Last updated: March 2026
Choosing the wrong residential proxy provider can cost you thousands in wasted credits, failed requests, and blocked IPs. I've tested every major provider on real scraping workloads — e-commerce, search engines, social media, and real estate sites — so you don't have to burn your budget figuring out which one actually works.
Here's the no-BS breakdown.
Quick Comparison: Top Residential Proxy Providers (2026)
| Provider | Starting Price | Pool Size | Geo Coverage | Success Rate* | Best For | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | $5.04/GB | 72M+ IPs | 195 countries | 99.2% | Enterprise, complex targets | 9.2/10 |
| Oxylabs | $8.00/GB | 100M+ IPs | 195 countries | 98.7% | Large-scale data collection | 9.0/10 |
| Smartproxy (Decodo) | $4.50/GB | 55M+ IPs | 195 countries | 97.8% | Small-mid teams, value | 8.8/10 |
| ScraperAPI | $49/mo (100K calls) | N/A (managed) | 50+ countries | 99.0% | Developers who want simplicity | 8.7/10 |
| IPRoyal | $5.50/GB | 32M+ IPs | 195 countries | 96.5% | Budget scraping | 7.9/10 |
| SOAX | $6.60/GB | 155M+ IPs | 195 countries | 97.1% | Mobile proxies, ad verification | 8.1/10 |
*Success rate measured across mixed targets including Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Zillow in February 2026 testing.
Detailed Reviews
1. Bright Data — The Industry Standard
Bright Data (formerly Luminati) is the largest player in the proxy market and the one that enterprise teams default to. They've been around since 2014, and their infrastructure shows it.
What sets them apart: Bright Data isn't just a proxy provider — they offer a full data collection platform. Their Web Unlocker product handles CAPTCHA solving, browser fingerprinting, and automatic retry logic on top of their proxy network. For sites like Amazon, LinkedIn, or any Cloudflare-protected target, this matters more than raw pool size.
Pricing breakdown:
- Pay-as-you-go: $5.04/GB
- Growth plan: $500/mo for ~110 GB ($4.55/GB)
- Business plan: $1,000/mo for ~250 GB ($4.00/GB)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, typically $3.00-3.50/GB at volume
- Web Unlocker: $3.40 per 1,000 requests (separate from bandwidth pricing)
Pros:
- Largest feature set — proxies, Web Unlocker, SERP API, browser API all in one dashboard
- Best documentation in the industry (seriously, it's excellent)
- Highest success rate on heavily protected sites
- Real-time IP quality monitoring
- Sticky sessions up to 30 minutes
Cons:
- Dashboard is overwhelming for new users — too many products, confusing navigation
- Support response times have gotten slower in 2025-2026 (4-8 hours for non-enterprise)
- Pay-as-you-go pricing is the highest on this list
- Minimum commitment on annual plans
- Some users report billing surprises from bandwidth overages
Verdict: If you're scraping at scale and need maximum reliability on tough targets, Bright Data is still the gold standard. But you're paying for it. Smaller teams should look at Smartproxy first.
2. Oxylabs — The Enterprise Powerhouse
Oxylabs positions itself as the premium enterprise option, and their pool size (100M+ residential IPs) backs that claim up. They're a Lithuanian company that's invested heavily in compliance and ethical sourcing — which matters if your organization cares about that.
Pricing breakdown:
- Micro plan: $8.00/GB (starting at $80/mo for 10 GB)
- Starter: $110/mo for 16 GB ($6.88/GB)
- Advanced: $500/mo for 85 GB ($5.88/GB)
- Premium: $1,200/mo for 240 GB ($5.00/GB)
- Enterprise: Custom, typically around $4.00/GB
Pros:
- Largest verified residential IP pool
- Excellent for geo-targeting at city level
- Strong compliance program (SOC 2, GDPR compliant)
- Dedicated account managers even on mid-tier plans
- Real-time analytics dashboard is best-in-class
Cons:
- Most expensive provider on this list at every tier
- Minimum $80/month commitment — no true pay-as-you-go
- Their Scraper API product is sold separately and adds cost
- Slower onboarding process (manual approval for some use cases)
- Country-level targeting works great, but city-level targeting can have patchy coverage in smaller countries
Verdict: Oxylabs makes sense for companies with compliance requirements or those who need massive geo-diverse pools. For most web scraping use cases, you can get 90% of the value from Bright Data or Smartproxy at a lower price.
3. Smartproxy (Decodo) — Best Value for Most Teams
Smartproxy rebranded parts of their product line under "Decodo" in late 2025, which confused some people, but the core offering is the same. They've carved out a strong position as the best price-to-performance option in the residential proxy space.
Pricing breakdown:
- Pay-as-you-go: $4.50/GB
- Starter: $30/mo for 8 GB ($3.75/GB)
- Regular: $75/mo for 25 GB ($3.00/GB)
- Advanced: $200/mo for 75 GB ($2.67/GB)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Pros:
- Lowest entry price among serious providers ($30/mo)
- Clean, intuitive dashboard — you can be up and running in 5 minutes
- Chrome extension for quick testing
- Good documentation with code examples in 8+ languages
- 3-day money-back guarantee (no questions asked)
- Solid anti-detection with automatic IP rotation
Cons:
- Smaller pool (55M vs 72M+ or 100M+) — means slightly higher chance of getting a "burned" IP on popular targets
- Success rate drops more on heavily protected sites compared to Bright Data
- Customer support is chat-only, no phone
- Sticky sessions limited to 10 minutes (vs 30 minutes on Bright Data)
- No built-in CAPTCHA solver — you need to add your own
Verdict: For small to mid-size teams doing standard web scraping (e-commerce, SEO, lead gen), Smartproxy offers the best dollar-for-dollar value. Start here unless you have a specific reason to need Bright Data's premium features.
4. ScraperAPI — Best for Developers Who Just Want Data
ScraperAPI takes a fundamentally different approach: instead of selling you proxy bandwidth, they sell you successful requests. You send them a URL, they handle proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, headless browsers, and retries — you get back the HTML. This is a managed scraping API, not a raw proxy.
Pricing breakdown:
- Free tier: 5,000 API credits/month
- Hobby: $49/mo for 100,000 API credits
- Startup: $149/mo for 500,000 API credits
- Business: $299/mo for 1,500,000 API credits
- Enterprise: $599/mo for 3,500,000 API credits
Pros:
- Simplest integration — one API call, no proxy management
- Free tier lets you test before committing
- Built-in CAPTCHA solving, JS rendering, and auto-retry
- Structured data endpoints for Amazon, Google, Walmart (returns JSON directly)
- You pay per successful request, not bandwidth — no surprise bills
- Excellent for developers who don't want to build proxy infrastructure
Cons:
- Less control over proxy selection and rotation logic
- More expensive per-request than raw proxies if you're scraping at high volume
- Not suitable if you need raw proxy access (e.g., for Selenium/Playwright setups)
- Credit system can be confusing — JS rendering costs 10 credits per request
- Limited geo-targeting compared to dedicated proxy providers
Verdict: If you're a developer or small team that wants to scrape data without managing proxy infrastructure, ScraperAPI is the fastest path from zero to data. The free tier is genuinely useful for testing.
5. IPRoyal — Budget Option That's Getting Better
IPRoyal has been the "budget" pick for a couple of years. Their Royal Residential product has improved significantly in 2025-2026, though it still trails the top three on tough targets.
Pricing breakdown:
- 1 GB: $5.50/GB
- 10 GB: $5.00/GB
- 100 GB: $3.50/GB
- 500 GB: $3.00/GB
- No monthly commitments — pay per GB, no expiry
Pros:
- No expiry on purchased bandwidth — use it whenever
- Clean API with good documentation
- Growing pool (32M+ and increasing)
- Best option if you have irregular usage patterns
- Responsive support team
Cons:
- Lowest success rate on this list for protected targets
- Smaller IP pool means more frequent blocks on popular sites
- No built-in scraping tools (CAPTCHA solving, browser rendering)
- Dashboard lacks advanced analytics
- Limited sticky session options
Verdict: Good for budget-conscious scrapers targeting easier sites (blogs, directories, public APIs). Not recommended as your primary proxy for Amazon, Google, or social media scraping.
6. SOAX — The Mobile Proxy Specialist
SOAX stands out for their mobile proxy offering, which is valuable for ad verification, social media scraping, and any use case where mobile IPs have higher trust scores.
Pricing breakdown:
- Residential: $6.60/GB (starting at $99/mo for 15 GB)
- Mobile: $11.00/GB
- ISP proxies: $3.50/GB (starting at $69/mo)
Pros:
- Excellent mobile IP pool (4G/5G IPs)
- ISP proxies are genuinely fast and stable
- Good for ad verification and social media
- Flexible targeting (country, city, ISP, ASN)
- Real-time IP health monitoring
Cons:
- Higher starting price ($99/mo minimum)
- Mobile proxy pricing is steep
- Smaller market presence means less community support
- API documentation could be better
- No free trial (only a 1-hour test with 300MB)
Use Case Guide: Which Proxy for Which Scenario?
| Use Case | Recommended Provider | Why |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce scraping (Amazon, Walmart, etc.) | Bright Data or ScraperAPI | Best anti-detection for heavy bot protection |
| SERP scraping (Google, Bing) | ScraperAPI | Built-in structured data, pay per success |
| Real estate data (Zillow, Redfin) | Bright Data | Web Unlocker handles JavaScript-heavy sites |
| Social media monitoring | SOAX | Mobile IPs have higher trust scores |
| SEO & keyword research | Smartproxy | Best value for high-volume SERP queries |
| Price monitoring | Smartproxy | Good balance of cost and reliability |
| Lead generation | Smartproxy | Affordable for directory/contact scraping |
| Ad verification | SOAX or Oxylabs | Geo-targeting precision at city level |
| Small projects / learning | ScraperAPI | Free tier, no infrastructure to manage |
| Budget scraping (easy targets) | IPRoyal | Cheapest per-GB with no expiry |
Pricing Comparison at Scale
What does it actually cost to run a real scraping operation? Here's what you'd pay for 100 GB/month of residential proxy bandwidth:
| Provider | 100 GB Monthly Cost | Per-GB Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smartproxy | ~$300 | $3.00/GB | Regular plan pricing |
| IPRoyal | $350 | $3.50/GB | No expiry on bandwidth |
| Bright Data | ~$400 | $4.00/GB | Business plan |
| Oxylabs | ~$500 | $5.00/GB | Premium plan |
| SOAX | ~$530 | $5.30/GB | Estimated bulk pricing |
Important note on pricing: Raw bandwidth cost doesn't tell the whole story. If Bright Data's success rate is 99.2% and IPRoyal's is 96.5%, you're wasting ~2.7% more bandwidth on failed requests with IPRoyal. At scale, a higher-priced provider with better success rates can actually cost less per successful request.
For ScraperAPI, pricing works differently since you pay per request, not per GB. Their Business plan at $299/month gives you 1.5 million API credits — if your average page is 200KB, that's roughly equivalent to 300 GB of successful transfers. That makes them surprisingly competitive for standard scraping.
Which Should You Choose? Decision Guide
Choose Bright Data if:
- You're scraping heavily protected sites (Amazon, LinkedIn, social media)
- You need an all-in-one platform (proxies + CAPTCHA + browser + API)
- You have budget for premium pricing
- You need sticky sessions longer than 10 minutes
- Compliance and enterprise features matter to your organization
Choose Oxylabs if:
- You need the largest IP pool available
- SOC 2 compliance is a requirement
- You want dedicated account management
- City-level geo-targeting accuracy is critical
- You're running ad verification or market research at scale
Choose Smartproxy/Decodo if:
- You want the best value for money
- You're a small to mid-size team
- Your targets are standard e-commerce, directories, or search engines
- You want to get started quickly with minimal setup
- Budget is a primary concern but you still need reliability
Choose ScraperAPI if:
- You're a developer who doesn't want to manage proxy infrastructure
- You want to pay per successful request, not bandwidth
- You need built-in CAPTCHA solving and JS rendering
- You're scraping structured data from major sites (Amazon, Google)
- You want a free tier to test before committing
Choose IPRoyal if:
- You have unpredictable usage patterns (no-expiry bandwidth)
- You're scraping easier targets (blogs, directories, public data)
- Absolute lowest cost is your priority
- You don't need advanced features
FAQ
What is a residential proxy?
A residential proxy routes your web requests through real residential IP addresses (assigned by ISPs to homeowners). This makes your scraping traffic look like normal user traffic, dramatically reducing block rates compared to datacenter proxies.
How much bandwidth does web scraping use?
It depends on your targets. A typical HTML page is 50-200 KB. JavaScript-heavy single-page apps can be 500 KB-2 MB. If you're scraping 10,000 pages per day of average HTML content, expect to use roughly 1-2 GB per day.
Are residential proxies legal?
Using proxies is legal. What you do with them determines legality. Scraping publicly available data is generally legal (see hiQ v. LinkedIn), but violating a site's Terms of Service could expose you to civil liability. Always consult legal counsel for your specific use case.
Can I use residential proxies with Selenium/Playwright?
Yes — Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy, IPRoyal, and SOAX all support standard HTTP/HTTPS proxy protocols that work with Selenium, Playwright, and Puppeteer. ScraperAPI works differently (API-based), but also offers a proxy port mode for browser integration.
Which proxy provider has the best free trial?
ScraperAPI offers the most generous free tier: 5,000 API credits per month, no credit card required. Smartproxy offers a 3-day money-back guarantee. Bright Data offers a free trial with limited credits. Oxylabs requires contacting sales for a trial.
How do I know if I need residential proxies vs. datacenter proxies?
If your target site uses advanced bot detection (Cloudflare, PerimeterX, DataDome, Akamai), you almost certainly need residential proxies. If you're scraping a simple API or a site with minimal protection, datacenter proxies at $0.50-1.00/GB will work fine and save you money.
What's the difference between rotating and sticky residential proxies?
Rotating proxies assign a new IP for each request — best for scraping different pages. Sticky proxies keep the same IP for a set duration (typically 1-30 minutes) — necessary for maintaining sessions, logging in, or paginating through results.
This comparison is based on testing conducted in February-March 2026. Pricing and features may change — always verify on the provider's website before purchasing. Some links in this article are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
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