Are you looking for an alternative to the PacketStream service, then you are on the right page as we would be providing you recommendations on the best alternatives to use either as a proxy user or a bandwidth seller.
One thing that has always been a source for debate is where proxy providers especially those in the residential proxy market get their IPs from. It is generally believed that most providers in that market use unethical means while some go completely illegal just to get hold of devices and forcefully get them into their Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network.
Some of the popular providers have been accused of such in the past even though they claim to get their IPs ethically — some experts still do not think they are ethical enough. This has led to the development of proxy services that are truly ethical — those that pay you to provide them your IP and device idle resource to be used.
PacketStream is one such provider that you can say that their proxy service is truly ethical in terms of the source of their IP. However, is being ethical enough?
There are other aspects of providing proxy service and the business part of it that should share your purchase decision. If you are a bandwidth seller known as a Packeter, there are also other aspects.
If you are not satisfied with the other aspects and need alternatives, we would be providing details of the best alternatives in the market for you. Before doing that, let take a look at an overview of PacketStream and why you will need an alternative.
What is PacketStream?
PacketStream is a residential proxy network powered by a paid P2P network owned by them. Unlike in the case of the P2P networks of other providers that the real owners of the IP address do not earn a penny from their IPs being used, PacketStream would pay you if you agree to provide your IP and bandwidth to be used.
If you want to share your bandwidth, you would have to register as a Packeter on the platform and then install their client application which would run in the background.
The pricing for their proxy plans is quite cheap when you compare it with that of other services in the market — so is the money you would earn if you were to be a Packeter. This service has got over 7 million IP addresses and over 5K happy customers according to the information on their website. They have got a good number of locations supported and the proxies they offer are rotating proxies.
Why Use a PacketStream Alternative
Are you wondering why you will need to make use of an alternative instead of the PacketStream? It turns out that there are a good number of reasons depending on which of the camp you are (Packeter or user). Let take a look at some of the reasons below.
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Pay Not Worth It
If you are looking for a service that will share your bandwidth and make some money then the Packetstream service is not for you even though they pay. This is because they have got their eyes on being highly competitive in terms of pricing by selling 1GB of bandwidth for $1.
This impacts how much you earn. This is because they pay you $0.1 or 1GB — providing you only 10% of what they earn. Except you have access to free Internet, using this is not worth it economically as you will be losing money.
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Get Blocked Frequently
The whole essence of using residential proxies against the datacenter proxies is to be undetectable. However, PacketStream is not yet good at remaining undetectable since their proxies get blocked frequently which suggests they get detected sometimes detecting on the target website. Another thing you will not like about the service is that their proxies are quite slow.
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Bandwidth Get Exhausted Easily
There is another issue many of the users have complained though I don’t see any issue with it. Many of the users claim their bandwidth gets exhausted easily.
The explanation for this from their end is that they use raw uncompressed TCP stream for the measure. Well, this shouldn’t be the case as other providers don’t use such. So in essence, while you are paying for 1GB, just know that you won’t be getting that in actual sense.
Best PacketStream Alternatives in the Market
In this section of the article, we would be providing you with recommendations on the best alternatives to use. We would be providing you recommendations for the two services it offers – residential proxies and sharing of bandwidth for money service.
Bandwidth Sharing Service for Money
It is obvious that the PacketStream service is developed to enrich itself, paying you only 10% of what it earns. If you are looking for an alternative to it, then you can make a choice from one of the 3 providers described below.
Honeygain
Honeygain is one of the top alternatives to PacketStreamer, It is one of the best services when it comes to sharing your bandwidth to earn money. With Honeygain, you can share your Internet and allow it to use your bandwidth and in turn, you are paid for it. One thing you will come to like about the service is that unlike in the case of PacketStream, this one has a client for each of the popular platforms including Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, and iOS.
Honeygain does not have its own proxy service. It leases the IPs out to its partners including Oxylabs, a popular proxy provider in the residential proxy market. The Honeygain service is not only meant for individuals, if you are managing an ISP or mobile IP block, you can also signup for their Swampbyte service to earn some money.
Read more, What is Honeygain App & Is It Legit to make money online?
IPRoyal Pawn
The IPRoyal Pawn is owned by IPRoyal, a residential proxy service. The Pawn service is a separate service that gets people to join its P2P network and get paid in return depending on the amount of bandwidth provided and other factors such as location, internet speed, and a number of unique IP addresses. If you have access to more than one device with different IP addresses you can earn more.
As far as we know, IPRoyal uses the IPs its gets from its Pawn service as an exit node for its service. One thing you need to know is that just like any other service of its like, you wouldn’t be making a huge amount of money. However, they provide a tool to estimate how much you can earn using their service.
Peer2Profit
Share your traffic and your profit from it — it is that simple — according to the words on their website. Looking at the website, it might be confusing what you are sharing your traffic for. Well, it is no different from PacketStream — the intentions are not known at a glance.
One feature you will come to like that is missing in PacketStream is the ability to refer your friends and earn from the referral, depending on the amount they make themselves. The secret to succeeding on the Peer2Profit platform is being able to invite other users and get them to install the client app and use it regularly.
P2P Residential Proxy Networks
If you are looking for an alternative to buy bandwidth-based proxies from, then this section is for you. We describe the top 3 best alternatives to PacketStream that you can buy high-quality proxies from that wouldn’t get blocked. However, you need to know they would cost you more.
Bright Data (Luminati)
Bright Data is the best alternative to PacketStream when it comes to its proxy offerings. And let face it, Bright Data is a more superior and better place provider. It is a pioneer in the residential proxy market and currently got over 72 million IP addresses in its pool.
In terms of source of IP address, an overwhelming percentage of its IPs comes from Hola VPN, a community-powered VPN that peer users can use for free in exchange for their idle system resources such as bandwidth and IP.
Bright Data has the best location support in the market with all countries and most cities around the world supported. The network is one of the fastest, most reliable, and compatible with most websites on the Internet.
Read more,
- Top 10 Alternatives to Bright Data (formerly Luminati Proxy Networks)
- Luminati: Everything You Need to Know & How to Use Luminati Proxy
Soax
If you are looking for an alternative with a clean proxy pool you can use then Soax is the provider for you. Soax is said to have one of the cleanest proxy pools in the market as it is regularly being checked and bad/dead IPs are removed. Soax is a residential proxy network with over 5 million residential IP addresses in its pool.
Compared to Bright Data, Soax is a new provider. However, it has been able to develop quickly and become one of the top providers in the market. Soax has one advantage over Bright Data — it is quite pocket-friendly as you require $75 to get started as opposed to. Bright Data that you need $300. It has got a good location coverage and the proxies can be said to be reliable and compatible with most web services.
Smartproxy
Smartproxy is one of the top premium providers of residential proxies in the market and its residential proxy networks can be said to be one of the best alternatives to PacketStream. Just like Bright Data, its proxies can be said to be better than that of PacketStream. One thing you will come to like about Smartproxy is its response time and speed in general which is regarded as the fastest in the market.
This provider has got support for about 195 locations across the globe. Just like the other. Providers above, its proxies are rotating proxies but it does have support for maintaining the same IP address for up to 30 minutes. In terms of pricing, it can be said to be affordable and have the same pricing as Soax — it seems Soax copied their pricing verbatim.
FAQs About PacketStream Alternatives
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Is PacketStream Worth It?
If you have read the above attentively, you would already have an answer to this question. Getting paid $0.1 for 1GB is not something you will want and would only make sense if you have access to the Internet you are not paying for as that payout can’t pay for 1GB. Users of the service’ proxies also complain of the bandwidth getting exhausted faster than it should. In all, the service is not worth it and there are other alternatives which have been described above.
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Is it Illegal to Use PacketStream?
Using PacketStream is not illegal whether as a residential proxy user or as a user sharing IP and bandwidth. Proxy usage is legal in most countries and these countries do not criminalize offering your device to be used as a node as an offense. However, you need to know that when you offer your device to be used and a user uses your IP address for something illegal, you will be the first point of contact.
Conclusion
The PacketStream service has a good business idea but they have not been able to put it into use in the real world that would attract the attention it asks for now. Its packeter service would not earn you enough to even cover up the bandwidth cost while the proxies you buy fail frequently — and the bandwidth gets exhausted faster than it should.
If you look at these and its other unmentioned cons, you will see that getting an alternative is the best decision one would make if you are looking for a solution that would get the required result. In the above, we provided for you, recommendations on the best alternatives to PacketStream.
