Best Proxy Providers in 2026 — 10 Services with Real Prices
The proxy market in 2026 has over 200 providers. Most resell traffic from the same upstream suppliers. We selected 10 providers with verified or proprietary infrastructure, checked prices, and tested on real tasks — scraping, multi-accounting, and geo-unblocking.
Why they are looking for an alternative
Choosing a proxy provider depends on your use case. There's no one-size-fits-all — a provider perfect for scraping may not work for social media account management.
Four proxy types and their use cases:
- Residential — ISP IPs from real households. For scraping, geo-unblocking, ad verification. Billed per GB
- Datacenter — server IPs. Fastest and cheapest. For bulk requests where trust score isn't critical
- Mobile — carrier IPs. Highest trust score. For social media, accounts, automation
- ISP (Static Residential) — server IPs with residential ASN. Speed-trust balance. For e-commerce, streaming
What to evaluate:
- IP pool size and quality — count doesn't equal quality, alive percentage matters
- Pricing model — per GB, per IP, per day, per month
- Minimum spend — from $0 to $500+
- Country coverage — from 30 to 195+
- Protocols — HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5
- Documentation and API
Best alternatives
GProxy
Our choiceFrom $0.85/GB residential · $3/day unlimited · $0.03/IPv6
Suitable: All-in-one provider for SMBs: all proxy types, daily billing, low entry barrier.
- ✓5 proxy types: residential, unlimited datacenter, mobile, ISP, IPv6
- ✓Daily billing — no mandatory monthly subscriptions
- ✓Residential from $0.85/GB — 6x cheaper than Bright Data
- ✓Unlimited traffic from $3/day — no equivalent on the market
- ✓IPv6 from $0.03/proxy — unique offering
- ✓Mobile proxies from 40+ countries with free 10-minute test
- –Residential pool 10M+ IPs — mid-range by market standards
- –No enterprise SLA or dedicated account manager
- –Brand less recognized than Bright Data or Oxylabs
Bright Data
From $5.04/GB residential · $0.06/IP datacenter
Suitable: Enterprise clients: largest IP pool, turnkey scraping solutions, formal SLAs.
- ✓72M+ residential IPs — largest verified pool
- ✓Scraping Browser, Web Unlocker, ready-made datasets
- ✓All proxy types: residential, datacenter, mobile, ISP
- ✓Formal SLA, dedicated support, SOC2 certification
- –Highest prices: residential $5.04/GB, mobile $8.40/GB
- –Complex interface — steep learning curve
- –$500 minimum for mobile proxies
Oxylabs
From $4/GB residential · $1.20/IP datacenter
Suitable: Large data teams: 100M+ IPs, AI-powered Web Unblocker, SERP API.
- ✓100M+ residential IPs from 195+ countries
- ✓Web Unblocker — AI bypass for any antibot system
- ✓SERP Scraper API — Google, Bing, Yandex parsing
- ✓Dedicated account manager, 99.95% uptime SLA
- –$300/month minimum for residential
- –Mobile proxies by request only
- –No daily billing — monthly subscriptions only
Smartproxy (Decodo)
From $3.75/GB residential · $0.035/IP datacenter
Suitable: Mid-market: price-quality balance, intuitive dashboard, scraping API.
- ✓55M+ residential IPs from 195+ countries
- ✓Cheapest shared datacenter: $0.035/IP
- ✓User-friendly dashboard, setup in minutes
- ✓14-day money-back guarantee on all plans
- –No mobile proxies
- –No daily billing — $11.25/month minimum
- –ISP proxies in 15 countries only
IPRoyal
From $1.75/GB residential · $5/day mobile
Suitable: Budget residential: low prices, traffic never expires.
- ✓Residential from $1.75/GB — among the cheapest
- ✓Traffic never expires — use at your own pace
- ✓Mobile proxies from $5/day
- ✓32M+ residential IPs from 195+ countries
- –No scraping API or browser solutions
- –No ISP proxies
- –Support slower than top competitors
SOAX
From $3.60/GB residential · $5.50/GB mobile
Suitable: Flexible plans: residential + mobile in one pool, pay-as-you-go.
- ✓191M+ residential and mobile IPs
- ✓City and carrier-level geo-targeting
- ✓No mandatory subscription
- ✓Wi-Fi + carrier IPs in one pool
- –Mobile speeds unstable during peak hours
- –Dashboard less intuitive than Smartproxy
- –Support EU business hours only
NetNut
From $3/GB residential · $8/GB mobile
Suitable: ISP proxies: static residential IPs with high speed.
- ✓85M+ rotating residential IPs
- ✓ISP proxies from 50+ countries — static, fast
- ✓99.99% claimed uptime
- ✓No thread limits
- –$300/month minimum
- –Dated dashboard
- –Prices not published — need to request
Proxy-Seller
From $0.77/proxy IPv4 · $1.77/proxy mobile
Suitable: Individual CIS/EU proxies: IPv4 and mobile with city and carrier selection.
- ✓Choose specific city, subnet and carrier
- ✓Pay per proxy, not per traffic
- ✓IPv4, IPv6 and mobile proxies
- ✓Russian and English support
- –No residential proxies
- –Limited country coverage
- –No API for bulk management
Webshare
From $3.50/GB residential · 10 proxies free
Suitable: Free start: 10 datacenter proxies forever, great documentation.
- ✓10 free datacenter proxies forever
- ✓Excellent documentation and API
- ✓Clean, simple interface
- ✓Residential from $3.50/GB
- –Free proxies are datacenter — blocked on protected sites
- –No mobile proxies
- –Residential pool 30M+ — average
922 S5 Proxy
From $0.04/IP residential
Suitable: Mass multi-accounting: 200M+ IPs, pay per IP via desktop app.
- ✓200M+ residential IPs — largest claimed pool
- ✓Pay per IP ($0.04), not per traffic
- ✓Desktop SOCKS5 app — convenient for antidetect browsers
- ✓City-level geo-targeting
- –Desktop app only — no standard gateway
- –IP quality inconsistent
- –Reputation: associated with gray-hat use cases
Comparison table
| Query Parameters: | Value |
|---|---|
| GProxy: 5 types · Bright Data: 4 · Oxylabs: 3 · Smartproxy: 3 · IPRoyal: 3 | Proxy types |
| GProxy $0.85 · IPRoyal $1.75 · Smartproxy $3.75 · SOAX $3.60 · Oxylabs $4 · Bright Data $5.04 | Residential $/GB |
| GProxy ✓ · Bright Data ✓ · SOAX ✓ · IPRoyal ✓ · Smartproxy ✗ · Webshare ✗ | Mobile proxies |
| GProxy $0.85 · IPRoyal $1.75 · Webshare $0 · Smartproxy $11.25 · Oxylabs $300 · Bright Data $15 | Minimum spend |
| GProxy ✓ · IPRoyal ✓ (mobile) · all others ✗ | Daily billing |
| GProxy ✓ from $0.03 · Proxy-Seller ✓ · all others ✗ | IPv6 proxies |
| 922 S5 200M+ · SOAX 191M+ · Oxylabs 100M+ · Bright Data 72M+ · Smartproxy 55M+ · GProxy 10M+ | IP pool |
| GProxy ✓ 10 min mobile · Webshare ✓ 10 DC · Smartproxy ✓ 14-day refund | Free trial |
How We Ranked
Each provider was evaluated on 6 criteria:
- Proxy types — how many types offered (residential, datacenter, mobile, ISP, IPv6)
- Pricing — entry cost, per-unit price, daily billing availability
- Pool size and quality — IP count, alive percentage, ASN diversity
- Country coverage — number of locations, city-level targeting
- Technical implementation — API, documentation, protocols, sticky sessions
- Entry barrier — minimum payment, KYC, trial period
Who Needs a Proxy Provider
Proxies are used across dozens of industries. Main scenarios:
- Web scraping and data mining — collecting data without blocks. Need residential or rotating datacenter
- SMM and multi-accounting — managing social media accounts. Need mobile or ISP proxies
- SEO monitoring — rank checking, SERP parsing. Residential or datacenter
- Ad verification — checking ad display in different geos. Residential with geo-targeting
- Geo-unblocking — accessing content from other countries. Residential or ISP
- Privacy protection — anonymous internet access. Any type
Residential vs Datacenter: When to Use Which
Datacenter proxies are 5-20x cheaper than residential, but get blocked on sites with antibot protection (Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX). If your target is an unprotected site or internal API, datacenter saves budget. If the target is protected (Google, Amazon, social media) — residential or mobile only.
FAQ
What is the best proxy provider in 2026? +
How much do proxies cost in 2026? +
Can I use free proxies? +
Datacenter or residential — which to choose? +
What are sticky sessions and when do I need them? +
How to test proxy quality before buying? +
Total
For most use cases, GProxy offers the best price-to-feature ratio: residential from $0.85/GB, mobile from $6.90/day, unlimited from $3/day, IPv6 from $0.03 per proxy. For enterprise scale with $1000+/month budgets — Bright Data or Oxylabs. For pure scraping without accounts — Smartproxy. For maximum residential savings — IPRoyal.
