Things to Consider When Choosing an IPv4 Lease Provider

What do you do when you need a car, party supplies or tools for a short term? Most likely, you rent rather than buy to save money. The same applies to internet numbers. Since Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses are scarce due to global IPv4 exhaustion, buying IPv4s is expensive. Leasing, however, offers an amazing solution. Of course, picking the right IPv4 lease provider is even more important than picking the right car rental service.

An Internet Protocol address is a unique numeric or alphanumeric combination. It identifies any computer, phone or another device connected to the network. Naturally, the larger the number of intelligent devices, the higher the global IPv4 address demand. Whether IP resources are required for a limited time or a longer period, IPv4 lease is the perfect solution.

Are you an internet service provider (ISP) that requires more addresses in their IP space for end-users? A VPS provider looking to acquire more virtual machines and hosting services? Or perhaps an individual running an online business? IPv4 leasing can answer your needs. If you are curious about leasing, your next step is choosing an IP lease provider. Continue reading to learn how to choose the right one.

Key Takeaways

• Due to global IPv4 exhaustion and increasing sale prices, IPv4 lease emerged as the preferred solution for scaling businesses worldwide. 
• The main criteria for choosing the right IPv4 provider include the cost of leasing, scope of IP addresses, IP geolocation, abuse management and IP address management.
• The IPXO Marketplace provides access to millions of IPv4 addresses at low prices, IP geolocation services, professional abuse management and a custom IPAM dashboard. 

How did IP leasing begin?

IPv4 lease emerged as a solution that directly corresponded to the market’s demand. In 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), responsible for the global assignment of IP addresses, officially depleted its large pool of IPv4s. The number-one reason behind this has been the rapid growth of the internet.

The newest version of the Internet Protocol – IPv6 – offers a large IP space of 340 trillion trillion trillion unique IP addresses. Compared to the 4.29 billion IPs in the IPv4 address space, IPv6 seems to be far ahead.

However, the implementation of IPv6 has been ongoing for over a decade now and has barely surpassed 40%. That is because migrating from IPv4 requires vast professional and monetary resources. Moreover, many smart devices are compatible only with IPv4. Ultimately, it will take time to fully deploy IPv6, and the industry’s experts speculate that full adoption may take decades.

Despite the IP address space exhaustion, IPv4 remains dominant and the most demanded IP version. Unsurprisingly, in 2011, brokerages started actively facilitating IPv4 address buying and selling deals. Nonetheless, over time, IP address lease services proved to offer a faster, more secure and cost-efficient solution, able to solve the shortage of IPv4 resources in a much more sustainable way. 

How to start leasing IP addresses: 5 things to consider

IP leasing providers are companies that connect IP address holders that have unused IPv4 address space with businesses that do not have enough IPs. The minimum IP lease term can be as short as 24 hours, whereas the maximum leasing period – as long as years, depending on the service provider.

Here are five things to consider before you choose the preferred lease provider and sign a lease agreement. 

1. Cost of leasing

Leasing IP addresses for a month costs nearly a hundred times less than buying them. Leasing is cost-efficient, and low pricing ensures accessibility. IPv4 address lease costs vary depending on the service provider and the sizes of the leased IP blocks. Prices may slightly differ, depending on the platform, so I suggest researching your options carefully to find the one you prefer best.

2. Scope of IP addresses

Five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) – AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and RIPE NCC – are responsible for allocating the internet number resources (autonomous system numbers (ASNs) and IP addresses). At least, what’s left of them.

According to Geoff Huston, 49 8/s might remain unused. That is around 20% of the entire 4.29 billion IPv4 address space. These resources can be brought back into the market and, thanks to leasing, used repeatedly.

However, as in any business, some providers can only offer a small amount of IPs, while others, like the IPXO Marketplace, have millions of available addresses ready to assign. Evaluate how many IPs you need, and make sure that your preferred lease provider can supply your demand.

3. Different IP geolocation

IP geolocation is the physical location of the internet users’ devices that specific IP addresses are assigned to. If your chosen IPv4 lease marketplace offers this feature, it can help you access accurate location data and, in turn, significantly boost your website’s efficiency. 

Suppose you can lease IPv4 addresses from any geolocation. In that case, it will correspond to your web page traffic and enable you to create the best user experience via improved content and services.

4. Abuse management

When you choose to lease IPv4 addresses, they must be clean. Reliable IPv4 lease providers are supported by abuse prevention teams that constantly monitor and maintain IP reputation to prevent spam and other types of IP address abuse. Make sure that your chosen marketplace ensures professional abuse observability and vows to evaluate every client who wants to monetize or lease IPs.

Check out this infographic that shows what kinds of IP address abuse threats were reported by IPXO Marketplace clients in 2022 Q2 and how our Abuse Prevention team handled them.

5. General IP address management

Look for a lease provider that ensures easy IP management. In most cases, this feature helps manage the assets by allowing to make necessary changes, such as reassigning to different ASN, updating geolocation, updating DNS nameservers/PTR records, and so on. 

Moreover, easy IP management enables IP lessees to plan the acquisition of additional IPs or the termination of the IPs that are no longer needed. 

Why should you choose IPXO?

The IPXO Marketplace encompasses all of the features mentioned above and so much more. It is the world’s first fully automated IP lease and monetization marketplace, which is why we have accumulated in-depth experience to best correspond to the market’s needs.

These are the top benefits of joining the IPXO Marketplace:

• Low lease costs
• Large pool of IPs (millions of IPv4 addresses)
• IP geolocation services
• Custom IPAM dashboard
• Professional abuse management
• Easy provisioning

The average lease price per IPv4 address at the IPXO Marketplace was $0.48 per month (September 19, 2022 data). Here’s a lease vs. buy calculator that compares the costs of buying and leasing IP addresses or subnets.

It’s not all about the price. We also have a variety of IP blocks. The Marketplace provides great flexibility to clients who need a bigger IP space (i.e., more IPs) or bigger IP blocks. Our clients can order and lease IPv4 according to their demands. Whether you need smaller blocks (e.g., /24s) or larger ones (e.g., /16s), you can find what you need at IPXO.

When you know how many assets you need, you can then think about the geolocation. Our Marketplace clients can control and change the IP geolocation automatically. Moreover, they can lease IPv4 resources from all five Regional Internet Registries, which is a great luxury.

With the custom IPXO IPAM dashboard, you can search and choose IPv4 addresses & subnets according to price, RIRs and preferred location. And our automatic payments ensure that paying for the resources is quick and easy.

It is also crucial to note that abuse prevention and management are at the forefront of all IPXO operations. The anti-abuse team mitigates and prevents all types of abuse (e.g., spam or malware) and ensures that only reputable addresses are in circulation.

Last but not least – easy provisioning. Sign up and lease the resources you require without any fuss. Need to bring the leased IPs to Google Cloud, Amazon AWS or another infrastructure? We can support you and help you scale seamlessly. 

Check out the IPXO platform walkthrough or watch this video to see how easy it is to start leasing the resources you need.

IP leasing: Quick growth at a low cost

In the digital world that lacks IPv4 resources, IP lease has proven to be a cost-efficient solution that enables CDN providers, cybersecurity leaders, hosting companies and other organizations to use valuable resources sustainably. Plenty of platforms offer their services and enable clients to lease IPv4. Of course, it is up to them to choose the one that meets their demands best.

The IPXO Marketplace provides significant benefits and stands out in the IP lease market with the biggest number of IPv4 addresses to offer – 3 million IPs and counting.

Do you want to lease IPv4 and enjoy quick growth at low costs? Join IPXO for free and access the IPv4 assets you need to grow your business. If you need more details about the Marketplace and its many benefits, book a demo and discover how we can help you.