Best Bright Data Alternatives: 7 Proxy Services Compared
· Updated October 24, 2026
Part of our Proxy Providers guide
Bright Data is one of the most capable proxy and web data companies around, but it is not the right fit for everyone.
Three things push people away:
- Its pay-as-you-go residential rate of around $8 per GB is high for small teams.
- Its product catalog can feel overwhelming.
- Since July 2026, new residential users must pass a human-reviewed identity check before they can start.
If any of that is slowing you down, there are strong alternatives.
Our top three picks are Decodo for most Bright Data users, Oxylabs for enterprise scale and SOAX for precise location targeting. The others fit narrower needs:
- IPRoyal suits flexible prepaid usage.
- Webshare and Rayobyte are much cheaper when datacenter proxies are enough.
- Zyte API replaces proxy management entirely with pay-per-success pricing.
All prices were checked in mid-October 2026.
Why Look for a Bright Data Alternative?
People leave Bright Data mainly over price, onboarding and complexity. It sells residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies, plus Web Unlocker, a scraping browser, scraper APIs and ready-made datasets. That breadth is its strength. The common reasons people look elsewhere are:
- Price. Residential pay-as-you-go was listed at around $8 per GB, with promotions as low as about $4. Monthly plans fall to about $3.50 per GB at $499, $3.00 at $999 and $2.50 at $1,999 a month.
- Onboarding. Bright Data's documentation says residential zones created after July 7, 2026 need a human-reviewed KYC approval. You must sign up with a company email, not Gmail or Outlook. Traffic is limited to the use cases you declared.
- Complexity. Many small teams only need one proxy type and a simple dashboard.
Not every situation calls for a switch. Without KYC, Bright Data's ISP, datacenter and Web Unlocker products remain available. Its formal review can even help enterprises that need to show a compliance trail.
For a full shortlist across every type of provider, see our best proxy providers guide.
Quick Comparison: 7 Best Bright Data Alternatives
Decodo is our top pick overall, followed by Oxylabs and SOAX. Here is how all 7 compare on use case, starting price and why switch. Prices were checked in October 2026, so confirm the live rate before you buy.
| Alternative | Best For | Starting Price | Why Switch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decodo | Most Bright Data users | Residential around $4/GB pay-as-you-go | Simpler plans and a free trial |
| Oxylabs | Teams that still need enterprise scale | Residential around $30 for 5 GB | Similar scale with volume pricing |
| SOAX | Precise location targeting | US traffic around $3 to $5/GB | City and ISP targeting on prepaid credits |
| IPRoyal | Flexible prepaid usage | Residential around $7/GB at 1 GB | Traffic that never expires |
| Webshare | Jobs where datacenter is enough | Free; 100 proxies around $2.99/mo | Far cheaper for simple targets |
| Rayobyte | Cheap datacenter and static IPs | Rotating datacenter around $0.30/GB | Low datacenter rates |
| Zyte API | Replacing proxy management | About $0.13 per 1,000 simple responses | Pay only for successful pages |
What Makes a Great Bright Data Alternative?
A great alternative covers the Bright Data features you actually use, at a lower or more predictable cost. Its onboarding should also fit your team. Most buyers do not need everything Bright Data offers, so the best pick depends on which part you rely on.
We weighed five things:
- Coverage of the proxy types and tools you are replacing
- Effective price at realistic volumes
- Onboarding and verification friction
- Location and session controls
- Clear acceptable-use policies
Best Overall Bright Data Alternatives
1. Decodo: Best alternative for most Bright Data users
Decodo, formerly Smartproxy, covers every major proxy type with simpler plans and a free trial.
What it does well. Decodo replaces the core of what most people use Bright Data for. It offers residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies with good targeting and session control.
Its pricing is easier to follow, and its dashboard is beginner-friendly. You can start on pay-as-you-go residential at about half Bright Data's list rate. Scraping APIs cover some managed-collection use cases too.
Key features:
- Residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies
- Per-request rotation or sticky sessions up to 24 hours
- Country, state and city targeting
- Three-day free trial and 14-day money-back window on eligible purchases
Pricing. Residential pay-as-you-go was around $4 per GB, with cheaper monthly plans. Shared datacenter starts around $0.035 per IP with a 100-IP minimum. Dedicated datacenter is about $1.85 per IP.
Best for: Small and mid-sized teams that want Bright Data-style proxies with less friction.
Limitations. Decodo does not match Bright Data's full catalog of datasets and unblocking tools. TechRadar reports its dedicated datacenter IPs are US-only.
2. Oxylabs: Best if you still need enterprise scale
Oxylabs is the closest like-for-like alternative for large data operations.
What it does well. Oxylabs competes directly with Bright Data at the enterprise end. It offers premium residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter networks, scraper APIs and account support. Its residential prices come in clear volume tiers, which makes budgeting easier for large, steady workloads.
Key features:
- Residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter proxies
- Scraper APIs that handle rendering and retries
- Published residential tiers down to about $2.50 per GB
- Dedicated support on larger plans
Pricing. Residential plans were listed at around $30 for 5 GB, $100 for 20 GB, $500 for 125 GB and $2,500 for 1 TB. Dedicated datacenter IPs start at about $2 each.
Best for: Enterprises that want Bright Data-level scale from a different vendor.
Limitations. At high volume, Oxylabs' per-GB pricing is similar to Bright Data's monthly plans. So the savings come mostly at the entry level and from simpler pricing.
Best Alternatives for Targeting and Flexible Billing
3. SOAX: Best for precise location targeting
SOAX focuses on fine-grained targeting by country, region, city and internet provider.
What it does well. SOAX is a strong replacement if you used Bright Data mainly for local views, such as checking search results or ads in specific cities. It lets you target by city and internet provider, with configurable rotation and sticky sessions. Residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter pools share one prepaid balance.
Key features:
- Country, region, city and ISP targeting
- Configurable rotation and sticky sessions
- Residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter proxies
- Prepaid credits that work across products
Pricing. SOAX's 2026 pricing uses prepaid credits. US residential traffic is around $5 per GB on the free Sandbox tier and about $3 per GB on the $200-a-month Builder plan. There is no separate trial: Sandbox is the no-commitment option, and credits expire 60 days after they are added.
Best for: Marketers and analysts who need city-level accuracy.
Limitations. Credits expire after 60 days on Sandbox and monthly plans, and rates vary by location tier.
4. IPRoyal: Best for flexible prepaid usage
IPRoyal's residential traffic never expires, which suits teams with irregular demand.
What it does well. Monthly plans at enterprise providers reward steady usage and penalize quiet months. IPRoyal takes the opposite approach. Its official FAQ confirms residential traffic does not expire, so you buy once and use it whenever a project comes up.
Its documentation also lists sticky sessions of up to seven days.
Key features:
- Non-expiring residential traffic
- Sticky sessions up to seven days
- Datacenter, ISP and mobile proxies
- Volume discounts on larger purchases
Pricing. Residential starts around $7 per GB for one gigabyte and falls to roughly $1.75 per GB at large volumes. Datacenter proxies start around $1.39 per proxy on a 90-day rental.
Best for: Teams with bursty or seasonal proxy needs.
Limitations. Small purchases are pricey per GB. The same sticky IP is not guaranteed for the full session.
Best Budget and Managed Bright Data Alternatives
5. Webshare: Best if datacenter proxies are enough
Webshare can replace Bright Data for a fraction of the price when your targets accept datacenter IPs.
What it does well. Many teams buy premium residential traffic for jobs that would work on datacenter proxies. If your targets accept server IPs, Webshare's custom datacenter plans cost a tiny fraction of residential traffic. The free plan lets you check before you cancel anything.
Key features:
- Free plan with 10 proxies and 1 GB a month
- Custom datacenter plans by count, bandwidth and location
- Static residential and rotating residential options
- Simple dashboard and proxy list exports
Pricing. 100 shared datacenter proxies were listed at around $2.99 a month, or about $1.99 billed yearly. Rotating residential starts around $3.50 for 1 GB. Static residential starts around $6 a month for 20 proxies.
Best for: Teams that discover their targets do not need residential IPs.
Limitations. Webshare has none of Bright Data's unblocking tools or datasets. Shared datacenter IPs struggle on strict sites.
6. Rayobyte: Best for cheap datacenter and static IPs
Rayobyte, formerly Blazing SEO, is a US-based provider with low datacenter rates.
What it does well. Rayobyte fits well if you used Bright Data's datacenter or ISP products and want lower prices. Its rotating datacenter traffic starts around $0.30 per GB. It sells dedicated datacenter IPs for steady jobs, and residential, ISP and mobile proxies plus a scraping API cover the rest.
Key features:
- Rotating datacenter traffic per GB
- Dedicated datacenter IPs in the US and abroad
- Residential, ISP and mobile proxies
- Web scraping API
Pricing. Prices start at these levels:
- Rotating datacenter: around $0.30 per GB
- Dedicated US datacenter: about $2.50 per IP a month with a five-IP minimum (more outside the US)
- Residential: around $2 per GB at mid volumes
Best for: Teams that mostly need datacenter or static IPs at lower cost.
Limitations. Read the fair-use terms on rotating plans. Expect higher prices for dedicated IPs outside the US.
7. Zyte API: Best for replacing proxy management
Zyte, the company behind the open-source Scrapy framework, offers a scraping API with pay-per-success pricing.
What it does well. Zyte API is a natural alternative if you mainly used Bright Data's Web Unlocker or scraping browser. You send a URL and get the page back. Proxies, retries and browser rendering are handled for you.
You pay only for successful responses. They are priced per 1,000 and tiered by how hard the site is.
Key features:
- Pay only for successful responses
- Simple HTTP or browser-rendered requests
- Automatic proxy rotation and retries
- Works with Scrapy and any HTTP client
Pricing. Pay-as-you-go HTTP responses cost about $0.13 per 1,000 on easy sites, rising to about $1.27 on the hardest tier. Browser-rendered responses range from about $1.01 to $16.08 per 1,000.
Commitments start at $100 a month and lower the simplest HTTP rate to as little as $0.06 per 1,000. New accounts get $5 in free credit.
Best for: Teams that want results per page rather than raw proxies.
Limitations. Rendered requests on hard sites get expensive. You also lose some low-level control compared with raw proxies.
How Should You Choose a Bright Data Alternative?
Choose by the Bright Data products you actually use. If it is residential proxies, compare Decodo, Oxylabs, SOAX and IPRoyal. See our best residential proxies guide for cost comparisons.
If it is datacenter or ISP proxies, Webshare and Rayobyte will usually be cheaper, as our best datacenter proxies guide shows.
If it is Web Unlocker or the scraping browser, look at Zyte API and the scraper APIs from Oxylabs and Decodo. Also read our guide to the best proxies for web scraping.
Then migrate carefully. Do not cancel anything on day one:
- Run both in parallel. Send a share of real traffic through the new provider for a week.
- Compare cost per successful page. Track success rate, response time and megabytes per page, not just the per-GB price.
- Update connection details. Session, rotation and targeting settings use different formats at each provider, so check the docs.
- Review the acceptable-use policy. Make sure your use case is allowed and documented before you scale.
Switching for one specific job? Compare by proxy type instead:
- The best rotating proxies for high-volume rotation
- The best ISP proxies for stable static IPs
- The best mobile proxies for carrier IPs
How We Evaluated These Bright Data Alternatives
We built this list from public pricing pages, documentation and acceptable-use policies for Bright Data and each alternative. We checked them in mid-October 2026. We also used independent reviews from outlets such as TechRadar and Proxyway.
We compared product coverage, effective price at realistic volumes, onboarding requirements, targeting and session controls. We did not run our own speed or success-rate benchmarks. So run a parallel trial on your own targets and confirm live prices before you switch.
Why does Bright Data require KYC?
Bright Data requires KYC because residential proxies route traffic through real people's home connections, and misuse can harm those users and websites. Its documentation says residential zones created after July 7, 2026 need a human-reviewed KYC approval, a company email and declared use cases. It presents the check as a way to limit residential traffic to approved, legitimate uses.
Is Bright Data worth the price?
Bright Data is worth it for enterprises that use several of its products, such as residential proxies, Web Unlocker and datasets. These buyers also value its formal compliance process. Smaller teams that need one proxy type usually pay less with Decodo, Webshare or DataImpulse, and start faster.
The Bottom Line
Decodo is the best Bright Data alternative for most people, with every major proxy type, simpler pricing and a free trial. Oxylabs is the closest match for enterprise scale. SOAX is the pick for precise local targeting.
IPRoyal suits flexible prepaid use. Webshare and Rayobyte win on price when datacenter IPs are enough. Zyte API replaces proxy management with pay-per-success pricing.
Next steps: List the Bright Data features you rely on. Trial one or two alternatives that cover them. Run both in parallel for a week before you switch.
See every proxy provider compared
Our full shortlist of 8 proxy providers, with pricing, proxy types and who each one fits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Bright Data alternative?
Decodo is the best Bright Data alternative for most users. It covers residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies with simpler pricing and a free trial. Oxylabs is better for enterprise scale, and SOAX is better for precise city and ISP targeting.
Are Bright Data alternatives cheaper?
Usually, at small and medium volumes. Bright Data's residential pay-as-you-go rate was around $8 per GB in our check, versus around $4 at Decodo and about $1 at DataImpulse. At very large volumes, Bright Data's monthly plans fall to about $2.50 per GB, close to Oxylabs' top tier.
Do other proxy providers check how you use them?
Yes. Reputable providers all have acceptable-use policies that ban fraud and abuse. Some may ask for extra verification for certain targets or use cases. Bright Data's 2026 residential review is one of the most formal, but expect some checks from any serious provider.
Should I switch providers immediately?
No. Run the new provider alongside Bright Data for at least a week on real traffic. Compare cost per successful page and confirm your use case fits its policy. Switch only when the numbers and the onboarding both work for you.
Can I use Bright Data without KYC?
Partly. Bright Data's documentation says ISP, datacenter and Web Unlocker products remain available without KYC. Only residential zones created after July 7, 2026 need the human-reviewed approval. If you mainly need non-residential products, you may not need to switch at all.