Shifter vs IPRoyal
Looking for an IPRoyal alternative? Shifter served between two and four times more live residential IPs than IPRoyal in every country tested, spread across two to three times as many networks, and starts at $2 per GB where IPRoyal starts at $7.
Trusted by 50,000+ clients worldwide
More coverage, and a quarter of the entry price
Lowest published rate per GB from each provider. IPRoyal reaches $1.75 only on bulk orders from 10 TB.
| Monthly volume | Shifter | IPRoyal | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | $10 5 GB at $2.00/GB | $7 1 GB at $7.00/GB | 71% |
| 10 GB | $20 $2.00/GB | $52.50 $5.25/GB | 62% |
| 100 GB | $100 $1.00/GB | not published $5.25/GB above 10 GB | 81% |
| Best rate | $0.75/GB from 200 GB | $1.75/GB from 10 TB | 57% |
Live IPs online during the test
Distinct IPs each network had live and reachable at test time, not the size of its total network. Residential IPs rotate all day, so both providers serve far more addresses across 24 hours.
Every metric, country by country
Pick a country to see the complete measurement, including the numbers that did not go our way.
| Metric | Shifter | IPRoyal |
|---|---|---|
| Requests sent | 250,000 | 250,000 |
| Live IPs during the test | 136,667 | 70,304 |
| Unique networks (ASNs) | 1,606 | 914 |
| Unique cities | 5,813 | 4,339 |
| Average latency | 364 ms | 520 ms |
| Success rate | 99.8% | 97.8% |
Shifter served 94% more live US IPs than IPRoyal, 136,667 against 70,304, drawn from 1,606 networks against 914, and answered in 364 ms against 520 ms.
How we measured this
Every request opened a fresh connection through the rotating residential gateway and asked an IP echo service which address it exited from. Because each connection draws a new exit, distinct addresses show how much of the pool was reachable during the run.
IPRoyal and Shifter were given identical request counts, the same concurrency of 1,000, a 10 second timeout and the same target, tested one after the other on a single server.
Volumes were fixed per country and identical across providers, from 60,000 requests in the smallest market to 250,000 in the United States, 560,000 per provider in total.
What these numbers mean
These are counts of IPs that were live and reachable while the test ran, not the size of either provider's network. Residential addresses rotate all day as consumer devices join and drop off, so across 24 hours both networks serve far more than any one test observes. The number that governs a crawl is how many are online simultaneously, which is what we counted here. Sample size varies per country, so each country's figures compare the two providers rather than the countries.
Why use Shifter residential proxies?
Two to four times more live IPs
94% more in the United States, 223% more in the United Kingdom and 282% more in France. Shifter led coverage in every country tested.
Two to three times the network spread
1,606 US networks against 914 and 148 French against 50. Wider spread across autonomous systems is what keeps traffic from being fingerprinted as a block.
A quarter of the entry price
IPRoyal's smallest plan is $7.00 per GB. Shifter's is $2.00, falling to $0.75 without the 10 TB order IPRoyal's best rate requires.
Faster in every country
364 ms against 520 ms in the United States and 324 ms against 519 ms in Canada, ahead in all five markets.
Frequently asked FAQ questions
Common questions about how we benchmarked IPRoyal.
Send concurrent requests through both gateways to an IP echo endpoint, opening a fresh connection each time so the gateway rotates, and count the distinct addresses returned. Keep request count, machine and time window the same for both.
Test it on the countries you need
Coverage differs by market and by target. Run the same measurement on your own traffic and see how many IPs each network actually has online when it counts.