What is a Private Proxy? [Quick Guide 2022]

Like any other proxy type, a private one acts as an intermediary between you and the web server you’re requesting. However, there’s a special perk about them,  making them a more wholesome solution in terms of privacy and security online. The only way to stay anonymous is knowing how to hide IP addresses, and this is where private proxies come in handy.

When it comes to proxies, there are a few different types of proxies one can look into:

• Residential proxies

• Datacenter proxies

• Shared proxies

• Private proxies

Exclusivity is one of the factors that define their quality and, usually, the price. That’s why most proxy providers offer private, shared, and semi-dedicated proxies. In this article, we’re taking a closer look at private ones.

What is a private proxy?

A private proxy carries an exclusive IP address allocated to one single user. Since the IP address belongs to one person only, there’s no need to be cautious about other proxy users performing activities that might lead to IP blocking by specific websites, thus preventing you from accessing the same websites. Owning a proxy privately gives an increased level of anonymity and control over your proxy, but it also comes with higher prices compared to shared proxies.

Private proxies for personal and business needs

Private proxies are also widely used for business purposes. While personal use cases usually involve increasing anonymity by setting up your Chrome browser to use a proxy, business uses are more sophisticated.

Ad verification

For example, ad verification companies use private proxies to check advertisers’ landing pages anonymously. This way, they ensure that their clients’ ads are displayed properly and for the right audience.

Travel fares

Similarly, travel fare aggregators rely on private proxies in their day-to-day data gathering tasks. For travel fare aggregators, proxies enable automated data collection from flight company websites, online travel agencies, and other sources without IP blocks or bans.

Other use cases

Private proxies are also used to get pricing data (e.g., for MAP monitoring), buy limited edition products, and many other purposes. Of course, performing these tasks with the use of proxies requires users to understand the differences between residential and datacenter proxies. Private residential proxies are better when imitating an average internet user is important, while datacenter proxies are better when high internet connection speeds are required.

Private residential and datacenter proxies

Proxies differ not only by their exclusivity but also by their origin. Based on this parameter, we can point out residential and datacenter proxies. Both of these types can also be shared or private proxies.

Residential IP addresses are affiliated with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These proxies are hosted on real, physical machines and provide exclusive proxy IPs, making it easier to imitate a real user’s online behavior. These private IPs are the best choice for ad verification, pricing data gathering, and many other online business activities.

Datacenter proxies, on the other hand, originate from hosting services. One server can host large amounts of proxies without compromising connection speeds. These private IPs are perfect when traffic-intensive activities, such as email protection or market research, are being performed.

Dedicated datacenter proxies have a drawback – they all come from the same subnet. Destination servers can see that a large amount of similar dedicated IPs are using their services which might trigger anti-bot detection algorithms.

Understanding the differences between datacenter and residential proxies is incredibly important whenever a decision to buy a private proxy service is being made. We have outlined these differences in greater detail in our blog post, where we compare datacenter and residential proxies.

The advantages of using a private proxy

Private & secure

• The main benefit of private proxy servers is that, well, they are, in fact, private. If you buy these proxies, no one else can have access to them.

• By using private proxies, you’ll face little to no risk of having your personal information compromised, which gives you a higher level of security.

• Private proxies will always show up as IP addresses different from your usual ones.Residential private proxies will provide an additional layer of privacy as it will seem like a regular internet user is browsing the Internet.

Multiple locations

• Usually, private proxy providers offer IP addresses from various locations. This enables you to access content that may otherwise be unavailable in your location. For example, use a Germany proxy to access content in Germany or Brazil proxy to browse the web as if you were in Brazil.

• This can come in handy for multiple occasions. For instance, if your target website uses geo-blocks or if you want to get localized SERP data.

Extremely fast

• Private proxies won’t negatively affect your browsing speed. They are assigned to one user, so there’s little chance of bandwidth overload.

• Private proxies are also more reliable than shared ones and, in most cases, have unlimited bandwidth.

• If a datacenter private IP proxy is chosen, the internet speeds will be extremely high as servers generally have an enviable internet connection plan.

Wrapping up

Despite being generally more expensive, private proxies come with many benefits. Using private proxies proved to be the most reliable option for many of our clients. If you want to find out how proxies can boost your business or discover other useful tools for data acquisition, check out more articles in our blog!