Best Proxy Providers: 8 Services Compared on Price and Fit
· Updated October 24, 2026
The best proxy provider is the one whose IP type, billing model and minimum spend match your job. It is not the one with the biggest pool on its homepage.
A proxy that costs $0.03 an IP can be the right buy for one project and a waste for the next. Picking wrong usually means paying for unused gigabytes. Or it means buying cheap IPs that your target sites refuse.
Our top three picks are:
- Decodo for balanced residential use;
- Webshare for low-cost datacenter proxies;
- Oxylabs for larger data projects.
Bright Data still has the broadest toolkit, but new residential users now go through an identity check first.
Evomi and DataImpulse are the cheapest residential options per gigabyte. IPRoyal suits irregular projects because its traffic never expires. Rayobyte is strong on datacenter value.
Every price below was checked in mid-October 2026. Each is written as "around" because promotions and billing periods change it.
What Is a Proxy Provider?
A proxy provider rents you IP addresses that sit between your software and the websites it visits. Your request goes to the proxy first. The website sees the proxy's IP address instead of yours.
Businesses use this for lawful work, such as:
- checking how a page looks in another country;
- monitoring public prices;
- verifying that ads show up where they paid for them;
- testing apps from different regions;
- collecting public web data they are allowed to collect.
The type of IP matters more than anything else. Residential proxies route traffic through IP addresses that internet providers assign to homes. Websites treat them like ordinary visitors.
Datacenter proxies come from servers in data centers. That makes them fast and cheap, but easier for websites to spot.
ISP proxies, often sold as static residential, are hosted on servers but registered to consumer internet providers (compare them in our best ISP proxies guide). Mobile proxies use phone carrier networks and usually cost the most (see our best mobile proxies).
Our guide to residential vs datacenter proxies explains the trade-off in detail.
Most residential networks are built from people who agreed to share their spare bandwidth. They often do it through apps that pay them or unlock features. Reputable providers publish how they source their pool, and it is fair to ask before you buy.
Quick Comparison: 8 Best Proxy Providers
Decodo is our top pick overall, followed by Webshare and Oxylabs. Here is how all 8 compare on use case, starting price and proxy types. Prices were checked in October 2026, so confirm the live rate before you buy.
| Provider | Best For | Starting Price | Proxy Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decodo | Balanced all-round residential use | Residential around $4/GB pay-as-you-go | Residential, ISP, datacenter, mobile |
| Webshare | Cheap datacenter proxies and testing | Free plan; 100 proxies around $2.99/mo | Datacenter, static residential, residential |
| Oxylabs | Large data projects and teams | Residential around $30 for 5 GB | Residential, ISP, datacenter, mobile |
| Bright Data | Enterprise tooling and compliance checks | Residential around $8/GB; KYC required | Residential, ISP, datacenter, mobile |
| Evomi | Lowest residential rate at steady volume | Around $0.49/GB on the 100 GB plan | Residential, mobile, datacenter, static |
| DataImpulse | Cheap non-expiring prepaid traffic | Residential around $1/GB | Residential, mobile, datacenter |
| IPRoyal | Occasional and irregular projects | Residential around $7/GB at 1 GB | Residential, ISP, datacenter, mobile |
| Rayobyte | Datacenter value and rotating traffic | Rotating datacenter around $0.30/GB | Datacenter, ISP, residential, mobile |
What Makes a Great Proxy Provider?
A great proxy provider gives you the right IP type for your target sites, at a price you can predict, with clear usage rules. Headline prices are easy to compare and often misleading.
A low per-gigabyte rate may require a large monthly plan. A cheap per-IP deal may cover only shared datacenter addresses.
We weighed five things:
- the range of proxy types on offer;
- how pricing works in practice (pay-as-you-go, monthly plans, minimums and traffic expiry);
- location targeting and session control;
- ease of setup and support for smaller buyers;
- clear acceptable-use and IP-sourcing policies.
Best All-Round Proxy Providers
1. Decodo: Best balanced all-round provider
Decodo, the company formerly known as Smartproxy, covers every major proxy type with simple self-serve plans.
What it does well. Decodo hits a sweet spot between price, features and ease of use. You can start small on pay-as-you-go residential traffic. Then you can move to a monthly plan when your usage settles.
Its documentation explains session options clearly. You can rotate the IP on every request. Or you can keep the same one for 1, 10, 30 or 60 minutes, or a custom time up to 24 hours.
That covers most jobs. It works for one-off page checks and for multi-step flows that need the same IP throughout.
Key features:
- Residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies in one dashboard
- Rotating or sticky sessions up to 24 hours
- Country, state and city targeting on residential traffic
- Scraping APIs for teams that would rather not manage proxies
Pricing. Residential pay-as-you-go was listed at around $4 per GB in our check. Monthly plans have lower per-GB rates. Shared datacenter proxies start around $0.035 per IP with a 100-IP minimum, or about $0.60 per GB.
Dedicated datacenter IPs run about $1.85 each with a three-IP minimum. There is a three-day free trial with 100 MB of traffic. Eligible purchases get a 14-day money-back window.
Best for: Small and mid-sized teams that want one provider for most proxy jobs.
Limitations. The lowest residential rates need a monthly commitment. TechRadar reports that dedicated datacenter IPs are US-only. Look elsewhere if you need dedicated IPs in other countries.
2. Webshare: Best for cheap datacenter proxies
Webshare is the easiest low-cost way to start with proxies, and it has a truly free plan.
What it does well. Webshare built its name on cheap, self-serve datacenter proxies that you set up yourself. You choose the number of proxies, the bandwidth and the locations. The price updates as you go.
The free plan is a real account, not a public proxy list. It is a safe way to learn how proxies plug into your browser, script or tool before you pay.
Key features:
- Free plan with 10 shared datacenter proxies and 1 GB a month
- Build-your-own plans for proxy count, bandwidth and location
- Rotating residential and static residential (ISP) options
- Simple dashboard and proxy list downloads
Pricing. 100 shared datacenter proxies were listed at around $2.99 a month, or about $1.99 a month billed yearly. Rotating residential traffic starts around $3.50 for 1 GB. Static residential proxies start around $6 a month for 20 proxies.
Best for: Beginners, developers and small projects on light or moderately protected sites.
Limitations. Shared datacenter IPs are the easiest type for websites to recognize. They will struggle on heavily protected targets. Shared also means other customers use the same addresses, which can affect reputation.
Best Proxy Providers for Large Data Projects
3. Oxylabs: Best for large data projects
Oxylabs is a premium provider aimed at companies that collect web data at scale.
What it does well. Oxylabs is built for teams that run big, ongoing data collection jobs. It offers mature infrastructure and account support. Its residential pricing gets cheaper as volume grows, which suits steady monthly usage.
It also sells scraper APIs that handle proxies, retries and page rendering for you. So a team can mix raw proxies with managed scraping.
Key features:
- Residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter proxies
- Volume-based residential tiers that fall to about $2.50 per GB
- Web scraper APIs for teams that want results, not proxies
- Dedicated account support on larger plans
Pricing. Residential monthly plans were listed at around:
- $30 for 5 GB (about $6 per GB);
- $100 for 20 GB (about $5);
- $500 for 125 GB (about $4);
- $2,500 for 1 TB (about $2.50).
Dedicated datacenter IPs start at about $2 each, falling to about $1.20 at high volume. Shared datacenter proxies start at about $1 per IP.
Best for: Data teams with steady, high-volume collection needs and a real budget.
Limitations. Entry plans cost more per gigabyte than budget providers. The best value only appears at large volumes. Small or occasional users will usually pay less elsewhere.
4. Bright Data: Best for enterprise tooling and compliance checks
Bright Data has the broadest product range in the market, from raw proxies to ready-made datasets.
What it does well. Bright Data goes beyond proxies. Alongside residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile networks, it offers:
- Web Unlocker for hard-to-reach public pages;
- a scraping browser;
- scraper APIs;
- pre-collected datasets.
That breadth is the main draw for an enterprise that wants one vendor, strict compliance review and many tools.
Key features:
- Residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxy networks
- Web Unlocker and a scraping browser for difficult public pages
- Scraper APIs and ready-made datasets
- Formal use-case review for residential access
Pricing. Residential pay-as-you-go was listed at around $8 per GB. Promotions have dropped it to about $4. Monthly plans bring it down to roughly $3.50 per GB at $499 a month, $3.00 at $999 and $2.50 at $1,999.
Best for: Enterprises that want the widest toolkit and are comfortable with a formal approval process.
Limitations. According to Bright Data's documentation, residential zones created after July 7, 2026 need a human-reviewed identity (KYC) approval. You must sign up with a company email rather than Gmail or Outlook. Approved traffic is limited to the use cases you declared.
ISP, datacenter and Web Unlocker stay available without KYC. If that friction is a problem, see our list of Bright Data alternatives.
Best Budget and Pay-as-You-Go Proxy Providers
5. Evomi: Best residential rate at steady volume
Evomi competes hard on price and has some of the lowest residential rates we found.
What it does well. If your monthly residential usage is predictable, Evomi's bigger plans cost far less per gigabyte than most rivals. Its pay-as-you-go option is also cheap, and that traffic does not expire. So you are not forced into a subscription to get a fair rate.
Key features:
- Core Residential plans priced for steady volume
- Non-expiring pay-as-you-go traffic
- Mobile, datacenter and static residential options
- Free trial for new accounts
Pricing. Core Residential was listed at about $0.49 per GB on the 100 GB plan. That works out to roughly $49.99 a month. Pay-as-you-go traffic was around $0.99 per GB.
Best for: Teams that know roughly how much residential traffic they use each month.
Limitations. The lowest rate only saves money if you use most of the plan. Evomi also bills a minimum of 512 bytes per request. That can add up on jobs that send huge numbers of tiny requests.
6. DataImpulse: Best for cheap non-expiring traffic
DataImpulse sells prepaid residential traffic at a flat, low rate that never expires.
What it does well. DataImpulse keeps things simple. You buy traffic, and it stays on your account until you use it. The base residential price is about $1 per GB.
That makes it a good fit for bursty projects. One example is a price check that runs heavily for one week and then sits idle for a month.
Key features:
- Pay-as-you-go residential traffic that does not expire
- Premium residential, mobile and datacenter options
- Rate drops to about $0.80 per GB at 1 TB
- Low entry packs for testing
Pricing. Residential traffic was listed at about $1 per GB (5 GB for $5 as an intro pack, 50 GB for $50). It falls to about $0.80 per GB at 1 TB. Premium residential was about $5 per GB, mobile about $2 and datacenter about $0.50.
Best for: Budget buyers with uneven usage who want simple prepaid traffic.
Limitations. Sources disagree on the minimum top-up. Some say $5 and others $50, so check before you pay. Advanced targeting, such as city or provider level, uses about twice the traffic.
7. IPRoyal: Best for occasional and irregular projects
IPRoyal's residential traffic never expires, which removes the pressure to use it every month.
What it does well. Its official FAQ confirms that purchased residential traffic does not expire. That is valuable if you only need proxies a few times a year.
IPRoyal also supports long sticky sessions, up to seven days according to its documentation. This helps with tasks that need the same IP over time. It notes the same IP is not guaranteed for the full period.
Key features:
- Non-expiring residential traffic
- Sticky sessions up to seven days
- ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies
- Volume discounts on larger traffic purchases
Pricing. Residential traffic starts around $7 per GB for a single gigabyte. It drops to roughly $1.75 per GB at large volumes. Dedicated datacenter proxies start around $1.39 per proxy on a 90-day rental.
Best for: Freelancers and small teams who use proxies now and then.
Limitations. The smallest purchases carry a high per-GB price, so occasional users pay for that flexibility. Compare the rate at your real volume, not the advertised low.
8. Rayobyte: Best for datacenter value and rotating traffic
Rayobyte, which started life as Blazing SEO, is a US-based provider with deep roots in datacenter proxies.
What it does well. Rayobyte is a strong pick when datacenter proxies are enough for your job. Its rotating datacenter traffic is among the cheapest per gigabyte we found. It also sells dedicated datacenter IPs for steady work, plus residential, ISP and mobile proxies.
Key features:
- Rotating datacenter traffic billed by the gigabyte
- Dedicated datacenter IPs in the US and other countries
- Residential, ISP and mobile proxies
- A scraping API for managed collection
Pricing. Rotating datacenter traffic starts around $0.30 per GB. Dedicated US datacenter IPs run about $2.50 per IP a month with a five-IP minimum. Non-US locations cost more, and residential traffic sits around $2 per GB at mid volumes.
Best for: Projects that need lots of fast, cheap datacenter traffic.
Limitations. The best prices depend on the exact network type and volume. Read the fair-use terms and product details closely before you compare it with other providers.
How Should You Choose a Proxy Provider?
Start with the target, not the provider. If your target sites are lightly protected or your own, datacenter proxies are faster and far cheaper. Webshare, Rayobyte and Oxylabs lead our best datacenter proxies list.
Some sites treat server IPs with suspicion. Sometimes you need to see a page exactly as a local visitor would. In both cases, residential proxies are the safer bet. See our best residential proxies guide for a cost-focused comparison.
Next, decide how IPs should behave. Rotating proxies give you a new IP on each request. Sticky sessions keep one IP for minutes or hours.
If you need one fixed IP for weeks, ISP proxies fit better. If the site treats phone users differently, mobile proxies are the only true match. Our guide to the best rotating proxies explains when each mode fits.
If your goal is collecting public data, read our guide to the best proxies for web scraping. It covers when a scraping API is a better deal than raw proxies.
Finally, estimate your real cost. Multiply the average page size by the number of pages and the number of retries. Then compare providers at that volume.
A 2 MB page fetched 10,000 times is about 20 GB. That costs around $80 at $4 per GB or around $20 at $1 per GB. Turning off images and other heavy files in your scraper can cut that sharply.
How We Evaluated These Proxy Providers
We built this ranking from each provider's public pricing pages, documentation and acceptable-use policies, checked in mid-October 2026. We added independent reviews from outlets such as TechRadar and Proxyway.
We compared proxy types, billing models, minimums, traffic expiry, session controls and onboarding requirements.
We did not run our own speed, success-rate or latency benchmarks. Treat this list as a researched shortlist, and use free trials to confirm performance on your own targets. Prices change often, so confirm the live price before you buy.
Are proxies legal?
Yes, using a proxy is legal in most countries. What matters is what you do through it. Your activity must still follow local law, the website's terms and privacy rules such as the GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in California.
Reputable providers ban fraud, account abuse and getting around access controls. Bright Data now reviews residential use cases before approval. If you plan to collect data at scale, get legal advice on your specific project.
How much do proxies cost?
Proxy prices depend on the type. Shared datacenter proxies can cost a few cents per IP, such as Webshare's 100 proxies for around $2.99 a month.
Residential proxies are billed by traffic. They range from under $1 per GB at Evomi and DataImpulse to around $8 per GB on Bright Data's pay-as-you-go plan. Mobile proxies usually cost the most.
What is the difference between residential and datacenter proxies?
Residential proxies use IP addresses that home internet providers assign to real households. Websites treat them like ordinary visitors.
Datacenter proxies come from cloud and hosting servers. They are faster and much cheaper, but easier to detect and block. Most teams use datacenter proxies by default and switch to residential only for sites that need them.
The Bottom Line
Decodo is the best place to start for most buyers, with every proxy type, clear session options and a free trial. Webshare is the cheapest way into datacenter proxies. Oxylabs is the strongest choice for large, steady data projects.
Bright Data still has the broadest toolkit, but its residential identity check adds real friction for new users.
On a budget, here is how the rest compare:
- Evomi and DataImpulse offer the lowest residential rates;
- IPRoyal suits occasional use thanks to traffic that never expires;
- Rayobyte delivers strong datacenter value.
Next steps: Pick the proxy type your target needs. Then run a free trial or the smallest plan with two providers on the exact pages you plan to visit. Compare success rates and real cost per successful page, not the headline price.
Not sure which proxy type you need?
Compare residential and datacenter proxies on cost, speed, blocking and when to use each.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best proxy provider in 2026?
Decodo is the best all-round proxy provider for most people in 2026. It offers residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies, sessions up to 24 hours and a three-day free trial. Webshare is better for cheap datacenter proxies, and Oxylabs for large, steady data projects.
Are free proxies safe to use?
Public free proxy lists are not safe for anything important. Unknown operators can log, change or slow down your traffic. A free plan from a known provider is different. Webshare's free plan, with 10 datacenter proxies and 1 GB a month, is a reasonable way to learn the basics.
Which proxy provider is the cheapest?
For datacenter proxies, Webshare and Decodo offer shared IPs for a few cents each. Rayobyte's rotating datacenter traffic starts around $0.30 per GB. For residential, Evomi at about $0.49 per GB on its 100 GB plan and DataImpulse at about $1 per GB were the cheapest we found.
Is a proxy the same as a VPN?
No. A VPN encrypts all the traffic from your device and is built for personal privacy and security. A proxy provider routes specific requests, often from scripts or business tools, through many IP addresses. Businesses use proxies for regional checks and data collection, while people use VPNs to protect their browsing.
Do I need residential or datacenter proxies?
Start with datacenter proxies if your target sites accept them, because they are faster and cheaper. Switch to residential when sites block server IPs or you need to see content as a local home user would. Our residential vs datacenter guide walks through the decision.