What Are Shared Proxies Used For?

Running a business online, entrepreneurs have to deal with many challenges and obstacles, especially when it comes to staying competitive, improving marketing, and brand promotion. The internet is a very unpredictable business landscape, and the competition is more than fierce. 

The number of companies trying to get ahead of the competition curve is astonishing. Fortunately, there are various tools, such as proxies, businesses can use to reach a larger audience and remain competitive. There are many types of proxies out there, and choosing the right one. 

Shared proxies might just be the perfect tool to beat your competitors and stay relevant in an ever-changing business environment. Read on to find out what proxies are, their types, and how shared proxies can help your business. We’ll also address the ongoing dedicated IP vs shared IP comparison.

What Are Proxies Even?

Proxies act as intermediaries or gateways between the user trying to reach the internet and the internet. They handle user requests while providing a few benefits along the way. Their primary purpose is to allow the user to remain anonymous while surfing the net and browsing websites.

Similarly, shared proxies also serve as a safe gateway between the user and the web – only they are available to more than just one user at the same time. Compared to the dedicated (private proxies), shared proxies are considered less sophisticated than their main counterparts. 

Some of the biggest downsides of shared proxies are ease of security breach and lack of privacy. However, that doesn’t mean shared proxies can’t help your business by doing many tasks online. The main reason why so many companies choose shared proxies over dedicated or any other type of proxies is that they are incredibly cheap.

Variety of Proxies

There are many different types of proxies. We’re going to name some of them:

• Residential
• Datacenter
• Residential
• Static
• HTTP
• Mobile
• Reverse
• Rotating

The types of shared proxies are based on the type of connection. There are two types of shared proxies:

• HTTP proxy – this type only allows HTTP requests and is commonly used by apps and software that use HTTP connections like web automation tools, browsers, etc.
• SOCKS4/5 – supporting both HTTP and SOCKS connections, this type of proxies is mostly used for real-time tasks, applications, gaming, data scraping, etc.

How Are Shared Proxies Used?

Shared proxies are mostly used to bypass geo-blocking by changing location, gain access to content on certain media streaming services, and browse the net anonymously. They provide shared IP addresses with multiple users to grant them access to different domains.

Any online task requiring multiple IPs is best handled by using shared proxies, as they are effective and affordable. Businesses use shared proxies to check for broken links or verify ads. These are all tasks that require multiple IPs so that the user can access the domain from different locations and avoid getting banned, blocked, or detected. 

Shared proxies are also commonly used in data scraping and extraction from target websites that allow only a limited number of user requests at a time. It’s an excellent way to increase security and bypass any security measures that websites might be using to block or detect the activity of data scraping bots. 

That’s also the biggest reason why an increasing number of businesses use shared proxies to extract data without getting banned. They are the cheapest proxy option available – giving shared proxies an edge over other options.

Benefits of Shared Proxies

If your goal is to bypass geo-restrictions and gain access to specific data on the internet without getting detected or breaking your budget, shared proxies are the best option. You can also use a VPN, but proxies are more effective in this case. Here are some of the benefits of using shared proxies:

• They are affordable – shared proxies are the most affordable type of proxies around due to having multiple users.
• Shared proxies are compatible with data scraping tools – shared proxies go well with specific data scraping tools.
• They provide anonymity – since shared proxies hide your real IP, they provide an increased level of anonymity by making it difficult to identify a single IP user.
• Efficiency – if you buy shared proxies from reputable sources, you can optimize your shared IPs to suit your needs.
• Provision of privacy and anonymity – due to multiple users sharing the IPs at a time, shared proxies provide an increased level of privacy and anonymity.
• Data mining – data mining requires many requests to be sent at once, which increases the risk of getting blocked. However, shared proxies can bypass this and provide access to wanted data. That’s why businesses use them for keyword research, rank checking, and SEO.

Why Private Proxies Are Still Better

Despite all these benefits and advantages that shared proxies offer, dedicated proxies are a better solution for businesses. They provide you with a much higher level of anonymity than shared proxies and are mostly used for business purposes. 

Businesses use private proxies to verify ads, check advertisers’ landing pages anonymously, aggregate and collect data, etc. Private proxies aren’t only more secure and private, but they also provide dedicated IPs from various locations, which is perfect for getting localized SERP data, bypassing geo-blocks, and more. 

They are also one of the fastest proxy options around as they don’t slow down your browsing. It’s also a reason why companies use private IPs as they reduce the chance of bandwidth overload. 

Conclusion

While shared proxies might be a cheaper way to go about your online needs, dedicated proxies are a more secure, faster, and effective option after all. In this dedicated IP vs shared IP battle, private proxies win by far. If you have to choose between cost-efficiency and getting the job done, our recommendation is to get the job done and think about the cost later.