Are you looking for proxies that are both affordable and fast? If so, PacketStream could be a good fit. Here we give you a detailed review of it and the features available.
PacketStream has a proxy provider in the market that has been around since 2018. They offer affordable residential to a variety of clients. This is also an interesting company because they don't just sell proxies; they are also a marketplace.
This means you can also sell your traffic. Essentially, once you buy a proxy, your device also becomes a proxy. In addition, they have a large number of IPs that are from real instruments. These IPs are sourced from reliable ISPs, to ensure they are secure and untraceable.
Their proxies are also fast and reliable for use on high-speed websites. Here are other features you should expect from this provider.
- Offer Countries Geo-targeting
- 7+ Million IPs
- Allow selling your bandwidth
PacketStream Pros and Cons
PacketStream has a variety of positive and negative features. Here is what we liked and disliked about this proxy provider.
Why We Like it
- Affordable: They offer pocket-friendly prices for all their proxies
- Many Locations: The company has many servers around the world to improve the speed
- Sound Performance: They provide exemplary performance in terms of speed and uptime
- Rotating Proxies: Your proxies change automatically and upon demand.
- Global: They offer support globally for all their proxies.
- Good Payment Options: You can make payment via PayPal or Stripe
Why We Don't Like it
Support: Their customer support is prolonged and unresponsive, sometimes
No SOCKS5: They don’t support SOCKS5, which is essential for many browsers
No City Targeting: The proxies don’t come with city targeting
PacketStream Overview
PacketStream residential proxies aren't packed with features, but they cover the basics.
The proxies cover the majority of the world's nations. The locations are displayed in the dashboard, but there is no way to determine how many IPs each site has; thus, you must depend on the provider. There are no additional targeting choices available, such as city or ASN.
You'll have two options for protocols: HTTP and HTTPS. The option is provided. Unfortunately, SOCKS proxies are not supported here; thus, torrents and streaming sites are out.
Because the residential proxies are peer-to-peer, they will eventually rotate. You have the option of turning in each request or keeping the same IP for as long as it is accessible. Because the PacketStream software is only accessible for desktop operating systems, the sessions should last long.
There is no way to whitelist IP addresses. This means you must rely on username and password authentication. PacketStream does offer an API for resellers; however, sub-users are not accessible.
The company claims that you may use the proxies as you like. However, the terms and conditions of engagement restrict some use cases, especially advertising spam.
PacketStream IP Types and Pricing
PacketStream is one of the cheapest residential proxy providers in the industry. They sell their proxies at meager prices. 1GB of data goes for $1, which is very reasonable.
The proxies are sold in terms of bandwidth, meaning your traffic depletes once you finish the bandwidth. They have an auto-recharge that allows you to recharge automatically. Once your data is over, you can restore from $50 – $1000 from your credit card.
However, you cannot buy data less, costing less than $50. They also have a free trial, which you get by filling a form.
PacketStream Authentication & Protocols
There are essentially two significant types of authentication; IP and Username/password authentication. PacketStream only offers username and much simpler password authentication. All you need to do is enter the correct username and password to log in.
They also support both HTTPS and HTTP protocols, which are suitable for all browsers. However, they may need to add SOCKS protocol for more efficiency.
Resell PacketStream
As mentioned earlier, PacketStream offers resell of their proxies. You can share your proxies with other people and earn from them. They sell the proxies at $1GB per GB and pay you $0.10/GB. The rest of the money goes to facilitating the connection. This means they take $0.90/GB.
You can then cash out once you reach $5 or 50GB sold bandwidth. The only means of receiving payment is through PayPal. Your earnings will be determined mainly from the number of IPs connected. The location of your buyers also dictates how much you earn from your proxies. For example, people in the UK make more than those in Australia.
PacketStream Customer Support
PacketStream's customer service is solely available through email. We contacted the supplier many times, and a response was typically sent within 12 hours.
However, not all consumers are that fortunate. We discovered that, in general, tickets are responded to within 24 hours. So, although PacketStream claims to provide 24-hour assistance, you can barely call it that in practice. This is better than no response, but it may not be effective for business customers.
We were also able to contact the provider through Skype. However, we were merely hauled away after being informed that it was just for sales.
The Editor's Verdict
If you are a starter and looking for proxies to learn with, PacketStream will be great for you. Their proxies are cheap and easy to use. This means you can easily use them for less sophisticated purposes. The proxies are equally fast and can bypass most spam filters on websites.
In addition, they have over 7 million residential IPs from reliable ISPs. This means you can change them whenever you want or set a rotation time. However, if you are dealing with more complex tasks, PacketStream may not be perfect for you.
The reason for this is because they lack essential elements like SOCKS5 support and city targeting. Their speed is also not so good to be used in places like sneaker sites. Here, they can be easily detected and blocked.
In a nutshell, PacketStream is recommended for anyone looking for cheap proxies. But if you want advanced features, you may have to look for an alternative.
Last Updated on May 15, 2022