There are quite some differences between sticky sessions and rotating sessions. If you are new and unable to understand these differences, then this article is for you.

Here, you will discover everything that you need to know and understand about rotating and sticky sessions and how these processes work. 

So, what is a session? In terms of the internet, a session can be defined as a group of web requests that originates from the same client software during a set period.

In most cases, it can be said that it is the time from when you have sent a web request to the time you stopped using the website. 

In most cases, your browsers are capable of handling the sessions without any problems, which is why it is not so important to understand how it works.

In fact, most people have almost no requirement of understanding how this process works. 

However, the importance of sessions becomes evident if you make use of proxies. In such cases, you will have to understand the working of a session and understand how sticky and rotating proxies arise.

This is quite important because if you do not understand the workings, you cannot you would not know which ones to choose. 

In this article, we will be looking into what sticky and rotating sessions and ports are and how they work.

With the help of this detailed blog, you will understand which option you need to choose and the best choice. 

Let us look into some proxy services, along with their authentication, rotating session, and sticky sessions.

Recommended Proxy Services

Oxylabs

• Price charged: Rotating – bandwidth, Static – per IP.
• Price plan: Rotating – Pay As You Go $15/GB or $300 per month for 25GB. Static – customized pricing per IP.
• Pool of IPs: 102+ million
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + SOCKS5

Bright Data

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: 100% Self-control

Smartproxy

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: 30 minutes

Soax

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: Random

Shifter

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: No
• Sticky Session: 5 minutes

Storm Proxies

• Authentication: IP Auth
• Rotating Session: No
• Sticky Session: 3 minutes or 15 minutes

IP Royal

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: 1, 10, or 30 minutes

Geonode

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes

IP Burger

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: Random

ProxyRack

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: Random IP 3 – 30 minutes

HydraProxy

• Authentication: User Pass
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: 30 minutes to 1 hour

Proxy-Cheap

• Authentication: User Pass + IP Auth
• Rotating Session: Yes
• Sticky Session: Random

Once you have done reading the article, you will have a clear understanding of what sticky and rotating sessions are and how can you differentiate between them.

Now, let us understand them individually; we will start with rotating sessions. 

What are Rotating Sessions?

After every request, rotating proxies keep changing your IP address; however, the important aspect here is that your sessions also get changed into a new session.

Therefore, you can say that your entire session can change after a request in the case of a rotating session. 

This also implies that you do not have a persistent session, which cannot be used for account management since frequent changes of IP addresses and sessions would require you to provide authentication details; additionally, your accounts will fall under more scrutiny and will be more suspicious. 

You tend to find high rotating proxies that change the session and IP address after every request in residential proxies.

This is because residential proxy networks do not own their IP addresses and, hence, can provide IP addresses and sessions.

However, some data center providers started offering rotating sessions and proxies since the application and importance of these sessions cannot be ignored. 

How Do Rotating Sessions Work?

As you can guess by the name, there are some relationships between rotating sessions and rotating proxies.

Therefore, their work cannot be explained individually; both processes need to be explained hand-in-hand.

When you are utilizing rotating proxies, the requests from your end do not reach the device that proxies directly for you or acts as a front – the choice of the IP and the device will depend on the proxy network. 

Once you have forwarded the web request, you will have a rotating proxy that is configured and will be sent to the central proxy server.

From here on, the server will look into the pool and randomly choose the said device and the related IP address, which will route the request thoroughly. 

Once you send another request after the first one, the first exit node (of the device and the IP address) will not be used by the central proxy server.

Instead, the central proxy server will again randomly choose from the pool; therefore, the session and the IP address associated with each request will differ, almost similar to a session reset. 

Rotating proxies can prove to be quite effective if the proxy pool is large; however, a small pool will only result in repeated IPs.

This means that the sessions will not witness as many proxy sessions reset sessions after each request. 

When Should I Use Rotating Proxies and Sessions?

In most cases, rotating sessions and proxies are not deemed useful. You may also find certain scenarios where using these sessions and proxies can be deemed counterproductive.

In fact, there is only one reason why one would need to make use of a rotating session – the one where you do not want to make use of a persistence session. 

In short, if you do not want to send several requests to a web service to be associated with the same sessions or the same device, the rotating session is considered the best choice. 

Overall, it is understandable that a rotating session is considered the best choice for anything related to web crawling and web scraping since you will not be logging into an account.

With rotating sessions and IP addresses, you will be provided with new sessions and IPs on every request you make, which makes it possible to avoid session and IP tracking; this is a feature that is required in web crawling and scraping. 

What are Sticky Sessions?

Sticky sessions are the opposite of rotating sessions. Sessions are renewed after you make a new request in rotating sessions.

In the case of sticky sessions, users make use of persistence sessions for some time before they can get renewed.

Of course, this is connected to the change in IP address, particularly for sticky ports so that they do not get changed frequently. 

The IP address is assigned to a proxy port for sticky port proxies, it will be maintained for some time before it gets changed.

This means that the session will remain sticky until the address gets changed – this will give you a persistence session. 

However, it is also important to understand that sticky proxy cannot be mistaken for dedicated proxies; hence, the sessions cannot be deemed the same.

In the case of sticky ports, the IP addresses keep changing after some time; on the other hand, the IP addresses remain the same and do not change for dedicated proxies. 

Sticky sessions and proxies have a lot in common with residential proxies as well.

While a residential proxy service can maintain a session for at least 10 minutes before changing the session and the IP, it can only be seen as a hope; for your device, your request for being routed through can easily be disconnected from the Internet.

This way, the IP and session can get changed, in some cases, even before ten minutes.

How Does Sticky Session Works?

When you look at it, the model and working of a sticky session work almost similar to a rotating session.

The difference between them is that the rotating session will restart a new session after each request while the sticky session will maintain the same session for a while.

When you make use of the working mechanisms of sticky proxy ports, only then you will be able to understand its working and model.

You also need to understand and know that some providers will allow you to configure the IP rotation time; however, there are some that do not allow it and you will only be left with what you have.

Since the proxies are integrated into your browser and/or client software, the request will be first directed to the central proxy server, which will take a look at the available pool and choose the IP and device to run the request. 

This will help you keep a tab on the device and will assign the IP to all the ensuing requests until the time gets elapsed.

In short, this means that the session and the IP address will remain the same.

On the other hand, the device that routes your request through, or the exit node, becomes inactive, it will end up choosing another device and the subsequent IP, thereby prematurely terminating the said session. 

When Should I Use Sticky Proxies and Sessions?

In most cases, sticky proxies and sessions are mostly used as proxies for account management.

This is because you will have to maintain the same sessions to access and manage your accounts over the internet; you also need to avoid changing the IP address quickly. 

If the IP and session keep changing too fast, it can be seen as unnatural and can lead to suspicion.

Therefore sticky proxies and sessions are considered the best choice to manage accounts on e-commerce platforms and managing social media accounts. 

Where to Buy Rotating and Sticky Proxies

Now that you have a basic understanding of sticky and rotating sessions and proxies, you know that the former is mostly used for account management and session persistence, while the latter is used for work where you do not want your requests to be associated.

You can also choose to buy them. 

You will find a lot of services that offer both types of residential proxy. For instance, Bright Data is considered the best choice.

This company is known to offer the best rotating ports that will change your session and IP address after every connection.

It can easily maintain sessions and IP for approximately 30 minutes and is considered one of the best session management systems in the market today. 

Then, we have Smartproxy, which is another provider that is known to have sticky ports and high rotating ports; you can easily maintain sessions for roughly 10 minutes.

There are also many other providers like Soax that will provide sticky sessions and proxies. Some other names include Storm Proxies, Shifter, etc.

Bright Data

• Price charged: Bandwidth            
• Price plan: 20 GB – $300               
• Pool of IPs: 72+ million  
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks5

Smartproxy

• Price charged: Bandwidth            
• Price plan: 5 GB – $75    
• Pool of IPs: 40+ Million  
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S)

Soax

• Price charged: Port         
• Price plan: 300 Ports – $400        
• Pool of IPs: 8.5 Million+ 
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks5

Shifter

• Price charged: Port         
• Price plan: 10 Ports – $125          
• Pool of IPs: 31+ Million  
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks5

Storm Proxies

• Price charged: Port         
• Price plan: 5 ports – $50               
• Pool of IPs: 200K+           
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S)

ProxyRack

• Price charged: Ports       
• Price plan: 250 proxies – $120    
• Pool of IPs: 5+ Million    
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks

HydraProxy

• Price charged: Bandwidth            
• Price plan: 1 GB – $5      
• Pool of IPs: 5+ Million    
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S)

Proxy-Cheap 

• Price charged: Bandwidth            
• Price plan: 1GB – $5 (Monthly) 
• Pool of IPs: 6+ Million    
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks5

IPRoyal

• Price charged: Bandwidth            
• Price plan: 1GB – $3 (Monthly) 
• Pool of IPs: 2+ Million    
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks5

Geonode

• Price charged: Thread   
• Price plan: 10 Threads – $47       
• Pool of IPs: 2+ Million    
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S) + Socks

IPBurger.com   

• Price charged: Bandwidth            
• Price plan: 5GB – $79 (Monthly) 
• Pool of IPs: 75+ Million  
• Proxy protocol: HTTP(S)

Conclusion

As you can see from the above, you can now understand that sticky and rotating sessions both have their applications and uses.

Rotating sessions are considered the best proxies for web scraping while a sticky session is best for account management. 

Whatever type you end up choosing, Bright Data are considered the best choice.