Whether you need to get a proxy service provider that gives the best service or you are a proxy service provider who wants to improve the service, proxy market research helps a lot to determine all the aspects of a proxy provider.
And the Proxy Market Research 2022 by Proxyway is one of the most reliable reports you can trust in. In this write-up, we will try to take a closer look at the methodology and findings of the research so that you know how Proxyway tests proxy networks. Let’s get started.
Which Proxies Did Proxyway Test?
The main change you will see in this year’s proxy market research is including more proxy types. And more emphasis was put on individual country pools to evaluate proxy networks better.
A total of eleven proxy services were tested this time. They include Blazing SEO, Bright Data, GeoSurf, IPRoyal, NetNut, Oxylabs, PacketStream, RSocks, Smartproxy, Shifter, and SOAX.
Major Findings of the Research
Here will be a quick overview of the major findings of proxy market research this year. Please take a look.
1. Datacenter and residential proxies are still the most popular among users. Though proxy-based APIs have increased, residential proxies are being used for various purposes.
2. The proxy server market is growing at a fast pace. In the last year, the number of residential proxies increased by 70%. And the number was 60% in the case of data center proxies.
3. As we have already mentioned, proxy-based APIs have increased a lot. Services like Web Unlocker or Search Engine Crawler increased their traffic flow and revenue.
Proxyway Market Research 2020: Methodology
To ensure a transparent evaluation for all the proxy providers, Proxyway follows an established methodology.
The methodology is again divided into two cases, the testing methodology and the evaluation methodology. We will briefly discuss both of them, so stick around.
Testing Methodology
The testing phase of Proxyway was conducted in two stages. Its first stage was an automated performance test run using a custom web scraping script made by Proxyway itself. The script is built on Python and it uses the following to proxy networks.
1. AIOHTTP
This library makes HTTP requests to different proxy servers.
2. MaxMind
This is the IP database Proxyway used for mapping the ASN and the location of the proxies.
3. IP2Location
This is another IP database that cross-checks the data obtained by MaxMind. Proxyway also checked the C-class subnetwork masks to determine their original locations.
Proxyway looked into three main factors while doing the research. It tested the number of unique IP addresses in possession of each proxy provider, the number of IP addresses under different C-class subnets, and whether those IP addresses are called residential IP addresses.
The test was run by using a generic Cloudflare server. Proxyway tried to gather as much information about each proxy service provider as possible by making requests from different IP addresses. Then, this data was verified with the data received from IP databases.
Proxyway also tested the connection speed of proxies and whether they are recognized as proxies by different web servers. Then comes the manual testing where the features, services, prices, and other aspects of each proxy provider are tested.
Evaluation Methodology
After the testing, Proxyway evaluated all the providers listed above based on different aspects of the test. Proxy providers were tested and evaluated in different categories for a better evaluation.
As different types of proxies were tested in this research, only the same proxy type from each provider was in the same category.
For example, the performance of data center proxies from each provider was tested in a category, and the providers were given a score based on their performances.
Proxyway evaluated these providers based on four main criteria. These are proxy performance, features, price, and wrap-up.
Proxy performance refers to the overall performance, connection speed, network stability, location of proxies, and many more. This information was obtained from automated testing and expressed through graphs.
Features were the functionality of the proxy providers that were analyzed manually. This included the type of services each proxy provider gives to its customers.
Price is a crucial indicator here, so Proxyway compared the pricing plans of the proxy service providers to create a result that will help you choose the best proxy network.
And finally, Proxyway summarized all the data and put them in graphs so that you can better understand the test results.
Conclusion
As the most common proxy types were tested in the proxy market research this year, it will now be a lot easier for the users to choose the best proxy service, provider.
And the service providers will also be able to know their lacking to improve services in the future and sustain in this fast-growing industry.
