What Are Datacenter Proxies? The Low-Cost Place to Start
Put simply: a datacenter proxy gives you an IP address that belongs to a cloud or hosting company, the kind of business that fills large buildings (data centres) with servers. The address doesn't come from anyone's home broadband. Those servers sit on fast, high-capacity connections, which is why datacenter is the quickest and lowest-priced of our four types, and why it's usually the right first buy when you have plenty to do and not much to spend.
A sensible way to try it:
- Buy a small amount of datacenter and run your task on a handful of pages.
- If everything loads, carry on. You've found the low-cost option that works.
- If one particular site keeps failing, move just that site to residential proxies and leave the rest where they are.
Everything here assumes legitimate work with publicly available information, done within each website's terms of service.
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
- Where the address comes from, and why websites can tell
- What datacenter does well, and where it struggles
- Is datacenter right for my project?
- Beginner slip-ups with datacenter proxies
Where the address comes from, and why websites can tell
Your request reaches the proxy's gateway (the address your app connects to), and the gateway sends it on to the website from an IP owned by a hosting company. The website replies to that IP, and the gateway passes the reply back to you. Because the equipment lives in a data centre on quick links that aren't shared with households, pages come back fast even when you send lots of requests at once.
The trade-off is that websites can see what kind of network an address belongs to. Every block of IPs is registered under an ASN, a network ID that says which organisation runs it. For a datacenter IP, that ID points to a hosting company rather than a home internet provider, so well-protected sites tend to look harder at datacenter visits than at residential ones.
What datacenter does well, and where it struggles
Good at: a low cost for each page you fetch, high speed, and steady performance on repetitive jobs like bulk automation, testing and collecting public pages from sites that don't pay attention to the network.
Not so good at: well-guarded websites. There, an address from a home (residential), a phone network (mobile) or an ISP gets a friendlier reception. You don't have to pick one type for a whole project, though. Many people use datacenter for the bulk of their easy work and pay for a higher-trust address only on the few sites that genuinely need one.
Is datacenter right for my project?
Datacenter is a good match when speed and price matter most and the website is lightly protected. Typical examples:
- collecting large numbers of public, unprotected pages (web scraping);
- bulk automation runs, and testing APIs, the data feeds that programs read;
- checking that a website is up and reachable, known as uptime monitoring;
- SEO tools that look up search results and page data.
Need results that match a real location on a protected site, or a high-trust address for work you do while signed in? Then weigh up the options in our datacenter vs residential proxies guide. The table shows where datacenter sits among our four types.
| Proxy type | IP source | Trust | Speed | Typical price/GB | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datacenter | Servers run by cloud and hosting companies | Lower | Very fast | from $2.49 | Sites without bot protection, big batches of public pages, automation and SEO tools |
| Residential | Home broadband lines from everyday ISPs | High | Medium | from $3.98 | Protected sites, ad checks, market research and seeing what one place really sees |
| Mobile (4G/5G) | Phone networks run by mobile carriers | Very high | Medium | from $4.98 | Apps and platforms built for phones, plus testing your own mobile app |
| Residential Premium | A selected pool of real-user IPs | Very high | High | from $6.99 | Well-guarded sites, where a better success rate is worth the higher price |
Beginner slip-ups with datacenter proxies
- Blaming the proxy for a protected site. If a well-guarded site turns datacenter visits away, that's normal. Move that one site up a type rather than giving up on the whole project.
- Sending requests as fast as your computer allows. Even easy-going sites have rate limits. A steady, modest pace keeps your task running and is fairer to the site.
- Loading more than you need. You pay for every GB of data, so fetching full pages with all their images in an automated browser costs far more than fetching the text alone.
And the rule that never changes: only collect information that's public, follow each site's terms of service, and keep to the law that applies to you.
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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