The 6 Best Craigslist Proxy Providers of 2023

Main Uses of Craigslist Proxies

You can reap the benefits of craigslist proxies in many ways, however, the most common uses are: posting on different countries and cities than your own locale, bulk posting, and scraping.

Target Other Countries and Cities on Craigslist

Craigslist operates in 570 cities and 70 countries. As you probably already know, it caters to local communities. That’s why requests from different countries and even cities are restricted. As a result, you won’t be able to post anything on the New York board if you live, say, in the UK. If you try, you’ll find Craigslist blocking your IP address.

Does that mean your business should forgo Craigslist as a sales platform? Not necessarily. Simply use a Craigslist proxy server, and it will make you look like a local.

Post Multiple Craigslist Ads

Did you know that Craigslist actually allows bulk posting? There are only a few small details. To use the Craigslist API, you have to:

1. Be a high volume poster (post hundreds of ads every month)
2. Limit your posts to three categories: jobs (offered), apartment rentals (in the NYC only), for sale by dealer.
3. Be selected on a case-by-case basis by Craigslist itself.

Everyone else is limited to one advertisement in one category once every 48 hours. Pretty disappointing, right? Don’t worry, there’s a way around it. You’ll need a Craigslist proxy server to post multiple ads successfully.

However, even with proxies, you need to keep some things in mind. Use separate proxies for separate postings. Don’t make posts at the same time; they should be at least slightly different and without spammy words such as “free” or “weight loss.” 

Scrape Craigslist

Unlike many other online platforms, Craigslist does not have an API for data retrieval. In other words, you can’t collect data from it automatically – you’d effectively have to copy it by hand. Thankfully, you can use a Craigslist scraper to get the information you need. There are multiple tools you can use for the task, such as Scrapy, Phantom Buster, or Python Craigslist Scraper.

No matter which tool you use, you’re going to need proxies. Without them, Craigslist will quickly detect an unusual number of requests and block your IP from the website. With good residential proxies, however, you’ll be able to scrape Craigslist at scale without getting blocked.

What data do people want from Craigslist, exactly? Some users scrape Craigslist to keep an eye on items that are being sold (tickets, for example). Others use scrapers to find something for personal use. Businesses use Craigslist proxies to retrieve website data so that they can generate leads. Usually, they go through the postings and collect email addresses.

How to Choose the Best Proxy Service for Craigslist

Here’s a few tips for getting your Craigslist proxies right the first time:

• Get residential IPs for scraping – they rotate automatically, so residential proxies will be much easier to work with. They are also harder to identify as proxies and consequently block.
• Prefer residential IPs for new listings – residential proxies usually include more locations to choose from, especially cities. If you don’t need that, dedicated datacenter proxies should do just fine – and cost less.
• Choose a provider with many locations (and make sure you can actually target them) – this is to ensure you’ll be able to access whichever Craigslist board you need. But finding a provider with high location coverage isn’t enough – you must also be able to target them.
• Don’t buy SOCKS5 proxies – they won’t bring you any benefits, only extra expenses.

Avoid Free Craigslist Proxy Servers

When it comes to money, we all love to save a buck or two when the opportunity appears. But no matter how tempted you are to give free proxies a shot, we advise against it. Free proxies are highly problematic. First of all, there are hardly any free services on the market that would work well with Craigslist. Another thing worth noting is that free proxies don’t guarantee that they are safe to use. Still unconvinced? You can read more on the topic here. 

The Best Proxies for Craigslist Posting and Scraping

1. GeoSurf Quality proxies with thousands of cities.

2. Bright Data Premium provider with a pool of 72M static and rotating residential IPs.

With a giant pool of 72M static and rotating residential IPs, Bright Data is one of the largest proxy providers in the market. It offers a wide range of features and even more targeting options (such as carrier and ASN). Additionally, Bright Data has a number of helpful tools to control your proxies, such as its open source proxy manager. You can do neat tricks with it, like make requests through cheaper datacenter IPs and move to residential proxies if the former fail.

Like GeoSurf, Bright Data provider focuses mostly on enterprise users and requires undergoing a strict KYC procedure. So, its complexity and price might not be very beginner friendly.

Features 

• 72M peer-to-peer & static residential IPs
• HTTP, HTTPS & SOCKS protocols
• City, ASN & carrier targeting
• Rotation every request, sticky sessions available
• 24/7 customer support

Pricing:

Residential proxies start from $500/44GB ($11.25/GB), or you can pay as you go ($15/GB). 7-day free trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals available.

3. Smartproxy The best balance between features and price.

Smartproxy has grown quickly throughout these last few years. Partly, because this provider’s pricing is more approachable than its main premium competitors. But that’s not the only thing Smartproxy has to offer. Its user-friendly approach allows you to easily navigate through the documentation, and the performance of its services exceeds expectations.

The main drawback is limited targeting options (no carrier or ASN targeting). However, if you’re looking for residential IPs with a budget-friendly price, Smartproxy is an easy choice to make.

Features:

• 40 million peer-to-peer residential IPs
• HTTP & HTTPS protocols
• State-level targeting, 8 major cities
• Rotation every request, 10, 30 mins
• Award-winning support

Pricing:

Starts from $12.5 for 1 GB. 3-day refund available.
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4. Zyte’s Smart Proxy Manager Datacenter IPs with a 100% Craigslist scraping success rate.

5. SOAX Very flexible rotation & location targeting options.

SOAX is a new player on the market. It falls somewhere in the middle between cheaper, feature-lacking and more expensive, enterprise-oriented providers. So, you might like this provider for its affordable price, for which you still get satisfactory services. SOAX’s main product is residential proxies, and we were pleasantly surprised by its precise location targeting options for posting on different city boards.

Some reservations we had included pretty slow response times and the capped number of ports you get with plans. The user experience also needs improvements: though the dashboard is really attractive, documentation is lacking and you’re forced to whitelist your IP. Save for speed, the performance itself is good.

Features:

• 5M residential proxies
• HTTP(S) traffic over SOCKS5
• City & ASN targeting
• Highly adjustable rotation
• 24/7 customer support

Pricing:

Starts from $99 for 8GB ($12.38/GB) and 300 ports. Paid trial available.

6. Rayobyte Affordable proxies, impressive speeds and no bandwidth limits.

If you find residential proxies too expensive or unnecessary, consider Rayobyte. It sells dedicated IPs in 19 major US cities with impressive speeds and no bandwidth limits. If you encounter any issues while using their service, Rayobyte’s customer support reps are ready to help you out 24/7. They reply quickly via email.

The best part is the cost. The dedicated IPs are reasonably priced and you can get a 2-day free trial to test the proxies out. Though, it’s worth noting that datacenter proxies aren’t always the best choice for Craigslist, as they are easier to detect and ban.

Features

• Dedicated datacenter proxies
• 19 cities to choose from
• HTTP(S) & SOCKS5 protocols
• Rotation every 10-120 mins
• Unlimited bandwidth
• 24/7 customer service

Pricing:

From $2.50/IP. 2-day free trial available.