Free Proxy Servers: Open proxy servers available out on the internet. Essentially, you get what you pay for. These servers are typically unmaintained, open for any kind of internet requests. Such services are frequently used to break into foreign computer systems, with illegal content likely to be spread through such proxies. Also, such a proxy can cause a high bandwidth usage resulting in incredibly slow response times with your web reporting software. Free proxies can also be very nomadic, they are there one day, gone the next. Don't trust your business and your reputation to free proxy servers.

Shared Proxy Servers: Shared proxies are proxy servers that have many clients using them, but require username and password to access them. All proxy servers have resource limits with memory, CPU, disk space, and the internet connection. Shared proxies allow all types of internet traffic such as AIM, IRC, ftp, https, videos, audio podcasting, possibly email, and of course regular web traffic. It doesn't take long for a proxy to become saturated, resulting in very slow response. In order to offer very low prices for proxy hosting, these proxy servers may be over sold. If many marketing companies are using the same group of proxies, it's possible due to increased search requests to exceed the search engines threshold causing the proxy server to get blocked.

Private Proxy Servers: Private proxy servers are servers that are owned entirely by your marketing company. To deploy a private proxy server, the you'll have to purchase the server hardware, select a data center to install the server, load the operating system and configure it, install the proxy software and configure it, then finally plug it all in to the internet. This is the most expensive route to take to deploy a proxy server. This proxy server will have a single IP address, which means if your business requirements demand 50 proxy servers, you're looking at some significant expense to deploy 50 dedicated servers. Don't forget to throw in the ongoing system administration, with possible trips to your data center at 2 AM to replacelrebuild a proxy server. The other drawback is geographical diversity – you'd have to figure out a way to place your dedicated proxy server in a different country. Remote administration of a dedicated proxy server adds another layer of complexity most internet marketing companies would rather do without.

Dedicated Proxy Servers: Dedicated proxy servers are nearly the same as private proxy servers, without all the hassle of purchasing the hardware, installing and configuring operating system, installing and configuring the proxy server, dealing with proxy server security, etc. Dedicated proxy servers remove all the negatives of open, shared and dedicated proxy server solutions because they are professionally managed for you. Dedicated proxy servers can be easily deployed in other countries for geographic diversity, provide multiple IP addresses easily, and can be made very secure. Your search queries are not mixed with another companies' search requests. Dedicated proxy servers can be quickly deployed, or replaced as required.