LimeProxies is one of the older proxy providers, in business since 2010. It focuses on selling affordable datacenter IPs to online marketers and small-to-medium businesses.
Unlike multiple other proxy services, LimeProxies has never introduced residential IPs. This limits the possible proxy uses cases and can be a deal-breaker if you want addresses for social media account creation or some more demanding scraping tasks.
You also won’t be able to cop sneakers – not because datacenter IPs can’t do that, but because the provider specifically forbids it; nor do emailing, access e-commerce sites like PayPal or eBay, or use the proxies with ScrapeBox or any forum commenting software.
What can you do, then? The website mentions posting classified ads (read: Craigslist), ticketing and gaming. There are many more things you can do with datacenter proxies, but the focus seems to be on these three use cases.
There’s also something called ‘Custom solutions’ where you can specify your needs by filling in a lengthy form. A nice touch, but I’d prefer a more customer-friendly approach:
Don’t make the customers do the work for you.
Everything else is pretty standard: 24/7 customer support? Check. Self-service dashboard? Available. Multiple geo-locations? You got it. I especially liked that both a free trial and money-back guarantee are available – it shows LimeProxies is confident its services will be enough to convert you.
But is that really the case?
Let’s see if LimeProxies has what it takes to win you over the many other competing private proxy providers.
- Virgin SOCKS5 proxies
- Free trial AND money-back guarantee
- Responsive 24/7 support
- Limited available use cases
- Trade-offs at every corner
- Proxy types: Datacenter (shared, private)
- Protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5
- Locations: 40 locations around the world
- Targeting: Plan-based
- Authorization: Whitelisted IPs, user:pass (limited)
- Dashboard: Yes
- Support: 24/7 over live chat or tickets
- Pricing: Private proxies start from $10 for 10 IPs
- Payment options: Credit card, PayPal, wire transfer, cryptocurrency
- Trial: 3-day free trial, 3-day money-back guarantee
Lime Proxies Services
Lime Proxies sells datacenter proxies only. According to the website, you can buy four kinds, none of them shared.
Private Proxies
The private proxy plans are the cheapest option. They include recycled datacenter IPs – addresses that have already been used by someone. As a result, the proxies may not work with your chosen websites, so it’s best to discuss your requirements with the LimeProxies support in advance.
The private proxy plans have more disadvantages. They are the slowest of the bunch with only 100Mbps speeds, include only 2 locations no matter the plan, and up to 5 subnets. Nor do they support SOCKS5 proxies.
Dedicated Proxies
These are the mid-range plans. They come in two varieties: US proxies and EU proxies. The only difference is that the US proxies are faster, reaching 1Gbps speeds.
I’m not really sure why these are called “dedicated proxies” – technically, all of the plans sold by LimeProxies give you exclusive control over the proxies. I guess it’s mainly for marketing reasons.
Besides limited location coverage, the biggest downside is that all the IPs come from the same subnet. If at least one of your proxies gets banned, 249 IPs will go down with it. When the smallest plan includes 250 proxies, that’s not really comforting. On the other hand, you’re the only person in control of the subnet – for some, that might be an advantage.
Premium Proxies
Premium proxies is the advanced option that comes at a premium price. These are shiny new virgin IPs. They are technically ten times faster than private proxies and can reach 1Gbps speeds. More locations are available, but you still have to unlock them by buying larger plans. You also get more subnets and SOCKS5 support.
There are no obvious downsides compared to the other two options, aside from the higher price.
SOCKS5 Proxies
True to their name, these proxies include SOCKS5 IP addresses. LimeProxies treats them as the most exclusive option, suitable for demanding enterprise customers.
As I found out, SOCKS proxies are exactly the same as premium proxies, simply under different branding for marketing reasons.
Location Coverage
LimeProxies boasts of 40+ locations around the world. The number includes both countries and cities. I was able to count 23 countries, mostly in Europe, so the remaining places are cities throughout the US. You can’t do city-level targeting anywhere else.
Be aware that your choice of locations will be severely limited by the plan you purchase. This is especially painful with private proxies: at the time of writing, I could only choose from Germany and a number of US cities. But even a $1,500/month premium plan with 1,000 proxies only gives you 10 locations to choose from.
There’s no easy way to change locations once you’ve bought a plan – you’ll have to contact the LimeProxies support.
40 locations =/= 40 countries.
Pricing Plans
The pricing model here is based on the number of IPs, as usual with datacenter proxies. The plans also impose limits on subnets, locations, and concurrent connections to give you more incentives to upgrade.
LimeProxies can be rather cheap if you don’t mind using recycled proxy addresses: the private proxy plans cost $1/IP or even less if you buy 1000 or more proxies. Sure, this is with a 50% discount; but I can’t tell if I was lucky with the timing, or the discount is simply a marketing trick.
The datacenter proxy plans cost $3/IP for US proxies or $2/IP for EU addresses no matter which size you buy. The starting point is 250 IPs, which is more than any other proxy type. I find it very hard to recommend them, especially the more expensive US proxies.
The premium proxy plans start from $5/IP for 10 proxies, which is very expensive. Buying more proxies gradually brings the price down to $1.5/IP, but at that point we’re talking about 1,000 proxy addresses. This option makes sense if you truly need high quality virgin IPs – or SOCKS proxies – and buy one of the larger plans.
How to Use LimeProxies
Registration
To create an account with LimeProxies, you’ll have to enter your full name and email address. You’ll receive a confirmation email – simply click on the provided link, and your account will become active.
You won’t have to buy anything yet.
Dashboard
LimeProxies has a simple but well thought out dashboard interface. It lets you monitor traffic usage and proxy plans, add and spend credit, as well as authorize IPs.
It’s also the place where you can get help: either by reading the FAQ, opening a ticket, or starting a live chat with one of the customer support agents.
I found the dashboard very friendly for new users – there’s even a special tutorial where you choose your use case, authorize an IP, and can get a free trial. In the spirit of the old days, the tutorial is called “Wizard”, and its icon looks like a wizard hat.
Proxy Setup
After you buy a plan, it will appear on the dashboard’s Products page. There are very few frills here: simply toggle SOCKS proxies if you bought a premium proxy plan, and download your proxy list in the .txt format.
There are no fancy features like proxy rotation or backconnect proxy servers; if you need things like these, you’ll have to configure them by yourself. What you can do is refresh your proxies once a month in case you get them blocked.
LimeProxies supports two ways to authenticate your proxies: either by whitelisting up to 25 IPs (depending on the plan) or using user:pass credentials. The latter option is limited: it’s available only if you don’t use SOCKS proxies and buy 10 or more premium IPs.
By default, you’ll have to create a whitelist of domains to access websites. This can be changed to full access by contacting the customer support.
Customer Support
You can get in touch the LimeProxies customer support any time, by opening a ticket or starting a live chat.
I’ve tried reaching the provider by live chat on multiple occasions, and each time the response came in fewer than five minutes. The customer support agents were polite and helpful, and I was even transferred to another agent who had more expertise to answer my query.
Overall, I was really pleased with my customer support experience.
LimeProxies Conclusion
So, what can you take away from this review?
Perhaps the biggest point is that LimeProxies is about dealing with limitations through and through.
Want to cop sneakers? Create Instagram accounts? Post on forums? You’ll need residential proxies for that.
Need your proxies to rotate? Go somewhere else.
Looking for many locations? User:pass authentication? Are you willing to buy the premium proxies? If not, sorry to disappoint you.
But if you don’t mind these restrictions, or simply prioritize other things, LimeProxies becomes a much more appealing choice.
You can get cheap private proxies for basic web scraping tasks or simply hiding your IP. Or you can go all out and buy virgin premium proxies – with SOCKS5 support, they’re probably the best datacenter IPs can offer. Go gaming, download torrents, scrape harder targets, book those tickets.
The choice is yours. If you’re interested but hesitant, contact the LimeProxies customer support team – it’s great and will do its best to assist you. You can always test the proxies using the free trial, and in any case, there’s an option to request a refund.