Top 10 Best Residential Proxy Service Providers in 2025

Residential proxies are narrow alleys that let you drive through anti-bot nets without getting spotted or flagged. They belong to real devices, real homes, and real people. And in 2025, everyone is after the best-performing proxies. Every AI startup seeking data for AI training, every market intelligence team, every SaaS founder who is looking for competitive data – they all want residential IPs.

However, because there are so many residential proxy service providers in the market, everyone is also asking the same question: "Which is the best residential proxy service provider in 2025?" Keep reading to find out.

What are residential proxies?

A residential proxy is an IP address provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to a homeowner or individual user. Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are assigned to real user devices.

These proxies enable you to route your internet traffic through residential IP addresses, making it seem like the requests come from real residential users rather than datacenters or commercial servers.

Why do you need residential proxies?

There are several solid reasons for individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses to use residential proxies, including:

  • Anonymity and privacy. Residential proxies can help protect your online privacy by masking your actual IP address. With a proxy, all of your internet activity appears to come from a different device, enhancing your anonymity and keeping trackers off of you.
  • Web scraping. In bigger data collection projects, scrapers enable you to access webpages without triggering Cloudflare errors 1006, 1007, 1008 or other blocks. They mimic genuine user behavior by rotating residential IP addresses, this way avoiding anti-bot measures.
  • Accessing restricted content. Some websites, services, or online platforms might have geo-restrictions. You can bypass them by using residential proxies from specific locations, avoiding issues like Cloudflare error 1009.
  • Ad verification and SEO monitoring. Residential proxies are valuable for ad verification and search engine optimization (SEO). By simulating user behavior from target locations, you can check if your ads are displayed correctly and monitor search engine rankings locally.
  • Social media management. If you're a marketer, residential proxies can help you with managing multiple social media accounts or engaging with audiences in different regions. This way, you can tailor your content and engagement strategies to specific audiences.
  • Market research and competitor analysis. You can gain insights into local trends, consumer behavior, and competitor strategies by accessing location-specific websites, forums, or social media platforms using geo-targeted IPs.

Check our case studies to see how brands specifically use Decodo's residential proxies for research, innovation, and growth.

Residential proxies vs. other types of proxies

Different proxies serve different purpose, so it’s important to understand how residential proxies compare against other types of proxies:

  • Datacenter proxies are budget-friendly and offer faster speeds, at the cost of being easier to detect and block. Dedicated datacenter proxies minimize the drawbacks, but both options are great for monitoring smaller websites, price comparison, or browsing the web.
  • Static residential (ISP) proxies combine the best of residential and datacenter proxies. ISP proxies are ideal in uses cases that rely on having a persistent IP, such as managing multiple social media or eCommerce accounts.

6 key features to consider when choosing a residential proxy

If you’re in the market for a residential proxy provider, keep an eye out for features and factors below.

1. Ethically-sourced IPs

The underbelly of the proxy industry is dark. Not all residential proxy providers offer a high IP quality proxy pool. Some providers route through users who never consented but got tricked by shady "VPN for free" apps that sell traffic. Others partner with ISPs legitimately, paying per-GB fees for traffic rerouting.

So, when you pick a provider, you might want to assess your risk. Questionable IP pools degrade fast, while clean ones are sustainable, despite being more expensive. But it’s a price you pay for reliability, authenticity, and productivity.

2. Pool size and quality

While you might not use the all the millions IPs that many of today’s proxy providers claim to have, it’s still a key factor to consider. After all, a big IP pool means that you have a bigger fallback plan if your IPs start burning for one reason or another.

But a more critical factor is IP quality. This includes checking the provider’s success rates, response times, IP rotation policies, and ASN diversity.

3. Latency

Residential IPs are relatively slow compared to datacenter or ISP proxies. They route through consumer-grade devices that jitter, stall, and buffer. So, with residential proxies, expect your n8n automations to run at a more human pace, or simply design your solutions around the latency of your selected proxy provider.

4. Price

Good residential proxies are expensive for a reason. They require ISP partnerships, routing infra, user consent, node payouts, legal coverage, and constant churn management. So, budget by outcome and success rate – not by gigabyte or IP count.

With about 250 residential proxy providers in the market, and the cost of proxies dropping in recent years, almost all of the top 10 residential proxy providers we list offer more or less the same price. But, at scale, choose the provider that doesn't lock you in and offers you maximum flexibility with pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and other types of plans, free trials, and refunds.

5. Rotating proxies

Modern sites look at your browser fingerprint or TLS fingerprint (factors like browser headers, screen size, fonts, cookies, and timing) to decide if you're a bot or not. While IP rotation is an effective technique to avoid being detected by most anti-bot systems, it’s not a guaranteed solution. So, look for proxy providers who offer solutions with integrated browser fingerprinting and other anti-bot measures on top of IP rotation.

6. Tech support

This is important for both individuals and enterprises, more so for large-scale projects. At 10 requests per second, every proxy provider looks efficient and effective. At 10,000, cracks might show: latency graphs look like seismographs, threads die, and rate limits bite. This is where residential proxy provider support and SLA agreements become crucial. Go for a residential proxy service provider who have a track record of happy clients and 24/7 LiveChat support.


Best residential proxy providers in Summer 2025

So, whether you're looking for the fastest, cheapest, or simply the best residential proxies for your specific use case, we'll help you find the most relevant residential proxy provider for you. We've updated our best service providers list according to Proxyway Market Research 2025 findings and insights.

1. Decodo

Decodo, with IPs from across 195+ locations, is considered a regionally strong, fast, and scalable residential proxy provider with best-in-class IP quality and a robust mid-market offering. From latency to pool size to performance to pricing to ease-of-use and support, Decodo beats the competition on multiple fronts and hence has the crown in our list of best residential proxy service providers in 2025.

Latency: best overall global response time among top residential proxy providers (0.63s), outstanding in Brazil and EU pools. Target scraping median response is 4.05s, beating all providers in the segment average.​

Infrastructure success rate: currently, Decodo’s residential proxies boast a 99.86% success rate.

Pricing: lower-mid, reflecting mid-market focus; $3/GB (2GB), $2.45/GB (50GB), $1.75/GB (500GB), with as low as $1.5/GB for the highest 1,000gb plan. Suitable for budget-constrained customers, especially SMB and enterprises.

Pool size: Decodo offers 115M+ residential IPs, up 110% year-to-year, which is among the largest growth rates.​

Proxy pool quality: Decodo outscores all mid-market proxy providers when it comes to IP quality. Its proxy pool is comparatively less likely to be abused. Hence, they provide you with the best-performing proxies with low latency and exceptional consistency.

Protocol support: full HTTP/HTTP(S)/SOCKS5; UDP supported.

Rotation capabilities: high, providing per-request, session-based, and time-interval rotation, with sticky session options.

API: powerful; includes self-service dashboard, API, and sub-user account management.

Compliance and ethics: considered a reputable provider, with ethical sourcing across peer-to-peer and direct provider channels.

Free trial: available for both proxies (3 days and 100mb free) and the Web Scraping API (7 days and 1,000 requests free).

Noteworthy features: X Browser, Documentation, Proxy checker, Web Scraping API.


Try powerful residential proxies risk-free with Decodo

2. Oxylabs

Oxylabs stands as a global residential proxy benchmark, leading in pool size, reliability, compliance, and configuration granularity. They are suited to enterprise customers. However, they have also been repackaging their offerings and pricing to tap into the mid-market segment as well. They are in second place on the list because they trail Decodo by 10 milliseconds of response time while accessing popular target groups, and are $500 costlier for fetching every TB of response data.

Latency: global infrastructure success rate leader; 0.65s median. Target scraping response – 4.15s (median).

Infrastructure success rate: 99.9%.

Pricing: competitive, $4/GB (5GB), down to $2.58/GB (500GB).

Pool size: 175M unique IPs (largest share, +75% YoY), 1.2M globally unique.​

Proxy pool quality: a major share of IPs may be abused, yet Oxylabs matches the benchmark set by Decodo for IP quality. It’s very impressive given the massive proxy pool size of Oxylabs.

Protocol support: full suite (SOCKS5, HTTP/HTTP(S)), UDP available.

Rotation capabilities: sophisticated rotation for per-request and sticky sessions; device, fraud-score, and subnet filtering.

API: powerful, robust API and dashboard; city, ASN, device-level targeting.

Compliance and ethics: market leader in transparency, compliance, and regulatory risk mitigation.​

Free trial: available.

Noteworthy features: extensive documentation, enterprise-grade service, known for infrastructure redundancy, and Honeygain SDK-sourced IP pool.

3. SOAX

SOAX stands out with its fast, scalable residential proxies, technical innovation in routing, and enterprise-tailored features. Compared to some of its counterparts, SOAX's collection of over 155M+ residential IPs gives it a big edge and a significant boost in rankings because size does matter when scraping millions of pages, performance testing your eCommerce applications, or simulating massive scale cybersecurity attacks. However, they earned the third spot in the list because of higher costs and comparatively slower performance than Oxylabs and Decodo.

Latency: very fast, clocking in at 0.9s median globally; they are the best in the US pool with 0.55s.

Pricing. competitive entry price at $4, but 33% costlier than Decodo at scale with $1600 for 800 GB.

Pool size: 155M+, fast-growing, and with large device diversity.

Proxy pool quality: SOAX offers well-balanced IP quality for a mid-market proxy provider. It’s not far behind Decodo or Oxylabs, and maintains a 30% clean proxy pool.

Protocol support: full suite (SOCKS5, HTTP/HTTP(S), UDP); excellent targeting.

Rotation capabilities: strong; AI-driven routing, sticky session options.

API: loaded with features and self-service tools.

Compliance and ethics: emphasizes enterprise compatibility, AI enhancements, and transparent brand positioning.

Free trial: available.

Noteworthy features. Introduced advanced targeting, vertical expansion into Web Scraping APIs.

4. Bright Data

Bright Data is deemed an ethical, global residential proxy service provider giant with deep technical and compliance resources, extensive configuration and rotation capabilities, and high compatibility with enterprise-scale scraping. Compared to last year, Bright Data has doubled their residential proxy pool in 2025. However, they are a bit lagging in terms of infrastructure success rate and performance when compared to Decodo, Oxylabs, or SOAX.

Latency: globally competitive, 98.96% success (2024), response time (1.12s) slightly slower than Decodo/Oxylabs, but within a tight median.

Pricing: slightly above median with $4.2/GB as entry price; $1999/678GB at scale; pay-as-you-go options are available.

Pool size: 150M+ residential IPs (+109% YoY); 3rd-largest globally.

Proxy pool quality: unknown.

Protocol support: HTTP/HTTP(S)/SOCKS5 across residential, mobile, and datacenter.

Rotation capabilities: flexible, including backconnect and SDK-based models.

API: Advanced; supports scraping browser, APIs, and multi-product access.

Compliance and ethics: leading focus on ethical channel sourcing, compliance (VC-owned, large regulatory apparatus).

Free trial: available.

Noteworthy features: broad product suite (datasets, scraping IDE, browser tools), strong AI/BI positioning.

5. NetNut

NetNut is an enterprise proxy provider that balances pool size, API power, compliance, and stability for large-scale and regulated users. NetNut covers 195 countries with strong availability in the US and the UK. They also have extensive city, state, and ASN-level filtering available, although country and ASN filtering cannot be combined simultaneously.

Infrastructure success rate and latency: their success rate stands at approximately 98.4% globally, outperforming only Infatica and lagging behind most mid-market and enterprise proxy service providers. However, the response rate (1.22s) is far better than Webshare and RayoByte, but lagging way behind Decodo or Oxylabs.

Pricing: Affordable tariff for entry/mid-sized users ($3.53/GB); however, the entry point is at $99; Costlier than Decodo for scalable use-cases ($1875/TB) with a commitment of 2TB consumption.

Pool size: 85M+ residential IPs; substantial, but not top-tier.

Proxy pool quality: NetNut’s IP only has an approximately 22% pool of clean proxies.

Protocol support: standard (SOCKS5, HTTP/HTTP(S)); doesn't support UDP.

Rotation capabilities: strong; rotates on every request or session; custom duration is not available; however, geo-sessions are available for longer durations.

API: excellent for small-scale, high-customization needs.

Compliance and ethics: emphasizes fully-compliant IP sourcing, avoiding gray-market or unauthorized proxyware networks; publicly traded status and regulatory compliance add to customer trust and transparency.

Free trial: available for companies.

Noteworthy features: professional and company datasets.

6. Webshare

Webshare is particularly strong for self-service, low-budget projects that require granular API/rotation options without enterprise complexity. The entry price is comparatively higher at $7/GB. However, they have proxy-based pricing as well, which suits smaller projects that have limited use cases. At scale, the price is highly costlier compared to the counterparts; it's about $2,800/TB.

Latency: median infrastructure performance; success rate 99.58%.

Pricing: Affordable tariff for entry to mid-sized users ($7/GB); Costlier for scalable use-cases.

Pool size: 30M+ residential IPs; substantial, but not top-tier.

Proxy pool quality: Webshare’s IPs may be abused in high-turnover regions, yet overall IP quality remains commendable. But the pool size is very small compared to the top 5 affordable residential proxies provider.

Protocol support: standard (SOCKS5, HTTP/HTTP(S)).

Rotation capabilities: strong; developer-friendly options for rotation and sticky sessions.

API: excellent for small-scale, high-customization needs.

Compliance and ethics: strong upstream IP sourcing.

Free trial: available.

Noteworthy features: known for usability and flexibility, suitable for custom workflows.

7. Rayobyte

Rayobyte presents a well-rounded residential proxy offering with an ethical sourcing foundation, dependable infrastructure, and a user-friendly experience. Its network of 36M+ IPs spanning 150+ countries, combined with comprehensive rotation and session options, makes it ideal for scraping, marketing automation, and research where compliance and reliability are critical. But it is only recommended for use cases where latency is not a dealbreaker, as Rayobyte is not your ideal choice for speed. While priced slightly higher than barebones providers, Rayobyte's quality and service justify its inclusion in this list, especially for US-centric and enterprise audiences.

Latency: solid response rates (99.47% success), though not a front-runner in latency, in fact, it ranked last in Proxyway's research with 2.09s response time globally. For targeted websites, it averaged 7.15s, which is way too high.

Pricing: Scalable and pay-as-you-go, no subscription locks; 1 of the reasons for including RayoByte on this list is competitive rates – $900/TB (5TB); entry base rates/pricing starts at $3.50/GB.

Pool size: 36M+ residential IPs.

Proxy pool quality: with 28% of its pool in the trusted range, RayoByte promises dependable IP quality across its infrastructure, and is a great choice for budget-constrained customers seeking affordable residential proxies.

Protocol support: according to Proxyway, RayoByte doesn't give options to choose between SOCKS5/HTTP/HTTP(S) or UDP.

Rotation capabilities: solid; focusing on ease-of-use and flexible access.

API: Less advanced than some competitors, but provides essential controls.

Compliance and ethics: focuses on transparency, accessibility, and direct support.

Free trial: available.

Noteworthy features: Web unblocker, API documentation.

8. IPRoyal

IPRoyal is an efficient, cost-effective residential proxy provider with solid performance and reliable infrastructure. It is best suited for users prioritizing price and ease of use while requiring compliant, ethically-sourced IPs and stable IP rotation controls. Though as a mid-market proxy provider, it lacks some advanced features of enterprise providers, IPRoyal strikes a strong balance for smaller-to-mid-sized proxy use cases in 2025.

Latency: reliable, 99.56% global success rate; decent infrastructure response time, 1.06s

Pricing: $3.50/GB; however, costlier for large-scale use cases with 2,450/TB.

Pool size: 32M+ residential IPs.

Proxy pool quality: IPRoyal’s compliance standards reduce the chances that its IPs may be abused, and hence it consistently delivers the best-performing proxies with 28% in the safe range.

Protocol support: supports HTTP(S) & SOCKS5; UDP is not available.

Rotation capabilities: session- and request-based rotation is available, with a session duration ranging between 1s to 24h.

API: standard; focus is on simplicity rather than enterprise features.

Compliance and ethics: in line with GDPR, CPRA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 standards.

Free trial: not available.

Noteworthy features: proxy tester, Chrome and Firefox extensions, API documentation.

9. Infatica

Infatica is the go-to option for picky scraping setups that need targeted performance, opt-in compliance, and good dataset API support. Even though it has quite a limited pool size and an infrastructure success rate (95.17%) that lags far behind Decodo globally, it made it to the list because Infatica beats them all when it comes to the targeted website average infrastructure success rate (95.12%). Besides, they have a decent global performance of 0.89s response time, and an industry-best performance of 0.32s for the UK region.

Latency: lower than others (95.17% global success), but leads in targeted scraping (95.12% success). UK proxies have the shortest latency (0.32s).

Pricing: competitive, base rates starting at $4/GB PAYG; mid-market rates. However, gets even more expensive than IPRoyal for large-scale use cases at $2600/TB.

Pool size: 15M+ residential IPs.

Proxy pool quality: maintains a clean IP pool (29% approx.).

Protocol support: supports HTTP(S)/SOCKS5.

Rotation capabilities: session and request-based rotation is available with a session duration ranging between 5 minutes to 60 minutes.

API: featured API for scraping and datasets.

Compliance and ethics: traffic routes through Infatica SDK, and IPs are sourced with proper consent through Infatica P2B (peer-to-business) network.

Free trial: paid trial is available.

Noteworthy features: off-the-shelf SERP web scraper, proxy checker, API documentation.

10. Evomi

Evomi replaces PacketStream as our tenth-best residential mid-market proxy provider. It offers a nimble European-residential proxy solution, with strong technical underpinnings and an emerging reputation for quality and compliance in the entry to mid segment. It's 1 of the youngest brands in the proxy market with the smallest pool of residential proxies (5M+). However, their per GB pricing is very lucrative, with limited targeting options and filters.

Latency: Evomi premium plan had a success rate of 99.44%, while Evomi core scored 99.12%; however, for targeted websites, it had a low score of 78.26%; globally, both have a fast response time, clocking at 0.93s and 0.98s (core and premium plan pool), especially in the US.

Pricing: very competitive with limited filtering and targeting options, base rates starting at $0.49/GB; great choice for basic scraping use-cases for entry/mid-market; developer-friendly plans. Premium plan pool is at par with others at the entry level with $4/GB, but gets very expensive at scale, costing $2600/TB.

Pool size: 5M+

Proxy pool quality: Surprisingly, Evomi Premium has a lower share of clean IPs (26%) compared to Evomi core (29%).

Protocol support: UDP is unavailable, but supports HTTP(S)/SOCKS5.

API: solid dashboard tools; less enterprise-focused but versatile for smaller users.

Compliance and ethics: EWDCI certified, and ethically-sourced pool, emphasis on quality.

Free trial: 1-day free trial available.

Noteworthy features: Scraper API and scraping browser.

Wrapping Up

Whether you're seeking high-performance proxy servers for enterprise-level operations or cost-efficient solutions for smaller tasks, each provider has something to offer. We've compared their IP pool sizes, success rates, pricing, and other key benefits to help you make an informed choice.

So, before committing, consider and test each viable option to ensure your new residential proxy service provider justifies your investment and meets your goals and expectations.

If you'd like to dig deeper into other proxy types, take a look at our residential vs. ISP proxies guide and our list of the best mobile proxies.

Frequently asked questions

What is a residential proxy, and how does it work?

A residential proxy is an IP address assigned to a real user’s device, like a home computer or phone, making your traffic appear as if it’s coming from a genuine household. When you use one, your requests are routed through this device, helping you avoid detection and access geo-restricted or protected websites.

Why choose residential proxies over datacenter proxies?

Residential proxies use real-user IPs from home networks, making them harder to detect and block compared to datacenter proxies, which use server-hosted IPs. They’re better for stealth, geo-targeting, and navigating tougher websites, especially when accuracy and scale matter. Datacenter proxies offer speed, but residential proxies deliver trust and access where it counts.

What is a rotating proxy vs. a static proxy?

A rotating proxy assigns a new IP address for each request or after a set time, helping you avoid blocks and bans by mimicking different users. A static (or sticky) proxy keeps the same IP for longer sessions, ideal when you need session consistency. Both are useful, but it depends on how stealthy or stable your data collection task needs to be.

When should I choose residential, datacenter, or mobile proxies?

Go with residential proxies when you need high IP diversity, geo-targeting, and strong stealth. Choose datacenter proxies for speed-heavy tasks like bulk scraping or price monitoring. Use mobile proxies when you’re dealing with the most sensitive targets and need maximum trust – mobile IPs are nearly unblockable because of their association with real carriers.

How do residential proxies rotate, and can I control the rotation?

Residential proxies rotate by default, meaning your IP can change with every request or session. You can also choose sticky sessions to keep the same IP for a set duration. This flexibility helps you strike the right balance between anonymity and stability, whether you're collecting data or managing sessions.

Can I target specific countries or cities with residential proxies?

Yes, with Decodo, you can target IPs by country, state, city, ZIP code, ASN, or even continent. With 195+ locations worldwide, residential proxies let you test localized content, run geo-specific campaigns, or gather region-specific data with precision.

Are residential proxies legal to use?

Yes, residential proxies are legal, as long as you don’t use them for criminal activity and respect the terms of service of the websites you visit.

Can I get a free trial or refund?

Yes, Decodo offers a 3-day trial for residential proxies so you can test the performance before committing. A 14-day money-back option is also available, but only if you bought a proxy plan without claiming your free trial.

How do I know if a proxy is truly residential?

A true residential proxy will use an IP tied to a real device and ISP, not a datacenter. It’ll pass IP lookups showing it’s from a home network, not cloud infrastructure. With Decodo, you’re getting verified residential IPs from a pool of over 115M peers worldwide.

What are the risks of using residential proxies?

The main risk lies in the quality of the provider. Poor-quality or misused residential proxies can lead to blocked requests, data leaks, or unstable connections. That’s why it’s critical to use a trusted provider like Decodo, where IPs are clean, high-quality, and performance-tested.

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