Datacenter Proxies vs. Residential Proxies

Lukas Motiejunas

Last updated on

2025-03-18

5 min read

Although Residential and Dedicated Proxy IPs serve the same core functionality – hiding your IP address – they have quite a few differences. In today’s article, we’ll dive deep into each of these proxy types to help you choose which one is better for your business.

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What are Datacenter Proxies?

Datacenter Proxies are proxies that are not affiliated with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They come from a secondary corporation and provide you with completely private IP authentication and anonymity.

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However, Datacenter Proxies usually come from data centers and cloud hosting services and are used by many at the same time. Since they are not listed as ISP providers, these IPs can already be flagged by some targets, and certain precautionary measures might be taken. But keep in mind that this is not the case with Oxylabs’ Datacenter Proxies. All Oxylabs’ Datacenter Proxies are private proxies and ensure little to no IP blacklisting.

How Oxylabs Datacenter Proxies work

To learn more about Datacenter Proxies, see our Product Owner Nedas explain them in detail:

What are Residential Proxies?

On the other hand, Residential Proxies use real IP addresses supplied by Internet Service Providers to homeowners. Since the residential IP address is attached to a real, physical device, using it makes it easy to replicate organic human behavior.

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One of the most important aspects of Residential Proxies is ethicality. It’s essential that Residential Proxies are acquired in an ethical manner whereby homeowners give consent and are rewarded for participating in the proxy network. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case with other businesses: oftentimes, homeowners consent to misleading or confusing terms of service and end up being unaware their device is used in a proxy network.

How Residential Proxies work

Using unethically-procured Residential Proxies comes with various risks, including disrupted business operations, damaged reputation, and even potential legal battles. As a strong advocate of ethical business practices, Oxylabs aims to procure proxies in an ethical manner, allowing customers to avoid said risks.

We have a blog post explaining what are residential proxies – check it out for a more extensive overview.

If you want to read more on the topic, check out our Oxylabs article, where we explain procuring risks in detail. And, if you’re curious to learn more about Residential Proxies in general, see this video:

Residential and Datacenter Proxies

Residential proxy IPs originate from real devices connected to home internet networks, whereas datacenter IPs are sourced from either physical or cloud-based data centers.

Let’s have a closer look at the rest of the differences to fully understand how these proxies operate.

Residential Proxies:

Legitimate – because Residential Proxy IPs are provided by a real ISP, it makes them look real and legitimate. Whereas Datacenter Proxies, as mentioned earlier, are created in bulk and come from data centers and cloud server providers, so they can be easily detected and blacklisted if buying from an untrusted provider. Additionally, the best residential proxies can maintain the same IP if needed.
Lower risk of getting blacklisted – due to the same reasons listed above, Residential proxies are harder to blacklist, ensuring a smooth scraping process.
More expensive – Residential Proxies are higher to acquire and maintain, hence, they cost more.

Datacenter Proxies:

Non-physical – Datacenter Proxies are artificial, so websites can tell whether you’re connected to one. Nonetheless, these proxies still hide your true IP address and provide anonymity if purchased from a reputable provider. And, if you use a private Datacenter Proxy, getting banned or blacklisted shouldn’t come as an issue. One of the most popular use cases for these proxies is market research.
Fast-paced – Datacenter Proxies are known for their speed and high performance, making them a great option for when you need to complete a project in a short period of time. To ensure top-tier performance, it’s essential that you purchase them from a reputable proxy provider and get the technical know-how to use them. We offer detailed documentation and professional advice from our account managers.
Cost-friendly – When you’re buying in bulk or looking for a budget-friendly solution, Datacenter Proxies are the way to go. Compared to Residential Proxies, they’re much cheaper while still delivering security and fast speed if, of course, purchased from the right provider.

To sum up

Thanks to their ever-rotating IP addresses, residential proxies imitate organic user behavior and protect your online identity. Meanwhile, datacenter proxies provide high-performing IPs, allowing you to efficiently complete data-intensive tasks.

	Sourcing	Block risk	Pricing	Speed
Datacenter proxies	Artificial IPs from datacenters	Depends on the provider	Budget-friendly	Very high but depends on the provider
Residential proxies	Legit IPs from ISPs	Very low	Expensive	High

Choosing between Datacenter and Residential Proxies

Now that you know the differences between a residential and a datacenter proxy server, it’s time to narrow it down to which one’s better for your scraping needs.

Priorities. When comparing residential proxies against datacenter ones, it all comes down to whether you need high security, or your top priority is a high speed, and you simply need to shield your IP address.

Residential proxies don’t leave a footprint and won’t trigger any security alarms, so they’re great for collecting identity-sensitive public data or large amounts of data in general. Many businesses use residential proxies for review monitoring or ad verification.

In most cases, compared to datacenter proxies, residential ones cover more geo-locations. However, if you’re looking to scrape public data in a precise location, you should find out whether a provider offers proxies that reside in that region.

Technical knowledge. On the other hand, datacenter proxies work very well if you have know-how about the proxy technology itself, and choose private datacenter proxies – this way, you’ll be able to cover your footprint properly.

Oxylabs offer private datacenter proxies, step-by-step tutorials, and help from account managers to help you complete scraping projects smoothly. Businesses choose these proxies from all over the globe, from Brazil and US to Australia, for use cases like email protection, market research, phishing attacks prevention, and more.

Alternative option – ISP proxies. Finally, you may also want to consider an ISP proxy (also referred to as static residential proxy), which combines features of datacenter and residential proxies. To find out more, read our article on ISP vs. residential proxies.

Residential and Datacenter Proxies: dedicated vs. shared

At Oxylabs, we offer both Residential and Datacenter Proxies as shared and as dedicated.

The process of purchasing Dedicated Datacenter Proxies is straightforward – you can do it yourself via our self-service dashboard. Starting at 6.75 USD/month (or 2.25 USD per IP), these proxies are made to handle large-scale data tasks. As for Datacenter Proxies, they are the cheapest proxies that Oxylabs offers (0.65 USD/GB if you pay per traffic.) While they’re used by multiple people, they still have the most important features of a Datacenter Proxy. Now, as for Residential Proxies, they’re all shared by their nature.

Conclusion

We hope it's easier to understand the main differences between residential proxy vs datacenter proxy. Simply put, both residential and datacenter Proxies shield your IP address; nevertheless, residential proxies are more secure, as the websites you visit have a harder time detecting them. But that doesn’t mean that datacenter proxies are not worth looking into – from the right supplier, they’ll provide enough security, work faster and make a cost-friendly solution. Whichever way you decide to go, note that you can buy these proxies in bulk.

Want to find out more about our Residential Proxies or backconnect proxies? Or maybe read up on other proxy types such as Static IPs or IPv6 proxies? Our blog has many detailed posts on all things proxies. From web scraping tools to using a Python script to scrape public data from websites, we got you covered!

People also ask

What is the difference between a residential proxy and a datacenter proxy?

Residential proxies come from ISPs, mirroring real locations for higher legitimacy and anonymity, albeit at a higher cost. Meanwhile, datacenter proxies originate from data centers, offering faster speeds and lower costs but with potentially lower anonymity. Coming from legitimate providers, both types of proxies are great for web scraping, so the final choice solely depends on your needs in terms of the budget, speed, etc.

What is the difference between a datacenter and an ISP proxy?

When comparing ISP vs Datacenter Proxies, you should know that ISP proxies are a hybrid of both datacenter and residential proxies. Datacenter proxies are artificially made and hosted on a server. Meanwhile, ISP proxies are, too, artificially made and hosted on a server; however, they are also registered with internet service providers (like residential proxies.) As a result, websites are less likely to block ISP proxies.

What is a datacenter proxy server?

A datacenter proxy is an intermediary server, offering users the ability to route their internet traffic through a separate IP address. Unlike residential proxies, datacenter proxies are not associated with physical locations or internet service providers. Datacenter proxies typically offer fast speeds and high performance, making them ideal for traffic-intensive web scraping tasks.

What is the difference between residential and private proxies?

Residential proxies are IP addresses assigned by ISPs to homeowners, offering legitimacy and higher anonymity, as they mimic real users accessing the internet from residential networks. Private proxies, on the other hand, can be sourced from data centers providing users with dedicated IP addresses for exclusive use.

What is the difference between residential and dedicated proxies?

Residential proxies, by nature, rotate as they use IPs from real devices, changing periodically, while dedicated proxies are assigned to a single user and remain static, ensuring consistency.

What are the other types of proxies?

Categorization of proxies can be based on protocol (HTTP(S) and SOCKS5), access (private and shared), and many other aspects. A few most common proxy types are:

Mobile proxies, which offer IPs from real mobile devices. Find out a detailed explanation on what is a mobile proxy on our blog.
HTTP(S) proxies can be referred to as high-performance content filters that traffic flows through to reach you.
SOCKS5 proxies – proxies that use the SOCKS protocol for traffic-intensive tasks, such as content streaming or P2P sharing. A SOCKS5 proxy can also be an additional feature that VPN providers offer.

Are proxy locations important?

Yes, the area where a proxy server is located matters. Some online content is geo-restricted, meaning that it might be displayed only to, for example, USA proxies and not to any other region-based server.

How are datacenter IP blocks different?

Datacenter IPs come from the same subnet, getting one address blocked will often mean that many others get blocked as well.

About the author

Lukas Motiejunas

Former Lead Account Manager

Lukas Motiejunas is a Lead Account Manager at Oxylabs, and he places a strong personal interest in the market research field. Mainly, in the merge of business sector and digital tools utilization to distinguish the most effective practices to carry out automated market research operations. So if you have any questions relating to market research, he’s your guy to answer them. Lukas believes that he has a hidden talent to be a great chef, although rumor has it, he uses the smoke alarm as a timer.

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All information on Oxylabs Blog is provided on an "as is" basis and for informational purposes only. We make no representation and disclaim all liability with respect to your use of any information contained on Oxylabs Blog or any third-party websites that may be linked therein. Before engaging in scraping activities of any kind you should consult your legal advisors and carefully read the particular website's terms of service or receive a scraping license.