Best Proxy Providers in 2026: 9 Paid Services Tested & Compared

Types of proxies and their use cases

Before comparing providers, it helps to know what you're actually buying. Commercial proxy services sell 4 main proxy types, and the right provider depends heavily on which type your project needs.

• Residential proxies route your traffic through IPs assigned by internet service providers to real households. Because requests look like ordinary consumer traffic, residential proxies are the hardest type for websites to detect and block. They're the default choice for web scraping protected targets, ad verification, price monitoring, and SERP tracking.
• Datacenter proxies come from servers in cloud data centers rather than household connections. They're the fastest and cheapest proxy type, which makes them ideal for high-volume tasks against targets with lighter anti-bot protection – public data aggregation, performance testing, or accessing content that isn't aggressively defended.
• Mobile proxies use IPs from mobile carriers (3G/4G/5G networks). Since carriers share IPs across many real users, websites are extremely reluctant to block them. Mobile proxies excel at managing social media accounts, app testing, and mobile-specific ad verification.
• ISP proxies (also called static residential proxies) combine both worlds: they're hosted on datacenter infrastructure, but registered under ISP names, giving you residential-grade legitimacy with datacenter-grade speed and a static IP that doesn't rotate. They’re perfect for multi-accounting, eCommerce store management, and any task that needs a trusted IP for a long session.

Use cases map to types roughly like this: scraping and ad verification favor residential; SERP monitoring works with residential or datacenter depending on volume; account management favors ISP or mobile. A fast-growing 5th category is AI data collection – feeding LLM applications, agents, and RAG pipelines with fresh web data, which typically pairs residential proxies with scraping APIs to keep automated agents from being blocked.

Residential vs. datacenter proxies: which do you need?

Most buyers ultimately choose between these 2, so the trade-off deserves its own breakdown:

• Choose residential when detection is the bottleneck. Because they use IPs from real home connections, websites are more likely to treat them as genuine visitors. They're the best choice for websites with strong anti-bot protection, such as eCommerce marketplaces, sneaker retailers, and travel booking websites, where datacenter proxies are often blocked or challenged with CAPTCHAs. The trade-off is cost: residential proxies are usually billed per gigabyte and are significantly more expensive than datacenter proxies.
• Choose datacenter when speed and cost are the bottleneck. They run on high-performance servers, making them fast, reliable, and affordable. They're well suited to large-scale data collection from websites with weaker anti-bot systems, especially when you can control request frequency and rotate IPs.

A practical example: monitoring competitor prices across a marketplace with advanced anti-bot protection daily is a residential job because the target will block datacenter ranges within hours. Pulling thousands of pages from a public directory with no bot defenses is a datacenter job because paying residential rates there just burns budget.

If you want the middle ground, residential trust with a static and fast connection, that's exactly the gap ISP proxies fill. And if you're not sure how residential rotation actually works, read our helpful explainer on how residential proxies work.

How we evaluate proxy providers

Proxy providers are often ranked using different methods. To make our results transparent, we've outlined the criteria we used and the tests you can run to verify any provider yourself.

1. IP pool size and diversity. A larger pool across more countries means fewer repeated IPs, better geo-targeting, and lower block rates. Don't rely on advertised pool sizes alone – they're rarely independently verified. Instead, check that the countries and regions you need are actually available.

2. Proxy types and protocols. Strong providers cover residential, datacenter, mobile, and ISP proxies under one roof, with HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 support, flexible rotation (per-request and sticky sessions), and granular targeting (continent, country, city, state, ZIP, or ASN level).

3. Performance. Performance comes down to 2 metrics: success rate (how often requests return the data you need) and response time. Don't rely on provider benchmarks alone. Independent tests from Proxyway and AIMultiple measure real-world performance against websites like Amazon, Bing, and YouTube, making them a much better indicator of reliability.

4. Pricing and free trials. Don't judge a provider by its advertised price per GB. Look at the full pricing model, any extra fees, and whether you can test the service first. A free trial or money-back option lets you confirm performance before committing to a long-term plan.

5. Trust, ethics, and reliability. This factor barely existed in older comparisons, and 2026 proved why it matters: IPIDEA faced a major disruption after Google took action against its network over concerns that millions of residential devices were being used as proxy nodes without clear user consent, leaving customers to question the service's stability, transparency, and long-term reliability. Before committing, check how a provider sources its residential IPs (consent-based sourcing, like Decodo's ethical sourcing program), if it enforces KYC and acceptable-use policies, and how transparent the provider is about its legal posture. A provider that cuts corners on sourcing is a provider that can disappear overnight, taking your integrations with it. For the legal side of data collection itself, read a detailed explanation: Is web scraping legal?

Best proxy providers in 2026 compared

#1. Decodo

Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) is one of the best all-around proxy providers for most users. It offers a residential proxy network with over 125M IPs across 195+ locations, while keeping entry-level plans affordable without requiring enterprise contracts. Every plan includes access to the full proxy pool, advanced geo-targeting (continent, country, state, city, and ZIP code), plus both rotating and sticky sessions.

Decodo also performs well in independent testing. Proxyway ranked it the top overall provider in its 2026 comparison, while AIMultiple consistently places it among the best for success rate and response time. That combination of strong performance and competitive pricing makes it a good choice for everything from web scraping to AI data collection.

• Pros: Excellent value for money, consistently strong results in independent benchmarks, flexible pricing, fast 24/7 tech support, consent-based, and ethically-sourced residential IPs.
• Cons: The free trial (3 days/100 MB) is fairly limited for large-scale testing, although the 14-day money-back gives you more time to evaluate the service (terms apply).

#2. Oxylabs

Oxylabs operates one of the largest proxy networks in the industry (175M+ IPs) and targets mid-market and enterprise buyers. Its residential proxies offer country, city, and state targeting with free granular geo-targeting, and the product line extends to a Web Unblocker for the hardest targets. Independent tests consistently place its success rates above 99%. If you need a dedicated account manager and deep customization, Oxylabs is a safe enterprise pick. Learn more details about how it compares in our Oxylabs alternatives breakdown.

• Pros: Enterprise-grade reliability, very large pool, strong compliance posture.
• Cons: Premium pricing, trials gated behind sales contact for businesses.

#3. Webshare

Webshare is the self-service value option. A free plan with 10 datacenter IPs lets anyone test instantly, residential plans start at $1.40/GB, and the dashboard is simple enough for first-time proxy users. Independent response-time benchmarks rank Webshare among the fastest SOCKS5-capable residential networks. The trade-off is depth: everything is self-service, customization is limited, and there's no flexible Pay As You Go option on residential traffic. In other words, it’s better suited to individuals and small teams than to scaling operations.

• Pros: Genuinely free entry tier, fast, lowest-friction onboarding.
• Cons: Limited support and customization, a weak fit for enterprise scaling.

#4. SOAX

SOAX emphasizes ethically-sourced IPs and granular targeting down to city and ASN level across a 155M+ IP network spanning residential and mobile proxy types. Plans are subscription-based, with a $1.99 three-day trial to test the pool. It's a solid mid-market choice, particularly where compliance and targeting precision matter. The subscription-first model is the main friction for irregular workloads. Compare in more detail here: SOAX alternatives.

• Pros: ASN/city-level targeting, ethical sourcing focus, responsive support.
• Cons: No free trial, monthly plans favor regular users.

#5. Bright Data

Bright Data is the best choice if you need advanced features and maximum control. It offers detailed location targeting (including country, city, ZIP code, carrier, and ASN), IPv4 and IPv6 proxies, a Browser API for JavaScript-heavy websites, and consistently strong results in independent benchmarks. The downside is price – it's one of the most expensive providers and can be overwhelming for beginners. It's best suited to large-scale teams that will actually use its advanced tools. If you need something simpler or more affordable, see our Bright Data alternatives comparison.

• Pros: Excellent feature depth and geo-targeting, very resilient network.
• Cons: Expensive, complex for newcomers, pricing modifiers inflate real costs.

#6. IPRoyal

IPRoyal’s residential proxies start from $1.75/GB with a smaller, but well-maintained 64M+ pool, plus ISP, datacenter, and mobile options. Independent response time measurements have ranked IPRoyal among the fastest residential networks. The pool size means less IP diversity for very large scraping jobs, and mobile coverage is limited to a handful of countries, but for small-to-mid workloads the price-performance is genuinely strong. Weigh it against peers in our IPRoyal alternatives guide.

• Pros: Fast response times, flexible per-IP datacenter/ISP pricing.
• Cons: Smaller pool, no self-serve free trial, fewer premium features.

#7. ProxyEmpire

ProxyEmpire focuses on rotating residential and mobile proxies with a 30M+ pool, with country- and city-level targeting and rollover bandwidth that doesn't expire between billing cycles – a rarity that suits irregular scraping schedules. Every plan includes hands-on integration support. 

• Pros: Non-expiring bandwidth, wide country coverage, guided onboarding.
• Cons: Smaller ecosystem of integrations, no free trial.

#8. Rayobyte

Rayobyte (formerly Blazing SEO) is a US-based provider. It’s a good choice if you mainly use datacenter proxies. Rayobyte offers affordable static and rotating datacenter proxies, plus ISP and residential proxies when you need them. You can also try its residential network with a free 50MB trial before committing.

• Pros: Deep datacenter options, transparent sourcing, free trial available.
• Cons: Smaller residential IP pool than main competitors, slower residential speeds.

#9. DataImpulse

DataImpulse competes on one axis: price. Residential traffic starts at $0.8/GB for the Pay As You Go option with a non-expiring balance, and targeting covers countries, cities, and ASNs. There's no free trial, and the feature set is thin compared with premium providers, so success rates on hard targets will lag the top of this list, but for cost-sensitive, high-volume work on moderately protected targets, DataImpulse is a good choice.

• Pros: One of the lowest per-GB prices on the market, non-expiring Pay As You Go balance.
• Cons: No free trial, limited tooling, weaker performance on protected targets.

Proxy pricing and cost comparison

Headline prices mislead because providers sell under different models. Understanding the model matters more than the sticker rate.

• Per GB (bandwidth) pricing dominates residential and mobile proxies. You pay for traffic consumed, regardless of how many IPs you use. It suits scraping, where you control request sizes, but watch data-heavy targets (image-rich pages, video platforms) that burn GBs fast. 
• Per IP pricing dominates datacenter and ISP proxies. You get specific IPs monthly, which is ideal for account management, where a stable identity matters and bandwidth is modest. Decodo's datacenter IPs start around $0.02/IP, ISP IPs across the market run $0.47–5/IP, depending on exclusivity.
• Monthly commits vs Pay As You Go. Subscription plans reward steady usage with lower effective rates, but punish idle months. Pay As You Go (Decodo, Bright Data, DataImpulse) costs more per unit, but nothing when you're not using them.
• How this works in practice. A 50 GB/month residential scraping workload costs $40 at DataImpulse ($0.8/GB), $100 at Decodo (from $2/GB), ~$180 at SOAX (~$3.60/GB on the 25 GB plan), and $125 at Oxylabs or Bright Data (from $2.50/GB). Whether the cheapest option is actually cheapest depends on success rate: if 20% of requests fail and must be retried through a weaker pool, the effective per-successful-request cost narrows fast. That's why trial-testing against your targets beats spreadsheet math.
• Watch for hidden costs. Some providers charge extra for features like city- or ASN-level targeting, require minimum top-ups, or let account credits expire. It's also worth checking what a free trial actually includes. If you're shopping on a budget, check out our cheap proxies breakdown.

The risks of free proxy services

Every ranking above is a paid service, and that's deliberate. Free proxies fail in 3 ways that matter:

• Security. A free proxy operator you know nothing about is between you and everything you send. Credential interception, traffic logging, and ad or malware injection are documented business models for "free" proxy networks – you pay with your data.
• Performance. Free IPs are shared by thousands of users and were blacklisted by major websites long before you arrived. Expect single-digit success rates on any protected target, no rotation control, and no support when things break.
• Continuity. Free lists churn daily. Any workflow built on them breaks constantly, which costs more in engineering time than a paid plan would.

The legitimate way to use proxies for free is a trial from a reputable provider: Decodo's 3-day free trial with a 14-day money-back option, Webshare's free plan, or Rayobyte's 50MB allowance give you real, supported infrastructure to test. Learn more on trial terms in our FAQ.

If you're still new to what proxies actually do, start with what is a proxy server.

How to choose and use a proxy provider

A repeatable 4-step process beats brand loyalty:

1. Match the type to the task. Choose residential for protected targets and geo-sensitive data, datacenter for high-volume activity on soft targets, ISP for long-lived account sessions, and mobile for mobile platforms.

2. Verify the specifics your project needs. Protocol support (SOCKS5 if your tooling requires it), targeting granularity (do you need city or ASN level, and is it free?), and rotation options: per-request rotation for scraping, sticky sessions for logins and checkout flows. Our rotating proxies page explains when each mode wins.

3. Test against your real targets. A provider's benchmark on Amazon says nothing about your niche target. Use trials to run your actual workload for a few days and measure success rate and response time yourself. A proxy checker helps validate endpoints, anonymity, and geolocation before you commit.

4. Integrate and scale gradually. Good providers publish ready configs for the tools you already use: browsers, antidetect browsers, scraping libraries, automation frameworks (see Decodo's integrations and residential quick start guide). Start with a small plan, confirm performance holds at 10x your test volume, then commit to whatever pricing model fits your steady state.

Bottom line

There's no universally best proxy provider, but there is a best provider for your workload, and the combination of a ranked shortlist, transparent criteria, and a free trial will find it quickly. Match the proxy type to the task, compare pricing models rather than sticker prices, weigh independent benchmarks over vendor claims, and never skip the trust check.

If you want the strongest starting point, Decodo pairs top-tier independent benchmark results with pricing that scales in both directions, and you can verify every claim in this article yourself with a 3-day free trial backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee option.