Which Proxy Type Suits Your Web Scraping Project?
In plain English: web scraping means using a program to collect publicly available information from websites automatically, instead of copying it out by hand. People use it for price comparison, market research, tracking search rankings and all sorts of personal and small-business projects. The proxy you need depends mostly on two things: how well protected the website is and how much data you want.
A quick start in three steps:
- Check whether the site offers an official API (a data feed made for programs) or a download. If it does, use that first.
- If not, try a small amount of datacenter on a few pages.
- Move to residential only if those pages fail or get refused.
Is this allowed? Collect only publicly available data, follow each website's terms of service and its robots directives, and keep your pace sensible. Proxies help you collect data within those limits, not get around them.
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
- Match the proxy to the website, not the other way round
- Why your IP should change as you go
- Quick picks for common projects
- Scraping politely, so it stays allowed
- Tools, settings and what you'll spend
Match the proxy to the website, not the other way round
Sites with little protection: datacenter
Many catalogues, public APIs, news sites and RSS feeds don't check visitors closely. For those, datacenter proxies are the clear choice: they cost least here (from $2.49/GB), run very fast (up to 1 Gbps) and cope with lots of requests at once.
Sites with bot protection: residential
If a site's bot protection is wary of server addresses, switch to residential proxies (from $3.98/GB). Their home addresses look like ordinary visitors, and they also show you the results a real local person would see.
The hardest sites: premium or mobile
For the toughest websites, Residential Premium gets through more often, and mobile IPs help when the data comes from platforms built for phones.
Why your IP should change as you go
Send thousands of requests from one address and you look like a single, very busy visitor, which runs straight into rate limits (the cap a site puts on requests from one visitor). Rotating proxies spread your requests over many addresses, so each one makes only a few, much like real visitors arriving from all over. Use per-request rotation when each page stands alone, and a sticky session when a sequence has to come from one address, such as a search, then the results, then a detail page.
Quick picks for common projects
Find the project closest to yours and start with the type beside it; that's the balance of cost and success that usually works.
| Your project | Type to start with | Rotation | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public catalogues, feeds and APIs | Datacenter | Per-request | Costs least, and quick with lots of pages |
| Sites with bot protection | Residential | Per-request or sticky | Home addresses look like normal visitors |
| Results for one city or country | Residential | Sticky | Shows what someone in that place sees |
| Apps and sites built for phones | Mobile (4G/5G) | Auto-rotate | Looks like a real phone user |
| The toughest sites | Residential Premium | Sticky | Gets through more often |
Scraping politely, so it stays allowed
Polite scraping lasts longer. A few habits keep you on the right side of good manners and the rules:
- Collect only public data, and follow each site's terms of service and robots directives.
- Slow down. Space your requests out so you don't put extra strain on the site's servers.
- Where it makes sense, say honestly who your crawler is, and save what you've fetched so you don't download unchanged pages again.
- If the site offers an official API for the data you want, use it.
These habits mean fewer errors, a smaller data bill and a project that stays legitimate. For a fuller checklist, read web scraping the polite way.
Tools, settings and what you'll spend
Our proxies work over HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5, so they fit popular tools such as Scrapy, Requests, Playwright, Puppeteer and Selenium, with a username and password or an IP whitelist to log in. One thing beginners often miss: a headless browser (a browser your script controls, with no window) uses far more data than plain HTTP requests, so estimate both on the proxy calculator before you start. Then compare the types on the pricing page or buy now. For product details, see our proxies for scraping page.
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.
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Read the guide →Got a particular job in mind?
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