A Real SIM Line and a Per-Gigabyte Residential Pool, Compared Through the Checker

Most comparisons of proxy types are written by the seller of one of them. This one is written from the checker's point of view, because that is the tool Real US Proxies buyers already use: what does a public IP lookup show for a dedicated real US SIM, and what does it show for an exit from a residential pool sold by the gigabyte? The answers lead directly to the practical differences, in cost, in control over the address, and in the jobs each suits. We sell both, lines and pool gigabytes, from the same dashboard, so this page has no side to take beyond getting you the right one.

What each one is, physically

A real SIM line is a carrier SIM from AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon inside a phone, modem or router that we own in a US city, rented to one customer for the plan's length. Its address belongs to the carrier, is shared with the carrier's real subscribers through carrier-grade NAT, and changes only when you rotate it or the carrier resets the session. Its data is unlimited for a flat price per hour, day, week or month.

A per-gigabyte residential pool is a collection of exits on other people's home broadband connections, gathered by a vendor and sold as data. A request may leave from a different home each time, or one home can be held for a few minutes. You buy gigabytes and they are spent as traffic passes. The homes are real; the identity is not stable.

What the checker shows for each

Run both through the same lookup and the differences are on the page. The SIM shows a US mobile carrier in the ISP field, the carrier's AS number, cellular as the connection type, the United States and the SIM's state; rotate and every one of those stays except the address and perhaps the city. A pool exit shows a home broadband provider, that provider's AS number, residential as the connection type, and a city that changes with the next request. Both are real; only one is a phone, and only one is the same identity from one minute to the next.

There is a third thing the checker shows that buyers rarely think to look for: consistency over time. Run the SIM through the same checker at nine in the morning and nine at night and the ISP, ASN and type are identical and the state has not moved; the address may have changed if you rotated, nothing else. Run a pool exit twice and you are reading about two different households in two different cities. For a platform that compares today's login with yesterday's, that difference is the whole story.

Side by side

The table puts the checker fields and the commercial facts together.

What the cost looks like in practice

A pool is cheap for a few gigabytes and dear for many, because every byte is billed. A SIM costs the same at any volume: a month of 4G at $67 moves a few megabytes or a terabyte for the same money. A seller who keeps a storefront logged in all month, loads product images, watches video ads and answers customers moves a great deal of data; on a pool that bill grows every day, on a SIM it is settled on the first. A researcher who touches a thousand pages once each from a thousand addresses moves little data and needs breadth, and the pool wins.

Control over the address

On a SIM, you decide when the address changes, by link, API, timer or button, and otherwise it holds for as long as the carrier keeps it, usually hours. On a pool, the vendor decides within the stickiness you chose, and nothing holds for a long login. A platform that watches a logged-in account expects one address for the length of a session, which is what a SIM gives and what a pool cannot.

Control also covers the moment of change. On a SIM, rotation happens when you press the button or call the link, so a login can be finished first and the next task started on a fresh address; on a pool the change arrives on the vendor's schedule, in the middle of whatever you were doing.

When the pool is the honest recommendation

Broad sampling across many US cities with one request each. Checks that need a residential rather than a cellular classification. Cities we run no line in. Light volume spread over many addresses. We sell pool gigabytes for these cases in the dashboard next to the lines, and we will tell you to buy them when that is the right answer.

When the real SIM is the honest recommendation

Any account that must look like one person on one phone: a storefront, an advertising profile, a support identity. Any session that stays logged in. Any job that moves real volume. Any job where you want to verify the identity once and have the verification still hold tomorrow. For those, one real US SIM at $5 a day, checked in the first two hours, is the product; the screenshot of that check is the proof you keep.

Questions about per-GB pricing