Comparison

Residential vs datacenter proxies

The two workhorses of proxy work solve the same problem from opposite ends. Datacenter proxies optimize for speed and cost; residential proxies optimize for looking human. Picking wrong means either overpaying for traffic you didn't need to protect, or getting blocked on day one. Here's how to choose.

The core difference

Datacenter proxies run on servers in data centers. Their IPs belong to hosting-provider ASNs — and anti-bot systems keep lists of those. Residential proxies route through IPs that ISPs assigned to real homes, so they carry ordinary-user reputation. Everything else (speed, price, block rate) flows from this one fact.

Side by side

FactorResidentialDatacenter
Looks likeA real home userA server
Block rate (hard targets)LowHigh
SpeedFast (extra hop)Fastest
Price~$2/GB~$0.80/GB
IP pool sizeMillions, rotatingSmaller, fixed
Geo coverage190+ countriesLimited

Which to pick for your job

Use residential when the target fights back or personalizes by location: marketplaces, search engines, social platforms, ticketing, ad verification, multi-accounting. Use datacenter when the target is tolerant and you need throughput: internal tools, APIs you're allowed to hit, bulk fetches of unprotected pages.

Many teams use both — residential for the hard 20% of targets, datacenter for the easy 80%. A provider that meters both on one balance (Roam bills residential at $2/GB and datacenter at $0.80/GB from the same wallet) makes splitting traffic a one-line change.

FAQ

Are datacenter proxies ever better than residential?

机房代理有比住宅更好的时候吗?

Can I switch between them easily?

两者切换容易吗?

Which is cheaper overall?

总体哪个便宜?

Related reading

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