Proxy pool
The set of addresses a provider can route your traffic through, and the source of every rotation decision.
A proxy pool is the collection of addresses a provider can assign to your requests. Pool size and composition are the figures providers advertise most loudly and verify least.
#Why advertised pool sizes deserve caution
No third party can count another company’s pool. The number is a vendor claim, and claims vary in what they even measure: addresses seen at any point in the past year, addresses currently online, or addresses available to your specific plan. These can differ by orders of magnitude.
What matters far more is how many addresses are available in the country you need, right now. A pool of tens of millions concentrated in three countries is worse for your use case than a much smaller pool with real depth where you operate.
#Questions worth asking a provider
- How many addresses are concurrently online in the specific country I need?
- Is the figure measured, or cumulative over time?
- Does my plan reach the whole pool, or a subset?