How We Chose the Best Rotating Proxy Providers
We considered multiple general criteria, such as pricing and customer service. But we also looked for specific features to make sure the provider’s rotating proxies are fit for scraping the web:
- Number of proxies – rotating proxies are usually shared. If a provider has a deep proxy pool, there’s less chance you’ll get proxies that have been already blocked.
- Rotation settings – it wouldn’t be a rotating proxy if it couldn’t rotate. We paid particular attention to providers with flexible rotation settings.
- Targeting options – it depends on your project, but being able to target many places really helps for location-sensitive tasks.
- Concurrent connections – more connection requests means more tasks at the same time. Rotating proxies are best for high-volume scraping.
- HTTP(S) proxies – SOCKS5 is a plus but you don’t need them for web scraping.
Rotating Datacenter Proxies vs Rotating Residential Proxies
Both datacenter proxies and residential proxies can rotate, but you shouldn’t use them for the same tasks. Here’s why.
Rotating Datacenter Proxies
Datacenter proxies, especially private proxies, are usually static. But some providers offer the option to rotate them. Such proxies have many virtues: they’re fast, stable, and relatively cheap. On the downside, they are not associated with any ISP and are easy to detect. Since rotating datacenter proxies come in subnets, one ban may cost you dozens or even hundreds of IPs. Also, it’s hard to find providers that can offer you datacenter proxies with high location coverage.
Rotating Residential Proxies
Rotating residential proxies are slower, more expensive, and less reliable than datacenter IPs. On the upside, they are more anonymous and much harder to detect. Also, proxy providers usually have more residential than datacenter IPs for sale. That’s why they’re often used with harder targets or when you need location targeting: for example, to scrape Google, Reddit, or create multiple Facebook accounts.
Frequently Asked Questions About Rotating Proxies
How Do Rotating Proxies Work?
A rotating proxy network gives you one reverse backconnect IP address that functions as a gateway to the provider’s proxy pool. The address automatically assigns you new IPs from the pool so you don’t have to do it yourself. Backconnect rotating proxies are much more convenient than proxy lists which come in text files and don’t rotate.
A good rotating proxy service will let you configure your proxy locations: for example, to only rotate proxies in the USA, Germany, UK, or France. It will also give you an option to change IPs every connection request or create a sticky session – keep the same IP for 5 or 15 minutes.
When Should I Use Rotating Proxies?
Rotating proxies are perfect for web scraping. Because they change your IP each connection request, you can fire up a huge number of connections at once without getting blocked. So, you can safely make 500 or even more connections every second – if your provider allows it. If you get rotating residential proxies and set up a sticky session, the general residential proxy use cases apply.