When a brand has to sell its services, one of the critical things to consider is the money they demand in exchange for their services. Pricing matters for marketers because it reflects their confidence and their customers’ trust in the value of their product.
If there is an overestimation of any one of those and the implementation of wrong pricing strategies, there is a fair chance that your consumers are leaving for good.
This fact makes many of us wonder about proxy pricing; why are some proxies free; whereas others have a cost? Or perhaps, the free ones come with a hefty price we all pay unknowingly. Hence, you must find out the factors that influence these prices to decide a better pick for yourself.
5 Factors that Distinguish Premium Proxy Pricing from a Free Proxy
Both free and paid proxies let you browse through the web anonymously, but they do it on different levels. There are some key variables that determine the pricing of proxies. Here are five factors that put value on some proxies, whereas the rest are free:
- Free Proxies Might Not Last Long
With a free proxy, you can never be sure when they will suddenly stop working or if they will work even a little. They are vulnerable to risks as minor as a laggy connection. Also, they would not last for a long while if they got overloaded. Besides, they are not company-assigned, so they are not a reliable way to hide your identity and online activities.
On the contrary, paid proxies are company-assigned and are more reliable, thus influencing the proxy’s pricing.
- Premium Proxies are More Secure
The sole concept behind using a proxy is to make users have a private and secure browsing experience. Even though a free proxy can provide you with basic level protection, you would never know what exactly to expect. Sometimes, it can expose you to risks because you are unsure of the hosts you are being connected to.
Furthermore, free proxies might keep logs with your source IP and make you use unencrypted protocols. On the other hand, a paid proxy depends on its security and privacy factors. So, they have to provide what their users pay for and do not keep logs of your online activities.
- The Extent of Anonymity is Different
Another factor that determines paid proxy pricing is the level of anonymity it provides. Compared to free proxies, a paid tool provides you with a hundred percent anonymity online that you require for some tasks.
On the other hand, it is not entirely correct to infer that free proxies are not anonymous; they are. It is only the fact that they provide you with online anonymity merely enough to perform smaller tasks, such as bypassing geo-restrictions.
- Web Scraping and Data Collection Varies
An authentic free proxy for web scraping is too good to be true, but even if you find one, it will get cluttered soon. On the contrary, a rotating proxy of fresh IPs is pricey because it has significantly fewer chances of getting blocked.
- The Provided Speed is Different
Last but not least, a free proxy offers slow browsing issues and more lagging experiences. Although not all free proxies are worthless, they are prone to getting cluttered, making the server as slow as a tortoise.
On the other hand, a paid proxy has a limit to the number of users that can share a server, so they tend to be faster.
Reasons Why Some Paid Proxies are Cheaper While Others are Expensive
There are some variables that lead to differences of proxy pricing. Just like every other technological tool, some are costlier than the rest of their kind. Here is the list of reasons why some paid proxies are cheaper while others are expensive:
- Competitive Proxy Pricing
The foremost determinant of proxy pricing is the number of service providers in an area. When there is one company in town, they can demand any price they want, depending upon the consumer demand in that area since there is no competition. However, when competition in the market tightens, companies consider several other factors while devising packages and pricing plans.
- Brand Name and Value
At the beginning of this article, we had a word about how prices reflect the amount of confidence a company has in its own products and the level of trust of its people. However, with the competitive pressure from the market, brands might work hard on coming up with proxy pricing that gives them an edge over other providers.
- Customer Service and Support
Some proxy providers might not employ resources to operate and maintain their network. Due to the lack of incentives and workers, the quality of proxy and customer support drops. Thus, the overall cost value of their service is lower compared to the expensive ones that consider customer service a significant factor in determining their proxy pricing and planning.
Does a Free Proxy Suit Your Purpose?
Anyone who is not concerned about safeguarding their sensitive information does not care about privacy. For such people, filtering data, especially explicit content or spam ads, is their reason for using a proxy.
Other than this, we cannot think of a better explanation for using a free proxy because it offers little to no safety, privacy, or security. Above all, there is no customer support where you can complain in case of a problem because the proxy is not company-provided.
On the other hand, paid proxies are the favorite pick of many individuals and even big companies. Due to their high-level anonymity and security, they are meant to use for educational research, big data mining, and product research.
Wrapping Up
Undoubtedly, free proxies are intriguing, but they are far from being a reliable solution in the long run. If you have an extra budget, buy a paid proxy; it won’t put a dent on your bank account.
You can ask for referrals or compare the prices as a guide. Instead of buying a service on a whim, you can also consider weighing the cost versus the benefit. This way, you are less likely to regret it later and are more likely to receive complete value for what you paid.
