Shifter Review (Formerly Microleaves)

Shifter has been on the market for the past 08 years and it has provided the services that are highly reliable and trustworthy. There are different reviews of the users when it comes to the service and it is all because some have found it to be extremely useful and for the others, it simply was not up to the mark.

To judge and write a review about any proxy you must get to test the proxy. Once you get the results a review has been written. This will make sure that the review is unbiased and to the point. This was our approach before we proceeded to write this article.

Shifter Quick Stats

AttributeDescription
IP PoolOver 31 million IPs
IP TypeResidential proxies
Billing TypeIP: Port
PricingStarts at $99.98/5 IPs for residential proxies
TargetingCountries
Locations130+ countries
Proxy ProtocolHTTP(S) and Socks 5
IP Rotation5 minutes
AuthenticationIP Authentication and Username/Password
Refund Policy3-day money-back guarantee
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Shifter Rotating Residential Proxies
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Shifter Residential Proxies

  • Billing: IP: Port Based Subscription
  • Protocol: HTTP(S), SOCKS5
  • Integration: API Endpoint, Single Proxy Endpoint, Proxy List
$99.98$1,199.99
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Shifter Static Residential Proxies
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Shifter Static Residential Proxies

  • Billing: IP: Port Based Subscription
  • Protocol: HTTP(S), SOCKS5
  • Integration: API Endpoint, Single Proxy Endpoint, Proxy List
$74.99$299.99
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Shifter Sneaker Proxy
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Shifter Sneaker Proxies

  • Billing: IP: Port Based Subscription
  • Protocol: HTTP(S), SOCKS5
  • Integration: API Endpoint, Single Proxy Endpoint, Proxy List
$74.99$299.99

Shifter Pros
  • Large IP pool: Shifter has one of the largest IP pools and location coverage, with over 31 million residential IPs
  • Country selection: Users can select specific countries on gateways
  • Customizable IP holding time: A gateway can hold the same IP for a custom time
  • Good pricing: Shifter offers competitive pricing and unlimited bandwidth
  • Money-back guarantee: They provide a money-back guarantee for their services
  • Excellent scraping performance: Shifter proxies are known for their excellent performance in web scraping tasks
  • High anonymity and security: Shifter offers highly anonymous, secure, and affordable residential proxies
Shifter Cons
  • Poor customer support: Shifter's customer support has been criticized for being unresponsive and unhelpful
  • High connection error rate: Users have reported a high connection error rate when using Shifter proxies
  • Limited location options for dedicated and shared proxies: Shifter only provides a single location for their dedicated and shared proxies, which can be a major drawback for some users

Background of the Service

Shifter, aka Shifter, has been one of the oldest companies and the inception dates back to the era when there was a lot of talk about the proxies and their usage. With time new companies emerged but Shifter remain as one of the toughest competitors to beat.

The company has risen to become one of the best and the state of the art companies that provide the proxy related services at a bearable cost. The proxy pool is large and therefore it has a large customer base as well. There is a set of services that are provided by the company and it is unique to it. You will not find such features in any other service and these features set the company apart.

Some companies provide metered connections and once the threshold has been reached the internet connection is cut off. Well, it is not the case with Shifter and their connections are unlimited which means that your internet connection will never be cut off no matter how much bandwidth you use.

This is the best feature that makes this company and its packages cost-effective and easy to use. For startups, this company is a boon as it has all the required tools to take their business to the next level.

The unmetered bandwidth is accompanied by the fact that the prices are cheaper. This again sets this company apart from others. Though there are some downfalls as well they are present in every service so can be overlooked easily. You might find some connection errors and average speeds but the company is working hard to get over the issues which they will as the competition is on a rise.

Technical Aspects

The tech aspects of the company are state of the art and they make sure that the company gets the best service to the customers. It provides both residential and datacenter proxies and the price is charged per port. The minimum package is of 5 ports and the pool comprises of 31 million IP.

The protocols that are supported by the network are HTTPS and SOCKET5. The geo-targeting is done on the country base and the authentication is done through IP, username, and password. There is no free trial offered by the company and if you are not satisfied by the service there is a 3-day refund policy.

It is a UK based company and if you want to contact them then there is a contact form on their website. The other issues can easily be sorted out with the help of the detailed FAQ section that is on their website.

Why you should use Shifter?

The simple answer to this question is the fact that there are many pros of the company that makes it one of the best services. The question that why should you go for this service has been answered in detail in this section.

Large IP Pool

The IP pool of any company shows that it is highly targeted and covers a large area. When launched this company was known as reverseproxies.com. The rebranding is done afterward just to thwart the competition. This was done for mainly two reasons, the first to show the customers that the company cares and the second is to make sure that a robust image is presented to the stakeholders.

This company became one of the largest companies in the market with 31 million IPs in its pool. To be precise this company is at number 3 when it comes to the proxy pool size.

There are only 2 other companies that have an IP pool larger than Shifter. This is indeed an achievement that they can be proud of. A large IP pool also means that you will get the rotation relatively fast and the rotating system of Shifter is one of the best in the industry.

Regular Pool Update

This is another important aspect that makes Shifter as one of the top companies of all times. The IP pool is not something that remains stagnant. Microleaves make sure that it remains inflow and this is done with the help of the regular pool update that is highly targeted and state of the art.

The pool is always refreshed and the bad IP is removed that is thought to be bad or are blocked by the websites. The coverage also makes it a company that has been most sought after. The company does not specify the countries the IP of which are assigned to the users.

With Shifter you are unable to get the city-specific IP as in case of its rivals. Shifter provide services that are strictly country-based. This pool update is something that shows how professional a company is and it also makes a customer realize that they care about the work which is being performed using their proxy pool.

Unlimited Bandwidth

This is another important aspect that makes it one of the best and state of the art services to work with. The bandwidth is unlimited and your internet never goes off if you are using this service. This can be regarded as the main selling point of the company which means that this is not only one of the best companies but also cares about your budget.

Unlike other companies neither you will get the data exhausted nor will your connection be cut off at all. This is something that is like a dream come true for the companies that are startups. A per-port charge is only applicable to this company which makes it an economical choice. This is something that has completely changed the game for the proxy industry and the competitors switched to other ways to lure the customers.

Money-Back Guarantee

This is another advantage of using this service. There are many proxy service providers on the internet but the worst part of almost all is that they don’t make their refund policies clear. Shifter is a completely different case. The company assures its customers that if the proxies fail to carry out the work for which they have been purchased they will get their money back.

This is something that has been the best of all and it also makes sure that you have the peace of mind that your money is safe and secure all the time. It will also make you satisfied with the quality of service that is being provided. With this 3 days money-back guarantee you are sure to get the best outcome while you use the product.

Scraping Performance

This is another important aspect for which the company has been known. Though it is generally accepted the fact of the matter is that it is still better than most of the companies that are working on the market. For the top 10 websites which we used to scrape the data, the average success rate was about 77% which is acceptable because the bandwidth is unmetered.

With the company getting more and more customers it is also an obvious fact that work is being done to make this percentage better. One important thing that has been observed in this regard is the fact that the concurrent sessions are directly proportional to the errors that are faced.

With Shifter if the concurrent sessions are low in number it means that you get few errors and vice versa. With 300 connections the rate of errors is relatively high as compared to the other services. They can also be regarded as a company that has a scarping performance better than many of its competitors.

Support

It is something that gets Shifter ahead of its competitors. With the best and the state of the art knowledge the professionals that have been hired by Shifter make sure that the issues of the customers are resolved with perfection.

It is one of the best and state of the art outcomes that the company provides to its customers. You as a customer whenever you contact a company you expect to get your issue resolved easily and quickly.

This is something that Shifter does and they make sure that instant solutions are provided. Though you cannot contact them live the contact form and the solution provided will make you believe that you are in the right hands.

Response Time

As the scraping performance has been written about so some may think that the response time is not up to the mark. It is completely wrong as the response time of Shifter is up to the mark and therefore it is regarded as one of the best proxy services on the market.

The best part is that the response time has been tested by many individuals as well as the company based testing services. The results were similar or identical to be precise.

These companies are of the view that the response time of Shifter is awesome. The average response time that has been calculated for the Shifter is 4.433 seconds which is simply state of the art.

The response time is also an important factor that makes sure that the quality of a proxy service is defined. With the best and the state of the art functionality that it offers the Shifter is one of the proxies that have a response time which is comparable to any other major service.

Connection Speed

It is also a matter for concern for many people as a proxy is very notorious for the speed that they provide. With Shifter it is possible to get the best speed so you don’t have to worry about this at all.

The speed testing of Shifter also makes sure that you get the speed that is equivalent to any other proxy service as it is comparable. Even if you use the speed test tool you will get to know that the connection speed is not that slow as some rivals of Shifter may claim it to be.

Speed is one of the main factors that define the overall connection and it is important as it can lead to issues if this has not been dealt with. For Shifter the average ping that it offers is 84ms, the download speed is 21.43 Mbps and upload speed is 11.25 Mbps.

This connection speed is good as compared to the other services and it is important that due to backlash received by the customers in the past Shifter has improved it a lot.

Easy to Use

The dashboard of Shifter is well organized and it makes sure that you get all the things that are needed. The best part is that things are well organized and this makes this service one of the easiest ones to use. The use of the dashboard has been further simplified with the help of the online tutorials that are available online.

The other important aspect that is associated with the Shifter is the ease of use of the authentication of the proxy. Though they provide both the ways of authenticating the service it is advised to use the IP whitelist authentication method. The username and password method might be difficult for some so this method will work at its best.

Features of the Dashboard: What’s available and what’s not?

There are some features of the dashboard that are very important to understand. It will make sure that you get the best results once you are using the service. It will also get you familiar with the program that you will find easy to use once the service has been purchased. The important features that are available on the dashboard are mentioned as follows:

User Statistics

Shifter, unlike the other service providers, do not show the user statistics on the dashboard which is an inconvenience. This is also correct on the other hand as the usage is unlimited and therefore you need no statistics. In my option, there should have been a tab for the user statistics there on the dashboard.

It would have made sure that the usage is calculated for certain activities that have been performed so that the user can maintain the trail. However, it is something that Microleaves does not provide on its dashboard.

Credentials and IP Whitelist

These are the important aspects that are available on the dashboard and they make sure that you get the credentials to whitelist the IP. It means that the username and password can be seen on the dashboard and it will make it possible for you to authenticate using these credentials.

The whitelist of IP is also available onto the dashboard so that you get to know which IP is on the whitelist. From here you can also clear up the list to start fresh. The username and password form of authentication is not recommended so it is also important that the other way i.e. the whitelist method is used to get the work done.

Support Tickets

Shifter also provide a way to directly contact the support from the dashboard and this is an important aspect that you should be aware of. You need to make sure that the dashboard is used to get the work done.

From here with a few simple steps, you can easily make sure that the ticket has been written to the support and you get the answer from their awesome support as soon as possible. This is an important aspect that makes the dashboard all the more useful and makes contact with the customer support easy.

Miscellaneous Functionalities

There is a section of the dashboard that is dedicated to the plan renewal. It is important as it makes sure that you get to recharge your account as well. It is one of the best things that you would find on the dashboard and it has made the plan renewal too easy. The facility of live chat is not available online on the dashboard so you cannot get this facility easily. It is one of the best and the state of the art services that can easily be added to the dashboard but Shifter has not done anything like this which makes this service a kind of hard to deal with.

Shifter Price Plans

There are residential, static residential, and sneaker proxies that are offered by Shifter. The plans are as under for better understanding.

ResidentialProxy Plans

  • 5 Basic Rotating Proxies Plan: This plan includes 200GB of traffic and is optimized for speed. Additional traffic is available at $0.30 per GB. The total cost of this plan is $99.98.
  • 10 Basic Rotating Proxies Plan: This plan provides more proxies along with all the features of the 5-proxy plan. It includes 400GB of traffic. The total cost of this plan is $149.99.
  • 25 Basic Rotating Proxies Plan: This plan offers an even larger number of proxies, with the same features as the previous plans. It includes 1TB of traffic. The total cost of this plan is $299.99.
  • 50 Basic Rotating Proxies Plan: This Plan is the most popular in the Basic category, with 2TB of included traffic. The total cost of this plan is $599.99.
  • 5 Special Rotating Proxies Plan: It includes 200GB of traffic and is optimized for speed. Additional traffic is available at $0.60 per GB. The total cost of this plan is $199.99.
  • 10 Special Rotating Proxies Plan: This plan provides access to a larger number of proxies along with all the features of the 5 proxy plans. It includes 400GB of traffic. The total cost of this plan is $299.99.
  • 25 Special Rotating Proxies Plan: This plan offers even more proxies, with the same features as the previous plans. It includes 1TB of traffic. The total cost of this plan is $599.99.
  • 50 Special Rotating Proxies Plan: The most popular plan in this category includes 2TB of traffic and costs $1,199.99.

Static Residential Proxy Plans

  • 25 Static Residential Proxies Plan offers 25 proxies for $74.99, perfect for small operations with unlimited traffic and Gigabit speeds,.
  • 50 Static Residential Proxies Plan provides 50 proxies for $149.99, ideal for medium-scale tasks like data extraction and SEO.
  • 75 Static Residential Proxies Plan supplies 75 proxies for $224.99, suited for more demanding applications and larger businesses.
  • 100 Static Residential Proxies Plan, the most popular choice, delivers 100 proxies for $299.99, optimal for enterprise-level operations.

Sneaker Proxy Plans

  • 25 Sneaker Residential Proxies Plan offers 25 proxies for $74.99, perfect for those new to sneaker copping
  • 50 Sneaker Residential Proxies Plan doubles the proxy count to 50 for $149.99, suitable for moderate users or small resellers
  • 75 Sneaker Residential Proxies Plan provides 75 proxies for $224.99, ideal for serious sneaker enthusiasts or resellers scaling up their operations.
  • 100 Sneaker Residential Proxies Plan, the most popular choice, delivers 100 proxies for $299.99, tailored for established resellers or avid sneaker collectors seeking maximum efficiency.

Conclusion

Shifter is one of the companies that has been on the market for a long time now. It is not only easy to set up but also makes sure that you get the best results. With the servers with a wide geo-distribution, it is important that the best and the most advanced systems that you can enjoy.

It is also one of the best proxies to make sure that the tasks are performed with perfection. There are some drawbacks as these proxies do not work with multiple concurrent connections and you may face errors. Less concurrent connections will make sure that you get the best results and the errors also reduce drastically.

John Rooney

John Rooney

John Watson Rooney, a self-taught Python developer and content creator with a focus on web scraping, APIs, and automation. I love sharing my knowledge and expertise through my YouTube channel, My channel caters to all levels of developers, from beginners looking to get started in web scraping to experienced programmers seeking to advance their skills with modern techniques. I have worked in the e-commerce sector for many years, gaining extensive real-world experience in data handling, API integrations, and project management. I am passionate about teaching others and simplifying complex concepts to make them more accessible to a wider audience. In addition to my YouTube channel, I also maintain a personal website where I share my coding projects and other related content.

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