8 Mistakes Buying Residential Proxies You Must Avoid

Purchasing intermediary servers is definitely much easier than building them yourself. Since you are paying someone else for proxies, you must ensure that you get the best value for your money. There can not be any compromises in terms of efficiency, and that's where the following mistakes come in.

Choosing an untrustworthy provider

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of proxy providers in the market. They all have flashy websites full of promises and great price tags. Making the right choice isn't easy as it's really difficult to differentiate sketchy providers from legitimate ones.

The best strategy is to look for those that have good ratings from customers on platforms like Trustpilot. It's also recommended that you chat with providers' customer support and read around in their blogs.

While a convenient dashboard with statistics is a good bonus, it's not that essential. Much more important is to check whether the provider operates legally and ethically and whether there are frequent downtimes. IP address count for each location says a lot more about its quality than a beautiful design.

IPRoyal has risen to top positions recently in all the aspects that matter for a proxy service provider. Some blogs affiliated with other providers might tell you otherwise, but there's one sure way to test every provider - take a free trial.

Skipping the free trial

If a provider doesn't offer a free trial, you can immediately disregard them as trustworthy. Free trials became a standard in this market long ago. It's simply the only way to actually know what kind of service the provider is giving.

You can check whether the IPs are unblocked, how fast they work, and if proxies integrate into the software you intend to use them with. If this doesn't convince you, the reason for always taking a free trial might be economical. You simply save money by taking a free trial.

Sharing access

Shared access proxies are, on average, cheaper than private counterparts. However, sharing your access with other users might be a mistake, especially for residential proxies. You'll get slower transfer speeds, less bandwidth, and possibly IPs that have already been detected as proxies on popular websites.

If you need cheap proxies, go with datacenter ones. They are more affordable even without sharing access. However, you will be easier to detect with datacenter proxies. That's why more trustworthy access costs more.

Static or Rotating IP addresses

Static IPs are those that can remain unchanged for a prolonged time. Rotating ones, on the contrary, are being changed by the provider. If you use special software and have a private IP pool, you might have more control of the rotation. However, it's still crucial to know when to choose one or the other.

Rotation is great when you need fewer chances of proxy getting detected. Static IPs are better for tasks when you need them on IP to log in to accounts or make purchases. You must understand the drawbacks and benefits of both. Don't jump into shared rotating proxies just because they are cheaper.

Not purchasing in bulk

The more proxies you buy, the cheaper they get, but purchasing in bulk is also risky as you might pay for IPs that you don't need. It's all about controlling the risk and calculating how many IPs you will need in the future.

It's much more economical to purchase more IPs in one go than to buy one or two every couple of months. It's also smart to share your proxy credentials (and costs!) with friends or other departments in your organization. In short, it's better to buy proxies in bulk, but you need to be smart about it.

SOCKS5 incompatible proxies

SOCKS5 is the latest and most popular internet protocol version. It stands for Socket Secure 5 and is a step forward when compared to more traditional HTTP or HTTPS protocols. They are perfectly fine for running simple tasks like web browsing.

However, you might encounter issues when transferring large data packets or running advanced software. SOCKS5 is much faster while providing the same level of security in authentication as HTTPS. At the same time, it's much more compatible with other means of transferring data on the internet, such as FTP.

Mystifying your use case

It's crucial to understand your use case before purchasing proxies. For example, buying rotating IPs for social media management is definitely a mistake since the risk of getting your IPs banned grows exponentially. However, you shouldn't think your use case is something that no one has ever done before.

Don't shy away from the advice of other people in related forums, or simply ask your provider to recommend the best possible proxy configuration. If you haven't made a mistake in choosing a provider, he will help you.

Using a proxy checker incorrectly

A proxy checker is a crucial tool for understanding information about your proxy server. You can see its protocol, location (with accuracy), protocol support, speed, and, most importantly, whether they are banned on popular websites. It might sound like a redundant tool because providers give this information as well.

However, it's a good idea to double-check their information in case something is wrong. For example, you'd be surprised to learn that many proxies aren't actually anonymous, even if they are sold as such. But it isn't enough to simply enter proxy credentials and see if the server is online.

It's best to note the proxy characteristics and compare them with other proxies of the same type. Then, you can learn the general quality of proxies when you buy them. This is especially important if you are buying expensive dedicated static residential proxies.

Wrapping up

The list of mistakes can go on indefinitely. Here, I tried to include all the mistakes that are common and not obvious for most casual proxy buyers. Note that some of these mistakes may not apply to your situation, so you must understand why you will be using proxies