Use case

Proxies for geo testing

You shipped local currencies, a cookie banner that should only appear in the EU, or a redirect to a regional store. You live in one country and your users do not. A datacenter IP in the country you are testing is the cheapest way to look.
Sound familiar?

What goes wrong

Geo logic is easy to write and awkward to test, because everything you check from your desk comes from one place.

  • The EU cookie banner shows for everyone, or for nobody
  • Currency or language detection sends people to the wrong store
  • A CDN edge in one region serves a stale build
  • A bug report from abroad that you cannot reproduce from home
How a proxy helps

What changes with one

Pick the country at checkout

Datacenter and ISP IPs are bought in a specific country, so a request from one exercises your geo code the way a local visitor would.

Quick enough for CI

Datacenter is the fastest line we sell, so a geo smoke test in your pipeline does not hold up the build.

curl is usually enough

Most geo bugs show up in redirects and headers. curl -I through the IP answers them without a browser.

When it will not help

If your geo logic reads the browser's language, time zone or GPS, changing the IP will not trigger it. And if your GeoIP database is out of date, a proxy will faithfully reproduce the wrong answer your users get, which is at least a start on the bug.

Which line

What to run it on

Start here

Datacenter

Your own site does not block datacenter ranges, so there is no reason to pay more. Pick the country at checkout and test.

from $1.50/IP/mo

Or

ISP

When your stack treats hosting ranges differently from home users, for example behind a bot filter, and you need to see the home-user path.

from $1.50/IP/mo

Back of the envelope

What it would cost

Worked out from today’s price list with the assumptions shown. Your pages will weigh something else, so measure fifty of them and redo the sum.

Datacenter, by the IP

One IP in each of the countries you sell to, used by a smoke test on every deploy

IPs, dedicated plan3

Term30 days

Rate at that size$3.20/IP/mo

Cost for the term$9.60

Priced from the per-IP ladder for a 30-day term, before optional add-ons for speed and threads, which checkout lists. Longer terms take up to 20% off. The shared plan costs $2.10/IP/mo, is shared by up to 3 customers, and includes 1 GB of traffic, then $0.35/GB. The country of each datacenter IP is chosen at checkout.

In code

The short version

Swap in your own credentials from the dashboard. It also lists the host and port for each order; where they differ from this example, the dashboard is right.

Full curl setup →

terminal
curl -sI -x http://USER:PASS@IP:PORT https://yoursite.example/ \
  | grep -iE '^(location|content-language|set-cookie|cf-ipcountry):'

What is off limits

  • Testing sites you do not own or have permission to test. Port scanning third parties and unauthorised vulnerability testing are on the not-fine list.
  • Using an IP in another country to get round a block a person has placed on you
  • Claiming regional sign-up offers again and again from different countries

From our acceptable use policy. We close accounts that break it, and refund the unused balance when we do.

Geo testing questions

Which countries can I test from?

Datacenter covers 70+ countries and ISP 70+. You pick the country when you order, and checkout shows the full list.

Can I use this in CI?

Yes. Store the credentials as CI secrets and pass them through the HTTPS_PROXY variable, which most HTTP clients read. A rented IP costs the same whether the test runs once a day or on every commit, unless you are on the shared plan with its traffic allowance.

Why does a GeoIP lookup disagree with the country I ordered?

GeoIP databases update on their own schedules and sometimes lag behind when an address moves. Post the IP and the database you checked in Discord and we will look into it.

Do I need a browser for this?

Only if the geo logic runs in client-side JavaScript. Redirects, headers and server-rendered prices all show up with curl.

The community layer

Stuck on geo testing?

Post the target and the error in Discord. Somebody has usually hit the same wall and will tell you whether a proxy is even the fix.

Join the Discord

4,200+monkeys in the Discord

  • Help from humans

    Post your error, get an answer. Usually in minutes, usually from someone who has hit the same wall.

  • A status bot that tells on us

    Pool health, incidents and maintenance posted automatically. Including the bad days.

  • Deals and free traffic

    Bonus GB drops, early access to new pools, and the occasional giveaway for a good bug report.

Join the Discord4,200+ monkeys, free to lurk