5 reasons to use semi-dedicated proxies

When it comes to buying private proxies, almost everybody thinks of buying private, dedicated proxies. Also, others consider buying also special use proxies, such as social media proxies or Craigslist proxies. However, not every project needs private proxies for special use or dedicated proxies. Moreover, at the beginning of a project, you might not even know what proxies do you need. Or if you need any whatsoever. Therefore, we decided to write this article to show five reasons for which you might consider using semi-dedicated proxies.

These proxies are called semi-dedicated because they are shared between three or four users. Thus, comparing with dedicated proxies, where you control all the traffic passing through the proxy, through semi-dedicated proxies, along with your traffic, passes also the traffic of other users. And depending on how you plan to use your proxies, this can be a benefit or a risk. For example, for social media, using semi-dedicated proxies is a risk because your accounts risk getting blocked if other users, using the same proxy’s IP employ an abusive behavior on the same social network. On the other hand, using semi-dedicated proxies for web-scraping, this risk diminishes because you will not connect any accounts through your proxies. So, let’s see what are the main reasons for using semi-dedicated proxies.

1. Cheaper than private proxies

This is the main argument when it comes to buying semi-dedicated proxies instead of dedicated ones. Maybe newcomers to the private proxy world will not distinguish the difference between private proxies and semi-dedicated ones. Thus they will buy cheap shared proxies instead of dedicated ones.

A private proxy’s price should never be the main argument when buying proxies. But, if your reasons for buying proxies are one of the following from this list, then you can consider price as a buying decision factor too.

2. Your project doesn’t need dedicated proxies

The second reason for which you should buy semi-dedicated proxies is if your project doesn’t need dedicated proxies. And your project doesn’t require dedicated proxies when the IP’s history is not an issue for your project.

Therefore, if you can continue your project, even when your proxies are flagged and blocked on certain domains, then you can consider buying semi-dedicated ones. Projects where you do not need to login any accounts and for which you can buy semi-dedicated proxies involve web-scraping, search engine scraping or posting content such as blog comments. There are other types of projects as well. But you must remember only the general rule: if you do not login any accounts, then you can buy semi-dedicated proxies. Or cheap shared proxies as some might call them.

3. No accounts to login

This reasons should be written on your wall when are in the process of buying private proxies. You must state it like this: „If your project doesn't require accounts to login in through your proxies, then you can use semi-dedicated ones. But if your project involves accounts to login, then you can consider virgin dedicated proxies”.

It is as simple as that. After you have developed your project’s strategy. And before buying your private proxies, consider if you need to login and connect any accounts through your proxies. If you do not need any, then feel free to buy shared ones.

4. You test a new strategy

Another reason for buying semi-dedicated proxies is when you need to test a new strategy. If you can’t afford to buy private proxies. Or simply your budget is limited but you need proxies to test it. You can buy semi-dedicated proxies.

In this way, you can keep your costs lower and test your new strategy without incurring any major losses. This is an important factor when you need to roll out a new strategy or working on a side project that is not very important.

5. You need hundreds of proxies

As mentioned, the first reason for buying semi-dedicated proxies by many people is that they are cheaper than private proxies. The price factor becomes again important when you need to buy hundreds of private proxies for your project to work.

Such a project will probably include scraping search engines or a certain website, several times a day. Thus, you will need private proxies to spread your requests across several tens or hundreds of IPs. But, what happens when your project’s budget is limited but you need hundreds of proxies to make it yours. Well, if you do not need to connect any accounts through your proxies, you can buy semi-dedicated proxies.