Use case
Competitor Analysis proxies
Study how public competitor sites present products, prices and messages in each market.
Below is a practical guide to competitor analysis with ProxyOnly: a workflow, the proxy types that fit, how to pick countries, the mistakes to avoid and the numbers worth tracking. Start from a balance of one US dollar.
- Use case
- Competitor Analysis
- Suggested types
- Datacenter, ISP
- Countries in stock
- 63
- Minimum balance
- US$1
What competitor analysis with proxies means
The goal is to understand how competitors present their products, prices and offers in each market you care about. This page explains how teams do it with ProxyOnly proxies, which proxy types fit, how to choose countries, and what usually goes wrong.
This work is typically done by product marketers, strategists and founders who track competitors in several countries.
How to approach competitor analysis
A reliable process matters more than any single setting. The steps below are a good starting point, and you can adapt them to your own tools.
- List the competitors and the markets, and the pages that matter: pricing, product, landing and comparison pages.
- Visit each page through a proxy in each market and save a dated screenshot and the page text.
- Note changes in price, packaging, claims and promotion since the last visit.
- Compare markets for the same competitor, because many change prices and messages by country.
- Share a short summary with the team on a regular schedule.
Which proxy types suit competitor analysis
Different types suit different targets. Start with the cheapest one that could work, measure the success rate and move up only if the results justify the cost.
Datacenter proxies: Enough for most public marketing pages. Prices start at US$0.08 per IP.
ISP proxies: Better for sites that show reduced pages to datacenter ranges. Prices start at US$2.60 per IP.
Choosing the country
Visit competitors from the markets where you compete with them. A competitor can have different offers for different countries.
ProxyOnly stocks proxies in 63 countries, and you choose the country with -country-xx in the username or when you order. The locations directory shows live stock and prices for each one.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
These are the problems that cost teams the most time.
- Daily screenshots pile up quickly. Keep only what you will use.
- Pages that change on every load, such as banners, produce noise. Focus on the elements that matter.
- Do not sign up for competitor products under false identities.
What to measure
Without measurement you cannot tell whether a change helped. Track at least these figures for competitor analysis.
- Competitor changes found per month
- Markets with different pricing
- Time from change to team update
Connect your tools
Every ProxyOnly proxy is an HTTP proxy with a username and password, so it works with almost any tool. This request confirms your credentials before you build anything on top of them.
curl -x http://proxy.proxyonly.com:8000 -U "username-country-us:password" https://httpbin.org/ipDoing it responsibly
Read public pages only, and do not misrepresent who you are to access something.
Which proxy type fits any country
Pick the proxy type from the job rather than the price. Here is how the types we sell compare, so you can match one to your work in any country:
Datacenter IPv4. The default choice for most jobs. These are dedicated IPv4 addresses hosted in a datacenter, fast and inexpensive, and the best fit for high-volume reading of public pages, monitoring and automation. Some websites treat datacenter ranges more cautiously than consumer connections, so test your target before you commit to a long rental.
ISP proxies. Static addresses that are registered to an internet service provider rather than a hosting company. They keep the speed of datacenter hardware and look more like an ordinary home or office connection, which helps with destinations that are strict about hosting ranges.
Shared IPv4. A shared address is used by more than one customer and costs less. It suits light tasks, quick checks and testing where a clean, exclusive address is not essential.
IPv6. IPv6 addresses are very cheap and plentiful, and they work well with destinations that serve IPv6 traffic, such as many large search, video and social platforms. Many smaller sites are still IPv4 only, so check that your target supports IPv6 before you buy.
Mobile proxies. Addresses from mobile carrier networks. Many phones share the same carrier address, so websites tend to be tolerant of this traffic, which makes mobile proxies the right choice for testing mobile ads, apps and landing pages. They cost more than datacenter addresses.
Residential proxies. Addresses from home internet connections, billed by the amount of traffic you use and not by the IP. They suit light, bursty jobs on sites that block datacenter and ISP ranges. Heavy traffic gets expensive quickly, so estimate your monthly volume first.
If you are unsure, rent one address of the type you think you need, run your real task against it for a day, and look at the success rate. Because rental periods start at a few days, trying a type costs very little.
Using proxies responsibly in any country
A proxy is a networking tool and it is lawful in most places, but what you do with it still has to be lawful and fair. Follow the laws that apply to you and to the place you send traffic to, read the terms of the sites you visit, honour robots rules and rate limits, and never use an address to access accounts or data that are not yours. ProxyOnly cannot give legal advice, and our acceptable use policy applies to every order.
In practice that means reading public pages, checking your own sites and ads, and testing your own products. If a task would be unwelcome to the site owner when done by hand, it is unwelcome when done through a proxy too.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to track competitors' public pages?
Reading public pages is common practice, but terms of use and local law apply.
How often should I check?
Weekly is enough for most pages. Check promotions and prices more often around campaigns.
Which proxy should I buy for competitor analysis?
Datacenter proxies are a good first choice. Enough for most public marketing pages.
How do I start?
Create an account, add a balance from one US dollar, order a proxy in the country you need and test it with curl before you build on it.
Ready to try it?
Create an account, add funds from US$1 and pick your country and proxy type.