IPRoyal Review: Is This The Right Proxy Service for You?

In today's interconnected world, proxy services play an ever more critical role in helping protect ourselves online, access content from around the world, and can even speed up our internet connection! 

But how do proxy servers (or “proxies”) do all this, and how can you get your hands on one? 

In short, proxies are provided by proxy services like IPRoyal. 

So, in this article, I'm putting IPRoyal under the microscope to get a feel for whether the service is any good! 

However, if you don't have time to read my full IPRoyal review, here are the headlines:

IPRoyal is a UAE-based proxy provider that promises a 100% transparent proxy service with 100% ethically sourced IPs. Launched in 2020, it's a relatively new proxy service that offers 24/7/365 customer service and a 99.9% uptime. It has an almost five-star Trustpilot rating and provides a range of proxy types, including residential, sneaker, mobile, and data center proxies, with competitive price plans for each type. 

So, with that in mind, let’s dig into the meat and potatoes of this IPRoyal review. Let’s see what one such proxy service provider, IPRoyal has to offer.

What is IPRoyal?

In a nutshell, IPRoyal is a proxy service with a global proxy network of more than 8,056,839 IPs, which they claim to be 100% transparent and 100% ethically sourced. 

IPRoyal sells access to their proxy servers and offers solutions to suit different organizations with varying needs. For example, depending on your requirements, you might prefer a proxy service optimized for stability, security, mobile use, or other factors. 

What Proxies Does IProyal Offer?

IPRoyal has several proxy services available. So, here's a little detail about what they are and what you might use them for:

Residential Proxies

A residential proxy comes from real devices with genuine IP addresses. The main benefits of a residential proxy are:

• Access to content restricted outside your area
• A residential proxy is pretty undetectable because the IP addresses come from actual people paying for internet service. 
• Access to video streaming, online shopping, and banking. These activities are often detected and blocked by other proxy types. Residential proxies get around these limitations because they appear as regular customer traffic.

Residential proxies seem to be IPRoyal's strong suit, with a global pool of IPs across 195 locations and competitive prices on all their plans (more on that in a bit!). 

IPRoyal also quotes a ‘99.67% success rate’, reminding us that while sometimes proxies get blocked, IPRoyal offers a pretty reliable option. 

IPRoyal also offers the options of “rotating” or “static” residential proxies. With rotating proxies, the IP addresses regularly change for increased privacy. In contrast, with static proxies, the IPs don't change regularly. This can be beneficial as some services (e.g., online banks) will flag your account for suspicious activity if the IP address frequently changes.

You can also purchase non-expiring rotating residential proxies. For those that don’t know, when you buy rotating residential proxies, you usually pay per data usage. However, the nice thing about IPRoyal is that there isn’t a time limit attached to the data! So you can take as long as you need to use what you’ve paid for! 

Datacenter Proxies

A data center proxy is similar to a residential proxy but differs in one key area. Datacenter proxies don’t have residential IP addresses, which makes them easier to detect as proxies, which can be problematic for accessing some sites.

However, datacenter proxies tend to be faster than residential proxies. IPRoyal’s datacenter proxies come with unlimited bandwidth making them ideal for large-scale automated tasks. You’ll also benefit from the following:

• 99.9% uptime
• Premium ISP providers
• SOCKS5 supported
• Not shared

Sneaker Proxies

A more unique option from IPRoyal is the sneaker proxy. These proxies are designed for purchasing goods that sell out quickly – such as sneakers! 

These proxies use different IP addresses for each purchase. 

As online vendors often know which of their products will sell out rapidly, they often set strict purchase restrictions, limiting buyers to a single purchase. So, if you go to purchase these items without a proxy, each request would come from your IP address, and you would be banned from making another purchase. 

This is where using a sneaker proxy helps you get around this! 

IPRoyal’s sneaker proxy offers:

Sneaker botting software that searches for criteria such as sneaker price, location, availability, and specifics like color and size. Once located, the bot buys the sneakers as fast as possible. 

It also offers the following:

• 99.9% uptime
• Unlimited traffic
• Premium ISP providers
• SOCKS5 supported
• Not shared

It’s compatible with most retail sites, and there are one, 30, 60, and 90-day plans, starting from $1 per proxy for one day. 

Mobile Proxies

Mobile proxies are a newer proxy type that connects your computer to a proxy server with an IP address associated with a mobile device. This can be a 5G, 4G, or 3G connection using actual mobile data contracts with unlimited data. 

Compared to other proxies, these are the least likely to be blocked by website restrictions, making them great for web scraping. However, they’re more prone to security issues, and many countries have regulations restricting their use. 

Mobile proxy features include:

• Access to 1m+ IPs distributed across an actual cellular network, each from a residential cellular network pool
• Your 3G/4G5G mobile proxy is dedicated to you; no sharing
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Download speed as high as 100Mbps
• Instant IP change with a simple click via the dashboard 
• 99.9% uptime
• Anonymity with no logging or tracking

Mobile proxies are available for one day, 30, and 90 days, with prices from $7 per day for one day.

IPRoyal’s Most Notable Features

In addition to providing several proxy options, IPRoyal advertises several other benefits:

24/7/365 Support: IPRoyal advertises around-the-clock customer support, which sounds great, but what does this actually mean? IPRoyal does have a decent amount of self-help documentation. However, sometimes this will only get you so far, and you need an actual person to help you out. 

IPRoyal has a live chat function on its website, so I tested it out to see what the support was like. I reached out via the live chat widget to ask what support they offer their customers when setting up. While I did receive a prompt response (within six minutes), and while waiting, I could see where I was in the queue, I didn’t get a particularly helpful response:

“We only lease proxies here.”

I followed up with a few more prompts, and eventually, they sent a link to their FAQ page. So even though they have the chat box, it might offer a little more help than the FAQs themselves.

Data control: With IPRoyal’s proxies, you can easily control which devices on your network can access the internet and even which web locations specific devices can access. This lets you block certain websites or limit internet access for certain users! 

User Reviews

IPRoyal gets pretty good user reviews, although they're not flawless. There seems to be a smattering of genuinely frustrated clients among a pool of very good reviews. Particular areas of concern are reports of increasing prices and complications over refunds. 

However, IPRoyal is very present on online review platforms. They seem to want to help resolve the customer's problems. 

Pricing

IPRoyal offers several price points and payment options depending on which proxy service you choose. 

You can purchase rotating residential proxies per GB. In contrast, static residential, datacentre, and sneaker proxies are paid per proxy for a set period. Mobile proxies are paid per month. 

So, depending on your needs, there's a considerable variation in price points, making this service pretty scalable! 

Compared to their competitors, these prices seem reasonable, with their residential proxy packages being exceptionally competitive. However, their mobile packages seem steeper.

That said, here’s a pricing comparison between IPRoyal and its main competitors:

Service	Residential	Mobile	Datacenter
IPRoyal	Variable $1.75 – $7.00/GB	$81-$217/month	Pay per proxy$1.56/month
Smart Proxy	$40/month$5/GB	$38.5/month$19.3/GB	$23.1/month$0.46/GB
Asocks	$3/GB Pay as you go	$3/GB Pay as you go	n/a
Nimble	The cheapest plan is $300/month but you do get a more comprehensive package.

IPRoyal Pros and Cons

What Is a Proxy Service?

In short, a proxy provider offers a service that lets you access proxy servers. For the uninitiated, a proxy server is a computer system that acts as a middle person between you and the internet. When your device connects to the web, it uses an IP address. An IP address is similar to a house address, telling data where to go. However, when you connect to a proxy server, it acts as a separate device with its own IP address.

For example, here’s what happens when you access a web page from your computer without a proxy vs. with a proxy. 

Without a proxy server:

1. You tell the computer you want to see a web page.
2. The computer sends out a request to the web page’s IP address.
3. The web page system receives that request and sends the web page back to your device’s IP address.
4. Your computer then receives the web page.
5. You see the webpage. 

With a proxy server:

1. You tell the computer you want to see a web page.
2. The computer sends this request to your proxy server’s IP address. 
3. The proxy server receives that request, decides what to do, and then sends a request to the web page system’s IP address.
4. The web page system receives that request and sends the web page back to the proxy server’s IP address. 
5. The proxy server then receives the web page, decides what to do, and sends the web page to your IP address. 
6. Your computer receives the webpage.
7. You see the webpage. 

So, why would you need such a go-between? Interestingly, there are several benefits to using a proxy server. 

Here are just a few: 

• Privacy and enhanced security: A proxy server masks your IP address to the end receiver of your requests, making your computer harder to track. Not only do hidden IPs help prevent cyber attackers from entering your private network, but they can also help you to avoid unwanted ads and the collection of IP-specific data. 
• Access location-specific content: You can use proxy servers with IP addresses associated with other countries to make it look like you’re a native user. 
• Prohibit certain websites: Some organizations block social media sites like Facebook from their employees. You can use a proxy server to block those within your network from accessing certain websites.
• Load balancing: Proxy servers can help you save bandwidth by caching files or compressing incoming traffic, increasing your internet speeds. 

IPRoyal Review: My Final Thoughts 

All in all, I think IPRoyal boasts an impressive range of proxy servers at competitive price points. 

So, if you’re looking for a proxy service, I would consider IPRoyal but don’t hesitate to check out some of its biggest competitors while you're at it to make sure you use the best possible proxy service for your unique needs. 

That’s enough from me, over to you. I want to hear about your experience with IPRoyal in the comments box below!