Proxy-cheap Review 2023: In-Depth Performance Tested for Proxy-cheap.com Proxies

Justin Shin
Is the Proxy-cheap residential proxy network a good performance, or is it just a cheap network with a good marketing campaign designed to make money off you? To find out the answer to this question, you should review my Proxy-cheap review below, where I reveal its performance test result.

Proxy-cheap is one proxy provider you can’t take your eyes off if you look at the small proxy providers out there — especially for residential proxies. The proxies are dead cheap to use, and the providers promote it as the proxies you can use for a good number of things. But this is just from their mouth.

What is the reality, and how do Proxy-cheap performances in terms of speed, success rate, and response time? All of these and many more were some of the details you can’t find on the Proxy-cheap website. I will reveal all in this Proxy-cheap review.

Table Of Contents

Proxy-cheap — An Overview

Official Website: https://proxy-cheap.com

Feature Description
Over 6.7 Million Residential IPs Proxy-Cheap offers access to over 6.7 million residential IPs worldwide
Mobile and IPv6 Datacenter Proxies The service provides mobile proxies and IPv6 datacenter proxies in addition to residential proxies
Affordable Pricing Proxy-Cheap offers reasonably priced proxy packages with a pay-as-you-go model based on traffic usage
127+ Locations Proxy-Cheap provides access to proxies in over 127 locations around the world
Easy to Use Proxy-Cheap is known for its user-friendly dashboard and ease of implementation

Proxy-cheap is a small to medium-scale proxy provider with proxies in the datacenter, mobile, static residential, and rotating residential proxy markets. The focus of this article is their rotating residential proxies which is the product they are known for. It is also the product that introduces us to them. Proxy-cheap has got over 6 million IPs in its pool through which your requests are routed through. One thing you will come to like is its location coverage and the leverage it gives you for accessing geo-targeted content.

The proxies offered by Proxy-cheap are rotating proxies that change IP randomly. However, there is an option for maintaining the same IP address for session management. From my test, the IPs are as undetectable as they claim individually, and you can get them real good price if you are looking to buy cheap proxies. It is also important you know that, as with other providers, Proxy-cheap does have its own problems you need to be aware of, and I will describe them as we move into the review properly.

Pros and Cons of Proxy-Cheap Residential Proxies

Proxy-Cheap Pros

Proxy-Cheap Cons

Overall, Proxy-Cheap offers a large pool of residential proxies with affordable pricing and a wide range of locations. However, there are some drawbacks, such as the lack of a free trial and limited information on their refund policy. Users should consider the pros and cons before deciding

Proxy Pool Size

The number of IP addresses a residential proxy network has to route its client requests through is what is referred to as proxy pool size. And providers that have a big one see it as a big flex as that is one of the determinants of the size of the project their network can be used for. Proxy-cheap is one of the providers that have millions of IP addresses in its pool. Currently, it has over 6 million IPs which you might see as big. But that is actually one of the smallest you will see in the market if you have your eyes on proxy networks that work.

This proxy pool isn’t big enough to compete against the big providers in the market. However, it is big enough for use in small to medium projects. Bear in mind that the proxies are rotating, and not all of these are available at any given time. It is also important you know that Proxy-cheap is not the owner of the IPs it assigns to your requests; the IPs are sourced from P2P networks. These networks have devices of real Internet users in them which Proxy-cheap uses to route the requests of its clients.

Location Coverage

It is good for a provider to have a huge proxy pool, but a good spread in terms of location support is also required. This is especially true since websites on the Internet are increasingly showing content to users based on their location, which is tapped from their IP address. In this regard, one can say Proxy-cheap’s location support is modest. Modest in the sense that it is not the best, but what it offers is excellent. Proxy-cheap does have support for over 127 countries. These countries are some of the most sort after countries in the world, especially in terms of geo-location IPs.

This provider has got support for geotargeting. This is another word for the ability to choose the specific location you need IPs from. Testing the geo-targeting feature, I realize you can only make use of the country-level geo-targeting feature — no support for state and city-level geo-targeting. One thing you need to know is that as you choose IPs from a specific country, the number of IPs available to you drastically reduces.

While there are over 6 million IPs in the pool, these IPs are shared among the over 127 countries supported. There are countries you choose, and you wouldn’t get up to 50K IP addresses.

Proxy-cheap Speed & Performance Test

The moment you decide to use proxies, just know that you are ready to lose a part of the fast speed you would have enjoyed. This is because proxies introduce some bottleneck that will reduce your speed. However, while the reduction in speed is normal, it does not mean your Internet connection should be slow — it still has to be fast for it to be worth using. In this section of the article, I will discuss what I find out about the Proxy-cheap speed. First, the speed performance of Proxy-cheap residential proxies was tested against 5 popular websites to measure their performance. Below is the result got from the test — I used a custom script developed in-house to carry out the test.

Website Download Speed (Mbps) Upload Speed (Mbps) Ping
Amazon 13.89 15.89 56
Instagram 14.87 18.65 70
YouTube 15.73 15.98 61
Google Search 17.95 21.09 53
Booking 13.65 19.37 86

The performance above is not breaking any record, and you wouldn’t compare it with the result of the speed test of Bright Data and Smartproxy. However, the reality is, this speed test is not poor — it is actually average for residential proxies. And with this, you will scrape the data you want in no time. And considering the cost of their proxies which will be discussed later in the article, you will agree with me that this is a good speed for the money. Also important is the fact that the proxies are actually undetectable as the success rate I got was quite impressive for this price — this also will be discussed later on in the article.

Proxy Rotation and Session Management Reviews

From the beginning of this article, I mentioned that the proxies offered by Proxy-cheap are rotating proxies. What this means is that the IP address assigned to you is randomly changed and can’t be static. This is because the IPs are not under its control since they are sourced via P2P networks. However, it does give you some level of control over the IP rotation. It does have basically two types of proxies — high-rotating proxies and session-based proxies. For the high-rotating proxies, your IP address is switched after every request, with a new IP address assigned to you randomly. This is the type of proxy you should use for most of your web scraping projects.

The session-based proxies are the ones that maintain the same IP after for a period of time. With Proxy-cheap, you can maintain the same IP address for up to 30 minutes. You generally have control of the duration you will want the IP address switched. Proxy-cheap does not have a separate session management system — it follows the IP rotation system. Your session remains the same until a new IP is assigned to you. One thing you need to know is that there are instances where your session will be cut-short because the IP assigned to you went offline. That will automatically lead to a new session being created.

Scraping Success Rate and Response Speed Test

Scraping is one of the most popular uses of proxies. It is one of the activities that can also reveal, thus quickly the strength and weakness of a proxy network. This is because, for web scraping, you need to rotate IPs and ensure you get a request fast. If the web scraper has multithreading integrated, then it becomes even more complicated. So, I will use web scraping to check how I perform in terms of request success rate and response time. I use a custom script for this test and focused on the same website targets for the speed performance test discussed above. Below is the result of the scraping success rate and response speed test for Proxy-cheap.

Site Success Rate (%) Avg. Response Rate (sec)
Amazon 97.18 5.54
Instagram 94.09 3.49
YouTube 94.98 4.86
Google Search 96.47 3.38
Booking 94.33 7.43

Looking at the above, you can also see that just like in the case of the speed performance test, Proxy-cheap is not breaking any record here. And yes, it is equally not doing badly as the result above can be termed average if you look at the average data of the success rate and response time of the residential proxy market. And again, considering the price paid for their proxies, you know this speed is OK. The success rate here is actually impressive and can be attributed to the use of devices of real Internet users to route requests of their clients.

Plans and Pricing Compare And Recommendations

One of the defining features of Proxy-Cheap is its affordable pricing. And this affordability is for its rotating residential proxies, which is, by far, its most popular product. Generally, after comparing the pricing and feature provided by Proxy-cheap and the top providers out there, I can tell you this provider is cheap and not to a fault. You get millions of IPs from an extensive location at a cheaper price. Pricing for Proxy-cheap is based on consumable bandwidth, as you are allowed to use as many IP addresses and ports as you want. There is no minimum monetary commitment if you use this provider.

You can purchase 1GB at a price of $5, which is about the cheapest you can get in the market for residential proxies that actually work. This makes it more affordable and creates an entry for small proxy users into the residential proxy market. However, the more bandwidth you purchase, the cheaper the pricing per GB becomes.

As a new user, you are entitled to a 14-day free trial. But to get this, you will need to contact the sales team and do a KYC. In terms of getting a refund, you need to think things through as you wouldn’t get a refund as easily as you think. Some of the reasons why you might not get a refund include if you have used 20 percent of your bandwidth, use of cryptocurrency payment and if the proxies are incompatible with your use case.

Customer Support

It might interest you to know that customer support is one of the important arms of a proxy network. Even though Proxy-cheap is not a complex provider with many advanced features that could get users to have the need to always contact support, there needs to be a support team in place. And Proxy-cheap does have one. For me, my preferred method of speaking to customer service agents is via live chat, as I am able to get a more responsive response in no time. I have used this to communicate with the team at Proxy-cheap and got connected to an agent in less than a minute.

In terms of helpfulness, the agent I was connected to had a good understanding of the technicalities of proxies and not just information about their service. However, bear in mind that the Proxy-cheap support team is only available from Monday to Friday. Outside of these days, you will need to contact support via email. I didn’t have the need to use the email support system, but I got reviews from those that made use of it. From what they said, you should get a response in just a few hours and not up to a day. If you are a registered user, you can also use the support ticket to connect with the team.

Ease of Use

If you have read all of what was written above, you will agree with me that Proxy-cheap is quite a simple provider. And the result of this is being easy to use. Out does not bore you with details that you do not need, nor do you need any training to make use of it.

All you need to do is register an account and confirm the account. You can then proceed to payment and purchase a plan. With the plan purchase, you can then go to the proxy section and get the proxy credentials. You can use the proxy credential (proxy host, port, username, and password) as it is or tweaks the proxy settings to get a modified version.

Some of the changes you can make include choosing the connection type, country selection in terms of geo-targeting, and session type in terms of using random or sticky IPs, among others. The interface is intuitive, and if there is anything you do not know how to do, there is a library of guides to help you through.

Developer Support

If you are a developer, pay attention to this section. Non-developers and coders might not have the need to check this section. All proxies can be used for development, but not all of them have an API you can use to access your proxies and the user dashboard programmatically. If you would need to access the dashboard programmatically, then you will need a proxy network that offers a developer API, and Proxy-cheap is one of such. At first, I thought there was no API, and nothing of such was discussed on their main page like the other providers do.

I had to do more digging before I uncovered it. You can do anything from purchasing proxies to checking your balance and retrieving proxy lists. What I actually find helpful is the comprehensive documentation that details all of the API endpoints available — all of which are on the same page, which makes it more stressful to read and understand. This API is not specific to any programming language and, as such, can be used with your favorite language.

Verdict: Is Proxy-cheap Good Enough?

No doubt, Proxy-cheap does have its downsides which range from being slow, having a small pool for large projects, and not having support for SOCKS5. Aside from the aforementioned and a few other issues, Proxy-cheap is good enough. I recommend Proxy-cheap to small proxy users looking for affordable residential proxies to carry out their automation tasks without getting detected. You only need to be aware that the speed can be terrible sometimes. Sure, you are not getting the advanced features the top providers offer, but you can be sure to get undetectable proxies that work.

FAQs

Can proxies be replaced?

Proxies can be replaced in cases of technical issues or extreme failure. If proxies have been utilized, flagged, or abused, Proxy-Cheap will not perform any replacement operations​

What payment methods are supported?

Proxy-Cheap supports Card, Wire-transfer, and Cryptocurrency payments​

Can I select a Proxy Location?

Yes, Proxy-Cheap allows you to choose the location for all their proxies. Datacenter IPv6 and Residential proxies can be selected based on the country, Jarvee proxies based on City/Region, and Mobile proxies based on State/Region​

Are "Instant proxies" activated instantly?

Yes, if the proxies are not activated within a 10-minute period, you can contact their live chat support​

How often do Mobile and Residential Proxies rotate?

Mobile proxies rotate every 2-10 hours, while Jarvee proxies rotate every 1 to 4 days​

Does Proxy-Cheap support authentication by IP?

Authentication by IP is supported with Mobile proxies and Datacenter IPv6. Residential proxies only support username and password options​

Which protocol should I choose for Automation?

HTTPS is compatible with most automation tools and suitable for web browsing purposes, while SOCKS5 is compatible with more protocols and delivers better efficiency and more options for authentication​

What's the expiration date of the "Residential proxies" plan?

If 90% of the bandwidth is not used in 3 months, the proxy will expire along with all of its bandwidth left​

What is Proxy-Cheap's refund policy?

Proxy-Cheap offers refunds for undelivered products. Both Dedicated IPv4 & IPv6 Static Proxies are not refundable. Refunds are not offered based on lack of competence or ability to use the service. Proxy-Cheap doesn't take responsibility for incompatibility with third-party software. Refund processing is completed within 14 calendar days after the initial request​1​.

Related Posts