Shifter Review  2023 – Features You Need to Know

The impact of modern technologies on the working process can’t be overestimated. At the moment, online professions are rapidly gaining popularity, requiring various tools. The list of such tools is headed by proxy servers designed for hiding and rotating IP addresses. Using this server is easy, but finding a suitable one is still a challenge. Read our Shifter proxies review and get a complete notion of this service. 

Briefly about Shifter 

Shifter is a reliable proxy provider that has operated since 2012. Over the years of smooth proxy performance, the company has gained a reputation for a good service rated in 3,8. The platform offers a pool of over 31 million residential and datacenter IPs around the world. With Shifter, you can enjoy a great number of interesting features, such as precise geo-targeting, flexible pricing packages, super speeds, and unlimited sessions. Shifter proxies are designed for all proxy service needs that can only exist.

Feature-set guidance

• 99.9% Guaranteed Uptime
• Multiple Subnets
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Advanced Control Panel
• Compatible with any software on the market
• GEO Targeting by Country

Let’s focus on each feature in detail. 

Shifter is a UK-registered company established in 2012. Here you can find residential and datacenter proxies as well as shared ones. Besides, the company has a 3-day money-back guarantee that ensures reliability.

Although the choice of servers is rather limited – only residential, datacenter, and shared, they are 100% genuine, non-sequential, and quite speedy. Since Shifter proxies cover all locations but with errors that occur when using a great number of current connections, it becomes the best variant for online shopping. You can be sure you will access all sites you need without getting banned.

99.9% Guaranteed Uptime

Professional services by Shifter are up running virtually almost all of the time. The company constantly improves its capabilities by providing a full range of modern cloud services. This allows Shifter to offer a high degree of stability and support, which significantly distinguishes it from the services of other providers.

Multiple Subnets

For proxies to be universal, Shifter has adjusted them to all protocols. Basic backconnect proxy servers support HTTP and HTTPS protocols; special backconnect proxies support HTTP, HTTPS, and Socks protocols.

Unlimited Bandwidth

With each backconnect proxy data plan, Shifter offers 40 GB of bandwidth per port per month, which is more than enough for any of the general customers. For example, with 25 ports, you are allowed to use a bandwidth of 1 TB per month. 

As for port threads, the platform allows no more than 50 threads per port. For example, when using a package of 25 ports, you use 1250 threads at the same time. We recommend users tune their application or software to meet these limits for maximum performance.

Advanced Control Panel

Shifter advanced control panel offers full customization options for your proxy ports. You can assign a default country for all your ports, or another country or countries for specific ports or port ranges.

Compatible with any software on the market

No matter what type of software you use, your proxies will be compatible with it. So, feel free to work on the software you are used to but we recommend you adjust it to the limits of your Shifter proxy. Thus, you will achieve maximum performance. 

GEO Targeting by Country

Shifter covers all counties, so you can assign ports to specific countries you like or require. Pay attention, that geo-targeting is only available for special backconnect proxies but at the same time, it covers almost all countries in the world. 

You can assign to any default country for all your ports, or you can set different countries for specific ports or port ranges. Remember, that you can have only up to 100 authorized IP addresses but the number of packets a client can have is unlimited. Besides, authorized IP addresses can be shared between packets of the same client.

Usability

 The design of the proxy platform is not too simple but is easy enough to navigate. Its dashboard is straightforward. It contains credential/whitelist IPs, support tickets, renews plans, and usage stats. Although there is not much information given about Shifter proxies and their features, the platform operates smoothly. 

The company has organized several channels for you to contact the support team, but unfortunately, there is no live chat available. To contact the support team, you can send a message in a contact form but the response time can be rather low – up to 24 hours. Also, you can write a letter and send it to the email: [email protected]. Especially for users, the company has elaborated a Helpdesk and Client Area. If you want to, you can follow Shifter on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for new information but they are at the beginning of their development.  

Customer service

To evaluate the Shifter customer service, we’ve contacted the support team. One of the fastest ways to reach them out is to write them via contact form. We should note that it is a rather inconvenient way that does not fit for solving urgent issues. In fact, you just form a question that is limited in the volume and state your email. Then, you correspond with the team members by email. Although we were lucky to get the reflection within 2 minutes, the waiting time can last up to 24 hours and this is another disadvantage of this channel. The second way is to write the team directly to the email bypassing the contact form but the waiting time can increase up to 2 days. 

Here are some reviews we’ve extracted from TrustPilot that will give you a fairly complete picture of Shifter service: 

Performance testing 

When testing Shifter, we have measured the following indicators:

• Response time – 4.433 seconds. 
• Average pin – 84ms
• Average download – 21.43 Mbps
• Average upload – 11.25 Mbps

The performance of the current connection hasn’t escaped our attention: 

The results are not as brilliant as they could be if to reduce concurrent connection, the number of errors will instantly decrease. We have tried out the service with 300 concurrent connections. If the number of connections you require for work is lower, Shifter will suit you.  

Pricing

Backconnect proxies 

Dedicated HTTP/S proxies

Shared HTTP/S proxies 

In case you are not satisfied with the chosen pricing plan or want to change the proxy type, Shifter offers a 3-day money-back guarantee. It is a great variant for those who are not sure about the proxy type they need and the number of servers they will require for work. Thus, the company makes sure all its customers are satisfied with the service they receive.  

Final verdict 

Shifter makes the Internet accessible and secure by offering its clients private proxies for various tasks. It provides servers with high connection speed, unlimited traffic, and stable operation at affordable prices and special offers for long-term orders. 

However, the platform has some weak points you should be aware of if you want to use this service. It is not a good idea to use it for web scraping because the percentage of errors that happen at a large number of the current connections is rather high for this use case. The proxy speed also suffers from a large number of requests and connections. If you do not need an enormous number of connections, then Shifter proxies are a good variant for you. 
Despite these nuisances, Shifter proxies are reliable. They work quite well, especially if we take into consideration the prices that are pocket-friendly. With Sifter, you can stay anonymous online and protect your information from third parties. All in all, it’s up to you whether to choose this platform or not.