Shared Proxies vs Private Proxies: Differences and Use Cases
A proxy is a server application that runs between the user and the server. The user’s request flows through the proxy to the server hosting the website, and the response returns to the user through the same proxy. A proxy provides security and privacy and enables the server to share its load. Businesses leverage digital
A proxy is a server application that runs between the user and the server. The user’s request flows through the proxy to the server hosting the website, and the response returns to the user through the same proxy.
A proxy provides security and privacy and enables the server to share its load. Businesses leverage digital marketing to connect to their prospective customers and retain their current customers.
Proxies provide anonymity by hiding IP addresses. They work fast as the proxy cache helps quickly transfer data from the server to the user.
Feel to jump to any section to learn more about shared proxies vs private proxies!
What is a Shared Proxy and How Does it Work?
Things to Keep in Mind When Using a Shared Proxy
What is a Private Proxy, and How Does it Work?
Special Use Cases of Private Proxies
Quick Glimpse – Shared Proxy vs Private Proxy
Best Proxy for Your Online Tasks
Why Do We Need a Proxy?
Marketers need data to analyze and research to understand the current business scenario and predict sales. They need the data from their competitor’s websites, a pioneer in their niche. They use web scraping tools and software to scrape prices, product details, and the underlying code.
Users use proxies for web scraping, which requires automation and anonymity. There are several types of proxies available in the market, you may choose the best proxy for you based on your requirement and budget.
There are different types of proxies, such as shared, private, free, paid, transparent, static, and rotating. Most shared proxies are free, and paid proxies are dedicated proxies.
Types of Proxies
The two proxy classifications are forward and reverse proxies. Forward proxies are a gateway for the user to contact the server while hiding the user’s details. The reverse proxy protects and manages the server by distributing the load, caching, and optimizing the content for faster transmission.
Proxies vary on reliability, speed, security, privacy, price, and other features.
Based on the security and privacy levels, there are three proxies:
- An anonymous proxy
- A transparent proxy
- An elite proxy.
An anonymous proxy does not disclose your location or browsing habits to the server because it replaces the original IP address with a new one. The anonymous proxy conveys to the target server that it has connected through a proxy by mentioning the HTTP_VIA field in the HTTP header.
The proxies include the HTTP_VIA field both in the request and response headers.
A transparent proxy reveals the IP address and that you are using proxy software but does not alter your information. The transparent proxy brings a faster response because it caches the information of the websites you visit. A proxy server permits you access to firewalled websites.
An elite proxy is better for privacy because it hides your IP address and hides the fact that you are using proxy software.
The HTTP header removes the HTTP_VIA field itself, making it hard for the server to find out that you made a request through the proxy.
What is a Shared Proxy and How Does it Work?
Proxies are classified further as shared and private based on price and levels of anonymity.
Multiple users use shared proxies that share the same port and authentication info.
The HTTP header contains a field Proxy-Authenticate request and response field and the authentication credentials to connect to the proxy. The client and the server send the authentication information along with the request/response packet the server uses to validate the client and then send back the response. The proxy shares this authentication info in a shared proxy among the users.
Shared proxies are the cheapest proxies because the proxy provider can divide the cost of the proxy among its users, may browse the web anonymously, bypass web filters, and access restricted content on the web.
Most shared proxies are free and useful for someone who needs many proxies for a few hours. They may scrape and harvest data like keyword ranking and page rank from the competitor’s website.
Shared proxies cannot guarantee privacy or security but are leveraged for jobs requiring huge, fast, and minimal security proxies. They support HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocol services.
Things to Keep in Mind When Using a Shared Proxy
Though shared proxies are free, you must pay for slow transmission and other risks.
Bandwidth Sharing
Shared proxies have a divided bandwidth because of their multiple users, Which makes the performance slower. This leads to poor connection, packet loss, and dropped connections.
The Bad Neighbor Effect
Shared proxies use the same IP address for other users and might get blocked if that user does malicious activity on the internet. This limits you from using the same proxy and will block you from accessing that website.
Running Into a Captcha
The shared proxy uses the same IP address for scraping the web, which means the requests from the same IP addresses might be considered spam and trigger the captcha program installed on your computer. This will eventually put the IP address on the blacklist and might block you from continuing your work with that shared proxy.
What is a Private Proxy, and How Does it Work?
Other websites can track your IP address and browsing activities when you browse the internet. A private proxy is highly anonymous and is an intermediate between the user and the internet.
Unlike a shared proxy, only one user can access the private proxy at a given time. That user may use the proxy’s IP address to access the server. The proxy server masks the user’s original IP address and then connects them to the targeted server.
You can use a unique username, password, and IP authentication information. Other users don’t share this proxy type with anyone, so the users have full control.
A dedicated proxy is also a private proxy, offering secured privacy but a higher price than shared proxies.
Private proxies can hide the user’s IP address and physical address, which makes anonymous surfing possible without leaving a digital footprint.
Special Use Cases of Private Proxies
Apart from providing anonymity and distributing the load, there are special use cases for private proxies.
SEO Proxies
The online business generates leads if you try to rank on the first pages of Google, but it is not an easy task and must incorporate many ranking factors on its result pages. SEO proxies help you check your keyword rankings. These proxies check your location and mimic human behaviours, and you can check how your pages rank in different locations.
Craigslist Proxies
Craigslist is a website for classified ads and community notices in a location. You can use a Craiglist proxy to post different ads from different proxies to create more awareness for your business.
Quick Glimpse – Shared Proxies vs Private Proxies
| Feature | Shared Proxy | Private Proxy |
| Users | Many users share the same IP address. | Private proxies are dedicated proxies that have one user at a time. |
| Speed | there is a bandwidth overload leading to slow internet when the users share the proxies. | The communication is fast and there’s no compromise on the bandwidth since only one user uses it. |
| Security | Shared proxies have a risk of attack by a hacker and spammers. | Private proxies are more secure because they provide a unique IP address and port number that provides unique authenticated access. |
| Anonymity | They mask the original IP and contact the server with the proxy’s IP. It is hard to find out the proxy’s real user as many users use the same proxy. It offers a high level of anonymity. | They provide anonymity by contacting the server with the proxy’s IP and do not reveal the user’s IP. |
| Mask | It masks the IP address only. | It can hide both the MAC and the IP address. |
| Reliability | The shared proxies are almost free and do not require any registration. Hence, it is time-consuming to test proxies that either belongs to someone else or have already been compromised by the hackers.They are not always reliable during a connection and might fail while in use. | Users register private proxies before using them, so they are almost fail-proof.They are paid and offer a dedicated proxy. |
| Spam and Advertisement | Unscrupulous sites often host free proxies and might sell your email address to other advertising companies.You run the risk of installing adware and viruses on your computer. You may get unwanted advertisement banners as soon as you log on and connect to the internet. | When you use a private proxy, there’s a minuscule chance that your IP address may get revealed. It protects your personal information.No one can hack or install any malicious software onto your system. |
| Price | They are provided free of cost, but that comes with the price of possibly exposing yourself to unknown and untrusted sources.There is no response when the shared proxy fails. | There is a price range for private proxies, and you must decide which offers the best features before settling on the price.You must look for a provider with credibility and good service history.You can find the list of top private proxies and compare them to your needs. |
| IP address type | You can use a rotating IP address for a shared proxy. As the IP address changes for each request, the chances of website tracking and blocking are low. | You can purchase an IP address from a data center for a private proxy and use it until you finish your work. |
| Geo-specific content | You may use shared proxies to access content restricted based on your location.If the site finds that there are numerous requests from the same IP, then you have the risk of getting your proxy blocked. | You can get shared IP addresses in various countries worldwide, which lets you access content limited to those locations, such as movies, news, or pricing information. |
Best Proxy for Your Online Tasks:
ProxyScrape is one of the most popular and reliable proxy providers online. Three proxy services include dedicated datacentre proxy servers, residential proxy servers, and premium proxy servers. So, what is the best proxy server for your online experience? Before answering that questions, it is best to see the features of each proxy server.
A dedicated datacenter proxy is best suited for high-speed online tasks, such as streaming large amounts of data (in terms of size) from various servers for analysis purposes. It is one of the main reasons organizations choose dedicated proxies for transmitting large amounts of data in a short amount of time.
A dedicated datacenter proxy has several features, such as unlimited bandwidth and concurrent connections, dedicated HTTP proxies for easy communication, and IP authentication for more security. With 99.9% uptime, you can rest assured that the dedicated datacenter will always work during any session.
Last but not least, ProxyScrape provides excellent customer service and will help you to resolve your issue within 24-48 business hours.
Next is a residential proxy. Residential is a go-to proxy for every general consumer. The main reason is that the IP address of a residential proxy resembles the IP address provided by ISP. This means getting permission from the target server to access its data will be easier than usual.
The other feature of ProxyScrape’s residential proxy is a rotating feature. A rotating proxy helps you avoid a permanent ban on your account because your residential proxy dynamically changes your IP address, making it difficult for the target server to check whether you are using a proxy.
Apart from that, the other features of a residential proxy are: unlimited bandwidth, along with concurrent connection, dedicated HTTP/s proxies, proxies at any time session because of 7 million plus proxies in the proxy pool, username and password authentication for more security, and last but not least, the ability to change the country server. You can select your desired server by appending the country code to the username authentication.
The last one is the premium proxy. Premium proxies are the same as dedicated datacenter proxies. The functionality remains the same. The main difference is accessibility. In premium proxies, the proxy list (the list that contains proxies) is made available to every user on ProxyScrape’s network. That is why premium proxies cost less than dedicated datacenter proxies.
So, what is the best proxy server for your online activity? The answer would be either “residential proxy” or “dedicated datacenter proxy”.
The reason is simple.
As said above, the residential proxy is a rotating proxy, meaning that your IP address would be dynamically changed over a period of time which can be helpful to trick the server by sending a lot of requests within a small time frame without getting an IP block.
Next, the best thing would be to change the proxy server based on the country. You must append the country ISO_CODE at the end of the IP authentication or username and password authentication.
The reliability of a dedicated datacenter proxy would be based on the data transmission speed. It will help you to save a considerable amount of time while getting the job done. But one thing to remember is that dedicated datacenter proxies are static proxies, meaning that the probability of getting an IP block from the target server is comparatively higher than the residential proxy. But some online tasks require static IP addresses to carry out. In those cases, dedicated datacenter proxies are best.
FAQs:
FAQs:
1. What is a shared proxy?
2. What is a proxy?
3. What are the two types of proxy?
Closing Thoughts
The internet makes communication faster and easier, but hidden threats, risks, and dangers can compromise your identity, and data can harm your business. There are solutions that you can make ṣuse of to prevent you from being victimized by all sorts of malicious users.
Proxy is one solution to provide anonymity when you deal with sensitive information, and there are a plethora of proxies for every job on the internet.
ProxyScrape provides a variety of proxies with unlimited bandwidth and 99% uptime. They have a flexible combination of proxies to choose from and affordable pricing. Keep checking our blog for more information on the newly introduced proxies, their uses, and the benefits ProxyScrape offers. This article hopes to give enough information on shared proxies vs private proxies.