Third-Party Blocklisting
A single bad actor on the same shared pool can trigger blocklisting that affects your entire team - even though your organisation did nothing wrong.
Dedicated IP vs Shared IP - What's the Difference?
A dedicated IP is a fixed IP address assigned exclusively to your organisation, used only by your team whenever they connect through your VPN. A shared IP is drawn from a pool of addresses used by many different users simultaneously. The choice between them affects your IP reputation, access control reliability, compliance posture, and ability to attribute network activity to specific individuals.
Dedicated IP vs Shared IP - Quick Comparison
A side-by-side view of how the two models differ across the dimensions that matter most to businesses
| Feature | Shared IP | Dedicated IP |
|---|---|---|
| IP address | Rotates - drawn from a shared pool | Fixed - yours only, never rotated |
| Tenant model | Multi-tenant | Single-tenant |
| IP reputation | Affected by other users' behaviour | Fully under your control |
| Whitelisting reliability | Unreliable - IP changes | Consistent - same IP always |
| Session attribution | Difficult - shared across users | Per-user, per-session |
| Access logs | Not available | Connection events per user |
| Access revocation | Manual, often slow | Instant |
| Cost | Lower | Higher - justified by control |
For personal browsing, a shared IP is often sufficient. For businesses that need consistent access control, compliance records, or clean IP reputation, a dedicated IP is the right choice.
Security: Why IP Isolation Matters
The shared model introduces risks that have nothing to do with your organisation's own behaviour
Shared IP Risks
Shared Node Exposure
Traffic from multiple organisations passes through the same node, increasing the blast radius of any security incident on that infrastructure.
Ambiguous Attribution
Session logs are difficult to cleanly attribute to a specific user when IPs overlap across tenants - making investigations and audits unreliable.
Dedicated IP Advantages
IP Reputation You Control
Your IP reputation is entirely in your hands. No third-party behaviour affects it - what your team does is all that matters.
Infrastructure-Level Isolation
A single-tenant node means traffic isolation at the infrastructure level - your data never shares a path with another organisation.
Clear Connection Records
Every session is tied to your organisation's credentials and your fixed IP - producing a clean, defensible audit trail.
Compliance: Why Shared IPs Make Audits Harder
Regulators and auditors expect organisations to demonstrate who accessed what systems and when
Shared IP - Difficult Attribution
Session logs from a shared VPN mix your access records with other tenants' activity. Demonstrating that a specific person in your organisation made a particular connection becomes a matter of interpretation rather than fact.
Dedicated IP - Defensible Audit Trail
Every connection is tied to your fixed IP and a specific user credential. The records are clear and directly attributable - giving you a reliable picture of who accessed what and when.
Data Protection Accountability
Dedicated IP infrastructure supports your obligations to demonstrate controlled access to systems that process personal data. A Data Processing Agreement is available on request.
Performance: Dedicated Throughput vs Shared Congestion
Shared nodes serve many concurrent users - peak usage causes congestion and unpredictable latency
Shared IP
Throughput is shared across all concurrent users on the node. During peak periods, bandwidth contention causes latency spikes - affecting video calls, VoIP, and real-time data transfers.
Dedicated IP
Your node serves only your organisation. Throughput is consistent and predictable - no contention from other tenants, regardless of how busy the wider platform is.
Which Is Right for Your Business?
Both options have valid use cases - here is how to decide
Choose a Shared IP if…
- You only need personal privacy browsing
- You do not need a consistent IP for whitelisting
- Compliance and audit trails are not a requirement
- Cost is the overriding constraint
Choose a Dedicated IP if…
- Your team needs to whitelist access to SaaS tools, firewalls, or cloud security groups
- You need a clear record of who connected and when
- You need a clean, attributable audit trail for security, HR, or regulatory purposes
- You manage contractor or BYOD access that may need instant revocation
- IP reputation matters - you cannot afford to be blocklisted by a third party's behaviour
See: dedicated VPN for business · static IP VPN for remote teams · BYOD VPN infrastructure
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about dedicated IP vs shared IP VPN
What is the difference between a dedicated IP and a shared IP?
A dedicated IP is a fixed address assigned exclusively to your organisation - no other users share it. A shared IP is drawn from a pool used by many different users simultaneously. The key differences are IP reputation control, whitelisting reliability, and the ability to produce a clean audit trail.
Is a dedicated IP VPN more secure than a shared IP VPN?
In most business contexts, yes. A dedicated IP means your IP reputation is not affected by other users, your traffic is isolated at the node level, and session logs are cleanly attributable to your organisation's users. Shared IPs can be blocklisted due to other users' behaviour and make audit trails harder to maintain.
Do I need a dedicated IP for compliance?
If your compliance framework requires you to demonstrate who accessed which systems and when, a dedicated IP combined with session-level audit logs makes that significantly easier. Shared IPs complicate clean session attribution, which can be a weakness in an audit.
Is a dedicated IP worth the extra cost?
For businesses with compliance obligations, contractor access to manage, or systems that require IP whitelisting, yes. The cost of a security incident or a failed audit typically far outweighs the incremental cost of dedicated infrastructure.
How do I check if my IP is shared or dedicated?
Connect to your VPN and note your public IP address using a lookup tool, then reconnect later and check again. If the address changes between sessions, you are on a shared pool. If it stays the same, disconnect other devices and search the address online: shared IPs often appear on blocklists or are associated with data-centre pools used by many customers. You can check your current address with our free IP lookup tool.
What is the difference between a real IP and a shared IP?
A real IP (often called a dedicated or static IP) is an address assigned exclusively to you, so services you connect to always see the same, attributable address. A shared IP is used by many unrelated users at once, so services see traffic from strangers mixed with yours. If you need whitelisting, a clean reputation, or an audit trail, you need a real, dedicated IP.
Ready to Switch to a Dedicated IP?
Your organisation gets its own fixed IP, clean reputation, and full session audit trail - from day one.
Static IP - yours only
Single-tenant isolation
Full session audit logs