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Proxies 101Nov 28, 20255 min read

ISP vs. Residential Proxies: Which Do You Need?

Understanding the difference between ISP (Static Residential) and Residential (Rotating) proxies is crucial for optimizing both your success rate and your budget.

What are Residential Proxies?

Residential proxies are IP addresses assigned to real devices (phones, laptops, Wi-Fi routers) by Internet Service Providers. They are peer-to-peer.

Pros: Extremely hard to detect; massive pool size (millions of IPs).
Cons: Slower speeds; connection can drop if the peer goes offline; usually charged per GB.

What are ISP Proxies?

ISP Proxies (also called Static Residential) are hosted in data centers but are registered under consumer ISPs (like Verizon or Comcast) instead of cloud hosting companies.

Pros: Datacenter speeds (10Gbps); 100% uptime; static IP address (great for accounts).
Cons: Smaller pool size; easier to burn if abused.

Which one should you choose?

  • Choose Residential for: Web scraping, market research, and tasks requiring high volume and anonymity.
  • Choose ISP for: Sneaker botting, managing social media accounts, and tasks requiring high speed and stable sessions.