There’s no doubt saying residential IP pools are the best. However, that comes at an extra cost financially. Come in now to discover how to build one and the top 10 residential proxy pools in the market.
There are many proxy pools in the market. Based on the ownership of the IPs in the pool, the types of proxy pools include free public proxy pools, datacenter proxy pools, residential proxy pools, and mixed proxy pools. Our focus in this article is on residential IP proxy pools. Currently, they are the best proxy pools you can lay your hands on. This is because they are undetectable and, as such, suffers less block. This, in turn, increases their demand among Internet marketers and increases the prices labeled on them.
In this article, you’ll be learning about what residential proxy pools are, how they are built, and the best residential IP proxy pools in the market.
What is a Residential Proxy Pool?
A residential IP pool is a large set of residential IPs managed as a residential proxy network. These IP Addresses and their associated devices are used as proxies to route clients’ web requests to websites.
Residential IP Addresses are assigned to Internet-enabled devices by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Because they are provided by ISPs, they enjoy better trust compared to their data center counterparts. However, providers cannot afford to get them in bulk, and as such, they resort to borrowing them from third-party users when their devices are idle.
Since they can’t tell when a device will be idle and for how long, the best thing to do is to have a system that keeps a list of devices and their associated IP Addresses that are idle so that when a request is sent, the proxy network will look into the list and pick one at random to route the request through. This is what led to the idea behind having a residential IP/proxy pool. Residential proxy pool usually has only one entry point, and from there, the system decides which IP your request will be routed through.
With the exception of a few other residential proxy service providers such as Netnut.io, all other providers make use of residential proxy pools gotten from peer-to-peer networks to provide residential proxy services.
How to Build a Residential Proxy Pool
A Residential proxy pool is just like The Onion Router (Tor) but much more different, better, and more efficient. For those that do not know what Tor is, Tor is an anonymous network with thousands of volunteer-run servers (Tor relays).
When you send a web request through the Tor network, your traffic goes through a multi-layer of encryption and passes through a good number of nodes (Tor relays) so that no trace about your IP Address is gotten. For you to use the Tor Network, you have to make use of the Tor Browser or its add-on on Firefox to surf the Internet anonymously.
Residential proxy pools also rely on devices of third-party Internet users and their associated IP Addresses. How they get these IP Addresses differs – the ethical ones get them with the consent of their owners while the unethical bad proxy networks get them by hacking and ingesting malware into the devices of Internet users without their consent. Generally, to build a residential proxy pool, you need a peer-to-peer network otherwise shortened as a P2P network.
For you to use any device’s IP Address and Internet bandwidth, such a device needs to have your software installed for it to serve as a proxy server.Some providers, such as PacketStream, pays users to have their software installed. Others, such as Luminati, provide free VPN software known as Hola with the P2P software packaged together with the VPN software. Some providers pay software developers to integrate it into their applications.
Because of the number of people using this P2P software, many of the residential proxy pools have IPs in millions. This is different from datacenter proxies that their IPs are in thousands.
How Residential Proxy Pools Work
As stated earlier, residential proxy pools have one entry point – they can have more depending on how the pool is segmented. When you use it to send a web request, the proxy network look inside of the IP pool and pick a random one, then send your request through the device with the IP chosen, using it IP and Internet bandwidth.
This is what makes it peer-to-peer and what makes it undetectable. Requests do not just pass through the proxy service system but routed through devices in the P2P network. So, when the requests get to websites, they appear natural and come from the device it is routed through.
Residential IP pools have to have a system for deciding which IP to route client requests through. Even though the IPs are many in the pool, they need a system to avoid using the same proxy for a service that requires high rotating proxies that changes IP after every request.
Best Residential Proxy Pool
There are many residential proxy pools you can use in the market right now. This section of the article will be used to recommend some of the best in the market for you. You can then choose the best for you best on your budget and project requirements.
Brightdata (formerly Luminati)
- IP Pool Size: Over 72 million
- Locations: All countries in the world
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 40GB
- Cost: Starts at $500 monthly for 40GB
Brightdata formerly known as Luminati is arguably the best proxy service provider in the market. It has a residential IP pool that has over 72 million residential IP Addresses in it, It's the largest in the world! While they never mention the source of their IPs, there are speculations that they get their IPs through the P2P network facilitated by Hola VPN, a free VPN service.
Luminati residential proxies are some of the fastest in the market. They are also secure, reliable, perfect for a good number of use cases. The major problem associated with Luminati residential proxies is that they are expensive and not pocket-friendly.
Smartproxy
- IP Pool Size: Over 10 million
- Locations: 195 locations across the globe
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 5GB
- Cost: Starts at $75 monthly for 5GB
Smartproxy is one of the premium residential proxy service providers in the market. It is the proxy provider of choice among low budget Internet marketers that need residential proxies. Residential proxies are known to be expensive as they have a monthly minimum monetary commitment that’s way beyond the budget of small marketers.
However, Smartproxy is not like that, as you can buy a plan for as low as $75. They have over 10 million residential IPs in about 195 countries and in 8 major cities around the world.
Shifter
- IP Pool Size: Over 31 million
- Locations: 130 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Cost: Starts at $125 monthly for 10 ports
Shifter is the rebranded version of Microleaves. The shifter has one of the largest residential IP pools in the market, with over 31 million IPs. It has proxies in all countries of the world and in major cities. While it has support for geo-targeting, this is only available for backconnect special proxy plans – their basic plans have limited capabilities.
It is also important I stress here that Shifter residential proxies do not support Amazon by default. You need to contact Shifter’s support to activate it for you. Shifter backconnect proxies are priced based on ports, and the pricing is fairly affordable compared to other premium providers.
Stormproxies
- IP Pool Size: 40,000
- Locations: the US, EU, and a few other locations.
- Concurrency Allowed: only one device per port
- Cost: Starts at $50 monthly for 5 ports
Stormproxies residential IP network has a little over 40,000 IPs, making it the smallest resident proxy pool on the list. Interestingly, their pricing is pocket-friendly as you can buy 5 ports for $50 from them. Yes, their pricing is based on ports, and as such, their proxies come with unlimited bandwidth.
Just like Flipnode and Shifter, Stormproxies IP rotation occurs every 5 minutes. It does not have high rotating proxies at the moment. Stormproxies have got a good number of use cases that it is perfect for. However, it supports few locations such as the United States, the EU region, and a few other locations.
Nimbleway
- IP Pool Size: Undisclosed
- Locations: 50 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Cost: Starts from $600 monthly for 75GB
Nimbleway has one of the best residential proxy pools in the market. It is used by the likes of Pinterest, Uber, Discord, Wayfair, Vimeo, and The New York Times. Unlike other providers, the team behind this does not state the number of IP addresses in the pool, but our estimations put it in the millions considering the big businesses using their proxy pool. This proxy pool, like others, provides you with just an endpoint — and with this, an IP assign is assigned to your requests using an AI-optimized IP selector.
This feature is one that every other provider lacks — the use of AI to assign requests in other to increase success rate. You can choose to use IPs from a specific country, state, or city using the geo-targeting feature. The IPs are generally undetectable and rotating. You can set the time interval you want it to rotate or give it to do so manually. Pricing starts from $600 monthly, and that comes with 75GB. KYC is also required.
Proxy-Cheap
- IP Pool Size: over 6 million
- Locations: Worldwide location coverage
- Cost: $5 per GB monthly
Residential proxy pool providers are known to have expensive pricing, especially the ones that are priced based on bandwidth. Proxy-cheap is a deviation from this norm as its pricing is one of the cheapest as you can get a gigabyte for as cheap as $5 or even $3 depending on the amount of bandwidth you buy.
Very important is the fact that they do not have a minimum monthly commitment as you can pay for just one gigabyte of bandwidth. Currently, Proxy-cheap has over 6 million residential IPs in its pool. They also support country-level targeting, and their proxies are rotating proxies.
NetNut
- Size: Over 52M+ IPs
- Locations: All countries in the world
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 20GB
- Cost: Starts at $300 monthly for 20GB
Hailing from Israel, NetNut stands as one of the fastest-growing and most prominent proxy services worldwide. Among its exceptional offerings, reliable static residential proxies have gained popularity among marketing and advertising executives and IT service providers. NetNut promises and delivers unmatched and unrestricted access when it comes to data gathering.
NetNut understands the need for flexibility in web data gathering. Their residential proxies provide various rotation options to suit users' specific requirements. Combined with unlimited concurrent connections, NetNut's proxies are ideal for high-volume web scraping and activities demanding speed and anonymity. In essence, NetNut is perfect for people who make business decisions by analyzing data.
NetNut's residential proxies support both HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 protocols, allowing businesses and companies to conduct web data collection activities in the most flexible way. The dual authentication feature (User Pass + IP Authentication) further enhances security, ensuring that users can conduct their operations without any concerns about breaching privacy protocols.
NetNut presents a budget-friendly six-tier pricing approach for their Residential proxies. You get to enjoy a flexible model that empowers companies, businesses, and professionals to pay solely for the data they consume, without any time constraints. Starting at just $300 per month ($15/GB) for 20GB of bandwidth, NetNut offers cost-effective solutions to cater to various data requirements. Moreover, higher packages (six in number) are readily available to seamlessly scale up your data needs whenever necessary.
GeoSurf
- IP Pool Size: Over 2.5 million
- Locations: 130 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 38GB
- Cost: Starts at $450 monthly for 38GB
GeoSurf is just like Luminati – it is priced based on consumable bandwidth, and its residential proxy pricing can be said to be as expensive as that of Luminati. When it comes to the number of IPs in their pool, GeoSurf has fewer IPs in its residential IP pool compared to other providers on the list.
However, it remains one of the best, especially when you need proxies for web scraping and crawling. It has proxies in all countries and in over 17000 cities. Just like Luminati, it has a good session control – but not 100 percent, as in the case of Luminati.
Proxyrack
- IP Pool Size: over 2 million
- Locations: 140 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: unlimited
- Cost: $120 for 250 proxies for a month
There is one thing I like about Proxyrack; they are very transparent about the number of IPs in their pool in real-time. Proxyrack has over 2 million residential IPs in its pool – but with less than 1 million ready to use every moment.
This does not, in any way, affect its functionality as it serves over 800 million requests daily. Proxyrack has proxies from over 140 countries, including the United States, Australia, Europe, United Kingdom, and Russia. Their proxies are quite cheap.
Flipnode
- IP Pool Size: undisclosed
- Locations: worldwide
- Concurrency Allowed: starts at 40
- Cost: Starts at $225 monthly for 10 ports
Flinode owns one of the residential proxy pools that its usage is priced based on port and not bandwidth, and as such, you can enjoy unlimited bandwidth when you subscribe to any of their plans.
They have got a good number of proxies, and IP rotation is done after every 5 minutes – this means that they do not have high rotating proxies that change IP Address after every request. Pricing for their proxies is good, and they have good location coverage. They have got companies such as Spotify, Envato, and Microsoft on their customer’s list.
Infatica
- Locations: worldwide
- Concurrency Allowed: 500 threads
- Bandwidth Allowed: Unlimited
- Cost: Starts at $299 monthly for 3000 ports
Infatica is a global peer-to-peer proxy network that does not disclose the number of IPs in its residential proxy pool. Also, they do not provide the name of the location they support -they only have a worldwide mix package without allowing you to choose the specific country you want to surf from. Infatica proxies are perfect for web scraping and crawling.
PacketStream
- IP Pool Size: Over 7 million
- Locations: worldwide
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 1GB
- Cost: Starts at $1 monthly for 1GB
PacketStream does not hide the fact that they do not own the IPs in their pool. In fact, they offer users an opportunity to earn some money by becoming a Packeter, which entails sharing their IP and bandwidth. Currently, PacketStream has over 7 million residential IPs in its pool and has an uptime of 99 percent.
It boasts of having over 5000 customers. They support a good number of countries, and their IP rotation is top-notch. PacketStream pricing is the cheapest on the list – and this does not in any way make it less reliable, secure, and functional.
Conclusion
Residential IP pools are quite effective for a good number of use cases. However, this will only be possible if the IPs in the pool are of high quality, elite, and undetectable.
While you can build your own by creating a P2P network, you are better off using the already existing pools in the market by paying a subscription fee. You can use any of the providers discussed above as they have proven to work quite well.
