Whether you are browsing the internet, or managing online accounts, using an anti-detect browser combined with a mobile proxy, will provide you with many benefits. These benefits include but are not limited to:
- Increased privacy and security. Mobile proxies and anti-detect browsers will help protect your identity and sensitive information by masking your real IP address.
- Geolocation. Mobile proxies will allow you to appear as if you are accessing websites from different geographical locations.
- Multiple account management. Having multiple mobile IP addresses and browser profiles will reduce the chances of getting your accounts flagged.
- Bypassing restrictions. Some sites are banned or inaccessible in certain regions, a mobile proxy can circumvent these restrictions.
- And many more!
In today's post we will walk you through the pros and cons of using an anti-detect browser, as well as how you can avoid the most common pitfalls, but first, let's dive into what an anti-detect browser is.
What is an anti-detect browser?
Anti-detect browsers, also known as "stealth" browsers or "fingerprint-resistant" browsers are a common tool used by people to enhance their privacy and security online. They are desktop applications, like your usual browser, that you install and use to browse the internet instead. In this post, we are focussing purely on desktop-based anti-detect browsers.
Most anti-detect users have a mutual goal: prevent websites from tracking their activity and identifying them based on their browser and device fingerprints.
This means it is paramount that anti-detect browsers have a number of features to achieve this goal, such as the following:
- Support for proxies
- Support for rotating proxies
- Support for managing "profiles"
- Support for changing your browser/device fingerprints
The majority of today's anti-detect browsers are based on Chromium and are used in a similar fashion to Chrome itself, however, they are shipped with "wrapper" tools that help you manage the above features successfully.
Anti-detect browser benefits
As we stated at the beginning of this post, using an anti-detect browser, combined with a mobile proxy, will provide you with many benefits. The right setup will allow you to stay undetected online, manage multiple online accounts, and bypass the toughest of restrictions.
Ease of use
Anti-detect browsers, at face value, are simple to use and configure. Interact with anti-detect browsers is nearly identical to interacting with a normal browser, as most are based on the most used browser in the world, Chrome. For beginner users, they are simple to get up and running for the first time. Tasks such as adding a proxy or changing fingerprints are usually just a few easy button presses and you are good to go, or so you think.
Proxy support
Using a proxy, in particular a mobile proxy is essential to a good anti-detect browser experience. Adding a proxy means you can mask your real IP address online and further improve your chances of staying undetected.
Most browsers will also add rotation support which can be very powerful. If your proxy provider supports rotating your proxy IP, as we do at GridPanel, you can configure your browser to rotate the IP at the click of a button.
Rotating your IP helps in a number of scenarios such as: bypassing a rate limit, or logging into a different account.
Fingerprint customisation
The majority of anti-detect browsers will allow you to customise your fingerprint so you can use different browser profiles with different device/browser fingerprints. This means that on one machine, you technically can emulate the fingerprint of many machines.
You can easily imagine a scenario where you have your anti-detect browser installed on your personal Windows laptop and you manage 10 different profiles all with different IPs and device fingerprints.
This sounds excellent on paper but later in this post, we will explain why this is not always the case.
Anti-detect browser pitfalls
Given all the above benefits, it sounds like anti-detect browsers are the perfect solution to stay undetected online. However, there are number of assumptions that people make when using anti-detect browsers which cause them to have issues, we have outlined some of these below.
Assumption #1: You only need a mobile proxy
Nowadays, a number of harder-to-scrape sites will rely more on fingerprinting your device than your IP address, so you need to make sure your fingerprint is consistent with your IP and is not unique.
That said, using a mobile IP address is still a necessity if you want the best chances of success.
Assumption #2: Random fingerprints are the solution
Randomness is not great, your traffic and fingerprints need to blend in with real users, so if you have fingerprints that sites have never seen before, because they are random, you will stick out amongst real users and will be easy to block and ban.
When a site sees a fingerprint they have never encountered before, they are much more likely to captcha you, or even block you from the outset.
Assumption #3 You can mask your device fingerprint
Sadly a number of harder-to-scrape sites can see past your faked fingerprints and fingerprint the underlying device you are running your browser on, this means you need to get your fingerprints to match the system you actually using.
For example, using a MacOS Laptop fingerprint on a Windows 11 Desktop may result in you being caught out and blocked when browsing online.
Assumption #4: Uniqueness is key
The number one key point to staying undetected online is ensuring that you do not look unique compared to other users. This means the best way is to use real devices with real device IP addresses and ensure your behavior does not look like a bot, you cannot have one piece of the puzzle without the other and think you will not get blocked or banned.
It is not all doom and gloom, however, as a large number of sites will not employ the most advanced of techniques to catch you out, so for the vast majority of people and use cases, you will be ok.
The anti-detect cloud
At GridPanel we offer a next generation cloud anti-detect solution for the sites that are the hardest to access. We give you access to browser profiles running on real devices with real fingerprints, meaning you do not need to spoof anything. This ensures that you blend in with real users and can stay undetected online.
If you want to gain access, you can email our sales team: [email protected] so they can further understand your requirements.
Conclusion
For simple use cases, and online browsing, today's desktop-based anti-detect browsers can go a long way in helping you stay undetected online. If you need to access harder to scrape sites, you need to ensure that you do not make the assumptions that we have listed above for the best possible results.
Stay tuned for our future posts on how to configure a GridPanel mobile proxy and GridPanel mobile proxy rotation in a number of the best anti-detect browsers on the market.
How to configure your GridPanel mobile proxy in Dolphin{anty}
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