ISP proxies versus residential proxies

ISP versus residential is a different cut than residential versus datacenter. That other page is hosting versus household. This page is ASN-assigned still lines versus household-looking pools. Both can look like an ISP in whois. Only one is usually yours for the month.

Authorized work only. A still address does not authorize a login you do not own.

The comparison lives under Proxies.

The cut, said plainly

ISP (static residential in some catalogs). A still IPv4 on a provider ASN, issued to you until you cancel. Neighbors on the subnet may exist. The IP should not hop every sitting.

Residential pool. A gateway picks a consumer ISP peer. Sticky timer keeps it for a while. Then a new peer. Many customers have used that IP.

What proxies are is the beginner noun. How to evaluate a provider is criteria. How websites detect proxies on both.

How I assign them on a desk

Long-lived authorized shop or ads login: ISP if the budget is there. I still use it per profile. Proxies in an antidetect browser.

Short sittings, signed-out looking: pool, and I do not import login cookies onto it.

Free lists are neither. SOCKS5 versus HTTP and HTTPS versus HTTP forwarder are protocol notes that apply to both SKUs.

Do not buy ISP and then paste a rotate username. You paid for still and configured hop.

WHOIS will not save you

Both can say "Comcast" or a regional ISP. The difference is whether you hold the assignment. A pool peer that looks like Comcast is still a pool peer. Check sticky behavior, not only the ASN name.

Risk engines list both. Behavior (hopping, WebRTC, timezone mismatch) still matters more than the label on the invoice.

Buying the wrong SKU, which I still see

Someone wants a login to sit still for a quarter. They buy "residential unlimited," which is a rotating pool billed by GB. They paste it. The IP hops. They blame the browser. The browser forwarded packets. The SKU was rotate.

Someone wants cheap public lookups. They buy one ISP IP for a year. They rotate nothing, they just overpay for still they did not need.

WHOIS saying the same ISP name does not merge the products. Hold the assignment or rent a peer. How to use a proxy server is the paste. How to evaluate is whether the shop will say which SKU you actually have.

MaskWright will accept either string. Honesty is on the invoice.

I write the SKU on the profile name: "isp-static-de" versus "res-sticky-30m." Future me should not have to reverse-engineer a username. If the provider rebrands pool as ISP, the name on disk will still remind me to check whether the IP actually sat still for a week.

Price shape matters for accounting too. Per-IP is easy to assign to one entity. Per-GB is easy to blow on a rotating research job. Do not mix the invoices in one profile field. If support cannot say whether you hold the assignment, you bought a pool. Rename the profile and treat it as sticky-or-bust. Do not argue with WHOIS when the IP hops.

FAQ

Is ISP "better residential"?

It is a different product. Still versus pool. Better for logins if you need the same street for months. Worse if you wanted cheap rotate.

Can I use ISP on MaskWright?

Yes. HTTP or SOCKS5 in the profile field. We do not sell the IP. You bring the still line and you check it today.

Why two comparison pages?

Because people mash datacenter, ISP, and pool into one "residential" word. Split the cuts or you buy the wrong SKU. This page is still versus pool. The other comparison is household versus hosting.