What Are Rotating Proxies? Setup, Pros, Cons

Most common rotating proxy use cases

Rotating proxies are valuable for a variety of online activities where anonymity, high request volume, or bypassing geo-restrictions are crucial. Here are some of the most popular rotating proxy use cases:

• Price monitoring: E-commerce businesses utilize rotating proxies to track competitor pricing and product availability across various platforms. By switching IPs, they are able to gather large volumes of data without triggering anti-bot measures, ensuring access to up-to-date information for effective pricing strategies.

• SERP data analysis: SEO professionals rely on rotating proxy servers to collect SERP data from different locations and search engines. This allows them to analyze keyword rankings, identify competitors, and understand search trends without their IP being flagged or blocked.

• Ad verification: Advertisers use rotating proxies to verify if their ads are being displayed correctly, in the right geographic locations, and on legitimate websites. Each request from a new IP simulates a unique user, helping to successfully resist ad fraudsters and avoid unwanted blocks.

• Review monitoring: Brands leverage rotating proxies to monitor customer reviews across various platforms. By rotating IPs, they can continuously collect feedback data without being blocked, enabling them to respond promptly to customer sentiments and maintain their online reputation.

• Website change monitoring: Rotating proxies are also largely utilized to track changes on websites, such as content updates or price alterations. Rotating IPs allow for frequent access to target sites, ensuring timely detection of changes that could impact business decisions.

Types of rotating proxies

Now, rotating proxy servers can be different – each with their distinct characteristics, advantages, and ideal use cases. Below, are the main types of rotating proxies that are largely used in the market today:

Rotating residential proxies

Rotating residential proxies are rotating proxies that use IP addresses assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to real, physical home internet connections. When using residential IP addresses, your requests are routed through those genuine IPs, making your traffic appear as legitimate, offering high anonymity and significantly reducing the chances of being blocked or detected by websites. They work great for tasks requiring complete anonymity, such as market research or ad verification.

Rotating datacenter proxies

In comparison to residential proxies, datacenter ones are not affiliated with ISPs. These proxy servers come from data centers, and the IP is assigned by a third-party cloud service provider. While very fast and often more cost-effective than residential options, datacenter proxies are generally easier for websites to identify as non-residential traffic. They're well-suited for tasks where speed is paramount and the target websites have less stringent anti-bot measures.

Rotating mobile proxies

Mobile rotating proxies use IP addresses from real mobile devices, such as a cell phone or a tablet, mimicking authentic mobile user behavior. Because of their dynamic nature, these proxies offer an exceptionally high level of trust and are difficult for anti-bot systems to identify and block. Rotating mobile proxies are particularly useful for accessing mobile-specific content or targeting websites with very aggressive anti-proxy measures.

How to set up rotating proxies

Setting up rotating proxies can sound difficult at first, but it’s often a straightforward process, especially if you understand the basics and use a reliable provider.

For instance, Oxylabs offers access to Proxy Rotator, which is an add-on used with our datacenter proxies. It rotates IP addresses at each request sent to the target, this way reducing potential IP blocks. Using Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator is easy – a client receives one entry node with a required amount of static proxies (learn more about static vs. rotating proxies). The rotator picks a random IP address and rotates it to another one on each request sent to the target. This way, datacenter proxies mimic organic traffic behavior and do not get blocked as fast.

At Oxylabs, once you acquire Datacenter Proxies, you receive detailed documentation that helps you get started. There you will find answers to frequently asked questions and an example of how to set up the proxy rotator.

Now, when it comes to Oxylabs’ Residential Proxies, they are rotating proxies by default. Unlike a static proxy, which assigns one sticky IP, our rotating residential proxy provides you access to an entire pool of IP addresses. This allows you to get a random IP address to a device (at fixed or random time intervals).

Here are basic cURL, Python, and Java code samples to help you get started with Oxylabs’ Rotating Residential Proxies:

cURL 

curl -x pr.oxylabs.io:7777 -U "customer-USERNAME:PASSWORD" https://ip.oxylabs.io/location

Python

import requests

username = "customer-USER"
password = "PASS"
proxy = "pr.oxylabs.io:7777"

proxies = {
  'http': f'http://{username}:{password}@{proxy}',
  'https': f'http://{username}:{password}@{proxy}'
}

response = requests.request(
    'GET',
    'https://ip.oxylabs.io/location',
    proxies=proxies,
)

print(response.text)

Java

package example;

import org.apache.http.HttpHost;
import org.apache.http.client.fluent.*;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

    String username = "customer-USER";
    String password = "PASS";
    String proxyHost = "pr.oxylabs.io";
    int proxyPort = 7777;

    HttpHost entry = new HttpHost(proxyHost, proxyPort);
    String query = Executor.newInstance()
        .auth(entry, username, password)
        .execute(Request.Get("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location")
        .viaProxy(entry))
        .returnContent()
        .asString();
    System.out.println(query);
  }
}

Benefits of using rotating proxies

Implementing rotating proxies in your activities brings a set of advantages that can significantly enhance your online operations. Here are the main ones:

Enhanced anonymity: By automatically switching your IP address for different requests or over time, rotating proxies make it difficult for websites to track your online activity back to a single source. This significantly boosts your privacy and reduces your digital footprint.

Successful bypass of IP blocks: Modern websites often implement IP-based blocking to prevent automated activity on their pages. Rotating proxies overcome these restrictions by distributing your requests across a vast pool of different IP addresses.

Easy access to geo-restricted content: Rotating proxies can provide users with IPs from different geographical locations. This enables you to smoothly access content that might be unavailable in your specific region.

Increased scalability and reliability: By minimizing blocks and ensuring consistent access to web pages, rotating proxy servers contribute to scaling your scraping tasks with greater reliability. This leads to more efficient and uninterrupted operations.

Drawbacks of using rotating proxies

However, as any other proxy type, rotating proxies come with some limitations. Understanding these drawbacks can help you make an informed decision and set realistic expectations. Here’s a list of the main rotating proxy cons: 

Higher cost: Compared to static proxies, rotating proxies, especially high-quality residential or mobile ones, generally come with a higher price. This is generally due to the complexity of managing and maintaining a large, dynamic pool of IP addresses.

Complexity in setup and management: Integrating and managing rotating proxies can sometimes be more complex than using simple static proxies. This may require more technical expertise or specialized software. However, some premium providers offer automatic rotation and advanced proxy management capabilities to help users easily adapt to web scraping projects of any scale.

Potential for inconsistent performance: In certain scenarios, because your IP address is constantly changing, you might experience variations in connection speed or latency. 

Summing up

Rotating proxies are a powerful tool for anyone looking to scale web data gathering, maintain anonymity, and bypass geo-restrictions or IP bans. While they might come with certain challenges, choosing a trusted provider can streamline the process and ensure consistent, high-quality results. Whether you're just getting started or scaling up, rotating proxies can help you navigate the web more efficiently and securely.