In the current business climate, we shouldn’t underestimate the value of proxies. You don’t have to be on your company’s technical team to have heard of proxy servers. You probably know that they act as intermediaries between a computer and the internet and can mask your IP address.
Most people think of proxies and VPNs as tools you can use to expand your Netflix library no matter where you live or to access other types of geo-restricted data, but they can do much more than this, and they’re particularly important for businesses in areas such as security, research and customer service.
Once you start looking for proxy solutions, as a business owner, you’ll likely find yourself having to choose between dedicated and shared proxies. In this article, we will discuss the main differences between them and explain why most companies prefer dedicated proxies.
What Are Shared Proxies?
A shared proxy, as the name suggests, is essentially a proxy that’s used by multiple people at the same time. This means that all these people will access content on the internet using the same IP address. Unfortunately, this also means that the IP address becomes easier to flag, blacklist, and ban.
The main advantage of shared proxies is that they’re cheaper. You can use public proxies, which are also shared proxies (but we don’t recommend them because they’re extremely unsafe and unreliable), or you can buy access to a shared proxy from a proxy service provider. Since the provider will split the cost of maintenance between users, they can offer shared proxies at a lower price.
Although shared proxies can be a viable option for people who want to regular users who want to find out the benefits of using proxies, such as unblocking geo-restricted content and navigating the internet anonymously, they’re not suitable for businesses.
They’re also a bit slower because you have to share the bandwidth and you have to consider “the bad neighbor effect,” which means that another person using the proxy might do something that gets the IP address banned for everyone else as well.
What Are Dedicated Proxies?
Private or dedicated proxies are proxies that are assigned to just one user, so you don’t have to share them with anyone else, and you have complete control over when and how the proxy is used.
They tend to be more expensive because providers can no longer split the cost of maintenance. If you’re the only person using the proxy, you’re the one that has to cover the cost. On the other hand, there some significant advantages.
First of all, dedicated proxies provide the highest level of anonymity, which is what makes them suitable for companies since they handle sensitive information, so they have to guard against data breaches. The higher level of anonymity, paired with proxy rotation, makes them very useful when it comes to data mining.
Since you don’t have to share the bandwidth, you’ll also enjoy better speed performance, and there’s very little chance of bandwidth overload.
Finally, you’ll never have to deal with “the bad neighbor effect” because you’re not sharing this IP address with anyone else.
