What is a dedicated proxy?

A dedicated proxy is only used by one person, not shared with anyone else. It is also known as private proxies.

Pros and Cons of Dedicated Proxies

Pros

The network speed is fast because just one person use the proxy, the use can have all the bandwidth to him/herself.

Dedicated Proxies are more safe and reliable. As its another name, private proxy, you can make sure that your personal information is safe as long as you buy the proxy from a reliable provider.

Cons

The price will be a bit more higher than shared proxies. Since proxy providers are selling the proxy to one user, the user has to pay more to cover the cost.

A reliable proxy provider can guarantee the security of your personal information, while some may be fake. Dedicated proxies always cost a lot. Don’t believe advertising about free providers for your own safe.

What is a shared proxy?

A shared proxy is used by many people at the same time.

Pros and Cons of Shared Proxies

Pros

The price is much less than dedicated proxies. Because a shared proxy is sold to many people, they will share the bandwidth as well as the price. Shared datacenter proxies are even cheaper than shared residential proxies.

Usually shared proxies will rotate. With this kind of proxies, your IP address will change every few minutes automatically, which can contribute to highly anonymous.

Cons

The network speed is lower than using a dedicated one because many people share the bandwidth. In some extreme cases, it might cause server overload.

Someone may abuse a proxy, which leads to the IP been blocked by some sites. When others use this IP to visit the same site, they won’t be able to access it. They have to change the IP to visit the site again.

Dedicated Proxies Use Cases

Manage social media accounts. Social media sites will track the IPs of every account to make sure they are used by real person. If your IP changes a lot or be marked as fraud, your account may be disabled.

Keep online information safe. Proxies can protect your personal information and online behavior. Dedicated proxies are much safer than shared ones because you can control the usage of the proxies.

Shared Proxies Use Cases

Hide IP address. Shared proxies can help you keep anonymous on the Internet. You can change your IP to any location you want easily.

Web scraping. You’ll need a lot of IP addresses if you’re doing SEO research. It will cost a lot if you use dedicated proxies and actually, you don’t need the IP to be dedicated if you do web scraping. Shared proxies can let you get accurate data with reasonable price.

Unlock geo-restriction content. You can surf articles, videos from all over the world with proxies. For example, a series was released on a site and only IPs in US can watch it. You can change your IP to US with proxies to watch it.

Conclusion

Both dedicated and shared proxies have advantages and disadvantages, it depends on your needs to decide which one is better.