What is a private proxy

In this article, we will cover:

• What makes ‘private proxies’ private?
• What are the possible outcomes for red-listed IPs? 
• How ‘private proxies’ measure up against ‘shared proxies’ 

What makes ‘private proxies’ private?

Private proxies mean that you are the sole owner of a specific IP address. The main reasons companies opt to use a private proxy instead of a shared proxy include:

• Better security 
• Heightened privacy 
• Considerably less IP blocks

The main reasoning behind this is that a shared proxy (or proxy subnet) means that other companies are using the same addresses for similar activities (price comparison, competitor ad analysis, target audience social sentiment etc). This means that by the time your company tries to collect data from these target websites, the proxy being used may already be ‘compromised’ and, on the ‘red list’ 

What are the possible outcomes for red-listed IPs? 

When an IP is identified by a target site as not belonging to a real user, it may be served inaccurate data, such as the wrong real-time pricing being displayed to users. Otherwise, the site can divert data collection efforts in other ways, including:

• Rate limitations: When a suspect amount of data retrieval requests are submitted to a target site, that digital entity may start displaying CAPTCHAs or error messages that require human intervention. This ‘turning point’ can be 9 requests or 9,000,000 requests –  the threshold is determined on an individual domain-by-domain basis.

• Geolocation-based blocks: Many target sites act differently based on the country or even city where the requesting IP is located. Many companies have versatile geolocation needs meaning they may need to target multiple domains in different GEOs. Very often, shared IPs are in one location (say, Germany). In this case scenario, companies may prefer to opt for a private proxy of the Rotating Residential variety. 

How ‘private proxies’ measure up against ‘shared proxies’ 

Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here is an easy breakdown to help you navigate a decision that is right for your business. 

Shared proxies 

Go ahead and choose the shared proxy option if you are looking to target sites with simple architectures and are on a tight budget. Some of the best shared proxies can be ‘leased’ for a very fair market rate. This is the case as it is a tool that has been adapted for the sharing economy, meaning multiple companies share the cost of leasing and operating the servers/networks necessary for these IPs to function properly as data collection tools. 

These types of proxies:

• Are easy to scale data collection operations with 
• Have no bandwidth and/or target limitations
• Can be easily integrated with third-party software and can be managed from an intuitive dashboard 

Private proxies 

Go ahead and choose the private proxy option if you have a higher project budget and are trying to target harder to attain data points from target sites with more complex architectures. The main advantages of dedicated proxies include:

• A data collection history that is lean and free from previous activities
• Having a higher than average data collection success rate
• Enjoying quicker data collection speeds as your company is not competing for ‘routing bandwidth’ on a shared network 

These types of proxies have:

• A 99.9% success rate 
• Can completely help you avoid getting flagged, leveraging the power of  ‘unlimited sessions,’ as well as changing your IP location as many times as necessary. 
• Unlimited concurrent data collection sessions meaning you can be collecting competitive market data on LinkedIn while simultaneously aggregating data from social media on target audience trends 

The bottom line 

Shared proxies could be an excellent solution for companies looking to accomplish more ‘simplistic use cases, such as digital asset protection and scanning public databases.

Private proxies can be an excellent choice for companies who want the best-in-class access that money can buy, ensuring top-notch privacy, security, and data retrieval capabilities. Appropriate use cases may include retrieving competitive/marketing/travel intelligence data points from targets with highly complex site architectures.