Individual and shared proxies: what's the difference?

Proxy servers make your online presence more comfortable in many ways. They give you anonymity, speed up website surfing, improve safety. They provide operational tools to control traffic, manage newsletters, parse any data types, maintain multi accounting. As in other areas, paid services give us much more than free proxies. But there are different ways to use private servers.

In this blog post, we will tell you about types of paid proxies, and what's the difference between their individual and shared modifications.

A couple of words about individual proxies

Public proxy servers are available to everyone interested. They are free, but because of mass use they have low speed, their anonymity is often compromised by other users, and many tools are not offered at all.

In contrast, private proxy servers are available only to their owner. This is their main advantage — no one will violate the privacy, if such server belongs to one person. All services are available only to you, and their quality is higher.

They deliver high speed and reliable protection, and it's more comfortable to use them for work, whether you need them for advertising, SEO or gaming.

What's the peculiarity of shared proxies?

If individual services seem too expensive for you, shared proxies will save the day.

Their functionality doesn't differ much from that of private proxies. The main point is that such proxy server is available to several people with similar requests at the same time. Splitting the budget helps lower the cost of the shared server several times, which can be critical in many cases. Shared proxy servers are suitable for:

• data parsing;
• managing newsletters;
• improving user experience in software and websites;
• online gaming;
• social networks.

What's the difference between proxy types?

The main difference is on the surface. Individual proxies belong only to you, while shared are used jointly by a group of users. But this difference can be minor or very deep, as the case may be. As in any shared service, from car sharing to rented hardware, everything depends on how you and other users operate joint property.

Co-owners may use the provided resources carefully, and then you'll face only pluses. But if they happen to be less pleasant people, this will result in compromising the proxy and IP ban. Or, if other users start using proxies from multiple devices, this will affect the speed of work.

Using shared proxies also challenges traffic safety, since it is only on personal services that no one will violate your privacy and will have no chances to use your personal data.

Where and how to choose proxies?

If you need a proxy server that leases the resources, choose carefully to prevent issues with shared proxy. Companies may restrict the number of buyers down to two or three users, or set the condition that one buyer works with only one website. For example, Proxy.Market shares proxy maximum between three users.

Pay attention to what protocol is used for proxy servers.  IPv4 and IPv6 may have different speed and available websites, both in private and shared mode.

Conclusion

It's up to you to decide, what proxies to buy — individual or shared. Both types have pros and cons, though there are ways to highlight advantages and mitigate disadvantages. In this blog post, we have tried to tell about everything in detail to make your choice easier. Check the provider thoroughly, make a plan, and everything will be fine!