Proxies are intermediaries that route your connection to hide your IP address and enable access from a different location. How your IP will be hidden and what location you choose is detrimental to the performance and security of your connection. Your choice must be well thought out, as there is little room for mistakes.
A wrong choice can sabotage your tasks, making you start over and waste time. The first step is to choose a proxy type, but it’s closely tied to the proxy location.
Choosing a proxy type
Most proxy providers market their proxy services by prioritizing the proxy type. You are likely to encounter residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies first. They all can achieve the same basic function of acting as intermediaries, but they differ in the origin of the IP address.
Residential proxies are created by running physical devices in households with IP addresses verified by Internet Service providers (ISPs). This proxy type lets you blend in the easiest as most internet users connect with residential IPs. Unfortunately, this often comes with a high price tag and a relatively slow network connection.
Datacenter proxies use high-end servers in data centers that connect through commercial internet plans. Datacenter IPs are created virtually, which reduces their costs and allows them to be purchased in large quantities. These proxies are extremely fast, but websites are likely to flag them. Expect CAPTCHA tests or other restrictions while using them.
Mobile proxies route connection through mobile devices with a cellular network (often 4G or 5G) connection. Mobile devices are getting faster with each generation, so such proxies are rising in popularity. They are best for mobile-specific tasks, but mobile proxies are still quite expensive and lack static IP addresses.
These basic proxy types can be further supplemented by providing variations in proxy access (private, semi-private, or shared) or IP address rotation (static or dynamic/rotating proxies). For some more technical use cases, you might also want to look into the proxy protocol. HTTP and SOCKS5 proxies are the most common.
Some providers also test their proxies for specific tasks to guarantee that users get the best experience. That’s why we have some additional types, such as sneaker proxies, web scraping proxies, or e-commerce proxies. These aren’t actually types of proxies but might be worth looking into if you will be using a proxy for one specific use case.
Why you should choose a proxy by location first?
From the variety of proxy types, it might seem that the location isn’t that important. It might be true in some exceptional cases, but more often than not, location is the first thing you should look at. There are two main reasons why I recommend choosing proxies by location first.
Performance is often based on proxy server proximity. Suppose you want to bulk purchase some graphics cards from an online retailer in Taiwan. The sale will start in a couple of hours, and certainly, you won’t be the only one going after them. Every second counts so you want the best speed for your bot.
Even if you use a super fast datacenter proxy from the US, you won’t outperform someone with a residential proxy in the same district as the website’s server. That’s not even counting the legitimacy issues because you are likely to be flagged.
Taiwan has good internet coverage, so a good home connection nearby will simply be faster. The same argument can be made for many other countries and online tasks. If you want a good performance, look for location coverage, then choose a proxy type that fits your budget and security needs.
Another reason for choosing the proxy server location first is the geo-restrictions. Some data might still be Geoblocked when you are using a proxy. If you want to collect pricing data from Amazon.de, you would need to use a proxy from Germany.
I once made this mistake and bought a pool of proxies from Austria, thinking I would get the same results with cheaper proxies. I was mistaken. The pricing data were different, and I had to start all over again. This cost me money and time.
Of course, every use case and every country is different. So it’s good to know a thing or two about how good of a candidate is a country for your proxies. The main things to consider are the number of internet users, connection speed, region-specific content, and government restrictions.
United Kingdom
Choosing a United Kingdom proxy is the most versatile option. It tops the list as having one of the fastest internet speeds and has a lot of internet users for whom most of the content on the internet is created. You are unlikely to face geo-restrictions, and even if you will, connecting to German or French servers from the UK won’t reduce speed by much.
French
French proxies are my second favorite pick in Europe. Although not English-speaking, French connections benefit from one of the fastest broadband connections in the world. Most European content is free to access while surfing US or Canadian websites is also unlikely to arouse much suspicion.
United States
Even if you are based in the United States, sometimes it’s best to choose a proxy from another state. While accessing Netflix or similar services won’t give you much benefit that way, it will increase your security without reducing the speed much.
India
Proxies from India are the best choice if you want to access servers in Asia. China, Vietnam, and other countries have draconic internet restrictions, while India is relatively free. The amount of internet users and infrastructure is growing exponentially too.
Conclusion
The choice of proxy location can be more important than its type. It’s a fact often overlooked by those who shop for proxy servers. If you want to optimize the network speed for your tasks, consider the type and country-specific factors used in this article.
