Should you prioritize residential or datacenter proxies?

I’ve been testing proxies for a small project and started wondering if residential ones are really worth prioritizing. I first used datacenter proxies because they were fast, but I noticed some tasks worked better with residential IPs. How do you usually decide which type makes more sense?

I started with datacenter proxies because I mainly cared about speed and keeping costs reasonable. They worked perfectly for some basic tasks, so I didn’t think much about residential options. Later, I had a project where consistency and having an IP that looked more like a normal home connection mattered more.

I’d probably avoid treating it as a strict either-or choice. I’ve used datacenter proxies for quick testing and general tasks, while residential ones have been more useful when I needed a broader mix of locations. When I was checking how something behaved from Italy, I looked through https://www.simplynode.io/locations/italy-proxies  to compare the available options. In my experience, the right choice depends heavily on the project, the locations you need, and how important stability is. Sometimes paying more for residential IPs makes sense, but other times a simple datacenter proxy does everything you need without adding unnecessary cost.