or bypass content restrictions, proxies are typically used. They come in various types. Today, we will compare two of the most popular types of proxies—server proxies and residential proxies—discussing their advantages, disadvantages, and use cases.
How Server Proxies Work
Server (Datacenter) proxies are the most common type. When used, an IP address they are issued by cloud service providers. These addresses are not associated with residential internet service providers.
Server proxies are used to hide the real IP address or bypass content restrictions based on geolocation, as well as to encrypt traffic. Often, certain web services restrict access for users from specific countries—like Netflix, for example. Users in such locations can obtain a US IP address using server proxies to bypass the restrictions.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Server Proxies
Server proxies are easy to use and can effectively perform their primary task—masking the real IP address and granting access to blocked content.
It's important to understand that in the case of server proxies, the IP addresses are not provided by the home internet provider, but by hosting providers. Many modern web resources limit connections from server IP addresses because they are often used by various bots.
How Residential Proxies Work
In turn, a residential proxy is an IP address issued by a real internet provider from a specific city, region, or state. Typically, these addresses are assigned to homeowners and are noted in the databases of regional internet registries (RIR). When used correctly, requests from such addresses cannot be distinguished from those of real users.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Residential Proxies
Since residential proxies have IP addresses issued by home internet providers, the likelihood of them being added to various blacklists and blocked is extremely low. Additionally, these addresses can be issued dynamically and can change frequently for each user.
Their use increases the likelihood of accessing the desired content on the internet: no one will block requests from IP addresses that belong to home internet providers rather than hosting companies. For this reason, residential proxies are better suited for data collection and analysis tasks. Consequently, companies that need to gather data from various sources and bypass potential blocks use such proxies.
In this case, server proxies typically outperform residential ones in speed and are also cheaper.
What to Choose
When selecting proxies, one should consider the tasks at hand. If you need to mask your IP address while performing operations quickly and at minimal cost, and the likelihood of being blocked is not particularly concerning, a server proxy would be the optimal choice.
However, if you need a reliable tool for data collection, with a wide range of geolocations and minimal chances of getting blacklisted or blocked, residential proxies turn out to be more convenient.
Source: habr.com
