Which proxy do I need?
The questions
The rules, in full
Each answer adds points to a line, takes some away, or rules it out. Highest total wins. On a tie, datacenter beats residential beats ISP, because the cheaper test comes first.
1. What are you pointing it at?
| Answer | Residential | ISP | Datacenter | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big retail, ticketing or social sites | Strongly for (+3) | For (+2) | Strongly against (−4) | Sites like these block hosting ranges. Residential and ISP addresses are registered to consumer ISPs, so they get the normal page. Datacenter IPs are a hosting range. |
| Search engine results | Strongly for (+3) | For (+1) | Strongly against (−3) | Search engines block hosting ranges quickly, sometimes on the first query. Rotating home IPs keep getting answers. One static ISP address works if you keep the rate slow. |
| Small sites, public APIs, sites that do not check | Against (−1) | No effect | Strongly for (+3) | A site that lets server IPs in does not need a home address. Datacenter is the fastest line we sell, and a dedicated datacenter IP has no traffic meter. |
| Not sure yet | No effect | No effect | For (+1) | Test before you spend. Fetch the target through one datacenter IP: 200s mean it does not care where you come from, 403s mean it blocks hosting ranges and you want residential. |
2. Does it need the same IP across requests?
| Answer | Residential | ISP | Datacenter | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No, I want a new IP on every request | Strongly for (+3) | Against (−2) | Against (−1) | Residential rotates to a different home IP on every request, so no single address builds up a history on the target. ISP and datacenter IPs are fixed addresses. |
| For a few minutes at a time | For (+1) | For (+1) | For (+1) | All three lines can hold one address that long. Residential has short sticky sessions, and ISP and datacenter IPs never change during the term. |
| Yes, across logins and days | Ruled out | Strongly for (+4) | For (+2) | Residential rotates and its sticky sessions last minutes. ISP and datacenter IPs stay yours for the whole term, and ISP is the one built for logged-in sessions you intend to keep. |
3. Does the traffic have to come from a particular country?
| Answer | Residential | ISP | Datacenter | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No, anywhere is fine | No effect | No effect | No effect | Every line works without a country choice, so this answer moves nothing. |
| Yes, one or a few countries I can name | Ruled out | For (+1) | For (+1) | ISP and datacenter IPs are bought in the country you pick at checkout. Residential has no country targeting: you get the whole pool and cannot pin it to one country. |
| Lots of countries, I do not mind which | For (+2) | No effect | No effect | Residential draws from a pool spread over many countries and rotates through it. A per-IP line puts each address in one country. |
4. How much traffic will it move?
| Answer | Residential | ISP | Datacenter | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not much | For (+1) | No effect | No effect | Residential is pay as you go by the GB and the balance does not expire, so a small job costs a small amount. ISP and datacenter bill the whole term whether you use it or not. |
| Lots | Against (−2) | For (+1) | For (+2) | Residential bills every byte, request plus response. A dedicated ISP or datacenter IP costs the same for the term however much it moves. The shared plan includes a little traffic and charges for more. |
| No idea yet | No effect | No effect | No effect | This answer moves nothing. Work the number out with the bandwidth calculator before paying for anything. |
5. How tight is the budget?
| Answer | Residential | ISP | Datacenter | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tight. I want to know the bill up front | No effect | For (+1) | For (+1) | ISP and datacenter have a fixed price per IP for the term. A per-GB meter grows with the job. |
| I will pay more if it works first time | For (+1) | For (+1) | No effect | Residential and ISP addresses belong to consumer ISPs, which is what picky sites check. Residential is also what people move to when cheaper proxies broke. |
6. How much does speed matter?
| Answer | Residential | ISP | Datacenter | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A lot. Timeouts and latency hurt | Against (−1) | For (+2) | For (+2) | Datacenter is the fastest line we sell and ISP runs at datacenter latency. Residential exits through home connections, which are slower. |
| Not much, it can wait | No effect | No effect | No effect | Every line is fast enough for a job that can wait, so this answer moves nothing. |
Three lines, and when each is wrong
from $1.75/GB
- Scraping sites that block datacenter ranges
- Sneaker and ticket bots
- Spreading requests across many countries at once
- Anything that broke on cheaper proxies
Wrong for: Jobs that have to come from one named country: residential cannot be pinned to one, ISP and datacenter can. Also bulk crawls of sites that let datacenter IPs in, where a dedicated datacenter IP has no traffic meter at all.
from $1.50/IP/mo
- Logged-in sessions and accounts you intend to keep
- Multi-step flows that break when the IP changes halfway
- Sites that block hosting ranges but punish rotation
- Residential trust without the residential latency
Wrong for: Jobs that need thousands of different addresses. One static IP gets rate-limited eventually — rotate with residential instead.
from $1.50/IP/mo
- Bulk crawling of sites that do not care where you come from
- API polling and price monitoring
- Anything where speed matters more than looking residential
- Learning to scrape without burning $50
Wrong for: Sites that hard-block hosting ranges. You will get 403s and we will not pretend otherwise — go residential.
Want the long version? Which proxy type do you need walks through the same trade-offs with examples, and the bandwidth calculator puts a number on the traffic.
Questions about the chooser
Can residential give me an IP in one particular country?
No. Residential is sold without country targeting. The pool covers 180+ countries and the rotation picks one for you. ISP and datacenter IPs are bought in the country you choose at checkout, which is why a country requirement rules residential out here.
ISP and datacenter are both rented per IP. What is the difference?
Both are rented for 30 to 365 days, with the country picked at checkout, and they cost the same per IP. An ISP address is registered to a consumer ISP, so a site that blocks hosting ranges treats it like a home connection. A datacenter address belongs to a hosting company. Picky sites refuse it; everywhere else it is the fastest line we sell.
How is residential billed?
By the GB, pay as you go. We count request bytes plus response bytes, headers included, and every request shows up in your usage log with the bytes it was billed for. The bandwidth calculator estimates a job before you top up.
How does the chooser decide?
Each answer adds points to a line, takes some away, or rules a line out. The line with the most points wins and the next one is the runner-up. On a tie, datacenter beats residential beats ISP, because the cheaper test comes first. The full table is on this page.
Still unsure? Ask in #help.
Post the site and the job. Someone who runs the same thing will tell you which line they use, and quite often it is the cheap one.
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