# Residential vs datacenter vs mobile proxies

> Residential vs datacenter vs mobile proxies: server networks, home ISPs or cellular carriers. IP databases label each kind, and sites read the label.

Source: https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/residential-vs-datacenter-vs-mobile-proxies

## Residential vs datacenter vs mobile proxies

Datacentre proxies exit from server networks that IP databases label as hosting, residential proxies through home connections, and mobile proxies through cellular carriers that share each address among many users. Pick residential or mobile for signed-in accounts; datacentre often does for public pages.

![Datacentre, residential or mobile, beside a screenshot: a proxy check result in Mosaic: latency, exit address, ISP, HTTPS tunnelling and reputation](https://mosaicbrowser.com/covers/residential-vs-datacenter-vs-mobile-proxies.webp)

Residential vs datacenter vs mobile proxies comes down to one thing: whose network the exit address belongs to. A datacentre proxy leaves from a server in a hosting company's range. A residential proxy leaves through somebody's home connection. A mobile proxy leaves through a cellular carrier. Everything else, from price to how a site treats you, follows from that, because a site can look the address up before your page has loaded.

## How a site tells them apart

IP databases classify address ranges, and sites query them on the first request. ip-api, the lookup Mosaic's own proxy check uses, returns three flags for any address: `mobile` for a cellular connection, `proxy` for a known proxy, VPN or Tor exit, and `hosting` for "Hosting, colocated or data center" ([ip-api JSON documentation](https://ip-api.com/docs/api:json), read 2 November 2026).

Two cheaper clues sit beside the database. The network's name, its ASN and ISP, often says "hosting" or names a cloud provider outright. And the reverse DNS name of a server address often does too: a PTR record containing `amazonaws`, `hetzner` or `vps` is not somebody's living room.

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[How it works: Provider minting](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers)

## Residential vs datacenter vs mobile proxies side by side

|  | Datacentre | Residential | Mobile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Exit address belongs to | a hosting company | a home internet provider | a cellular carrier |
| IP databases usually say | hosting | an ISP, nothing flagged | mobile |
| Who else is on the address | other customers of the proxy | one household, plus other proxy users | many subscribers at once, behind carrier-grade NAT |
| How stable the exit is | fixed while you rent it | sticky for a session, then it can move | changes when the carrier reassigns |
| Fits | public pages, APIs, bulk fetching | signed-in accounts, local results | phone-shaped traffic, many users on one IP |

The mobile column needs a word of explanation. RFC 6598 reserves address space specifically for carrier-grade NAT, where a carrier puts many customers behind a small pool of public addresses ([RFC 6598](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6598)). That is why a mobile address carrying many users is ordinary, and also why its location is fuzzy: Google's help page says activity on a mobile network can show a location that is not yours ([How IP addresses work on Google](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6076654?hl=en)).

## Which one to choose

Pick by what the job does, not by which kind is said to be best.

For reading public pages with no login, a datacentre proxy is fast, cheap and stable, and the hosting label rarely matters. For accounts you sign in to on consumer platforms, a residential exit looks like what it claims to be, a person at home, and a sticky session keeps it in one place; [rotating vs sticky proxies](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/rotating-vs-sticky-proxies) covers asking for one. For traffic that should look like a phone, or several users that would naturally share one carrier address, mobile fits.

Whatever the kind, the profile has to agree with it. A residential exit in Lyon with a browser set to Chicago time is a mismatch no proxy type fixes. The number of accounts you put behind each exit matters too, and [how many accounts per proxy](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-many-accounts-per-proxy) works through that case by case.

## What Mosaic's proxy check reads

Mosaic does not take a seller's word for which kind you bought. Each check reads the exit address through the proxy and labels it.

1. The row under **Proxies** shows the exit's city, its ISP, and either **datacentre** or **residential-looking**.
2. The exit score adds risk when the exit resolves to a datacentre range, by the database's hosting flag or by a hosting name in the ISP or reverse DNS. The note says why: "The exit resolves to a datacentre range. Consumer sites treat these as far more suspicious than residential addresses."
3. A datacentre exit keeps the proxy's pill from reading **Good**, and the reason is listed: "The exit is a datacentre address, which consumer sites score as far riskier than a residential one." That is a warning, not a failure, because plenty of work runs through datacentre exits on purpose.

![A proxy check result in Mosaic: latency, exit address, ISP, HTTPS tunnelling and reputation](https://mosaicbrowser.com/shots/proxy-check.png)
*The ISP and the exit's label, read through the proxy*

The check does not separate residential from mobile. ip-api has a mobile flag, but Mosaic reads only the hosting one, so its report says "Residential or mobile" rather than guess. Whether the proxy tunnels HTTPS and whether its exit rotates are read in the same pass ([how to check a proxy before you use it](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-to-check-a-proxy-before-you-use-it) lists all of it), and the [residential proxy](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/residential-proxy) entry defines the home-connection kind on its own.

## Sources

1. [ip-api: JSON endpoint documentation](https://ip-api.com/docs/api:json), read November 2, 2026
2. [RFC 6598: IANA-Reserved IPv4 Prefix for Shared Address Space](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6598), read November 2, 2026
3. [Google Account Help: How IP addresses work on Google](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6076654?hl=en), read November 2, 2026

## Questions

### Can a site tell a residential proxy from a real home user?

Not from the address alone, since the address really does belong to a home connection. Sites look at everything else instead: whether the browser's timezone and language fit the exit, whether the address is on a blocklist, and how the account behaves.

### Are mobile proxies better than residential ones?

For some jobs. A mobile address is shared by many subscribers, so it carries several users without standing out, but its location is coarse and it can change. For one account that signs in from one place, a sticky residential session is usually the closer fit.

### Is an ISP proxy residential or datacentre?

It sits between them: an address registered to a consumer ISP but hosted on a server. Whether an IP database calls it residential depends on how that database classifies the range, so check the exit itself.

### Do datacentre proxies get blocked everywhere?

No. Plenty of work runs through datacentre exits on purpose, such as fetching public pages and APIs. They stand out on consumer sites that score logins and signups, where a visitor from a server network is unusual.

## Related

[Residential proxy: an exit on a home internet connection](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/residential-proxy): A residential proxy sends your traffic out through an address an ISP assigned to a home connection, so sites see a household rather than a data center.

[Rotating vs sticky proxies: which one an account needs](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/rotating-vs-sticky-proxies): Rotating vs sticky proxies: rotating changes the exit IP per connection, sticky keeps one for a session you name. Logged-in accounts need sticky.

[How to check a proxy before you use it](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-to-check-a-proxy-before-you-use-it): Check that a proxy answers and tunnels, where its exit really is, whether the address is residential or blocklisted, and that the browser stays behind it.

[The best proxies for anti-detect browsers: what to buy](https://mosaicbrowser.com/compare/best-proxies-for-anti-detect-browsers): The best proxies for anti-detect browsers are sticky residential or ISP sessions, one per profile, in the account's own market. What sellers' lines differ on.

[How many accounts per proxy is safe?](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-many-accounts-per-proxy): How many accounts per proxy? No platform publishes a number. For accounts that must stay apart the answer is one per exit; a shared home IP is different.

[Provider accounts: one gateway line, one exit per profile](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers): Paste your proxy seller's gateway line once and Mosaic mints a separate session for every profile, so each one browses from its own exit address.

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## Run this guide on your own accounts

Every Mosaic profile is a fingerprint, a proxy exit and a cookie jar that agree with each other, kept on your computer. Free holds 3 profiles. Pro is $49 a month for any number.

Mosaic is a desktop app

Email yourself the link and open it on your computer.