While choosing the right proxy type for your missions, you will inevitably come across the issue of selecting proxies by their origin and the mode of operation. You can have static proxies with constant IPs or rotating proxies with different IPs assigned to them from a pool on each session or after a certain time interval.
In this article we will cover these two categories of proxies in detail. You will find out about the major distinction between rotating and static proxies and the most common use cases for them.
So, without further ado, let’s consider the areas of application of these two types of proxies and follow with the technical specifics of their operation.
What Are Static Proxies?
Basically, static proxies can be defined as servers that utilize a single IP address over a long period of time. This type of connection can be especially useful when you need to access geo-blocked sites or manage several accounts on one device.
For sites blocked on location basis, static residential proxies can provide constant access through the same IP address. This way, you can avoid constant checks by sites and just focus on your work.
Then, with this functionality, you can also use multiaccount setup on one device and enjoy all of the benefits of a stable connection without interruptions. Each of your accounts will be connected to a separate IP address, making it especially hard to track and block your activity.
With all of these functions, static proxies can become a crucial part of your current setup for data analysis, SEO, and SMM tasks.
What Are Rotating Proxies?
Rotating proxy servers got their name from the function of automatic IP change called rotation. With this option, the proxy provider will automatically change your address to a new one with each new request or connection. Alternatively, you can perform rotation by yourself with ready-made proxy pool and a custom script for rotation.
Overall, rotation can be a good tool for lots of different tasks. For example, in the case of data harvesting, you can use rotating proxies to avoid any advanced anti-bot systems. Even if the site can track and flag your activity, your server will get a new address that wasn’t blocked. This way, you can continue scraping tasks in any condition without blocking risks.
Defining Static and Rotating Proxies
Static proxies are a much older technology than rotating IPs. With such a proxy you get one IP for the whole duration of use. This IP will be able to conceal your original address and provide anonymity while performing scraping or other missions online.
With rotating proxies, your IP will be changing with every new request to the target website. A new IP gets picked from a pool of addresses of this particular proxy. And you will have the functionality of setting time frames of changing your IPs (these intervals are called sticky sessions) or just choosing a new IP for each request. So, when do you need the aforementioned rotations in your missions and can you survive with just residential or datacenter static proxies? And what is the main points that you need to look on when comparing static vs rotating proxies? Read on to find out.
When Do You Need Static Proxies
Social Media Management. If you don’t want to raise red flags on social media, you want to stick to one IP per account. Using various IPs for each session may eventually lead to blocking your account on Facebook or Instagram.
Marketing Research. If you want to conduct a marketing intelligence session using a proxy, you can get a geo-based static IP and get some valid info on how your promo campaign, for instance, appears in some areas. This is especially critical when it comes to conducting MAP (or Minimum Advertised Price) monitoring for locating outlets that set prices for your company’s merchandise outside of the agreed range. (To learn the MAP monitoring definition follow this link.)
With rotating IPs this information might get misrepresented for being dynamically changing on each session.
Online shopping. With a static IP you can be viewed as a legit shopper and treated as a return customer on a new visit. If your account’s IP starts changing every time you access a store, it will raise suspicion by the service and your account may as well get banned.
So, to recap, if you need to have a single unique IP for a continuous operation on some online platforms, your clear choice is a static proxy.
When Do You Need Rotating Proxies
Rotating proxies will be more helpful when it comes to fast collection of large volumes of data from search engines in particular. Unlike with a residential static proxy, where you will be all set while overcoming geo-blocks, here your activities might get suspicious once multiple requests start coming from a single IP. Rotating IPs while scraping SERP should do the job for you. Now, these areas of online research represent some of the most common use cases of rotating proxies.
Price Intelligence. Rotating proxies will help you build up datasets on prices for similar merchandise from your competition. Having access to a whole pool of IPs will help do it in a matter of minutes without raising suspicion on the part of the targeted websites.
SEO Monitoring. You will have the info on your current SERP standings in various geo locations virtually momentarily with the assistance of bots powered by rotating proxies. This info should be enough to make decisions on further improvement of your site’s content strategy.
Travel Site Scraping. Rotating proxies are absolutely priceless when it comes to scraping info from travel aggregators and similar sites to be able to get better deals or offers.
Market and Competition Research. If you need to have a comprehensive look at your competition you can engage rotating proxies for gathering info on key parameters of your products. This way you will be basing your marketing decision on the most up-to-date info available on the Web.
Server Testing. Rotating proxies will also be able to help you with testing your fleet of servers. You can imitate access patterns and traffic spikes on your sites and see how your anti-spam or anti-bot systems react.
So, in all cases when it is useful to have a new IP for each request you are making, rotating proxies will be your ideal choice.
Static Proxy vs Rotating Proxy: How Does It Work
Since both static and rotating proxies can be used for the same purpose of scraping data from various sites and platforms, it is essential to understand how the process is viewed on behalf of the target.
If you have a lot of requests coming from a single IP over a certain timeframe (normally through a bot powered with a static proxy), you may end up with a target site engaging in an anti-scraping action to ban your address.
For target sites that are equipped with anti-bot systems it makes sense to use rotating proxies or private proxies with a rotator. But do not confuse the two options. With a rotating proxy you can set time intervals of rotations via your proxy provider’s dashboard and a proxy rotator is a separate app that, when equipped with proxies, can perform rotations based on the settings that you will provide. You will be able to have a new IP on each session or after a certain time frame.
5 Main Differences Between Rotating vs Static Proxies
Based on our experience and the use cases of our customers we can identify the following 5 major differences between rotating vs static proxies.
1) Security. Static IPs are more vulnerable to any anti-bot or anti-scraping activities that a target site might feature. So, if you want to attain better security levels, you can engage rotating proxies or use a proxy rotator with a pool of static IPs.
2) Performance stability. Since you do not need to change your IP, with a static proxy your uptime can be maximized. Rotating proxies are less stable in this respect and normally cannot guarantee immaculate stability on all IPs.
3) Price. The overall cost per IP in case of rotating proxies is much lower, making them a more affordable proxy option of the two. However, the starting price for an unlimited rotating proxy (a rotating proxy with unlimited bandwidth) can be higher than for a static proxy plan with several IPs. On the plus side, with rotating proxies you do not have to waste a lot of time setting up each individual IPs like in the case of static proxies.
4) Anonymity. With rotating proxies your level of anonymity goes up, since it becomes harder to track you with IPs changing all the time. You can increase the level of anonymity with static proxies by using the proxy rotator as we mentioned before.
5) Areas of application. Both types of proxies are good for their own particular areas of application. You can benefit from the pools of rotating proxy IPs if you need to scrape large volumes of data on search engines or platforms without severe anti-bot systems. And static proxies will be your ideal choice for managing multiple social media accounts or for ad monitoring with geo-based IPs.
Major Areas of Using Rotating vs Static Proxies
Finally, we would like to consider the differences between static and rotating proxies as they relate to use cases in e-commerce and data scraping.
Rotating vs Static Proxies for Ecommerce Scraping
Both rotating and static proxies can be your valuable tools in scraping data for further marketing and sales analysis.
Getting through tons of numbers related to the current pricing on the merchandise of your competition can be rather tedious without certain mechanisms for data harvesting and visualization. Proxies can definitely help in scraping the most up-to-date info from the Web while used inside of special bots and scripts.
Depending on the type of websites or e-commerce platforms that you are targeting, you can choose to use rotating proxies or static IPs (with or without proxy rotators). Your choice will be mostly dependent on the availability and type of anti-scraping tools that such a target is equipped with.
If a site is ultra-sensitive to the number of requests coming from a single IP, you will be more successful with a bot powered by rotating proxies rather than static ones. So, in this case rotating IPs will be your clear choice.
Rotating vs Static for Product Information Scraping
Before you engage with a large product info scraping campaign, please ask your proxy provider for advice. It is a normal practice to make sure that you are equipped with just the right proxies for the job (including ensuring compatibility with your bots and scripts).
Remember to choose the provider with round-the-clock tech support in order to be able to resolve any issues related to proxy performance.
A seasoned provider would always know the type of proxy (static or rotating) that would be ideal for your use case and the types of targets. So, take this kind of advice seriously for it will make your online mission run smoother and keep your spendings within the budget limits.
Rotating vs Static: Pricing
Although it is not completely correct to compare the pricing for these two types of proxies head-to-head, we can certainly give you some ideas about budgeting.
Rotating proxies are normally valued by the number of requests you can send from one such proxy. And here you can get started with 200,000 requests or so from one IP at the price of around $50 (for rotating datacenter proxies) and twice as much for residential rotating IPs.
As for static proxies, the pricing is more straightforward, and you get charged for the number of IPs that you order from your provider. Here, you can get 5 static datacenter IPs for $15 and the same number of static residential IPs for around $25. Again, all these numbers are given here to demonstrate you the ballpark figures and are subject to change due to the IP availability and rarity for some geo locations. If you have further questions on the use of residential proxies vs datacenter IPs, please read this article here.
Consider PrivateProxy as Your Trusted Partner
If you are reading this, it means that you are now a bit more aware about static or rotating proxies. We are glad to share with you our experience working with various types of proxies that help our customers in their everyday online projects.
And if you want to buy rotating proxies or static IPs for your endeavors, let us know, so that we give you proper guidance on the kind of IPs that will be just right for your particular case. We have over a decade of experience in supplying proxies to our customers and we are most certain that we have a solution that will suit your needs.
What is more important is that working with us means enjoying our 24/7 live tech support that becomes increasingly handy should you have any issues related to using or deploying our proxies. Our account managers will be there for you to make sure that your online operations are always a success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read our Documentation if you have questions that are not listed below.
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What is a static and a rotating proxy?
A static proxy is a proxy server that hides your original IP behind one dedicated IP. This IP is not meant to change over time. And, a rotating proxy is a special type of proxy server with IPs changing based on a certain interval settings or with each new request sent to a target website. Such new IPs come from a pool of IPs allocated for each of such rotating proxies.
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When should I use a static or rotating proxy?
Both static and rotating proxies can be successfully used for scraping data from various platforms and search engines. The difference here lies in the benefits of each type. Static proxies would be perfect for use cases where you need to remain on one IP for the whole duration of use (for instance, with social media accounts), where rotating proxies are meant for websites less sensitive to changing IPs (search engines or some e-commerce platforms).
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What is the main distinction between a static and a rotating proxy?
The main distinction between these two types of proxies comes from the mode of operation of such proxies. A static proxy IP remains the same throughout the whole lifetime of the proxy and a rotating proxy is designed to choose a new IP from a pool of IPs assigned to this proxy.
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Is it safe to buy static and rotating proxies from one source?
Yes, certainly. The key thing here is your level of satisfaction from the service and user experience related to this particular proxy provider. Once you have built up a relationship that you are pleased with, you can easily move all of your proxy business to a single provider. And yes, it can relate to your static and rotating proxies as well.
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