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ISP vs Residential Proxies: Main Differences
"While 'ISP proxies' and 'residential proxies' sound identical, they represent different hosting structures. Let's compare their technical details."
July 21, 2026 Technical Support Analyst 5 min read
Comparing Hosting Infrastructures
Understanding where these IPs are physically hosted is key to matching them to your project:
1. Standard Residential Proxies
These are located on actual home desktop devices, smart TVs, and routers. They connect using residential Wi-Fi networks.
- Pros: Dynamic global pools, extremely hard to block.
- Cons: Nodes can go offline if the homeowner turns off their device, leading to dropped sessions.
2. ISP Proxies (Static Residential)
These are leased directly from commercial ISPs but hosted on high-performance enterprise servers in data centers.
- Pros: 100% active uptime, gigabit port speeds, static IPs that never rotate or drop.
- Cons: Higher cost, smaller IP pool sizes than dynamic residential networks.
Article FAQs
When should I choose ISP proxies over residential?
Choose ISP proxies when your scraper scripts require stable, static IP addresses with zero dropouts and gigabit connection speeds.
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