Frequently asked questions

A VPN encrypts the entire system's traffic through a tunnel — used for privacy and security. A proxy routes the traffic of a specific application (browser, script) through an intermediary. For scraping and automation, proxies are the standard because they let you rotate IPs between requests and work with a pool of thousands of addresses.

The technology itself is legal in most jurisdictions (Ukraine, EU, US, UK). The legality depends on the use-case: scraping public data is legal, scraping authenticated sessions is a grey area, bypassing CAPTCHAs on closed resources is illegal. See our legal-aspects guide for details.

Simple decision tree: for scraping public APIs without anti-bot — datacenter (cheap). For scraping e-commerce/SEO — residential. For social-media multi-account — mobile dedicated. For sneaker drops and ticket bots — ISP static. When in doubt, residential rotating is the universal pick.

Budget scraping at 10K pages/day: $50-100/month on residential. Mid-size project with multi-account and scraping: $200-500/month. A serious team with several verticals: $1000+/month. Don't start with the most expensive option — most use-cases are covered by residential at $200/month.

Yes. Most providers offer a free trial: Decodo (14 days), Bright Data (7 days), SOAX (100 MB), DataImpulse ($1 credit), Webshare (10 free datacenter IPs). Always test on a free trial before paying — refunds are harder to get later.

After setup, hit ipinfo.io or api.ipify.org through the proxy — you'll see the new IP and geo. For residential, verify unique IPs: send 10 sequential requests; in rotating mode you should see different IPs in the responses.

Start by contacting support and asking which specific ToS clauses you violated. They often ban for automation errors. If your use-case sits in a grey area (iGaming, anti-detect, multi-account), pick a tolerant provider from day one: SOAX, Decodo, IPRoyal, ProxyEmpire. Refund policies are typically "no refund" after a ToS violation, but some providers do prorate.

If you use less than 80% of a pricing tier monthly, pay-as-you-go is cheaper. With stable consumption and a known volume, an annual subscription with a 15-25% discount wins. Most teams start on PAYG and switch to subscription once consumption stabilises.

Technically yes — you'll get a quality pool. In practice, ~80% of accounts get blocked at KYC or at the first compliance review. Don't take the risk — pick a tolerant provider from day one: SOAX, Decodo, IPRoyal, ProxyEmpire, AstroProxy.

Verified by our editorial team on iGaming use-cases: SOAX (24h sticky), ProxyEmpire (frequent -50% promos), Decodo (14-day trial), IPRoyal (traffic doesn't expire), AstroProxy ($3 free credit), iProxy.online (mobile-farmer marketplace), MobileProxy.Space (stable EU + Turkey).

For authenticated workflows (account farming on bookmakers) — mobile dedicated, because of sticky IPs. For landing-page and cloak verification — residential rotating. Mobile dedicated runs $25-45/month per port, residential is $2-10/GB. A team budget of $300/month covers 5-10 mobile ports plus 50 GB of residential.

Slovenia (mobile only via 3gproxy.com), New Zealand (almost no mobile, falls back to residential), Iceland (~3-5K residential IPs), Baltics (iProxy marketplace). Details in our "How to get rare-geo proxies" guide.

The base combo: anti-detect browser (Multilogin/Dolphin/Adspower) + mobile dedicated proxy (one port = one account = one IP) + each profile with a unique fingerprint. The browser geo must match the IP geo — otherwise auto-ban.

Cloaking is a technique for showing different content to different audiences: a white-page for moderators and a black-page (the offer) for real users. To launch you need: a cloak service (Adspect, Keitaro Cloak), residential rotating proxies for testing, datacenter IPs to verify the "bot view".

In most jurisdictions, yes. The hiQ vs LinkedIn (2019, US) precedent ruled that automated collection of public data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The EU takes a similar line: scraping public data isn't a crime; ToS violations are a contractual breach, not a criminal one.

GDPR doesn't ban scraping public data, but it requires a lawful basis. The most common one is Legitimate Interest (Art. 6.1.f). You need documentation: a clear business interest, necessity, balancing test (your interest vs. the data subject's rights), transparency notice. Document everything — the DPA may ask.

Clearview AI €30.5M (NL) — scraping photos without consent. Voodoo Sàrl €3M (FR) — tracking without legitimate interest. Meta €1.2B (IE) — cross-border data transfers. TikTok €345M (IE) — children's data. Bottom line: focus on B2B data, avoid sensitive data and children's data.

If you've built a SaaS on top of proxies for clients, you're a data processor (your client is the controller). Sign a DPA with each client where they confirm a lawful basis. Without one, the risk lands on you.

Technically yes. Legally it's a ToS violation (you're breaching subscription terms), not a crime. In practice these services have strong anti-VPN/proxy detection and block 99% of attempts.

Don't ignore it, but don't panic. Standard practice: hire a specialised lawyer (data privacy + IP law), evaluate the merits of the claims, respond through counsel. In ~80% of cases a cease & desist is a bluff: the company isn't ready to spend $50K+ on litigation just to stop scraping.

Yes, ~70% of providers do. Others — via crypto (USDT TRC-20) or PayPal. Specifically with UA cards: SOAX, Decodo, IPRoyal, ProxyEmpire, AstroProxy, MobileProxy.Space, iProxy.online, Proxy-Seller. Our catalog has an "RU/UA-friendly" filter.

Only on enterprise plans. Standard self-serve tariffs accept cards and crypto only. Wire transfers typically require a $500/month minimum contract. Reach out to the provider's sales team if you need that format.

PayPal in 2026 is still restricted for Ukrainian individuals. Workaround: a business PayPal via a sole-proprietor (FOP), or registration through an EU/US company. For most use-cases it's simpler to pay in crypto.

Standard recovery is via the registered email, or through support with verification (crypto TX hash, partial card number, login IP). If you registered under a pseudonym with crypto, recovery is nearly impossible — store credentials in a password manager.

Standard procedure: (1) contact support with a specific issue (URL not parsing, success rate <50%, etc.), (2) supply logs with timestamps and error codes, (3) request a refund citing their money-back policy. You usually get a prorated refund (for unused days) within 5-7 days. Crypto refunds are harder because they go back to the same address.

None specific. Your price doesn't change. The affiliate commission comes from the provider's marketing budget, not your wallet. Affiliate links are properly tagged as sponsored/nofollow per FTC and EU Directive 2005/29/EC.

Factors: pool size (bigger = more expensive), success rate on anti-bot-protected sites, sticky session length (24h costs more than 10 min), geo-targeting precision, enterprise features (DPA, SLA, account manager). Bright Data at $5-10/GB is a premium for compliance and the 150M-IP pool. Decodo at $2.20/GB is the best value for most use-cases.

Top three tactics: (1) block images/CSS/fonts via request interception (-60-80% bandwidth), (2) gzip compression (-60-80%), (3) a local Redis cache for repeated requests. Details in our "How to save on proxies" guide.

Yes — about 17 of the 33 providers in our catalog: USDT TRC-20 (~95% of those that accept crypto), BTC, ETH. It's the most convenient option for users in markets with card-payment restrictions. Top providers with direct crypto checkout: SOAX, Decodo, IPRoyal, AstroProxy, MarsProxies, iProxy.online.

Yes, if you follow the checklist: send a $5-10 test payment first, save the TX hash, don't pay from an exchange wallet (they may block outbound to proxy services), and always sign in through the official site.

Some providers underprice the headline rate: $0.99/GB in marketing, but at checkout there are surcharges for sticky sessions (+$0.50/GB), geo-targeting (+$0.30/GB), sub-users (+$10/month). Verify the total price on the actual tariffs page with your configuration, not on the landing.

Officially most providers have a 3-7 day refund policy. In practice it's harder: they require a "technical reason" (already used 1 GB? — refund denied), and often withhold a 10-20% processing fee. The strategy: start on a free trial or pay-as-you-go with a $5-10 minimum top-up.

Mobile uses real carrier SIM cards — there's more operating cost (SIM cost, mobile data fee, modem maintenance). In return, the IP almost never gets banned thanks to CGN: one IP equals thousands of real subscribers.

Two main options: (1) user:password in the proxy URL — convenient for anti-detect browsers and dynamic-IP clients. (2) IP whitelist — you add your own IPs to the allowed list. Simpler for server-side setups with a static IP.

Basic setup first: browser = await puppeteer.launch({args: ['--proxy-server=...']}). Auth via page.authenticate({username, password}). For rotation, create a new browser context per request batch. Details in our Puppeteer guide.

Some residential providers run MITM for traffic inspection. Workarounds: verify=False in requests (debug only), or configure your own CA bundle. The better option is to choose a provider without MITM (SOAX, Decodo).

The most common cause is special characters in the password. URL-encode them: : → %3A, @ → %40. For residential with a session token, double-check the format matches the provider's docs exactly.

Datacenter: 100-500 rps. Residential rotating: 50-200 in parallel. ISP static: 100-300. Mobile dedicated: 20-100 (depending on the carrier). Push past these limits and you get speed degradation or 429 errors.

Useful services: ipinfo.io (general info), spamhaus.org (email blacklists), iphub.info (proxy/VPN detection), browserleaks.com (browser fingerprint). If the IP is flagged as "datacenter" or "VPN", switch to residential or mobile.

WebRTC works directly through the browser, bypassing proxy settings. Fix: disable WebRTC in chrome://flags or use the WebRTC Leak Prevent extension. In anti-detect browsers this is usually configured already.