With technological advancements and digitalization, the world is moving towards the next generation of the technology revolution. Subsequently, tech-savvies are conscious about security, privacy, and data accessibility in 2020, especially when collecting data from the Internet.
As most of the world data is generated by users (in social media, classified ads, etc.), in these a situation, web scraping is the way to access this data in large volumes. There are dozens of other reasons and use cases that require proxies. The common denominator is the requirement to harvest publicly available data.
For instance, some European websites have banned traffic from the U.S, and one cannot access those websites from the U.S. without using US proxies.
However, hundreds of proxies are available on the market; each service’s quality varies depending on the developer.
But, how do you assess the proxies’ quality?
When most people talk about proxies, they refer to data center proxies. The are multiple parameters to assess the quality of the proxies; reviews play an essential role in assessment. Other settings include reliability, speed, geolocation modification, security, privacy, accessibility, and failure rate. If you are looking for proxies, then, unfortunately, you must go through all these proxy parameters before using it or buying it.
On the other hand, residential proxies are usually a good fit for all of the issues raised above but bear in mind that residential proxies are a more expensive solution than data center proxies.
Residential V.S. Datacenter Proxies
Datacenter proxies get their I.P.s from the Internet Service Providers, these I.P.s are valid but marked as commercial proxies and are therefore prone to restrictions, blacklists, and getting flagged.
Residential proxies are real I.P.s by real internet users and therefore are not likely to get blocked. If you are running an extensive web scraping operation, it is highly recommended to use residential proxies since they will be more reliable in the long run. Since most of the data is from the U.S. its recommended to use U.S. proxies, the same applies to all geolocations, you should use the proxy from the country where you are fetching the data.
We have compiled a list of residential proxies below. These are best-known on the market in 2020:
GeoSurf
GeoSurf is the oldest of the bunch and most reliable. They are in the market from 2009 and are only provider who offer dedicated customer success managers to everyone!
While other providers might offer cheaper data center solutions, Geosurf is the best value for money for residential proxies.
GeoSurf has been developing crawlers and scrappers for the last 12 years; good grip over these two areas. Their experience and service showcase how reliable residential proxies they offer. From a technical aspect, the software development and control over the crawlers enable them to scrap and crawl webpages without being blocked, securely. GeoSurf has 2.5 million residential proxies from 192 different locations.
Smartproxy
Most of the residential proxy users love Smartproxy since they offer flexible prices according to the subscription plans. This proxy is the one for whom the Internet savvies say that there are no chances of banning and tracking if you go for Smartproxy; they are secure enough to provide you maximum accessibility.
Oxylabs
Oxylabs service emphasizes on the web-scrapping service. Besides that, they are considered as a reliable and stable provider. We can say that because they have a wide range of 30 million residential proxies of over 180 miscellaneous geolocations, however, their customer support isn’t as good as the ones above.
Luminati
Luminati is primarily used in residential proxy among the tech-savvies in the world. They have approximately 40 million I.P. addresses of almost every major city in the world. Moreover, it is also widely for its speed. More than 500 fortune businesses are currently using this residential proxy globally. These businesses claim that it helps monitor and prefer using it during Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of their websites. However, Luminati is quite expensive compared to others – around $500 for 40 G.B. data retrieving.
Strom Proxies
Strom Proxies have unlimited bandwidth and four different packages available for their users. Unfortunately, these services are available in limited locations, i.e., The U.S. and Europe. Besides, this service has almost 40,000 residential I.P.s. Their pricing starts from $50 a month with five residential proxy ports.
NetNut
NetNut works on the DiViNetworks management and delivery principle, i.e., connecting thousands of Internet Service Providers (ISP) worldwide. They do not operate under a general principle of peer to peer method. The secure network with a scalable performance also allows managing ISPs, making it a fast and reliable service. Do not hesitate to try their free trial before making any decision. The lowest price starts at $300 for 20 G.B.
Shifter
If you search for residential proxies in Google, you might confuse Shifter with “backconnect proxies” since they use the term “back connect proxies” instead of residential proxies. They sell port for residential proxy instead of bandwidth. The port enables the users to use unlimited bandwidth with rotating I.P. addresses globally after every five minutes – switching to individual ports. A stable proxy provider with over 31 million proxies offers a minimum of $249.98 with 25 ports and a three-day money-back guarantee.
Proxy Rack
Proxy rack works on unconventional principles; two different systems for residential proxies. The first system rotates your proxy in a single port connection, whereas the second process uses sticky I.P. sessions. The second part means that residential proxy rotates using a unique I.P. address and requests the server. Proxyrack residential proxy provides unlimited Internet to its customers with two million I.P. addresses. Besides, they enable their users to access unmetered and metered use of their services. The residential proxies’ pricing starts from $15.
Rsocks
Rocks offers residential proxies of four different types; one of them is a geo plan pack. The geo proxy plan works well with social media management proxy and does not have a closed port or data cap – no restriction when it comes to bandwidth. You also have an option to get a subscription that offers rotating I.P. addresses after every 5 minutes.
Conclusion
There we have them! The list above with the most popular and trendy residential proxies of 2020. There are differences between these residential proxy providers, such as pricing, customer support, and other useful features. It is better to read full reviews of each of them before you start with one. Keep in mind; some residential proxy providers also offer a free trial; you can also sign up for those to experience their reliability.
