Following Your Competitors, the Simple Way
Competitor research, at its simplest, means keeping an eye on what your rivals show the public, such as their prices, offers, adverts, website changes and where they appear in search results. Those things often change with the visitor's location, so to see what customers in a particular place see, you need to look from there. Proxies let you do that from your own desk.
This guide matches common competitor checks to a proxy type and shows how to collect public information fairly, keeping to the rules each site sets in its terms of service and to the law. For the product details, see our proxies for competitor research page.
Written and kept up to date by the people who run Budget Proxies. If a step no longer matches what you see on your screen, let us know through the contact page.
What this guide walks you through
- What you can (and can't) look at
- Why location changes what rivals show you
- Competitor checks and the type to use
- Playing fair with competitor research
- Getting set up to follow your rivals
What you can (and can't) look at
- Prices and offers on rivals' shops, region by region.
- Adverts they're showing in different countries (our ad verification page explains more).
- Website and product changes over time, so you notice what's new.
- Search rankings: where they appear for the keywords you're both chasing (more on our SEO monitoring page).
Everything on that list is public. The part that needs care is collecting it the way each site's terms allow. Anything behind a login, or anything personal, isn't yours to collect.
Why location changes what rivals show you
A rival's prices, ads and rankings can differ from country to country, and even between cities. Residential proxies (from $3.98/GB) run through real home connections and show what a local customer sees, which makes them the right pick for location-sensitive or well-protected sites. Datacenter proxies (from $2.49/GB), built on server IPs, handle bigger batches from lightly protected sites for less, while Residential Premium, our curated pool, improves your success rate on the hardest sites.
Competitor checks and the type to use
The table matches common competitor checks with a type that gives you sensible accuracy without overspending. Sticky keeps one IP across a few pages; per-request swaps it every time.
| What you're checking | Type to pick | Rotation | Why we suggest it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rivals' prices by region | Residential | Sticky | An accurate local view |
| Lots of website changes | Datacenter | Per-request | Low cost when there's a lot to check |
| Adverts shown in a country | Residential | Per-request | Seen as a real household sees them |
| The hardest rival sites | Residential Premium | Sticky | Better odds of a proper page |
Playing fair with competitor research
Fair research is easier to trust and keeps you within the rules:
- Look only at what the public can see, and keep to the site's terms of service and robots.txt, the rules it publishes for automated visitors.
- Go at a modest pace and use rotation so the load is spread across different IPs.
- Set the proxy to the market you're studying, so what you see is accurate.
- Use an official API (a data service the site runs for programs) where one exists, and keep copies of pages so unchanged ones aren't fetched twice.
If a site says no, that's the answer: a proxy doesn't change a site's terms.
Getting set up to follow your rivals
Once you know which rivals and which countries you want to follow, setting up is short work. Pick your locations from 55+ countries, connect over HTTP/HTTPS or SOCKS5 (both are standard proxy protocols), and sign in by username and password or by IP whitelist, which lets your own address in without a password; access is instant. Run your plan through the proxy calculator, see what each type costs per GB on the pricing page, then click buy now once you've settled on one.
Questions beginners ask
Not sure what to buy? Start at step 1
Here are our four types, from the lowest price per GB upwards. Try a small amount of the first one that could work for your project, and only move up a step if a quick test lets you down.
Sites without bot protection, big batches of public pages, automation and SEO tools
Protected sites, ad checks, market research and seeing what one place really sees
Apps and platforms built for phones, plus testing your own mobile app
Well-guarded sites, where a better success rate is worth the higher price
Small first order? Datacenter from $2.49/GB · billed on the data you actually move · ready straight away · 30 days to use it · no traffic logs.
What to read next
What Are Proxies? A Starting Point for Beginners
A proxy passes your traffic on, so websites see its address rather than yours. How it works, the types you ca…
Read the guide →What Are Datacenter Proxies? The Low-Cost Place to Start
Datacenter proxies use addresses from server companies, so they're quick and low-cost. How they work, where t…
Read the guide →What Are Residential Proxies? Home Addresses, Explained
A residential proxy sends your requests through a real home connection, so sites see a local visitor. How it …
Read the guide →Datacenter vs Residential Proxies: Which Should a Beginner Buy?
Datacenter is quick and low-cost; residential is trusted more. A plain comparison of speed, price and success…
Read the guide →Mobile vs Residential Proxies: Do You Really Need Mobile?
Mobile proxies use phone-network IPs; residential ones use home broadband. How trust, cost and uses differ, a…
Read the guide →Proxy or VPN? The Difference, and Which One You Need
Already have a VPN app? How a proxy differs, what each one is good for, and why a proxy suits jobs like check…
Read the guide →Got a particular job in mind?
Ready to try your first proxy?
Choose from 55+ countries, pay from $2.49/GB for only the data you use, and get your login details straight away. If a step trips you up, human support is there 24/7.
