Let’s get something straight—providers of rotating proxies all sound like they’re lying through their teeth. Many of them are.
It’s the nature of the internet—you search for the best this or that; your brain loves top [insert number from 1-10] lists—and decisions are made under the veil of sleight of hand.
Too bad more posts like this—stupidly honest—aren’t popping up. More people would save time.
It means spending more money and getting consistently reliable, safe, quality proxies. It’s not hard to get. But value costs money. That’s why you’ll see cheap proxies that end up screwing their users.
This post aims to shake out the risky providers from the ones that have your best interests in mind. (Like not getting banned or robbed),
What are rotating proxies?
A rotating proxy is a proxy server that assigns a new IP address to each client that connects to it. This is done so that each client appears to originate from a different IP address, making it more difficult for third parties to track and block individual users.
Some rotating proxies are “open,” meaning that any client can connect to them and start using them immediately. Others are “closed,” meaning that only clients with a pre-approved IP address can connect.
The main advantage of using a rotating proxy is that it makes it more difficult for third parties to track and block individual users. Using a different IP address for each connection, it makes it harder for authorities to identify a particular user or group of users.
Another advantage is that rotating proxies can help improve security. Using a different IP address for each connection makes it more difficult for hackers to launch a successful attack.
There are disadvantages to using rotating proxies as well. One is that they can slow down internet speeds if you’re not using premium services. This is because each connection has to be made through a different IP address, which can take longer than if the same IP address were used for all connections. You may not have very fast internet without an efficient proxy rotation engine, high-quality IPs, and a large IP pool.
Types of rotating proxies.
It’s typical for rotating proxies to be residential proxies. However, it is possible to rotate datacenter IPs and ISP proxies.
You will rotate through mobile and residential IPs from real user devices for residential proxies.
On the other hand, rotating datacenter proxies and rotating ISP proxies come from a data center. The difference between these two is that ISP proxies have residential IPs, and datacenter proxies will have a tag that ties them to a datacenter.
We recommend finding IPv6 or Fresh proxies if you go with datacenter proxies. Both will keep you from banning because you will be the only user; in some cases, they’ve never been used.
Why use rotating proxies for web scraping?
Simply put, without rotating proxies, you’re either scraping very little or very slowly. Rotating IPs allow you to send many more requests as if thousands of users were performing your tasks.
Bypass IP blocks
Using rotating proxies for web scraping can offer several benefits.
Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it can help to bypass web scraping blocks. If a website detects that you are using a proxy, it may block your IP address. However, if you are using a rotating proxy, they will not be able to block you as easily since your IP address will keep changing.
Faster scraping
Another benefit of using rotating proxies for web scraping is that it can help to improve your scraping speed.
This is because you can make more requests at once since each request will come from a different IP address. This can be particularly helpful if you are scraping large websites.
Better scraping results.
Finally, rotating proxies can also help to improve your scraping accuracy.
This is because each request will come from a different IP address, which means that the website you are scraping will not be able to easily detect that you are a scraper. This can be helpful if you are scraping websites designed to block scrapers.
Warning: foul play.
After reviewing some proxy providers, some use less-than-ethical standards and cause damage to their user’s safety and reputation. Some of the complaints are about:
- Lime proxies – Reports of hacked accounts and IP bans prevent users from using their IP address.
- IPRoyal – Hacked accounts have been reported on Reddit and negative reviews on the earning potential as an IPRoyal ‘pawn.’
- Brightdata – They were evidently involved in a DDoS attack on a human rights website.
- 911 Proxies – Once a popular hub for people using stolen credit cards. They were shut down due to a massive security breach.
Pricing: take note.
For the sake of simplicity, the pricing in the table below reflects starter plans—the bare minimum you can spend on rotating residential proxies. That way, you can easily see the rate trends and then click their links if you want to see more pricing details. The prices per month go down the more data you use.
The top 14 rotating proxies for web scraping.
| No. | Service provider | Price | GB | Rotation | Uptime | Free Trial | Rating |
| 1 | IPBurger | $69 | 5 | Yes | 99.99% | $9 for 7 days | 5 stars |
| 2 | Smart Proxy | $80 | 8 | No | 99.99% | 3 day | 5 stars |
| 3 | RayoByte | $15 | 1 | Yes | 99.99% | 1GB | 5 stars |
| 4 | Zyte | $300 | 25 | Yes | 99.99% | X | 4.5 stars |
| 5 | BrightData | $500 (holy smokes) | 40 | Yes | 99.99% | 7 days (companies only) | 4.5 stars |
| 6 | OxyLabs | $300 | 25 | Yes | 99.20% | 7 days (companies only) | 4.4 stars |
| 7 | Storm proxies | $50 | Unlimited | Yes | 99.90% | X | 4.1 stars |
| 8 | ProxyRack | $65 | Unlimited | Yes | 99.90% | 3 day 1 GB | 4.1 stars |
| 9 | SOAX | $99 | 8 | No | 95.00% | $2 for 100MB | 4 stars |
| 10 | Netnut | $300 | 20 | Yes | 99.90% | 7 day | 4 stars |
| 11 | Cold proxy | $70 | Unlimited | No | 95.00% | $4 a day | 3.7 stars |
| 12 | Squid proxies | $24 | Unlimited | no | 90.00% | X | 3 stars |
| 13 | GeoNode | $14 | 1 | Yes | 95.00% | $7 for 7 days | 3 stars |
| 14 | GeoSurf | $450 | 20 | Yes | 99.99% | X | 2.8 stars |
How to choose the right proxies for you.
In the above table, you can see that some providers offer unlimited data. Don’t be fooled–these are not really residential proxies. They most likely come from a datacenter. They still work fine for web scraping but won’t have the best rating.
The best proxies to go with come from a reputable provider you can trust. Not only that, they must have reliable connections to ethically sourced IPs. A few proxy providers qualify in the above list, but your safest is IPBurger.
(Not just because this is our blog, but also because this is our blog.)
IPBurger may not be the cheapest, but they aren’t nearly the most expensive either. Our residential proxies are priced according to their superior value. They come with everything you need to start scraping easily, including a knowledgeable team.
No need to commit to a month because you can start with a 7-day trial today.
