The checklist#
- Sourcing. For residential pools: do device owners opt in, get paid and can leave? A provider that cannot answer is a risk to you and to them.
- Coverage that matters to you. Not the global pool figure: the pool in your target countries and cities, visible before or right after sign-up.
- Targeting levels. Country everywhere; state, city and ASN where you need them; carrier on mobile. Check that they are set per request, not per plan.
- Session control. Rotation per connection, sticky sessions with a lifetime you choose, up to how long, and what happens when an exit drops.
- Protocols and authentication. HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 on the same account; username-password and IP whitelist; sub-users with ceilings if several people or agents share the account.
- Metering. Both directions or one? Headers counted? Failed connections billed? Written down, not promised.
- Expiry. Does unused traffic expire, and when? Non-expiring traffic changes the economics of buying larger tiers.
- Pricing transparency. Every tier, term, zone and discount public; the checkout uses the same grid; no surcharge appears at payment.
- Payment and identity. Which methods, which minimum, whether identity documents are required and at what threshold.
- Documentation. Endpoints, parameters, error codes and limits precise enough to build against before you pay.
- Status and support. A status page fed by real probes; a support channel that issues a reference and reaches a person.
- Rules. An acceptable use policy that is published and enforced: it protects the pool you are about to depend on.
Claims to read carefully#
| Claim | What it usually means | Ask instead |
|---|---|---|
| "X million IPs" | Unique addresses seen over a month | How many are online now in my country? |
| "99 % success rate" | Against an easy target, from the provider's own bench | What was the target, the rate and the client? |
| "Unlimited bandwidth" | Often with a fair-use clause or throttling | What is the throttling threshold? |
| "Free trial" | A few megabytes or a card on file | What does a real test cost, and does the balance persist? |
Test in an hour#
- Fund the minimum and run the test protocol: exit, headers, DNS, latency.
- Send fifty requests to your real target from the network you intend to use; count successes and inspect content.
- Try a sticky flow (search → three pages) and a rotating burst; watch the IPs.
- Read the metering and expiry rules, then compare the effective price per successful request across candidates.
How ProxShift answers the twelve points#
Consent-sourced residential capacity; pool sizes published per network, dated and defined (70M+ residential, 550K+ ISP, 550K+ datacenter and 4.9M+ mobile IPs, as of September 2026: monthly distinct addresses for the rotating pools, inventory for the static ones), with coverage listed country by country; country, US-state, city and ASN targeting from the username; sticky sessions up to 24 hours; HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 with password or whitelist and sub-user ceilings; both directions metered, failed connections free; traffic that never expires; every price public and identical at checkout; cryptocurrency from $20 with no identity documents; documentation that is the product contract; a status page probed every five minutes; an enforced acceptable use policy. Each claim links to the page where you can check it.
Questions people ask#
Is the cheapest per-GB rate the best deal?
Only if the requests succeed and the traffic does not expire before you use it. Compare the effective cost per successful request at your real volume, and check the expiry rule.
Should I pick one provider or several?
Many teams keep two: one primary and one fallback for targets that misbehave. Choose providers whose username syntax and protocols are similar so switching is a configuration change.