Microleaves / Shifter Review
Founded in 2012, Microleaves (shifter.io since 2020) is one of the largest proxy providing services, claiming over 26 million residential IPs around the world. Used by Fortune 500 companies, the company claims the lowest fail rate and says that their proxies are compatible with any Socks 4/5 or HTTP(s) protocol. They also claim that all their orders are automatically processed within a few minutes and says that you will never encounter a blocked website.
With Microleaves, you can also define any city in the world as your IP location to harvest local data and the integration takes a mere few minutes. Their software is touted as “perfect for data mining and crawling”, and offers plans that not only enable geo-targeting and socks protocol but also allow their IPs to be used on AXS, StubHub and social networking websites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and SoundCloud. They also claim that their residential IPs are never detected as proxies, and hence the customers always get accurate and fresh data.
Packages and Pricing
Microleaves offers four types of plans, Special Backconnect Proxies, Basic Backconnect Proxies, Dedicated and Shared proxies. The prices of these are as follows:
Special Backconnect Proxies
With this package you are offered residential proxies from any country in the world. There is a new proxy assigned every 5 minutes to each port, and there are no bandwidth limitations. Microleaves offers 25 special backconnect proxy ports for $240.99. The prices go up as you increase the number of proxy ports.
Basic Backconnect Proxies
With these type of proxies, you will get worldwide proxies, but they will be random. Same as the first offer, a new proxy is assigned every 5 minutes to each port with no bandwidth restrictions. Microleaves offers 25 backconnect proxy ports for $124.99. The prices go up as you increase the number of proxy ports.
Dedicated and Shared Proxies
These type of proxies offer dedicated and semi-dedicated United States datacenter IPs with a high-speed network (a super fast 1,000 Mbps speed) and protocols HTTP/S (100 connections per proxy). Microleaves offers 5 dedicated private HTTP proxies at $12.5, and the prices go up as you increase the number of dedicated proxies.
Technical Specifications
Backconnect Proxies
Microleaves uses backconnect proxies, which are essentially HTTP/HTTPS and Socks ⅘ proxies and work with any software that supports these protocols. When a user links to one of these proxies, a particular IP is assigned by the proxy server. What makes these proxies better is that they offer worldwide locations when you compare them with traditional proxies. The advantage is that the residential proxy can unblock any website.
Microleaves claims that their backconnect proxies change IP every 3 minutes. That’s amazing!
Microleaves offers an advanced control panel, where users can take full advantage of it, with the added benefit that there is no bandwidth limitation. Furthermore, users can enjoy the services in many different ways: They can play Pokemon Go without restrictions (in regions where it is), and they can use it to connect to Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Instagram and YouTube among many such websites.
Microleaves also helps rotate the IP addresses so it becomes unrecognizable.
Dedicated Private Proxies
The dedicated private proxies offer multiple subnets, US-based high-speed HTTP/HTTPS and non-consequential IPs. A new IP address is requested by the system every month.
Shared Proxies
Intended for casual and light tasks, they might be slower owing to the fact that they are shared, but they are cheaper and allow 5 users at a time.
Speed and Bandwidth
Microleaves offers lightning speeds of up to 1Gbps and provides its customers with unlimited bandwidth.
API
Microleaves features an advanced control panel that offers vast control over your subscription where you can manage everything in one place. It has easy-to-use features and offers a bouquet of options.
Authentication
Microleaves proxies support both IP authentication and username/password authorization. This essentially means that you would be able to access your proxies regardless of your situation.
Geolocation of IPs and Data Centers
Microleaves claims to have over 26 million IPs in worldwide locations and says that the users can define any city in the world to harvest local data. The US proxies are based in Buffalo, New York.
Payment
As far as payment options go, the service offers PayPal and credit cards, such as American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Maestro and Discover (for both recurring and non-recurring memberships). It also offers Bitcoin payments for non-recurring memberships. All plans come with a 3-day money back guarantee. If Microleaves cannot fix the customer’s problem, they promise to refund the money. To cancel the service, Microleaves suggests that the customer sends a written notice for the discontinuation of service. The cancellation notice can be made in the control panel.
Microleaves has discontinued trial usage because they claim that there have been cases where it has been abused in the past.
Restrictions
We could not find any restrictions, apart from Craiglist not being available for shared and dedicated proxies. For that, a customer would have to opt for the special backconnect proxies.
Conclusion
Microleaves is one of the leading proxy companies in the world, offering you many plans in dedicated and backconnect proxies. Their offers are pretty decent and their services pretty much cover your needs. Though future users are advised to read the offer documents carefully before opting for a membership.
