How to use proxies for parsers

Parsing is a process when you open a website and collect data: prices of goods or information about products. Everyone needs information: marketers, advertisers, and any researchers. When we mean parsing, we are, of course, talking about an automatic method: when the program itself enters the site and collects data at the speed of light. There are many bottlenecks in this process, and proxies eliminate them all.

How proxies speed up parsing

To understand how proxy servers speed up data collection, let's look at the difficulties that parsers face.

Parsing problems

Here are the problems that specialists face when parsing:

• Request limit. Almost all sites block access if an IP address receives more than 100 requests per minute. This ends parsing for this user.
• Slow loading. If requests come from the same IP, page loading speed will be reduced, especially if the server is overloaded.

Now let's see how proxies solve these difficulties.

How proxy servers solve parsing problems

Proxies help solve all problems with parsing.

• Request limit. Blocking is not scary when you have a pool of addresses that you change one by one, shooting them like cartridges. Moreover, experts set up a rotation so as not to exceed the limit and avoid IP bans altogether.
• Slow loading. Proxy rotation prevents you from exceeding the limit. This means that the server will not limit the speed either.

Proxy servers speed up data collection, maintain continuity and protect against blocking.

How to choose a proxy for parsers

There are two main proxy parameters that are important for scraping. Let's look at them.

Protocol type

HTTP proxies are suitable for working with regular websites that do not require high security. HTTPS proxies provide encryption, which is necessary for working with secure sites (for example, online stores or banks). SOCKS5 proxies operate at a low level and are suitable for more complex tasks, such as working with multimedia content.

Proxy type

There are three types of proxy servers: server-based, residential and mobile.

• Server proxies are suitable for working with different sites. They process many requests simultaneously. This is useful when collecting data from news sites or online stores.
• Mobile proxies use the IP addresses of mobile devices. They are not blocked because there are fewer addresses on mobile networks than on the home Internet: two users can have the same IP. This is good when you need to collect data for a long time. For example, thousands of online market pages for monitoring prices.
• Residential proxies are suitable for sites with IP address verification. They use the IP addresses of real users, which helps avoid blocks. This is a particularly common story on sites with tight security, such as online banks or payment systems.

Choose either a pool of server proxies for one-time tasks, or one mobile proxy for long-term data collection. Pay attention to the number of requests you want to send and the specifics of the sites you work with. Let's tell you in more detail how to choose a proxy type for different parsing tasks.

How to choose a proxy for parsing

We'll tell you how to navigate choosing the type of proxy for parsing:

When to rent server proxies

If you want to collect data from sites without strict protection or captcha (for example, news resources, online stores with a regular structure), server proxies are best. At a price of approximately 300 rubles per month.

You can rent several server proxies at once to distribute the load. This will allow you to send more requests at the same time, avoiding an IP ban. For example, you can take 5 proxies for ~1500 rubles and distribute requests between them. This will increase the parsing speed.

When to rent mobile proxies

If you need to collect data from sites with serious protection against parsing and complex captchas, then mobile proxies will be the best choice.

Mobile IP addresses change frequently and are the same. Administrators know that with a ban there is a risk that several users will suffer. This almost eliminates the risk of blocking.

However, the price for mobile proxies is higher - ~1850 rubles per day. This is justified if you need to quickly and without interruption collect data from secure sites such as social networks, popular services or platforms with frequent IP checks.

To summarize:

If you plan to parse regular sites that do not require too many requests, rent several server proxies. This will cost several times less than mobile proxies, and will give results for a small budget.

If reliability is important and you want to avoid blocking during intensive data loading (especially from sites with tight security), rent one mobile proxy per day and complete the collection of information in a short time. This approach is ideal for urgent and complex tasks.

Now let’s calculate how much it will cost:

If you have 100 sites for parsing, divide them between 5 server proxies - this will cost about 1,500 rubles per month. This is enough to regularly collect data from resources with simple protection.

To protect against bans or for complex sites, take a mobile proxy for one day for about 1,850 rubles and collect all the necessary data quickly.

The choice depends on the number of requests and the complexity of the sites. For regular tasks with simple sites, use server proxies; for short, intensive tasks on complex sites, use mobile.