In today’s digital age, Instagram plays a crucial role in personal and business activities. Businesses require a constant online presence to rise above the competition. While this is achievable, it can be a very difficult hurdle to jump over. Luckily, Instagram proxies are there to save the day. However, selecting the right proxy is crucial to avoid IP bans or worse, account suspensions. Not sure what proxy to use on Instagram? I have got you covered. In this article, I will help you decide whether rotating or static proxies are the right choice for your Instagram project.
I believe anyone reading this article already knows what an Instagram proxy is. Therefore I won’t waste much time explaining them in this article. However, if this is your first time hearing about them, you can read some of my previous articles on the subject. With that out of the way let’s look at rotating and static proxies.
What Is a Rotating Proxy?
A rotating proxy is a proxy server that masks the IP of users by cycling through a pool of IPs. Also known as backconnect proxies, they constantly switch between IP addresses after a fixed interval or session. This creates the impression of different devices requesting resources rather than a single user. Hence, making it nearly impossible for websites, including Instagram, to trace your activities to a single source.
Do you have to keep track of all these IP addresses? No, you don’t. Rotating proxies allow users to access millions of IP addresses using a single IP as a gateway. Once the user is connected via the gateway, random IPs are assigned to your device session after session or after a predefined time.
Pros and Cons of Rotating Proxies for Instagram
Just like every proxy type, rotating proxies come with some benefits and a few cons. Let’s look at some of these perks and flaws and how they can affect your project.
Pro – Enhanced Anonymity
All proxies essentially make users anonymous by covering up their real IP addresses. They receive requests from the user’s real IP and forward them to the intended server for response. This creates the illusion that the proxy server rather than the user made the request.
However, rotating proxies take this a step further. By routing requests through different IPs, Instagram’s server records each session as genuine user interaction. Therefore, making it nearly impossible for Instagram to trace requests to one origin.
Pro – Better at Evading IP Bans and Limit Restrictions
Instagram invests millions of dollars to detect and prevent scraping activities on its network. This involves studying user behavior and flagging IPs that send in more requests than a human user can in a given period. Instagram reserves the right to restrict and block IPs they deem suspicious activities to curb spam and misuse.
While a traditional proxy can help you go around this block, rotating proxies do a better job at it. By consistently presenting different IP addresses, users can send as many requests without triggering Instagram’s anti-bot mechanisms.
Con – Expensive
Rotating proxies give users access to an entire pool of IPs rather than a few dedicated proxies. Due to this, they are sold per GB instead of the number of IPs. This usually makes them quite expensive compared to the competition. Also, users may have to spend more to buy extra bandwidth which can be budget-unfriendly for small projects.
Con – Not Suited for Account Management
Even though rotating proxies do an awesome job at keeping you anonymous, they are not really ideal for Instagram management. Constantly changing IPs on Instagram can set off anti-bot mechanisms and subject users to CAPTCHAs or request users to login into their accounts. This can slow your bots or worse risk your account. However, users can still go around this flaw by using sticky sessions with rotating proxies.
Rotating Proxy Use Cases
While rotating proxies may not be the best option for managing Instagram accounts, they are still useful on Instagram. Let’s look at some use cases for rotating proxies on Instagram’s network.
Scraping and Data Gathering
Due to their dynamic nature, rotating proxies are ideal for scraping and gathering data on Instagram. With the constant change in IPs, users can send in thousands of requests and scrap huge chunks of data on Instagram without raising suspicion.
Boosting Engagement
They can also be used in combination with bots to automate likes, follows and comments on Instagram to boost engagement. With the constant flux in IP addresses, users can boost engagement on their content without breaching Instagram’s rate limits.
Static Proxies
As the name suggests, a static proxy offers a fixed IP address. Static proxies keep a constant IP address throughout the user’s session, in contrast to rotating proxies that provide dynamic and changing IP addresses. They route user requests via a dedicated IP to the target server. Static proxies make use of IPs leased from ISPs or hosted in data centers to make them readily available to users at all times.
Static proxies are particularly useful for tasks that demand a steady and uninterrupted connection to maintain a trustworthy online presence.
Pros and Cons of Static Proxies for Instagram
Just like rotating proxies, static proxies excel in some areas and fall short in others. To help you decide if they are worth your while, let’s look at some pros and cons of static proxies.
Pro – Stable Connections
Statics proxies offer a more stable connection compared to rotating proxies. This makes them a viable proxy solution to replicate normal human behavior while working on Instagram. While changing IPs has its perks, users with dedicated IPs especially those leased from ISPs appear more trustworthy while on Instagram’s servers.
Static proxies are also usually hosted on high-performing servers belonging to data centers and ISPs which makes them comparatively faster.
Pro – Cheaper
One of the main advantages of static proxies is how affordable they are. Static proxies do not require much infrastructure to set up due to the elimination of the need to rotate. This makes them comparatively cheaper compared to their rotating counterpart.
What’s more, static proxies are usually sold by the number of IPs rather than bandwidth. Therefore, users can buy only enough IPs for their project and enjoy unlimited bandwidth making them a budget-friendly proxy solution.
Con – Subject to IP Restrictions
Although static IP proxies are more stable, using them typically translates to putting all of your eggs in one basket. Just like your real IP address, Instagram can trace your activity to your IP address and block it for suspicious activity. Unlike rotating proxies where users can send requests with different IPs all requests are logged on one IP in the case of static proxies. This increases the likelihood of breaching Instagram’s rate limits and getting your IPs restricted.
Static Proxy Use Cases
Static proxies allow users to mimic real human behaviors while on Instagram. This makes it vital for use cases that require uninterrupted access. Let’s look at some use cases where static proxies are a must.
Instagram Account Management
While Instagram allows users to handle multiple accounts, users are limited to 5 accounts per device. This presents a challenge to account managers who may require more than 5 accounts. However, by dedicating IPs to each account, users can expand the limit without risking their IPs or raising suspicion as the consistent IP address mimics genuine user behavior.
Conclusion
Rotating proxies offer dynamic IP addresses which make them difficult to block. This makes the best option for scraping on Instagram and boosting engagement with bots. However, they are usually priced steeper compared to static proxies. On the other hand, static proxies offer stable and faster connections. Yet, users risk bans as they can be detected easily.
Choosing between rotating and static proxies for your Instagram however, depends on your use case and budget allocation. Still not sure what works for you? Do not worry. Find out how to choose the best proxies for Instagram.
