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IPRoyal review 2022 | TechRadar
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A global proxy provider for individual and business use established in 2020, IPRoyal has grown to offer infrastructure to over 10,000 businesses around the world. What started out as an IPv4 and IPv6 address leasing business is now a full-fledged proxy service provider for a wide array of clientele, ranging from individual developers to startups to data teams to enterprises.
Currently, the platform bestows access to residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies, with locations in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and more. It includes more than 650 tools and software integrations, and has so far provided over 98,000 petabytes (PB) of data traffic for its clients.
IPRoyal: Plans and Pricing
IPRoyal offers different proxy types and pricing plans. Users can choose among residential proxies, ISP providers, datacenter proxies, and mobile proxies, each with their own particular characteristics and perks.
You can purchase residential proxies either on a pay-as-you-go basis or as a subscription (with a 5% discount in this case). Pricing is based on the amount of traffic you want, which begins at 2 GB and costs $6.25 per GB. The more GBs you take, the lower the price goes per GB, so 10,000 GB is priced at $1.84 per GB.
The pricing for ISP proxies (previously called static residential proxies) is based on the plan duration and the number of proxy locations you require, whereas the traffic is unlimited. For instance, 24 hours of one proxy will set you back by $2, while adding another location brings the price up to $4.60, and three months of one address cost $3.60/month ($2.70/month/address if more than one).
Datacenter proxies have 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day subscriptions, and a one-month access to one proxy is $1.80. As is the case with ISP plans, this offering also includes better discounts with lengthier plans and more numerous proxy addresses. There are also bundle-based plans with their own specifics and discounted prices, but the traffic is unlimited, whichever you choose.
Finally, mobile proxies (supporting 5G, 4G, 3G, and LTE), arranged by the location and provider (e.g., T-Mobile and Verizon for the U.S., Orange for Spain, and so on) and rotating automatically every six minutes, are also priced according to the plan duration and the number of locations. Bandwidth and sessions are unrestricted.
Although IPRoyal doesn’t offer a free trial, it does give access to its trial proxies so you can test its features before deciding. If unsatisfied after paying, you can request a refund or a replacement, but this has to happen within a short 24-hour window, which is a lot shorter compared to some of the competition.
IPRoyal supports payment using credit cards, over 25 cryptocurrencies, PayPal, Google Pay, and Alipay.
IPRoyal: Features
Accessing IPRoyal’s features starts with creating an account. You can sign up with your email address or use an existing Google or LinkedIn account. You’ll be redirected to your dashboard after registration, where you can access these features:
Residential IPs
Residential proxies are sourced from real devices across the globe. Every internet-connected device has a unique IP address, and people agree to contribute their IP addresses to IPRoyal’s network for a benefit, e.g., a VPN subscription. As an IPRoyal user, you can then use one of these IP addresses to surf the web and bypass geographical restrictions.
IPRoyal offers roughly 34 million IPs, of which residential proxies constitute the majority (32 million). The countries with the largest available residential IPs are the U.S. (1.4 million), the U.K. (422,000), and Germany (439,000). You can choose an IP address by country, state, and city, making it easy to protect your anonymity and bypass geographical and IP restrictions.
Suppose you run a flight deals website that frequently scrapes prices from airlines’ websites. Many airlines don’t like external data scraping, so they use geographical and IP restrictions to block it. For example, website admins identify IP addresses used by scraping bots and block them from further access. In that case, IPRoyal’s residential proxies let you circumvent this block.
You can choose an endless list of proxies to scrape data from external websites. If one gets blocked, choose another and continue your scraping activity. Residential proxies also hide your online identity and prevent third-party tracking. As far as a website is concerned, your device is browsing from whichever IP proxy you use and not the actual location. You could be in the U.S. and surf the web with a German IP address.
During our test, IPRoyal’s residential proxies provided a reliable and fast internet connection. We noticed no slowdown compared to browsing without a proxy IP address. The dashboard provided detailed insights on our proxy usage, including bandwidth and speed.
ISP proxies
IPRoyal now also offers a wide selection of ISP proxies across over 30 countries, with 100% dedicated IPs, unlimited traffic, HTTPS and SOCKS5 support, speeds of up to 10 Gbps, and highly customizable plans. Users can select a specific number of proxies starting from a single IP.
After funding your account, you can select the exact number of proxies you need for the offered duration – 1, 30, 60, and 90 days – in your user dashboard on the IPRoyal website. Besides selecting the duration, number of proxies, and their location, you have the option to list extra requirements for an additional fee.
Once set up, you’ll be able to see your ISP proxies’ orders and their status in your online dashboard, filter them for easier navigation, or search through them based on the notes you left. Clicking the Details button for a specific confirmed order will take you to the configuration page for those particular proxies.
Upon testing, there were some problems with erroneous rerouting of certain proxies to wrong locations (like choosing a Portugal IP address and getting a UK one). Thankfully, the IPRoyal staff was helpful and quick to act, so we got the correct location not long after contacting them. That said, some users have reported not getting proper assistance with similar issues.
Mobile Proxies
IPRoyal offers a network of 2.5 million+ IP addresses from real mobile devices. These IPs mask your IP address for data scraping, ad verification, social media management, and many other use cases.
Mobile proxies work like typical residential IPs on IPRoyal. You can choose proxies from a specific country, state, or city, a specific mobile carrier (Vodafone, Orange, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) and a network type (3G, 4G, or 5G). You can auto-rotate mobile proxies or do that manually by clicking a button.
The mobile proxies were notably fast during our test, with up to 100 Mbps download speeds. Your monthly IPRoyal mobile slot subscription grants access to the entire pool of 2.5 million+ IPs with unlimited rotation.
Mobile proxies are particularly useful for social media management and research. Most social networks like Facebook and Instagram have strict limitations on the number of accounts users can create on a single device. You can bypass these limitations with IPRoyal’s massive pool of mobile proxies. Your device’s real location stays hidden, and the social media platform assumes it’s another device because of its proxy IP address. Hence, it doesn’t flag your accounts.
You can manage as many social media accounts as possible with mobile proxies. You can also create many social accounts for research purposes, e.g., an academic study, without being flagged.
Datacenter Proxies
IPRoyal runs a network of IPv4 and IPv6 proxy servers that provide unlimited bandwidth for end users. These datacenter proxies are sourced from secondary corporations rather than internet service providers (ISPs). They provide much higher browsing speeds than residential and mobile proxies. The drawback is that they’re easier for websites to detect. But even if that happens, you can spin up a new one and continue your online activities.
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On IPRoyal, you have access to datacenter proxies in roughly 40 countries, unlike residential IPs available in 195 countries. Datacenter proxies cost more for IPRoyal to obtain, so their limited availability is understandable.
You can connect to IPRoyal’s proxy servers via the HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 protocols. During our test, they offered first-rate speed and performance with no downtime. IPRoyal places no bandwidth or session limits on proxy IPs, making them ideal for bandwidth-intensive use cases like data scraping, online streaming, content downloads, and app testing.
Browser extension
IPRoyal offers a browser extension that makes deploying and managing proxies easier. Instead of frequently logging into your dashboard to choose new proxies, you can use the extension to switch with a click. The proxy add-on is available on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
These browser extensions offer all-in-one proxy management. You can create distinct profiles for different proxies and switch between them with a single click. Each profile can have a single proxy or use different proxy IPs for specific traffic types (HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP). You can assign a backup proxy to ensure your internet access remains secure if your current proxy fails.
The browser extension doesn’t only work with IPRoyal’s proxy IPs. You can use it to manage IP addresses from other proxy providers your organization uses.
We’ve talked much about IPRoyal’s features, but there’s a crucial feature it lacks: web scraping APIs. Many proxy providers offer APIs that let users automate data scraping tasks. Users set a target website and the type of data they want to scrape. Then, the API scrapes the data to present in a tabular format. Unfortunately, you won’t find web scraping APIs on IPRoyal, so you’ll need an external platform for automated data scraping.
IPRoyal: Ease of Use
One of IPRoyal’s strengths is its high level of user-friendliness. Users get an intuitive dashboard to manage their proxies and other complementary tools. All features are neatly arranged in the left-hand menu, whereas on the right, you can gain access to the main menu. The interface is visually pleasing and easy to navigate, and you can select between light theme, dark theme, or the automatic theme that matches your browser settings.
IPRoyal’s browser extension (for Chrome and Firefox) also contributes to its ease of use. It lets you manage proxies regardless of the web page you’re currently on. Usually, you’ll need to open your IPRoyal dashboard to do this, but the extension removes this requirement. That said, you must first set up proxies on your IPRoyal dashboard before you can manage them via the browser extension.
IPRoyal: Customer Support
IPRoyal offers direct email and live chat support. You can open a chat support ticket from your dashboard or send a support email and expect a response within 24 hours. IPRoyal’s support staff was reliable during our test and answered our inquiries speedily. The drawback is that IPRoyal does not offer a telephone support option.
Users can access complementary support resources, including a FAQ page, user guides, and extensive technical documentation. The website’s “Docs” section provides detailed information about all features, making it the ideal first place to consult when facing challenges. If you don’t find a solution in the documentation or FAQ section, you can seek direct help.
IPRoyal: The Competition
The proxy software market is very competitive. IPRoyal has numerous competitors, and we’d like to highlight Webshare, Oxylabs, and Bright Data. These platforms have pros and cons compared to IPRoyal.
Webshare offers a network of 30 million+ residential and datacenter proxy IPs, slightly less than IPRoyal’s 34 million. Residential IPs constitute the majority of Webshare’s network, just like IPRoyal. Users have an intuitive dashboard and a browser extension to manage their proxies, just like IPRoyal. Webshare differentiates itself by being more affordable than IPRoyal and offering a free-forever 10-proxy plan.
Oxylabs has a massive network of 100 million proxy IPs, nearly triple that of IPRoyal. This broader network provides users with more redundancy and reliability. Oxylabs provides web scraping APIs and ready-made datasets, two features lacking in IPRoyal. We consider it a much better proxy provider than IPRoyal, albeit a more expensive one.
Bright Data has a robust network of 72 million+ IPs, more than double IPRoyal’s network. It offers a broader selection of residential, ISP, mobile, and datacenter proxies for data scraping. Bright Data also offers APIs for automated data scraping and pre-built datasets, which IPRoyal doesn’t have. Overall, we consider Bright Data a better proxy provider for enterprises, but IPRoyal is a more affordable solution we’d recommend for individuals and small businesses.
IPRoyal: Final verdict
IPRoyal has a reputation as a reliable proxy provider for individual and business use, and for a few very good reasons. It not only provides a robust and plentiful proxy network, but also friendly and capable customer support, as well as affordable and customizable pricing plans.
While it may lack some features you’ll see in rival platforms, such as a more extensive network and web scraping APIs, its proxies have low block rates, and some of them rotate automatically. This makes web scraping almost equally easy as if you were using an API.
Its user-friendliness and low entry cost make IPRoyal an ideal platform for individuals and small businesses seeking an affordable, reliable, and easy-to-use proxy provider with premium customer support available at all times.
To find out more, see our guide to the best proxies available. You might also like to read our guide to sneaker proxies, or find out the difference between residential and datacenter proxies.
