How to Choose a Proxy for Each Business Workflow
The right proxy depends less on technology than on the job in front of your team. A pricing analyst reading public catalogue pages, an SEO agency tracking local rankings for clients, an ad-ops team confirming where campaigns run and a social media manager looking after brand accounts all ask different things of an IP. One question sorts them: how closely does the target site check where traffic comes from?
This guide turns that question into a short buying process, so the team pays for trust only where a workflow needs it. We sell four types: datacenter, residential, mobile and Residential Premium. ISP proxies are not a separate product here; when a task needs one steady address, Residential Premium can hold an IP through a sticky session. Whichever you pick, use it for legitimate business work within each site’s terms of service and applicable law.
We write these guides for e-commerce, marketing and agency teams that pay for proxies by the gigabyte.
Start from the workflow, not the proxy
List the sites behind each workflow, then ask of each one: does it look at the network an IP belongs to?
Many don’t. Plenty of supplier catalogues, public APIs and news sources answer every visitor the same way, and low-cost datacenter IPs handle them well. Sites that do check expect to see an address on a household or carrier network, so residential or mobile is the answer there. If you can’t tell, trial a small datacenter order and step up only where the results fall short.
Four types, four price points
Trust and price rise together, so match spend to need:
- Datacenter — bulk collection from sites that don’t screen networks, from $3.50/GB.
- Residential — local search results, ad checks and price research on sites that do, from $3.99/GB.
- Mobile (4G/5G) — social and app work built around phones, from $4.50/GB.
- Residential Premium — the toughest targets, where a failed request costs more than the data, and logged-in work that keeps one trusted IP for a session, from $6.50/GB.
Datacenter is quick and inexpensive but earns less trust on defended sites. Residential gives dependable high trust at a moderate rate. Mobile earns very high trust because carriers share each IP among many real subscribers. Residential Premium is our premium residential tier, kept for demanding sites where a standard pool sees more failed requests.
Match each workflow to a type
The table lines up the four types against typical team workloads, from bulk catalogue collection to the hardest targets. A common pattern is two tiers: an inexpensive one for volume and a high-trust one for the few sites that need it. For closer comparisons, read datacenter vs residential and ISP vs residential.
| Proxy type | IP source | Trust | Speed | Typical price/GB | Typical team use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datacenter | Cloud and hosting ranges | Lower | Very fast | from $3.50 | High-volume collection from unprotected sites, automation, SEO tools |
| Residential | Household lines from consumer ISPs | High | Medium | from $3.99 | Market research, ad verification and geo-accurate checks on protected sites |
| Mobile (4G/5G) | 4G/5G carrier networks | Very high | Medium | from $4.50 | Phone-first platforms, app and mobile ad testing |
| Residential Premium | Curated pool of real-user IPs | Very high | High | from $6.50 | Hard targets where every failed request is costly |
Finish with protocol, session mode and country
Three settings complete the order. Protocol: HTTP/HTTPS covers web-based tools, and SOCKS5 handles the rest. Rotation: a new IP per request for independent page checks, a sticky session for anything behind a login or a basket. Market: coverage spans 55+ countries, and major markets can be narrowed to a city, so each check runs from where your client or its buyers are.
Budget by data used, not the headline rate
Every tier is billed per gigabyte, so a workflow’s real cost depends on the data it moves. Text-only page checks are light; loading full pages in a headless browser, images and scripts included, uses far more data. Run both scenarios through the proxy calculator, then check the tier rates on the pricing page.
When the numbers work, buy in a minute. Each order lasts a fixed 30 days and does not renew automatically, so finance has no subscription to track.
Match the pool to the workflow
Every pool is billed per GB and run from the same dashboard, so one team can keep low-cost volume work and high-trust checks side by side.
High-volume collection from unprotected sites, automation, SEO tools
Market research, ad verification and geo-accurate checks on protected sites
Phone-first platforms, app and mobile ad testing
Hard targets where every failed request is costly
Covering several markets in one report? MIX packages combine multi-country residential traffic in a single order. Agencies buying on behalf of clients can apply for the reseller programme.
Get your team running
Per-GB pricing from $3.50 · 55+ countries · instant delivery · 30-day validity · no traffic logs · 24/7 human support
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1
Size the job
Pick a proxy type in the proxy calculator and enter the gigabytes you expect to use to see the order total.
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2
Order and pay
Choose the pool on the proxies page and pay by card through Stripe or in crypto through Cryptomus. Each order is billed per GB and does not renew on its own.
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3
Share access
Credentials appear in the dashboard as soon as payment clears. Add them to each tool with a login or an IP whitelist, then send one test request before the real job starts.
Questions team leads ask
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