How to Choose a Proxy: A Step by Step Guide

If you’re here because you want to learn how to a choose a proxy that will make your next project a raging success, then congrats! You are in the right place. This step by step guide will have you ready to buy in just a few minutes.

Choosing the right proxy for your project can significantly enhance your online operations, from scraping data to managing multiple accounts or bypassing oppressive government restrictions. Proxies serve as intermediaries between your device and the internet, masking your IP address to help protect your identity, secure your data, and ensure project success. In this step-by-step guide on how to choose proxies, we’ll walk through how to select the right proxies based on your current project needs. After you’ve determined exactly what you need you can find the providers who offer that by using ProxyMatch.

Do You Need a VPN or a Proxy? Understanding the Difference

We get a lot of questions from people asking about how to use a VPN for a task that clearly needs proxies, so before delving into the complex world of proxies, let’s consider whether a VPN or a proxy best suits your needs.

Choose a VPN for Privacy, Security and Freedom

• VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) encrypt your entire internet connection, which is useful for:
  • Protecting sensitive data: For activities like secure file sharing, confidential corporate communications, or sensitive transactions.
  • Bypassing government censorship: In countries where oppressive regimes restrict internet access, VPNs are essential for connecting to the open web and accessing vital information.
  • Ensuring full anonymity: VPNs mask all your online activity, making them suitable for journalists, activists, or users in oppressive regions who need to avoid government surveillance.

However, we’ve also taken a deep dive on the question are VPNs safe and before you delve into that world, you should read it. For others, you should know that VPNs are not ideal for tasks that require interacting with multiple websites simultaneously, managing large numbers of online accounts, or performing automated web tasks.

Choose Proxies for Everything Else: Scraping, Automation, Social Media and More

• Proxies, on the other hand, allow you to direct traffic from specific applications, making them more powerful for particular tasks. And with proxies you can more easily control IP address connections to achieve complex goals such as:
  • Web scraping and data collection: Proxies are essential for gathering large amounts of data, whether it’s market research, pricing comparisons, or aggregating massive amounts of data, such as job postings across different platforms.
  • Managing multiple accounts: Proxies are particularly effective for users managing multiple accounts on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, or Web3 applications. Multi-accounting is essential in areas like social media marketing, decentralized finance (DeFi), and blockchain management, where using the same IP for multiple accounts can lead to bans.
  • Web3 multi-accounting: For those involved in the decentralized web, proxies allow the management of multiple wallets or identities across different decentralized apps (dApps), without linking those activities to your real IP address.
  • Automation tasks: Whether you’re running SEO monitoring, scraping data for competitive analysis, or managing social media automation, proxies help ensure your IPs don’t get banned for high-volume requests.
  • Bypassing oppressive government restrictions: If you are concerned about using a VPN in an authoritarian nation, you can try proxies. They might be better at allowing users to access blocked websites, communicate freely, and even engage in decentralized finance or blockchain activities that might otherwise be prohibited.

Use Proxies if: Your project requires specific application traffic management, multi-accounting for platforms or Web3, automation of online tasks, large scale data scraping or bypassing internet restrictions under authoritarian regimes.

From Budget to Premium: How to Choose the Right Proxy Type

Once you’ve decided to use proxies, the next step is selecting the right type based on your needs and budget. Here are the most common types of proxies, their relative cost and their best use cases:

Datacenter Proxies

• Cost: Generally the cheapest option.
• Use Case:
  • Large-scale web scraping where speed and volume are important, such as aggregating flight prices or collecting bulk product data.
  • SEO monitoring across different regions.
  • Automating tasks that involve many repetitive actions, like gathering public social media data or ad verification.

However, datacenter proxies are not ideal for accessing content blocked by oppressive governments or managing sensitive multi-account projects, as they are easily detectable by websites with robust anti-bot protections.

Residential Proxies

• Cost: More expensive than datacenter proxies.
• Use Case:
  • High-anonymity projects, like scraping competitive pricing data from e-commerce sites or collecting sensitive market research.
  • Managing multi-accounting projects, where platforms have stricter security measures to detect bots (e.g., managing multiple Web3 wallets or e-commerce accounts).
  • Accessing content in regions with restrictive internet policies, allowing you to bypass government controls and access blocked websites or services.

Residential proxies are harder to detect and block but are not ideal for large-scale scraping where speed is a higher priority than anonymity.

ISP Proxies

• Cost: Mid-range, more than datacenter proxies but generally less than residential proxies.
• Use Case:
  • Long-term account management for platforms that require consistent, stable IP addresses (e.g., social media automation, multiple LinkedIn accounts).
  • Web3 multi-accounting for decentralized platforms that require trusted, stable IP addresses for each wallet or identity.

ISP proxies offer IP addresses from real ISPs and provide better stability, but they are not ideal for short-term, high-volume tasks due to their fixed locations.

Mobile Proxies

• Cost: The most expensive option.
• Use Case:
  • Automating mobile app interactions (e.g., testing mobile platforms or running social media automation).
  • Managing multiple accounts for mobile-first apps like Instagram or TikTok, ensuring high trust levels with mobile IPs.
  • Accessing restricted content in oppressive regions, where mobile proxies can better mimic real users and avoid detection.

Mobile proxies provide the highest level of anonymity and reliability but are not ideal for projects with limited budgets.

HTTP(S) vs SOCKS5: Which Protocol Do You Need?

All of the proxy types we mentioned above: datacenter, ISP, residential and mobile can connect through HTTP(S) or SOCKS5 protocols. In general, HTTP(S) is the most common choice for web based projects that use the HTTP(S) protocol. And when we say HTTP(S), that’s because there are two similar, but distinct protocols: HTTP and HTTPS. If you are going this route, you should read more about if you need HTTP or HTTPS proxies in our resource guides.

However, when comparing SOCKS5 with HTTPS, you should know that SOCKS5 can do everything HTTP(S) can do, but, additionally, because it is a lower-level proxy protocol, it can mask your IP when you connect with other applications as well such as: email, FTP, peer-to-peer (P2P), live streaming, gaming, VOIP and more. Some popular apps you might use SOCKS5 with include BitTorrent, Skype, Zoom, Spotify, Steam, Minecraft, Telegram, Discord, Filezilla and many many others.

SOCKS5 proxies also offer better anonymity than HTTP proxies since they don’t rewrite data headers, which reduces the chance of revealing your identity. So, some people choose this option even for HTTP(S) tasks.

For these reasons, SOCKS5 proxies tend to be more expensive, so unless you have a specific reason to get SOCKS5, your budget will go further with HTTP(S).

Dedicated vs. Shared Proxies: Key Differences Explained

After deciding on the type of proxy, consider whether a dedicated or shared proxy fits your project’s needs.

Shared Proxies

The issues with shared proxies are generally that other users of the proxies could behave in a manner that gets them banned from certain sites. This is where the size of shared proxy networks and acceptable use enforcement by providers is important. Even if some shared proxies are banned, if your pool is big enough and you can automatically rotate to a new proxy when needed, this issue can be mitigated so you can enjoy the cost savings shared proxies offer.

• Cost: Shared proxies are cheaper than dedicated proxies, so use them if you can.
• Use Cases
  • Dedicated proxies can be used for low-risk tasks like small-scale data scraping or when speed and reliability are not your main requirements.
  • They are good for minor social media automation or scraping of non-critical data. For example, getting price information from e-commerce platforms.
  • They are suitable for multi-account setups in less security-conscious platforms, where multiple users sharing the same proxy IP are not likely to get flagged.
  • They can work well for account creation at scale, when that is allowed by the web site.
  • Shared proxies are also good for SEO tasks like monitoring search engine rankings, doing keyword research and analyzing web site performance from different geographic locations.
  • General browsing anonymity and short term geo-restricted content access are also use cases in which shared proxies might be a good solution.

Dedicated Proxies

With dedicated proxies, you are the only one using them, so you can control all of the behavior on that IP address. A dedicated proxy is only used by you while you are paying for access to it, however that doesn’t mean it has never been used. You might get a dedicated proxy that someone else previously abused and doesn’t work for your project. Most proxy providers will switch the proxies out for you if this is the case.

• Cost: More expensive than shared proxies.
• Use Case:
  • Dedicated proxies are good to use when you want to connect to a web site using the same IP address over and over, as a normal user would.
  • Social Media and e-commerce account management and gaming are use cases in which this is likely necessary.
  • When scraping, you might need to maintain a session over time and dedicated proxies will support your use of maintaining session persistence.
  • Further, Ad verification tasks may require persistent sessions so you can test geo-targeting or behavioral display of ads.
  • If you are accessing geo-restricted or other harder hard to reach content, a dedicated proxy that works will likely keep working and not be susceptible to bans from poor behaviors from other users of that proxy.

Dedicated proxies provide greater stability and privacy but are not ideal if your project is budget-sensitive or short-term.

Private Proxies

Some companies offer products called “private proxies”. These are essentially the same as dedicated proxies, but with a more marketing and user-friendly term. If you see plans for private proxies, just understand that is a dedicated proxy as described above.

Static vs. Rotating vs. Sticky Proxies: Which Connection is Right for You?

Your proxy’s connection type is crucial depending on the nature of your project. You can choose between rotating, static, or sticky proxies. Unlike your choice between datacenter, residential, ISP and mobile proxies, the connection style you choose (static, rotating, sticky) is not likely to be the primary driver of your cost. Still, it’s important to consider that rotating proxies will generally cost more than static ones because you are accessing a large pool of IPs, which costs the provider more. However, in general, the specs of your project are going to determine what type you need, so you have a little less flexibility to tweak this choice for cost concerns.

Rotating Proxies

Rotating proxies allow you to change your IP address frequently, pulling from typically very large pools of IP addresses offered by your provider. Additionally, many providers will allow you to select the geographic location of your proxies and / or switch from one location to another on the fly, which is important for reasons described below.

• Use Case:
  • Best for large-scale scraping or automation where IP changes are needed frequently to avoid detection while collecting massive datasets for analysis.
  • Price aggregation and monitoring projects often use rotating proxies. This is helpful for projects in which prices of airline ticket prices, hotel room rates or other fluctuating price data needs be tracked.
  • Many SEO and rank tracking projects will require rotating proxies, not only to facilitate gathering massive amounts of data with bans, but to specifically test search engine results from different locations.
  • The same geographic flexibility of rotating proxies makes them a good solution for Ad verification and testing across different locations.
  • Rotating proxies will help automate some social media tasks and can prevent IP bans in gaming.
  • Rotating proxies are also helpful to web developers and QA specialists who need to build and test their work from different IP addresses, or stress test the applications.

Rotating proxies are not ideal for account management or tasks where a consistent IP is required.

Static Proxies

Static proxies maintain the same IP address over time, providing a consistent connection that’s tied to a single IP. Unlike rotating proxies, static proxies are ideal when you need to ensure that your IP doesn’t change for the duration of your connection. These proxies are often more stable and can be linked to a specific geographic location.

• Use Case:
  • Best for managing long-term activities that require a consistent IP address, such as handling accounts, performing session-based tasks, or maintaining secure connections to specific services.
  • Static proxies are commonly used for social media account management. Many platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, flag users if they frequently log in from different IP addresses. A static proxy helps ensure that these accounts always come from the same IP address.
  • Since blockchain platforms often require a stable IP to ensure secure access, static proxies are perfect for consistent and secure operations in decentralized finance (DeFi), Web3 wallet management or cryptocurrency transactions.
  • Sellers who manage multiple stores on platforms like Amazon, Shopify, or eBay benefit from static proxies to avoid appearing as a bot and getting banned.
  • Static proxies can be used like VPNs are typically used to access services that monitor IP locations such as a work server or a geo-restricted service like a banking website to manage your own accounts.

Static proxies are not ideal for tasks that require high-volume data extraction or automation, as maintaining the same IP can increase the risk of bans when performing actions that involve sending multiple requests quickly. For such tasks, rotating proxies are better suited.

Sticky Proxies

Sticky proxies typically maintain the same IP address for one access session, which is typically minutes or hours. Unlike static proxies, they rotate after the session ends or after a specified time. This makes sticky proxies a middle ground between rotating and static proxies, allowing users to retain an IP for long enough to manage a task but change it at intervals to avoid detection.

• Use Case:
  • Best for tasks that require session persistence but can tolerate some degree of IP rotation after a session is completed. Sticky proxies offer a balance between stability and anonymity, making them ideal for session-based interactions.
  • A key use case is web scraping behind login portals. When scraping data from websites that require users to log in, sticky proxies allow the user to retain the same IP for the duration of the session, avoiding issues with session resets or blocking. This is particularly useful for scraping user-specific data, such as accounts or dashboard information, without losing session cookies.
  • Sticky proxies are also widely used for multi-account management, particularly when accounts require longer sessions for actions like completing forms or making transactions. For example, social media marketers or e-commerce sellers may need to log in to multiple accounts, perform actions, and then rotate the IP after the task is complete, avoiding detection without sacrificing performance.
  • Another important use case is automating online purchases. Sticky proxies allow bots or automated systems to remain connected with the same IP throughout a transaction process, which helps avoid disruptions when completing complex checkout processes. Just be sure it’s legal to purchase the items you are purchasing through automated means.

Sticky proxies are not ideal for long-term activities that require a consistent IP, like account management or accessing secure services over time. In those cases, static proxies would be a better fit to avoid session resets.

Use ProxyMatch for the Best Provider

Now that you know what proxy type and connection method you need and decided between dedicated and shared, you are ready to find the right provider. That’s a whole different topic you can read about – but who has time for that especially when we have created a tool that allows you to do it! Take your notes over to ProxyMatch, enter your criteria into the filters and you will see a list of rated providers with comprehensive reviews so you can understand how to select the right one for your budget.

It’s free to use but will get you up an running on your project much faster!

Conclusion

By carefully considering the proxy type, whether you need dedicated or shared proxies, and the connection type, you can tailor your proxy solution to your project’s requirements. Whether you’re handling sensitive Web3 accounts, managing multi-account setups, scraping large datasets, or bypassing oppressive internet restrictions, selecting the right proxy will ensure your project’s success. We hope we have helped you along on this journey!