Shared Or Exclusive Proxy IPs, Which Should I Use?

Is it time to become exclusive?
5 min read
Shared Proxy IPs VS Exclusive Proxy IPs - Graph of green car vs fully loaded red bus

A shared IP is like taking the bus, you will still reach your destination, but you will be sharing your journey with other commuters and may not find a place to sit. An exclusive IP, also known as a personal proxy, is like taking your car or hailing a cab. It costs more, but you will get to your destination faster, and as you are traveling alone, you will always have a place to sit.

With proxies, this exclusivity refers to how many network users are utilizing that specific IP address, as well as the number of domains accessible to you.

Let’s see which proxy is the best for your needs.

Shared proxies consist of IP addresses that multiple users utilize to access various domains.

Shared IPs are a cost-effective way to tackle tasks where many IPs are required. However, they can yield less reliable results. When verifying ads or checking broken links, a large number of IPs are needed to check the same domain from multiple geo locations and shared IPs will provide the ability to do so while keeping costs down. On the other hand, if an advertising partner is involved in fraudulent activity, a shared IP may not reveal the truth.

Shared IPs allow you to maximize value while minimizing costs. An example of this is when collecting data from sites with request limit blockades. A request limit blockade is a common security feature that sites implement that detects and flags suspicious activity, such as too many requests too quickly from the same IP. This is normally used to prevent bots from crawling a site. These blocks can be avoided by changing the IP every x number of requests. By switching the IP, you can avoid being flagged, maintain a high success rate, and ensure continuous data collection.

An exclusive domain proxy can be purchased to target a specific domain. This means that the IP is being used exclusively by you for that particular site but can be used by other users who are accessing other sites.

Exclusive dedicated IPs are of higher quality than shared IPs as they limit the number of users accessing particular domains. These are suggested for more sophisticated sites as you will be the only person using that IP for that domain.

Exclusive proxies are dedicated to one user and guarantee that you are the only one using that IP.

Exclusive proxies are commonly used when you are attempting to access sensitive domains that keep an IP’s browsing history. When accessing these sites, other users accessing the same IP, for the same site, will result in being banned due to the changes in their browsing history. By using a private proxy, you will have complete control of your browsing history as the sole user of that IP and can rest assured your operations will remain uninterrupted.

What is a gIP?

A few proxy services provide a group of IPs (gIP) that are exclusive to you for your target domain. A gIP generally consists of a group of 3-30 peers from the same region, and when a peer becomes unavailable, its neighbor will be used in order to balance the needs of persistent IP location and ensure consistent online dedicated residential IPs.

A gIP is exclusive to a specific domain, meaning all of the IPs within the gIP are not being used by anyone else for your target sites. As a real residential peer-to-peer network uses the IPs of real users only when they are idle, IP rotation is an inherent feature. This is where gIP’s come in handy – if an IP rotates, you will be assigned to the next available IP within that gIP. By using a gIP, you can guarantee that an IP with the exact same characteristics will always be available.

Different proxies on different networks

Shared and exclusive proxies are available across multiple network types, including Datacenter networks, Static residential networks, Residential networks, and Mobile networks. Each network has its own strengths and allows for the highest success rates for particular use cases. Data center IPs are great for the mass crawling of target sites. Residential IPs provide the ability to view the internet through the eyes of real users in any country or city in the world, which is useful for managing accounts where a data center IP would easily be identified and denied. A static residential network uses IPs assigned by an ISP (internet service provider) to a user for their personal use. Static residential IPs are recommended for use cases where an IP rotating would cause a problem, such as submitting a form. A mobile IP network allows for seeing the internet from the eyes of a real mobile-user on a specific carrier, which can be used to gather information such as verifying carrier-specific campaigns or promotions. 

You can learn more about the different proxy infrastructures in our ultimate guide to proxy IP types.

Both shared and exclusive IPs are offered across multiple proxy networks, and each one will warrant a different rate of success for various use cases.

The right proxy provider will have an array of solutions for any task that your operations will require. Understanding the difference between exclusive and shared proxies, as well as what each IP type can do, will help in optimizing the costs and performance of your proxy operations.

What you get by joining Bright Data’s proxy network:

  1. Your own personal Bright Data representative will set-up your account.
  2. Access to the largest residential proxy network in the world.
  3. 24/7 support no matter where you are.
  4. We will match your first deposit of $20-250!