Guides, Tutorials & Insights
Learn about residential proxies, web scraping, data collection strategies, and industry best practices from the Shifter team.
Proxy Network Alternatives: How to Actually Compare 22 Providers
A practical guide to comparing residential proxy alternatives on pool size, network spread, price per GB and real commitment. Measured figures for 22 providers.
Matt Brown · August 13, 2026 15 Residential Proxy Providers, Ranked on One Identical Test
Every major residential proxy network ranked on measured data: pool depth, network spread, price and response time, from one identical test. Full scores for 15 providers.
James Meadow · August 13, 2026 What Is an Antidetect Browser and How Residential Proxies Fit In
An antidetect browser gives each profile its own device fingerprint. But that is only half of identity, the IP is the other half, and the two must match.
Chris Collins · August 9, 2026 How to Rotate Residential Proxies in Scrapy with Custom Middleware
Scrapy sets the proxy via meta, but the Proxy-Authorization caching gotcha breaks rotation. A custom middleware that rotates identity and retries on blocks.
Chris Collins · August 8, 2026 How to Use Residential Proxies in Selenium (Including Authenticated Proxies)
Selenium sets the proxy host easily but has no built-in way to pass credentials. How to handle authenticated proxies with Selenium Wire, an extension, or CDP.
Chris Collins · August 7, 2026 How to Use Residential Proxies in Puppeteer (Including page.authenticate)
Proxies in Puppeteer: the proxy goes in launch args, credentials in page.authenticate, per-page geo rotation through one gateway, and resource blocking.
Chris Collins · August 5, 2026 The State of Web Scraping in 2026
AI made data collection strategic, anti-bot went network-level, blocks turned invisible, pricing shifted to bandwidth. Where web scraping stands in 2026.
James Meadow · August 3, 2026 How to Use Residential Proxies in C# with HttpClient
Proxies in C#: WebProxy with NetworkCredential, SocketsHttpHandler and PooledConnectionLifetime, IHttpClientFactory, and per-identity clients for geo rotation.
Chris Collins · August 2, 2026 Build vs Buy: Should You Run Your Own Scraping Infrastructure?
A demo scraper takes an afternoon. Running it at scale is a product. A framework for what to build, what to buy, and the one layer to always rent.
Chris Collins · August 1, 2026