- For software Mobile proxies can be used in any software; below you'll find the most popular ones.SMM and bots
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There are different ways to change your IP address. Most often, specialists use proxies when working with social networks, ads managers and other services. But what proxies are more effective and where can they be useful? We have already described different types of proxies – mobile, server, resident and others. But we've only been looking at static IP addresses. Now it's time to compare static and dynamic proxies and discuss their fields of application.
A proxy server is an intermediate server between the user and the target server with a specific IP address. It is an intermediary between you and the data on the Internet. It takes a request from the user and sends it to the appropriate resource, from which it sends the data back to the user.
When a customer rents a proxy server, he/she uses a substitute IP address instead of his/her own when surfing the Internet. We have described the mechanism in detail in our blog.
According to various estimates, about a third of the world's 5 billion Internet users use proxies or similar technologies. Judging by the data from Atlas VPN, users have downloaded relevant applications almost 430 million times in 2022. And it appears from the the plot that the market will continue to grow:
So why is that intermediary needed?
Regular users use proxies to access restricted sites and enhance anonymity. So it doesn't make much difference to them which proxy to use – simply changing the IP address does the job.
Professionals often use proxies for parsing, scraping, checking the functionality of services from different countries, multi-accounting, bypassing websites’ anti-bot protection and so on.
Now let's look at the difference between static and dynamic proxies. In the first case, you use a permanent IP address, so the service may block it for some reason, for example, to fight bots or multiple accounts. In the second case, your IP address changes regularly. Blocking it will not affect you, as it takes time, and your IP address will have changed by the time of the block.
A static proxy is a proxy with a fixed IP address which does not change during use. Let's say your real IP address is 192.168.123.132. When you rent a proxy, the server can assign a new IP address to you automatically, or you can choose it from the available ones. That way, you get a substitute IP address, let’s say it’s 109.211.52.225.
Let’s break down this process into separate steps:
The IP address of the static proxy will be permanent. That is, it will be the same as it was at the time of purchase. It is best used where the risk of blocking is low and speed and stability are important, for example, to manage accounts in social networks.
Dynamic (aka rotating) proxies are those with IP addresses that are not fixed and change during use.
Dynamic IP addresses have different usage scenarios – they are suitable where the risk of blocking is high, for example where hundreds or even thousands of requests from a single IP address are planned. If one IP address gets blocked, the server will issue a new one.
The IP address can be set to change for every new request or over a certain time period, e.g. every five minutes. This means that during a session, your real IP address may first be 192.168.123.132, then it changes to 109.211.52.225, and after a while to 109.229.85.131, and so on. The IP address can also change by user request, during reconnections, or according to other scenarios.
How does this work? The user gains access to one node – the gateway server. The node uses a static address to connect to other proxy servers. User requests go through the gateway server and random IP addresses, and only then reach websites.
On the downside, dynamic proxies are slower than static proxies. The gateway server must assign new IP addresses every now and then. A pool of IP addresses typically offers a lower bandwidth. At the same time, dynamic proxies are often more expensive because the provider must maintain millions of IP addresses.
Static proxies are best suited to:
Dynamic proxies will work best to do the following:
| Criterion | Static proxies | Dynamic proxies |
| Procedure of assignment | You are given a specific address or you choose your desired IP from a list and use it each time you connect | You connect to a load-balancing server that directs connection requests to different IP addresses |
| Probability of blocking | Depends on the type of proxy hosting. Server-based proxies have a high probability of blocking, while mobile-based proxies have a low probability of blocking. The IP address does not change with every connection request | Low. The IP address changes with every connection request. Because of the rotation, the IP addresses are difficult to detect |
| Speed and stability | Depends on the hosting. High if proxies are hosted on virtual servers with fast connections (up to 10 Gb/sec). Low for mobile proxies. | Depends on proxy type |
| Flexibility | Low. You can use only those IP addresses that you were assigned to you | High. You can use a huge number of IP addresses. You can also set how often you’d like the IP addresses to change, their locations, etc. |
| Cost | Depends on the proxy hosting type (mobile proxies are more expensive) and the IP address | Depends on the number of IP addresses and the amount of traffic |
In practice, proxies also differ in their ownership.
Why is this important to know? If there are many requests coming from an IP address belonging to a hosting provider, a website or application server may suspect that they are not comping from a regular user and block that IP address. That will not damage or hamper other users in any way.
Thus, it’s a better idea to use mobile IP addresses for dynamic proxies. Mobile operators have limited ranges of IP addresses, and each IP address is used by hundreds or thousands of users. Providers are aware of that, so many requests from a single IP address would not raise suspicions. Also, blocking a single IP address would close the access for a multitude of users, and this is another reason not to do so. Please refer to our detailed article about mobile proxies.
As we have demonstrated, different types of proxies serve different purposes. Static proxies are best to check advertisement, manage accounts, do research, shop online and manage classifieds, while dynamic proxies are best suited to collect and parse data, do SEO tasks, run tests or enhance anonymity. Thus, your choice depends solely on your purposes.