Dec 19, 2022

Static vs. Rotating Proxies: A Comparison-Rainproxy

You can choose an appropriate proxy for your web scraping needs by understanding the differences between static and rotating proxies. A rotating proxy turns IP addresses from the provided pool of IPs, as opposed to a static proxy, which connects through one IP address per session.

We will thoroughly cover These two types of proxies in this article. The main differences between rotating and static proxies will be discussed, along with the most typical applications for each.

What is a proxy?

A proxy acts as a go-between for a client making a web page request and the server delivering it. Proxy servers offer anonymity, which can get around the safeguards many websites have to stop people from scraping their content.

What is Static Proxy?

A static proxy enables web access from a single, distinct IP address. In most cases, a static proxy is an IP address assigned to you by a data center. You can use the static IP address assigned to you for as long as necessary.

Users can select one IP address from a list of static proxy service providers. Static proxies are less customizable than rotating proxies. They are slightly different from proxies used by mobile devices and Internet service providers (ISPs), which periodically change IP addresses.

There are several benefits to using static proxies. The ability to keep the intellectual property "IP" for life — it will be yours for as long as you need — is one of the most significant benefits.

There are also some drawbacks to using static proxies. The availability of static IP addresses may only partially meet your data scraping needs, depending on your requirements. Some e-commerce websites block static IP addresses that send excessive requests.

What is a Rotating Proxy?

When connecting, a rotating proxy selects a new IP address from the proxy pool. This implies that you can start a script that sends 10,000 requests to as many websites as possible to gather 10,000 different IP addresses.

A rotating proxy switches the IP address allotment for each new request from a pool of available addresses. Because the target website receiving multiple connection requests from a rotating proxy will receive a log of various geolocations, it becomes a better option for web scraping.

Additionally, rotating proxies can modify the gateway server's features, change the quantity and location of IP addresses, and use bots to automatically turn IP addresses for each new request.

There are several benefits to rotating proxies over static proxies. First, revolving proxies employ IP addresses from millions of residences and mobile devices. Due to this, geographic targeting at the city/state level is possible. Additionally, legitimate IPs from residential and mobile devices combined with IP rotation make it very difficult to identify rotating IPs.

Rotating proxies have three primary drawbacks. Compared to static proxies, rotating proxies are slower. An extra hop is involved in the process because a gateway proxy server must assign a new IP address. The pool of IP addresses from residences or mobile devices typically has less bandwidth than proxies from data centers or ISPs. The cost of rotating proxies is generally higher due to the proxy provider's need to procure and manage millions of IP addresses.

Comparison of Rotating and Static Proxies

When Do You Need Static Proxies?

• Social Media Management

You should limit your use of one IP per account on social media to avoid raising suspicion. If you use different IP addresses during each session, Facebook or Instagram may eventually block your account.

• Market Investigation

Suppose you want to use a proxy to conduct a marketing intelligence session. In that case, you can obtain a geo-based static IP and get some accurate information on, for example, how your promotional campaign appears in different regions. This information could misrepresent as dynamically changing for each session using rotating IP addresses.

• Utilized for SEO Audits

You can use Sticky Proxies to identify the top-ranking pages on a single website by web scrapers from search engines. The audit can retrieve link information, top-ranking keywords, and much more.

• Control Classified Websites

Rotating IP addresses may not always be the best option because there is a lot of data to scrape from classified marketplaces. You can use static residential proxies to scrape classified marketplaces without getting blocked.

• Shopping Online

You can be acknowledged as a legitimate customer with a static IP and given preferential treatment during a new visit. Whenever you access a store, if the IP address associated with your account starts to change, the service may become suspicious and ban your account.

So, a static proxy is an obvious choice if you need a single unique IP for continuous operation on some online platforms.

When Do You Need Rotating Proxies?

Rotating proxies will be more beneficial for quickly collecting significant amounts of data from search engines. In this case, if several requests begin to originate from a single IP, your actions may become suspicious. You Should complete the work for yourself by rotating IPs while scraping SERP. The most typical use cases of rotating proxies are now found in these fields of online research.

• Price Awareness

By rotating proxies, you can develop datasets on the costs of comparable products from your competitors. It will be possible to complete it quickly and without the websites being targeted becoming suspicious if you have access to a large pool of IP addresses.

• Internet Marketing Decisions Should be Data-Driven

Rotating proxies are ideal for scraping product data, such as erratic prices. Developers can access helpful information from product pages by pretending to be an IP address.

Additionally, marketers can monitor SEO changes, examine user reviews of rival websites, and find the top keywords on various websites.

• SEO Tracking

With the help of bots powered by rotating proxies, you will immediately have information on your current SERP standings in various geolocations. This information should be sufficient to help you decide how to further enhance the content strategy for your website.

• Engage in Extensive Data Scraping

You can get around antibot software, CDNs, and cookies that detect web scraping patterns with rotating proxies. A high-end rotating proxy has a pool of reliable IP addresses that are challenging to block.

• Server Testing

You can test your server fleet by using rotating proxies as well. You can simulate user behavior and website traffic peaks to observe how your anti-spam or antibot systems respond.

Rotating proxies are the best option in all situations where having a different IP for each request you make is advantageous.

Which proxy type should you use: static or rotating?

Security, performance, and cost should all be considered when deciding whether to use rotating or static proxies. An in-depth discussion will follow.

• Security

Over longer sessions, static proxies establish connections from a single IP address. If used for scraping online stores, these proxies are blocked. By changing IP addresses, rotating proxies increase security by decreasing the likelihood of being discovered.

• Performance

Rotating proxies offer more outstanding performance, while static brokers ensure more excellent uptime. Connections can be made through fast servers, at fast speeds, with lots of bandwidth, and with little latency using rotating proxies. These aid in the massive data transfer for web crawlers each session.

How It Works: Rotating vs. Static Proxies

It is crucial to comprehend how the process is perceived from the target's perspective because it can use static and rotating proxies to scrap data from various websites and platforms.

A target site employs an anti-scraping action to block your address if you have a lot of requests coming from a single IP over a specific period.

Rotating proxies with a rotator makes sense for target sites with antibot systems. But you should keep the two options the same. When using a rotating proxy, you can set the rotational time intervals through the proxy provider's dashboard. A proxy rotator is a separate app that, when provided with proxies, can rotate based on the settings you will supply. You may receive a different IP for each session depending on how long you wait.

Conclusion

Rotating IP addresses greatly simplifies automated tasks like testing and scraping because the provider manages the rotation, freeing you to focus on your goals. But in some cases, static proxies are still helpful. Knowing the differences between these services will help you decide which one best meets your needs. However, if you still have trouble choosing, don't hesitate to contact Rainproxy, and we'll be happy to help.