Taking part in paid surveys can be a good side gig for some people who want to earn an extra coin online. Although, the criteria for participating in some of such surveys are very strict and you have to match the website’s requirements. One of the main selection conditions is your physical or geographical location. And if you live outside of the specific area, your application may be rejected saying: “Sorry, you do not match the survey requirements”.
So, how do you go around this hurdle? Yes, you guessed right! Proxies will help you in this case as well. With some good IPs you will be able to hide your real location and replace it with the one specified in the survey.
In this article we will uncover the best proxy solutions to help you participate in the top online paid surveys. You will learn what types of proxies are best suited to be used with well-paying survey companies where you can make some extra money. We will also tell you what proxies should be avoided not to subject you to the risk of being banned by anti-bot or other protection tools.
Why Use a Proxy for Surveys?
Proxies have several features at their base that can be extremely useful for survey-related tasks. First of all, you can use residential proxies as a tool for bypassing different kinds of geo-restictions. This way, you will be able to access surveys that are otherwise not reachable from your country.
For example, if you are living in Germany and want to participate in a survey targeted at a US-based audience. Plus, depending on location, surveys can be paid off differently, so you can choose the country with the highest price point.
Then, proxies can be a great solution for increasing your online privacy. This feature will work for any sites that you visit with proxies turned on. In the case of surveys, it is especially useful because of the tendency of survey sites to collect your personal information. With a proxy, you can be sure that all of your data stays intact and safe.
The proxy’s final advantage is that it enables multiple participation in a single survey. Remember that you run the risk of having your account banned by certain websites and businesses for engaging in such behavior. In any event, a proxy can give you a different IP address for every connection you make, allowing you to complete a single survey multiple times and make a little extra cash.
The Most Popular Types of Survey Proxies
Now, let’s consider several types of proxies by their origin to identify IPs best fitted for survey websites.
Residential Proxies
Of course, residential proxies for sale from your provider can be seen as an ultimate tool for the mission. With residential IPs for surveys you will be able to have a geo-targeted IP through peer-to-peer networks that will match the survey site’s requirements, and you will most likely never get caught by the anti-bot system. Even if your target site is using HTTP cookies to avoid abuse by scraping bots, with residential proxies you will have very high chances of success in all kinds of survey missions, just like with a residential vpn setup.
We will cover all the advantages of the cheapest residential proxies for surveys below but for now you should know that you can definitely consider them as your primary option.
Datacenter Proxies
Datacenter proxies will serve you the IPs of cloud-based hosting companies, which will not be residential IPs of some real people. You can get with this option alright on some survey sites that require logins with social media accounts or out-of-location survey sites.
In some cases you can even go for rotating datacenter proxies, if you need to perform survey fill outs from multiple accounts.
The biggest risk about using DC proxies for survey websites lies in a much higher rate of detection of such proxies by anti-bot systems than residential IPs.
Shared and Public Proxies
As you can see from the name, the shared proxies are the IPs that you will share with the other users from the same proxy provider. These proxies may be quite affordable but are at the same time risky for secure web survey missions. You would be definitely better off with residential IPs for survey websites in most cases.
As for public proxies that you can find in some “free-to-use” proxy pools, you will be risking not only by getting banned on survey sites but also by leaking your credentials to the third party through using such IPs. Remember, when a digital product comes for free, you become the product.
Details of Using Residential IP for Survey Websites
As we mentioned before, proxies with residential IPs appear to be your best choice for conducting online surveys. First of all, such an IP means that you will appear as a legitimate physical user to your survey website and it can be geo-specific. For instance, there can be residential IPs for surveys in the USA where you can specify a state or even city for participating in a particular survey group.
In rare cases that you need to change your IP during your survey sessions, you can use rotating residential proxies with unlimited bandwidth based on a pool of IPs made of residential Socks5 proxies for survey. Here you need to make sure that your time intervals of sticky sessions will be sufficient for data entry. You can also use special apps for rotating your IPs such as Proxy SwitchyOmega. To find out the details on how to use SwitchyOmega Proxy read this guide here. And if in doubt, please consult with your account manager on this issue.
Another great advantage of using residential proxies for surveys is that they come with easy-to-use monthly plans. This way you can get high-quality proxies for surveys at a reasonable price strictly for the duration of your mission. If you take part in surveys on a regular basis, you will be able to select the number of IPs and geo details based on your requirements.
Survey Proxy Vs. Social Media Proxy
Well, survey proxies and social media proxies serve different purposes and , therefore, have different features. The choice between them depends on the specific needs and goals of the user. Where survey proxies are used for completing online surveys and reviews with social media proxies your main tasks will be managing multiple accounts or ensuring access to accounts from various geographical areas. The table below should clarify this difference.
The Best Residential Proxy Providers for Surveys
A residential proxy can be considered one of the most popular and functional types of proxy. Servers of this kind can allow you to use legitimate and clean IPs for any of your tasks. Let’s compare several main players on the private proxy market.
PrivateProxy.me
PrivateProxy has been on the market for more than a decade, and can provide you with the most customer oriented proxy options. Tech support is always available to help you with any problems or guide you through the setup steps. This way, you can be sure that, in any case, you won’t be left with the problem alone.
In the case of survey related tasks, PrivateProxy can provide you with IP in several of the most demanded locations. All of the purchased servers are accessible through a neat and comfortable to use dashboard. You can purchase, select the needed server, and start working right away.
Rayobyte
Another well-known supplier is Rayobyte, which has IPs in more than 150 nations worldwide. You can opt to pay for traffic or bandwidth when using any kind of IP. You can then adjust your plan and choose the options that are most comfortable for you.
Because Rayobyte proxies do not support the more recent SOCKS5 protocol, they are generally a little slower than their competitors. But the majority of the survey tasks should be covered by the performance that was given.
Smartproxy
When comparing Smartproxy to other top-tier providers, its price to performance ratio is typically the highest. In any event, you can get more than 40 million IPs from the most well-liked nations with Smartproxy.
You can select servers from more than 190 countries for tasks that are more geo-restricted. This can be especially helpful if you are trying to recruit respondents for surveys that are intended for more remote or exotic locations.
| Survey proxies | Social media proxies | |
| Purpose: | Used for conducting online surveys or market research | Used for managing multiple social media accounts, scraping data from social media and overriding geo bans. |
| Modus operandi: | Ensure access to surveys otherwise unavailable for certain geographical areas or locations. | Ensure the availability of IPs to allow access to social media platforms from different locations. |
| Types of proxies and pricing: | Residential proxies from pools with a limited number of IPs. Usually more expensive than other types of proxies. | Residential or Datacenter IPs that come from larger pools of proxies. Usually more affordable than survey proxies. |
How to Choose a Trusted Proxy Provider For Surveys?
First of all, not all providers are capable of deploying and supporting proxies for surveys. And if we are talking about alternatives, like VPNs, not all the best VPNs for surveys can guarantee your success. You have to choose among those who already have a proven track record in this field and the ones with reliable tech support.
Now, the following are a few parameters that you have to check with the proxy providers before committing your funds to residential IPs for surveys.
Security Aspects
You should always remember that buying cheap shared proxy options from untrusted proxy providers will lead to loss or leak of your personal data. This way you can expose your PC data to the server that will eventually forward it to data miners without your approval. This risk is not pertinent solely to survey proxies. It is also true about using unverified private proxies for data scraping as well.
To avoid all that, make sure you check the history of your proxy provider and make sure you are satisfied with the level of tech expertise you will experience from your account manager.
Size of Proxy Pools
Another important thing to remember about using survey proxies is that survey sites also might have anti-proxy tools to prevent cases of abuse. In order to access such sites you will need to use proxies from a variety of pools. If your IPs start matching some patterns detectable by the site, all your proxy sets may be jeopardized.
Inform your proxy provider on the use of survey proxies based on your location and the location of the required IPs. This will allow your private proxies provider to select the right pools and make them available to you for use.
Is Using Proxies for Survey Sites Illegal?
You may be violating the terms and conditions of a target survey website while you access it. Some sites consider it to be unethical or even fraudulent behavior on your part. Since you may be using a proxy to manipulate the location or identity of the user, it goes against the policy of the website.
The consequences of using proxies for accessing survey sites that explicitly stipulate the banning of proxies in terms of conditions may lead to losing access to the site upon detection. In some rare cases, the site may proceed with pressing charges.
How Do Survey Sites Detect Proxies?
Survey sites implement a whole range of methods for detecting proxies. Among them are the following:
IP Address Analysis. Like any target site, a survey site can analyze the IP address of incoming connections to determine if they are coming from a proxy server. Proxy servers often come from pools that have a specific range of IP addresses that can be detected by the site.
Blacklist Check. Survey sites may have a certain blacklist of known proxy servers and VPNs. If you attempt to access the site from a blacklisted IP address, the survey site may block or flag your connection for further review.
Geolocation Data. Survey sites will compare the geolocation data provided by a user (such as their claimed location) with the actual location detected by their IP address. If they do not match, it may red flag you as a proxy.
Behavior Analysis. Survey sites will analyze user behavior patterns, such as sudden changes in location or access patterns. This may also qualify as the use of a proxy.
Are Proxies a Must for Survey Sites?
Quite the opposite. Since many survey sites ban the use of proxies in their terms and conditions, the use of proxies is risky. Survey sites regularly require users to provide accurate and verified information about the location, demographics, and other details. This is done to ensure the validity and quality of the data collected through surveys.
Can You Have More Than One Account for a Survey Site?
Since having more than one account on a survey site may lead to duplicate responses and inconsistent data, survey sites do not favor the use of multiple accounts. In fact, some survey sites ban the use of multiple accounts in their terms and conditions.
Online Surveys With PrivateProxy
We are glad that you are seriously considering us as a survey proxy provider. We are able to supply you with proxies from a whole variety of networks spanning from residential IPs to high-quality datacenter proxies. You can also order Asian, EU and US residential IPs for surveys.
So, if your survey site is not accepting workers from your region, with our servers this hurdle can be easily overcome. And, like with all trusted proxy providers, your pool of IPs will come coupled with round-the-clock tech support that will be always on your side should you have any issues running our proxies.If you are looking to start a survey career or just want to participate in a few survey rounds, our proxies will be of great help to your online endeavors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read our Documentation if you have questions that are not listed below.
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What are survey proxies?
Survey proxies are private proxies that you can safely use for participating in online surveys. These IPs can help you override geo restrictions on some survey websites imposed on the participants. With such proxy servers paid surveys become available for participation for their users.
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Can I use residential proxies for surveys?
Absolutely. Residential proxies will (in most cases) be your primary choice while taking part in online surveys. They can be geo specific, which will be super important in properly registering on such sites for filling out the required data.
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What are the best proxies for surveys?
The best proxy options for surveys are residential proxies with geo specific IPs. In some select cases you will be OK with datacenter proxies and even rotating datacenter IPs. This is entirely dependent on the requirements of the survey site that you are interested in accessing.
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Is it safe to buy all proxies for surveys from one proxy provider?
Surely. We definitely recommend you to build a lengthy successful track record with your proxy provider before you decide to move all of your proxy business to a single provider. On the plus side, you will also be able to have favorable terms as a part of your exclusivity deal.
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Rotating your proxy IP can be a very helpful function during your scraping or parsing missions on the Web. However, in some select cases, you may need to use proxies with unchanging IP sessions instead of a new IP on each connection. This is exactly when you will require the functionality of sticky proxies.