Proxies are the second most important tool in affiliate marketing after the tracker: IP quality decides whether an account survives to its first campaign and whether a platform sees your landers the way a real user from the target geo does. Here are the proxy types, their real 2026 prices and how to test quality before paying.
Three proxy types and the difference
- Datacenter — IPs from server farms. Fastest and cheapest ($0.5–2 per IP monthly), but their subnets are publicly known: social networks and antifraud systems treat them with maximum suspicion. Good for scraping, SEO tasks and services where the address does not need to look human.
- Residential — IPs of real home ISPs, usually billed per traffic ($2–7 per GB). They look like a regular user and rotate across a pool. The workhorse for checking landers by geo, spy tools, sign-ups and moderate ad account work.
- Mobile (4G/5G) — carrier IPs. The most expensive ($30–150 per channel monthly) but the most trusted: thousands of real people sit behind one mobile IP, so banning it is costly for the platform. The standard for Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and anything where an account must live long.
Private vs shared
Every type comes private (the IP is yours only) or shared. Shared is several times cheaper, but you inherit your neighbors' karma: if someone spammed from that IP before you, your accounts die through no fault of yours. Simple rule: expensive tasks — private only; shared is fine for scraping and services.
How to test a proxy before buying
- IP cleanliness — run the address through IPQualityScore or Scamalytics: a fraud score above 50 is an instant no.
- Geo match — the claimed country must match MaxMind/IP2Location databases, otherwise platforms see the mismatch.
- Speed and stability — 5–30 Mbps is normal for mobile; stability matters more than peak speed.
- Type detection — sometimes a "mobile" proxy resolves as hosting in databases. That is defective, demand a replacement.
- Trial — decent services offer a few-hour test or money back. No trial is a red flag.
Task-to-proxy pairings
Facebook and TikTok accounts — private mobile proxies in the same geo as the account, 2–3 profiles per channel max. Checking landers and offers by geo — rotating residential with per-GB billing. Scraping and spy tools — datacenter or cheap residential pools. An antidetect browser does not work without a proper proxy: time zone, language and IP geo must match the profile settings — we covered the mechanics in our article on antidetect browsers and browser fingerprints.
Common mistakes
Buying a batch of cheap IPs instead of one good one; keeping a dozen accounts on one IP; changing a live account's proxy geo; forgetting to check for WebRTC leaks of the real address. Each of these mistakes costs more than the proxy itself.
Vetted proxy services with real user reviews and current prices are collected in the Services catalog on our forum — and share your own experience with specific providers in reviews: honest ratings save your colleagues' budgets.