Residential Proxies: Definition, Use Cases, and Best Providers

What Are Residential Proxies?

A residential proxy is an intermediary server with an IP address assigned by an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to a real residential device. Like any proxy server, it acts as a middleman between your device and the Internet. For more details, check out our proxy server guide.

When routing web traffic through these proxies, you receive an alternative ISP-backed IP address from a device connected to a home network. This process hides your identity behind genuine residential IPs, which are difficult to detect by anti-bot solutions.

In other terms, residential proxies obtain IPs from home devices connected to local Wi-Fi networks in specific geographical areas. This means you can choose the desired location of the proxy servers to connect to, with geo-targeting options by country, region, city, and even ZIP code.

Some key characteristics of proxy residential servers are:

Residential IPs come from home devices such as computers, smartphones, and other Internet-connected devices.
Residential IPs are more legitimate and have a higher IP reputation than datacenter IPs.
Providers can ensure precise geo-targeting options and broad location coverage in dozens of countries.
Residential proxy networks usually include millions of IPs.
Only a subset of all residential IPs in the proxy network is available at any given time, since not all devices share their IPs all the time. This also means that the received residential IPs are rotated periodically by default.

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Bright Data operates the best proxy network in the world, used by several Fortune 500 companies and over 20,000 customers. This worldwide proxy network includes:

Residential proxies – Over 72M residential IPs in more than 195 countries
Datacenter proxies – Over 770,000 datacenter IPs
ISP proxies – Over 700,000 ISP IPs
Mobile proxies – Over 7M mobile IPs

Overall, that is one of the largest, fastest, and most reliable scraping-oriented proxy networks on the market.

How a Proxy Residential Server Works

Proxy residential servers work like other proxy servers. The main difference is that a residential proxy is not a dedicated machine in a server farm but a real device sharing its connection with other users.

The process of routing traffic through residential proxies follows the steps below:

The user makes a request for a specific webpage or online resource through a residential proxy server.
The residential device acting as a proxy server intercepts the request and forwards it to the destination.
The destination server processes the request—which has the IP of the proxy server—and sends the response back to the proxy.
The proxy forwards the server’s response back to the user.

Note that the destination server never sees the user’s IP, as it only interacts with the proxy server. For the user, the request cycle feels regular, with a request sent to a destination and a response received as expected.

The three main benefits of this mechanism are:

Online anonymity: Your IP address, and therefore your location and identity, are hidden behind a genuine IP from a residential device. This ensures online privacy without raising the attention of anti-bot measures.
Access to geo-restricted content: By having access to proxy servers in several locations, you can virtually geo-locate yourself in many countries and cities worldwide without physically moving there. That gives you access to region-specific services and content, such as in streaming platforms.
IP rotation: Best residential proxies boast millions of devices and can provide you with as many exit IPs as you need. This helps avoid rate limiting constraints, deal with IP bans, and bypass anti-scraping restrictions.

Types of Residential Proxies

Residential proxy servers encompass various types including free, premium, HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5, dedicated, shared, static, rotating, and more. The umbrella term “residential proxies” commonly refers to shared rotating residential proxies, regardless of supported protocols and pricing structure.

Among all these types of proxies, two are particularly noteworthy: rotating residential proxies and static residential proxies. Time to learn more about them!

Rotating Residential Proxies

When connecting to rotating residential proxies, the exit IP changes periodically. Typically, after a set time interval or after each request. That automatic rotation enhances anonymity and lowers the chances of getting blocked.

However, there are situations where you want to maintain the same residential IP for a while. This is where IP sticky options come in! These enable you to stick to the same IP for a configured amount of time, usually 1, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes.

👍 Pros:

IPs coming from real residential devices
Millions of IPs available in dozens of countries
Genuine IPs

👎 Cons:

Slower and more expensive than datacenter proxies.

Static Residential Proxies

Static residential proxies—more commonly known as ISP proxies—are proxy servers with a fixed IP address provided by an ISP. Unlike rotating proxies, they maintain the same IP address over time, offering enhanced stability. These proxies are generally dedicated exclusively to one user at a time.

Sourcing ISP proxies is challenging because it involves forming agreements and partnerships with ISPs to purchase IPs directly from them. This is also why ISP proxies are more expensive than other proxies. As a result, proxy providers offer dedicated plans for ISP proxies and other plans for rotating residential proxies.

👍 Pros:

Static IPs provided by ISPs
Faster and more reliable than rotating residential proxy servers
High-quality IPs

👎 Cons:

Expensive
Not many countries available

Use Cases

Residential proxies are versatile tools that unlock numerous possibilities across various scenarios and industries. Let’s explore some of their most common use cases.

Web Scraping

Web scraping is the process of extracting data from websites using automated software. The end goal is to automatically collect large amounts of public data from the Web and use it for a variety of purposes, from market research to competitive analysis.

However, companies understand the value of their data. So, they aim to protect it at all costs, even if it is publicly available on their site. Consequently, most sites now rely on anti-scraping solutions that can easily block requests from scraping bots.

Residential proxies are ideal for web scraping because they provide a large set of authentic IP addresses. These appear legitimate to web servers, reducing the risk of being blocked or detected. Additionally, rotating IPs from residential servers helps overcome IP bans and rate limiting systems. That ensures continuous and efficient data extraction without interruptions.

Ad Verification

Ad verification involves ensuring that online ads are displayed correctly, in the intended locations, and reach the desired audience. Proxy residential servers are excellent for this task because they support marketers in:

Assessing ad performance in multiple geographic locations.
Measuring ad quality, correct placement, and size while remaining anonymous.
Preventing ad fraud to maximize the return on investment.

Proxies help you validate various aspects of digital advertising campaigns to ensure compliance, integrity, and effectiveness. Find out more about ad verification.

Price Monitoring

Price monitoring is about retrieving, tracking, and analyzing the prices of products and services across various sites and e-commerce platforms. The idea is to find great deals, identify market trends, or study competitors to adjust your pricing strategies. That is a key part of MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) monitoring.

Thanks to residential proxies, you can monitor e-commerce prices from sites worldwide as if you were a local user. All that while hiding your identity and without having to worry about bans and IP blocks.

Achieve your price monitoring goals with our Price Scraper.

Online Marketing

Residential proxy services greatly support online marketing because they enable users to: