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What are Semi-Dedicated Proxies?

How to's, Proxies, May-05-20225 mins read
A small group of users utilize semi-dedicated proxies and have the features of private and shared proxies and up to three members may use the same IP address. They possess some benefits of private proxies and skip certain drawbacks of shared proxies.

The speed of semi-dedicated proxies is less because other users share them but they are budget-friendly and suit businesses that require capabilities more than shared proxies but do not need the many resources of a private proxy. 

How to Use a Semi-dedicated Proxy?

A semi-dedicated proxy is a great option for those who don’t need resources for data operation on large scale. Since semi-dedicated proxies cost less than private ones, you get a higher-grade product for an accessible price that allows you to use proxies with more capabilities.

For data extraction, you require top-notch resources to ensure the highest performance and speed metrics. Semi-dedicated proxies cannot guarantee such capabilities and stay as an option for less complex use cases.

Semi-dedicated proxies protect your online identity by ordering from a multitude of websites, saving billing information, and online banking. As a proxy redirects traffic, it’s difficult for outsiders to track browser history or activity.

Semi-dedicated proxies are useful for bypassing geo-restricted content on websites. They help you access content from websites in other countries that block you from accessing them because of your location. You can bypass the geolocation restriction with semi-dedicated proxies and access content that is otherwise blocked. 

Your traffic flows along with others while using semi-dedicated proxies and you need to be careful as this might pose a risk when you are using the proxy for managing social media channels.

Pros of Semi-Dedicated Proxies

The alluring feature of semi-dedicated proxies is that they are cheaper than private or dedicated proxies. If cost is the deciding factor behind buying a proxy, then a semi-dedicated proxy is the best choice. The other benefits include:

No Need for a Dedicated Proxy

A small group of users utilizes semi-dedicated proxies. The speed of the proxy is considerably higher than a shared proxy since the IP is not used many times.

No Need to Login

If your project doesn’t require accounts to login through your proxies, then you may use a semi-dedicated proxy. 

Test a New Strategy

When you must test a new strategy but you can’t afford to buy private proxies, then you can buy semi-dedicated proxies when you need to test proxies. This helps you keep your costs low and test your new strategy without risking your privacy or spending too much money.

When More Proxies are Required

You may require more proxies for scraping search engines or certain websites several times a day. If your project doesn’t require connecting to accounts, then you can go for semi-dedicated proxies instead of investing in several hundred proxies.

Cons of Semi-Dedicated Proxies

Although semi-dedicated proxies are the best choice, there are some reasons not to use them.

The Bad Neighbor Effect

Using a semi-dedicated proxy has the risk of reliability as it shares the same IP address among its users. The other users who share the IP address risk “the bad neighbor effect” which is when one user gets blocked if another user’s malicious actions cause the IP to be blocked. 

Low Performance

These proxies provide exclusive access to the IP but sharing the bandwidth affects the performance metrics. 

Unsuitable for Large-Scale Projects

Website scraping needs the best proxies with performance capabilities to scrape data on a large scale and private proxies suit such high-demand tasks rather than semi-dedicated ones. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a datacenter proxy?

Data Center proxies are not attached to an ISP and are offered by another service provider, which is usually a cloud provider. These proxies are best for fast connections and to support high bandwidth. 

Datacenter proxies have a large pool of shared proxies to use and dispose of rapidly. They make the best choice for web scraping because websites have a lower chance of detecting them.

2. What is a residential IP address?

Residential IP addresses belong to a local network that forwards your requests but is expensive and hard to procure. They rotate the IP addresses between different proxies. If a web scraping software has access to a large pool of residential addresses, it is possible to scrape a website from any country, state, and city. ISPs assign residential IP addresses of the local network for the scapers use.

3. What are rotating proxies?

A rotating proxy is a proxy server that assigns a new IP address for every new connection from a proxy pool. Rotating IPs have a lower chance of a website blocking them due to their rotating nature. The service provider assigns fresh IP addresses from its vast pool of IP addresses at regular intervals because it helps IPs change to avoid the risk of websites blocking them. 

Final Thoughts

Semi-dedicated proxies are an alternative for those who are looking for a low-cost and better performance proxy. Choosing a dedicated proxy is the right choice for services such as scraping, marketing, and network management. 

ProxyScrape offers residential, premium, and dedicated proxies that suit all your business needs. You can learn more about residential and dedicated proxies to decide which type of proxy to consider for your business needs.