Compare
Mobile or residential.
Start with the cheaper one.
Mobile vs residential proxies
Both send your traffic through a real consumer connection. The difference is the network behind it: a home broadband line, or a mobile carrier. That changes the price, the speed and how sites judge the address.
Residential from $1.50/GB · mobile $5/GB · one balance for both
Side by side
The differences that matter.
Rates are PrivateByte's per-GB usage rates. Everything else is true of the two types in general.
| Residential | Mobile | |
|---|---|---|
| Address belongs to | A home broadband provider | A mobile carrier |
| Shared by | One household at a time | Many subscribers at once (CGNAT) |
| How sites treat it | As an ordinary visitor | With extra caution about blocking |
| Typical speed | Faster, steadier | Slower, more variable |
| Location control | Country; state and city on the Geo tier | Country |
| Sessions | Timed and sticky sessions | Timed sessions |
| PrivateByte rate | From $1.50/GB | $5/GB |
| Read more | Residential proxies | Mobile proxies |
Which to use
Three questions settle it.
Does the task need a carrier connection?
Testing a mobile app, mobile adverts or carrier-specific content needs a mobile address. That alone decides it: use mobile.
Is residential being screened?
If a residential tier works, stay on it. Try a screened residential tier before mobile: it costs less and often solves the same problem.
How much data will you move?
Mobile costs more per GB than residential. On large volumes that difference is most of the bill, so keep mobile for the requests that need it.
In practice
You do not have to pick one.
On PrivateByte the tier is chosen by the password you send, per request. Your key and balance stay the same. That means one job can use both: a residential tier for the bulk of the pages and mobile only for the steps that need a carrier address.
Work out what each split would cost with the cost calculator before you scale up.
Answers
A few things worth knowing.
Are mobile proxies better than residential proxies?+
Not in general. Mobile addresses are treated more cautiously by some sites, but they are slower and cost more. Residential is the better default; mobile is for the cases residential does not cover.
Why are mobile addresses blocked less often?+
A carrier shares one public address between many subscribers, so blocking it would block real customers too. Sites tend to judge that traffic on behaviour instead. No tier guarantees that a particular website will accept your requests. Sites also weigh request patterns, account history and other signals.
Can I switch between them without a new account?+
Yes. Both use the same key and the same balance. Change the password from a residential tier such as standard to mobile.
What about ISP and datacenter proxies?+
ISP proxies give you one fixed address; datacenter proxies are the cheapest for volume. How to choose a proxy covers all four types.
Start on residential.
Move up only if you need to.
One balance covers both. Change the password to change the tier.