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9 Best Proxy Providers of 2026

This list is for developers and data teams who route scrapers, price monitors, SERP trackers and geo tests through residential, ISP, mobile or datacenter IPs. It covers large residential networks (Bright Data, Oxylabs, Decodo, SOAX), budget and mid-market providers (Webshare, IPRoyal, Rayobyte, Infatica) and Zyte API, which runs proxies and ban handling behind one proxy endpoint. We compared documented features and published prices for 9 providers. Prices change often and promotions are common, so check the linked pricing pages before you buy. Scores weigh features at 40%, ease of use at 30% and value at 30%.

By the Mojolin research desk · Updated November 10, 2026 · 9 tools compared · Prices checked on vendor pages, latest November 10, 2026

Questions or corrections: editorial@mojolin.com

Mojolin is self-funded How we score

Bright Data is our top pick: it lists 400M+ residential IPs in 195 countries with free targeting down to ZIP code and ASN, unlimited concurrent sessions and SOCKS5 support, though its $8 per GB pay-as-you-go list price is high without a coupon. Decodo is the best balance of price and ease, with 115M+ residential IPs, monthly plans from 3 GB and a 14-day money-back option. Oxylabs is the strongest single-subscription option, with one balance for residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter proxies plus its scraping API. Webshare is the cheapest way to start, IPRoyal suits teams that want traffic that never expires, and Zyte API fits Scrapy users who would rather pay per successful response than manage IP pools.

Top picks

Best overall

Bright Data

8.7 / 10

Data teams that need the widest residential coverage, fine targeting and enterprise SLAs, and can pay premium per-GB rates.

Read the review →

Runner-up

Decodo

8.6 / 10

Developers and small data teams that want reliable residential proxies on small monthly plans with clear per-GB prices.

Read the review →

Also great

Oxylabs

8.5 / 10

Data teams that use several proxy types and scraping APIs and want one balance and invoice for all of them.

Read the review →

Comparison table

#ToolPricingScore
1Bright DataResidential pay as you go lists at $8 per GB, shown at $4 per GB with a 50% coupon for 3 months; monthly plans from $499 for 141 GB; datacenter from $0.9 per IP8.7
2DecodoResidential pay as you go $4 per GB; monthly plans from $3.75 per GB for 3 GB ($11.25) down to $2 per GB on 1 TB; datacenter from $0.02 per IP8.6
3Oxylabs$5 welcome credit; one subscription for all products from $15 per month (Starter), then $100 and $500; residential from $6 per GB, datacenter from $1 per IP8.5
4WebshareFree plan with 10 proxies and 1 GB a month; datacenter from $2.99 per month for 100 proxies; static residential from $6 per month; rotating residential from $3.50 per GB; yearly billing saves 30%8.4
5IPRoyalResidential pay as you go from $7.35 per GB for 1 GB, $5.51 per GB at 10 GB, subscriptions 5% off; $1.75 per GB from 10 TB; datacenter from $1.39 per proxy8.3
6RayobytePremium Residential pay as you go from $3.50 per GB for 1 to 49 GB, down to $0.70 per GB at 1,000 GB; Scale Residential monthly plans from $100 for 6,600 GB; static datacenter from $0.85 per IP a month8.2
7Zyte API$5 free credit for 30 days; pay as you go from $0.13 per 1,000 HTTP responses on the simplest sites; monthly commitments from $100 lower the rates8.1
8SOAXFree Sandbox account with pay-as-you-go credits at $5 per GB (Tier 1); paid plans from $200 per month (Builder) with 200 credits, then $500, $1,500 and $3,000; prices exclude VAT8.0
9InfaticaResidential pay as you go $4 per GB; monthly packages from $96 for 25 GB ($3.84 per GB) to $2,600 for 1,000 GB; 7-day trial for $4; annual billing saves 20%7.7

Scoring weights

Every tool gets three editorial scores out of 10, from vendor documentation, product pages and the published price. The overall score is the weighted average below, the same method on every list. Full method

Features40%
Ease of use30%
Value30%

The full ranking

  1. Rank 1 · Best overall

    Bright Data

    Proxy network with 400M+ monthly residential IPs plus ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies and a family of scraping APIs.

    brightdata.com

    8.7

    out of 10

    Best for: Data teams that need the widest residential coverage, fine targeting and enterprise SLAs, and can pay premium per-GB rates.

    Bright Data has the deepest residential network in this comparison. The company lists more than 400 million monthly residential IPs across 195 countries, with targeting by country, state, city, ZIP code, carrier and ASN included at no extra charge. Residential proxies support HTTP/S and SOCKS5, sticky and rotating sessions and unlimited concurrent sessions, and the QUIC protocol is available for faster responses. Teams manage zones, sub-users, spend limits and usage from the control panel or the API, and the free Proxy Manager handles routing rules locally.

    The tradeoff is price. Residential pay as you go lists at $8 per GB, and at the time of checking a coupon cut it to $4 per GB for three months. Monthly plans start at $499 for 141 GB. ISP proxies start at $1.3 per IP and datacenter proxies at $0.9 per IP. Bright Data runs a strict KYC process and Bright Shield compliance checks, which slows onboarding but matters for regulated buyers.

    Standout feature

    400M+ monthly residential IPs with free ZIP, carrier and ASN targeting, the widest coverage in this list.

    Use cases

    • Ecommerce data teams

      Collect localized prices by ZIP code across many countries

      Outcome: Prices as shoppers in each area see them, from one network

    • Ad verification teams

      Check ad placements through carrier and ASN targeted IPs

      Outcome: Evidence of how ads appear on specific networks

    • Enterprise scraping teams

      Run high-concurrency crawls under an uptime SLA

      Outcome: Unlimited concurrent sessions with 24/7 engineer support

    Key features

    • 400M+ monthly residential IPs in 195 countries
    • Free targeting by country, state, city, ZIP code, carrier and ASN
    • HTTP/S and SOCKS5 protocols with sticky and rotating sessions
    • Unlimited concurrent sessions and a free Proxy Manager
    • Control panel and API for zones, sub-users and usage limits

    Pros

    • Largest residential pool in this list
    • SLA with 99.99% uptime and 24/7 engineer support
    • Proxies, scraping APIs and datasets under one account

    Cons

    • $8 per GB pay-as-you-go list price is the highest here
    • Monthly residential plans start at $499
    • Strict KYC before some targets and uses
  2. Rank 2 · Runner-up

    Decodo

    Proxy and scraping provider, formerly Smartproxy, with 115M+ residential IPs and simple per-GB plans.

    decodo.com

    8.6

    out of 10

    Best for: Developers and small data teams that want reliable residential proxies on small monthly plans with clear per-GB prices.

    Decodo, the company formerly called Smartproxy, keeps residential proxy buying simple. Every residential plan includes the full pool of 115M+ IPs in 195+ locations and free targeting by continent, country, state, city, ZIP code and ASN. Proxies support HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 with rotating or sticky sessions, and Decodo publishes a 99.92% success rate, under 0.5 second average response time and 99.99% uptime. Developers get official Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs, a CLI, browser extensions and integrations for n8n and LangChain.

    Pricing is bandwidth based and easy to read. Pay as you go is $4 per GB. Monthly subscriptions run from $3.75 per GB on a 3 GB plan, which totals $11.25, to $2.75 per GB on 100 GB, and enterprise plans go down to $2 per GB at 1 TB. Datacenter proxies start at $0.02 per IP. A 14-day money-back option lowers the risk of a first purchase.

    Standout feature

    Free ZIP and ASN targeting on a residential plan that starts at $11.25 a month.

    Use cases

    • Indie developers

      Route a Python scraper through residential IPs on a 3 GB plan

      Outcome: City-targeted residential traffic for $11.25 a month

    • SEO teams

      Track local search results with city and ZIP targeting

      Outcome: Local rankings without paying extra for targeting

    • AI engineers

      Fetch web pages for an agent through the SDK or MCP server

      Outcome: Live web data inside an agent workflow

    Key features

    • 115M+ residential IPs in 195+ locations
    • Continent, country, state, city, ZIP code and ASN targeting on every plan
    • HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 with rotating and sticky sessions
    • Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs plus a CLI
    • ISP, mobile and datacenter proxies and a Site Unblocker

    Pros

    • Entry plan costs $11.25 a month for 3 GB
    • Advanced targeting is free on all residential plans
    • 14-day money-back option

    Cons

    • Pool is smaller than Bright Data's and Oxylabs'
    • Lowest $2 per GB rate needs a 1 TB plan
    • Prices are shown before VAT
  3. Rank 3 · Also great

    Oxylabs

    Proxy and web data provider with 175M+ residential IPs and one subscription that covers every proxy type and its scraping API.

    oxylabs.io

    8.5

    out of 10

    Best for: Data teams that use several proxy types and scraping APIs and want one balance and invoice for all of them.

    Oxylabs is the most flexible buy for teams that mix proxy types. A single subscription covers residential, mobile, ISP, dedicated and shared datacenter proxies, Web Unblocker, the browser product and the scraping APIs, with plans at $15, $100 and $500 a month and enterprise deals from $2,500. Rates fall as the plan grows: residential is $6 per GB on Starter and $2.5 per GB at 1K+ GB, and shared datacenter proxies cost $1 per IP or $0.6 per GB.

    The residential pool lists 175M+ IPs across 195 countries with targeting by country, state, city, ZIP, coordinates and ASN. It supports HTTP(S), SOCKS5 and native HTTP/3 through MASQUE, sticky sessions up to 24 hours and unlimited concurrent sessions. Developers get an endpoint generator, a public API for proxy users and code samples for Python, Node.js, Go, Java and more. New accounts get a $5 welcome credit once, and self-service purchases are non-refundable.

    Standout feature

    One subscription spends across every proxy type and the scraping APIs, starting at $15 a month.

    Use cases

    • Data platform teams

      Run residential, datacenter and SERP jobs from one balance

      Outcome: One invoice and one dashboard for every proxy type

    • QA engineers

      Test checkout flows from different countries with sticky IPs

      Outcome: The same IP held for up to 24 hours per test session

    • Performance-focused crawlers

      Reach HTTP/3 targets natively through MASQUE

      Outcome: Fewer setup round trips than TCP fallback

    Key features

    • 175M+ residential IPs in 195 countries
    • Targeting by country, state, city, ZIP, coordinates and ASN
    • HTTP(S), HTTP/3 and SOCKS5 with sticky sessions up to 24 hours
    • Unlimited concurrent sessions
    • One subscription for residential, mobile, ISP, datacenter, Web Unblocker and scraping APIs

    Pros

    • Starter plan at $15 a month spends across every product
    • Native HTTP/3 and QUIC support through MASQUE
    • Public API for proxy user management and code samples for Python, Node.js, PHP, Go, Java and C#

    Cons

    • Residential rate is $6 per GB on small plans
    • Self-service purchases are non-refundable
    • Some targeting filters need KYC
  4. Rank 4

    Webshare

    Self-serve proxy provider with cheap datacenter proxy servers, static residential (ISP) proxies and rotating residential bandwidth.

    webshare.io

    8.4

    out of 10

    Best for: Developers who want a free plan or very cheap datacenter proxies for scrapers, bots and tests.

    Webshare is the cheapest way to put a scraper or test suite behind proxies. The free plan includes 10 shared proxies and 1 GB of bandwidth a month with HTTP and SOCKS5, with no time limit and no credit card. Paid datacenter proxy servers start at $2.99 a month for 100 proxies and fall to $0.0179 per proxy at 60,000, with 250 GB of bandwidth included and an unlimited bandwidth upgrade. Webshare lists 50+ countries and 99.97% uptime for this network.

    For harder targets, static residential (ISP) proxies start at $6 a month for 20 proxies, and rotating residential bandwidth starts at $3.50 per GB and drops to $1.40 per GB at 3,000 GB, with 80M+ IPs and targeting by country, city, state, ZIP or ASN. The default prices are for shared proxies; private and dedicated proxies cost more. Plan changes are prorated and yearly billing saves 30%.

    Standout feature

    A permanent free plan with 10 proxies and paid datacenter proxies from $2.99 a month.

    Use cases

    • Hobby developers

      Test a scraper on the free 10-proxy plan

      Outcome: Working proxy rotation at no cost

    • QA teams

      Spread load tests across 100 datacenter IPs

      Outcome: Many source IPs for $2.99 a month

    • Growth engineers

      Add rotating residential traffic for a few blocked targets

      Outcome: Residential IPs only where datacenter IPs fail

    Key features

    • Free plan with 10 shared proxies and 1 GB of monthly bandwidth
    • Datacenter proxy servers in 50+ countries with HTTP and SOCKS5
    • Static residential (ISP) proxies from $0.30 per proxy
    • 80M+ rotating residential IPs with country, city, state, ZIP and ASN targeting
    • Shared, private and dedicated access options

    Pros

    • Permanent free plan with no credit card
    • Lowest entry price in this list at $2.99 a month
    • Change or cancel plans at any time, paying only the difference

    Cons

    • Default prices are for shared proxies used by several customers
    • Datacenter plans include 250 GB unless you upgrade bandwidth
    • Some residential targets need KYC
  5. Rank 5

    IPRoyal

    Proxy provider with 64M+ residential IPs billed per GB, plus ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies.

    iproyal.com

    8.3

    out of 10

    Best for: Teams with irregular scraping volume that want residential traffic that never expires.

    IPRoyal stands out for one billing detail: residential traffic never expires, so a team that scrapes in bursts can buy bandwidth in bulk and use it over months. The residential network lists 64M+ IPs in 195+ countries, with rotation per request or at set intervals and sticky sessions of up to 7 days, longer than any other provider here. IPRoyal also sells ISP proxies from $1.80 per proxy, datacenter proxies in 50+ countries with unlimited threads from $1.39 per proxy, mobile proxies and a Web Unblocker.

    Prices are higher on small purchases. Pay as you go residential traffic costs $7.35 per GB for 1 GB and $5.51 per GB for 10 GB, and subscriptions save 5%. The $1.75 per GB rate in the headline needs 10 TB. Browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, a proxy tester and an online proxy checker help with setup and debugging.

    Standout feature

    Residential traffic that never expires and sticky sessions of up to 7 days.

    Use cases

    • Research teams

      Buy residential bandwidth once for several short projects

      Outcome: Traffic stays available until it is used

    • Account management tools

      Hold one residential IP for days during long sessions

      Outcome: Sticky sessions of up to 7 days

    • Bot developers

      Run many threads through dedicated datacenter IPs

      Outcome: Unlimited threads per proxy at a fixed price

    Key features

    • 64M+ residential IPs in 195+ countries
    • Residential traffic that never expires
    • Sticky sessions of up to 7 days or rotation per request
    • Datacenter proxies in 50+ countries with unlimited threads
    • Chrome and Firefox proxy extensions and a proxy tester

    Pros

    • Unused traffic does not expire
    • Longest sticky sessions in this list
    • No contracts on residential traffic

    Cons

    • $7.35 per GB on a 1 GB purchase is expensive
    • Lowest $1.75 per GB rate starts at 10 TB
    • Smaller pool than the largest networks
  6. Rank 6

    Rayobyte

    Proxy provider that owns its residential network and sells rotating, static and mobile proxies plus a scraping API.

    rayobyte.com

    8.2

    out of 10

    Best for: High-volume data teams that can pass a compliance review and want very low per-GB rates on large monthly plans.

    Rayobyte runs two residential products on a network it says it owns. Premium Residential is pay as you go, starting at $3.50 per GB for 1 to 49 GB and falling to $0.70 per GB at 1,000 GB, with country, city, ZIP code and ASN targeting in 190+ countries, sticky sessions of up to 120 minutes and unlimited concurrent requests. Scale Residential is a monthly product for verified businesses: $100 a month buys 6,600 GB at $0.0150 per GB, and the rate drops to $0.0095 per GB on the $5,000 plan, but it has no targeting, allows 1 concurrent request per $1 of plan and opens only after a compliance review.

    Rayobyte also sells rotating ISP and datacenter proxies, static ISP and datacenter IPs from $0.85 per IP a month, mobile proxies, a Scraping API and the rayobrowse browser. It is EWDCI certified and blocks banks, government sites and login pages on its residential network.

    Standout feature

    Scale Residential plans price traffic at $0.0150 per GB on the entry plan, far below typical residential rates.

    Use cases

    • AI data teams

      Crawl public pages at multi-terabyte scale for training sets

      Outcome: Thousands of GB a month at cents per GB

    • Price monitoring teams

      Collect prices by city and ZIP code with Premium Residential

      Outcome: Local results with per-request IP control

    • Bot operators

      Run fixed static datacenter IPs on allowlisted systems

      Outcome: Stable IPs from $0.85 each a month

    Key features

    • Premium Residential with country, city, ZIP code and ASN targeting in 190+ countries
    • Scale Residential monthly plans with very low per-GB rates
    • Sticky sessions of up to 120 minutes and unlimited concurrent requests
    • Rotating ISP, rotating datacenter, static ISP, static datacenter and mobile proxies
    • Scraping API, Web Unblocker and the rayobrowse stealth browser

    Pros

    • Scale Residential starts at $0.0150 per GB on a $100 plan
    • Free trial on most products with no credit card
    • EWDCI certified with banks, government sites and login pages blocked

    Cons

    • Scale Residential needs a compliance review and has no targeting
    • Premium sticky sessions top out at 120 minutes
    • Scale concurrency is tied to plan size
  7. Rank 7

    Zyte API

    Web scraping API from the makers of Scrapy that picks residential, datacenter or mobile IPs and handles bans, also usable as a drop-in proxy.

    zyte.com

    8.1

    out of 10

    Best for: Scrapy and Python teams that want to replace a proxy pool with an endpoint that handles bans and charges per successful response.

    Zyte API is the managed alternative to buying raw IPs. It picks residential, datacenter or mobile IPs per request, rotates them and handles bans, CAPTCHAs and sessions, and it uses residential proxies only when a site needs them. Proxy mode exposes all of this at api.zyte.com:8011, so existing code built on requests, Node.js, Java or Scrapy can switch by changing the proxy URL and using a Zyte API key, with extra headers for features such as browser rendering. The scrapy-zyte-smartproxy plugin, built for Zyte Smart Proxy Manager, works with it too.

    Pricing is per successful response, in five tiers set by how hard each website is. Pay as you go costs $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $1.01 to $16.08 per 1,000 browser-rendered pages. Monthly commitments of $100, $200 or $500 lower those rates, with no overage penalty. New users get $5 of credit for 30 days. The tradeoff is control: you cannot pick specific IPs or hold one for hours.

    Standout feature

    A drop-in proxy endpoint that charges only for successful responses and picks the IP type per request.

    Use cases

    • Scrapy developers

      Point an existing spider at Zyte API proxy mode

      Outcome: Ban handling without rewriting the crawler

    • Data teams with mixed targets

      Scrape easy and protected sites through one endpoint

      Outcome: Residential IPs paid for only where needed

    • Teams on scrapy-zyte-smartproxy

      Set ZYTE_SMARTPROXY_URL to the Zyte API endpoint

      Outcome: The same plugin, now backed by Zyte API

    Key features

    • Automatic rotation across residential, datacenter and mobile IPs
    • Proxy mode at api.zyte.com:8011 for existing proxy code
    • Automatic ban handling, CAPTCHA solving and session management
    • Browser rendering and AI extraction on the same API
    • scrapy-zyte-smartproxy support for Scrapy projects

    Pros

    • Charged only for successful responses
    • Residential IPs used only when a site needs them
    • Proxy mode works with existing proxy code by changing the URL and key

    Cons

    • No direct choice of individual IPs or long sticky IPs
    • Browser-rendered pages cost far more per request
    • Per-site tier pricing makes budgets harder to estimate in advance
  8. Rank 8

    SOAX

    Residential and mobile proxy provider with credit-based plans and one rate across both networks.

    soax.com

    8.0

    out of 10

    Best for: Teams that want residential and mobile IPs on one rate card, with separate proxy packages per project.

    SOAX rebuilt its pricing around credits that work across residential and mobile proxies at one rate. A free Sandbox account lets you buy top-up credits at Sandbox rates, $5 per GB for Tier 1 countries. Paid plans cost $200, $500, $1,500 and $3,000 a month, include the same number of credits, and lower the Tier 1 rate from $3.00 to $1.50 per GB, with enterprise rates from $0.85. The country of the exit IP sets the tier, and Tier 3 countries cost less. Credits roll over for 60 days.

    SOAX covers 195+ countries with over 12 million residential and mobile IPs. Targeting by country, region, city and ISP is on every plan, and ASN and ZIP come with Scale. Proxies support HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5, and rotation can be per request, after a set number of requests or sticky. Proxy packages give each project its own authentication, limits and usage tracking. There is no free trial.

    Standout feature

    One credit balance and rate card across residential and mobile proxies, split into per-project packages.

    Use cases

    • Agencies

      Give each client project its own proxy package

      Outcome: Separate credentials, limits and usage reports per client

    • Mobile app testers

      Check app behavior through carrier IPs in several countries

      Outcome: Mobile traffic at the same rate as residential

    • Data teams

      Shift spend toward Tier 3 countries where possible

      Outcome: Lower per-GB cost on the same plan

    Key features

    • Residential and mobile IPs in 195+ countries on one rate
    • Targeting by country, region, city, ISP and ASN
    • HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 with per-request, per-N-request or sticky rotation
    • Proxy packages with their own authentication, limits and usage tracking
    • Credits that roll over for 60 days

    Pros

    • One rate across residential and mobile traffic
    • Proxy packages separate projects and teams cleanly
    • Sandbox account costs nothing to open

    Cons

    • Paid plans start at $200 a month
    • Sandbox includes no credits and there is no free trial
    • ASN and ZIP targeting need the Scale plan
  9. Rank 9

    Infatica

    Proxy provider with 45M+ residential IPs, IPv6 residential, ISP, mobile and datacenter proxies and a scraper API.

    infatica.io

    7.7

    out of 10

    Best for: Teams that want mid-priced residential proxies with proxy lists and a short paid trial.

    Infatica is a mid-priced residential provider built around proxy lists. Each plan includes 45M+ residential IPs, up to 20 proxy lists at a time with 1,000 ports each, country, city and ISP targeting, rotation time selection, SOCKS and HTTP protocols and authentication by login and password or IP whitelist. Infatica lists 99.9% uptime and unlimited concurrent sessions, and it also sells residential IPv6, static ISP, mobile and shared or dedicated datacenter proxies, plus a scraper product.

    Residential pay as you go costs $4 per GB. Monthly packages start at $96 for 25 GB, or $3.84 per GB, and reach $2.6 per GB at 1,000 GB, with 20% off for annual billing. Residential IPv6 starts at $6 per GB. A 7-day trial costs $4. Compared with the leaders, the pool is smaller and ZIP or ASN targeting is not listed, so Infatica fits city-level work better than hyperlocal collection.

    Standout feature

    Proxy lists with up to 20 lists of 1,000 ports each on every residential plan.

    Use cases

    • Scraping tools with port-based configs

      Load proxy lists with fixed ports into a crawler

      Outcome: Up to 20 lists of 1,000 ports each

    • Market researchers

      Collect city-level results across the Americas, Europe and Asia

      Outcome: Local pages from residential IPs in major cities

    • Teams evaluating providers

      Run a one-week paid trial before committing

      Outcome: A real test for $4

    Key features

    • 45M+ residential IPs on every plan
    • Country, city and ISP targeting with rotation time selection
    • SOCKS and HTTP protocols with login or IP whitelist auth
    • Up to 20 proxy lists with 1,000 ports each
    • Residential IPv6, ISP, mobile and shared or dedicated datacenter proxies

    Pros

    • 7-day trial for $4
    • Unlimited concurrent sessions
    • Annual billing saves 20%

    Cons

    • No ZIP or ASN targeting listed for residential plans
    • Smallest residential pool in this list
    • Lowest monthly rate of $2.6 per GB needs a 1,000 GB plan

Buying guide

How to choose

Match the IP type to the target

Datacenter IPs are the cheapest and fastest and work for many APIs, public pages and load tests, but protected sites block them more often. Residential IPs come from real household devices and pass more anti-bot checks at a higher price per GB. ISP or static residential proxies give you a residential IP that stays the same for long sessions, and mobile IPs are for targets that only trust carrier traffic. Most teams start with datacenter IPs and move only the hard targets to residential.

Price your real traffic, not the headline rate

Residential proxies are billed per GB, so page weight matters more than request count. Block images, fonts and media in your scraper and measure a typical run before you compare plans. Headline rates often need large commitments: IPRoyal's $1.75 per GB starts at 10 TB, and Rayobyte's lowest Scale rate needs a $5,000 monthly plan. Also check whether unused traffic rolls over, because IPRoyal's traffic never expires while SOAX credits roll over for 60 days.

Check targeting and session controls

Price checks and SERP tracking need city or ZIP targeting, and logins or checkouts need sticky sessions that hold one IP. Session limits differ: Oxylabs holds a sticky IP for up to 24 hours, IPRoyal for up to 7 days and Rayobyte Premium Residential for up to 120 minutes. Confirm that ZIP and ASN targeting are included on your plan, since some vendors reserve them for higher tiers.

Decide between raw proxies and a proxy API

Raw proxies give you full control but leave retries, fingerprints and CAPTCHAs to your code. Proxy APIs such as Zyte API in proxy mode, Bright Data's scraping products and Oxylabs Web Unblocker pick IPs, retry and render pages for you, and you pay per request or per successful response. If your team spends more time fighting blocks than writing parsers, a managed API is often cheaper in total.

Plan for compliance checks

Reputable residential networks run KYC checks, and several only open some targets after verification, including Bright Data, Oxylabs and Webshare. Rayobyte blocks banks, government sites and login pages on its residential network. Budget a day for account verification and read the acceptable use policy before you point production jobs at a new provider.

Frequently asked questions

+What is the best proxy provider for web scraping?

Bright Data is the strongest overall, with 400M+ residential IPs in 195 countries and free ZIP and ASN targeting. Decodo is the best value for small teams, with residential plans from $3.75 per GB, and Oxylabs is best when you need several proxy types and scraping APIs on one subscription.

+Should I use residential or datacenter proxies?

Start with datacenter proxies for public pages, APIs and load tests, because they are cheap and fast; Webshare sells 100 for $2.99 a month. Move to residential proxies for sites that block datacenter ranges, and expect to pay per GB, from about $3.50 to $8 per GB on small purchases in this list.

+What is the cheapest proxy provider?

Webshare has a permanent free plan with 10 proxies and 1 GB a month, and paid datacenter plans from $2.99 a month. For residential traffic at very high volume, Rayobyte's Scale Residential plans start at $100 a month for 6,600 GB, but they need a compliance review and have no targeting.

+Which proxy providers offer a free trial?

Oxylabs gives new accounts a $5 welcome credit once, Zyte API gives $5 of credit for 30 days, and Webshare has a free plan. Decodo offers a 14-day money-back option, Infatica has a 7-day trial for $4, and SOAX has no free trial.

+How long can a sticky session keep the same IP?

It depends on the provider. IPRoyal allows sticky sessions of up to 7 days, Oxylabs up to 24 hours and Rayobyte Premium Residential up to 120 minutes. Check the limit before running logins or checkouts that span many steps.

About this list

Updated November 10, 2026 by the Mojolin research desk. Mojolin is self-funded

Questions or corrections: editorial@mojolin.com

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