Best SOCKS5 Proxies in 2026 — 8 Providers Compared
SOCKS5 is the gold standard for proxy protocols — supports UDP, faster than HTTP, works with any application. We compare 8 providers offering SOCKS5: Bright Data, Oxylabs, GProxy (also SOCKS4), and 5 more. GProxy is cheapest at $0.85/GB.
Почему ищут альтернативу
SOCKS5 is preferred over HTTP for: gaming, torrenting, applications without HTTP proxy support, and any workload needing UDP. All major providers support SOCKS5; only GProxy also supports SOCKS4 (for legacy tooling).
Лучшие альтернативы
GProxy
Наш выборОт $0.85/GB residential PAYG · $0.03/IPv6 proxy / 3 days
Подходит: SMB and developers: budget residential, IPv6, per-day billing, virgin ISP.
- ✓Residential 2-7x cheaper at entry ($0.85/GB PAYG)
- ✓Standalone IPv6 proxies — only provider that sells them
- ✓Pay-per-day billing on most products
- ✓Virgin ISP tier ($6.50/IP) with 0 fraud score
- ✓Flat unlimited bandwidth from $3/day
- –Mid-size residential pool (10M+ IPs) (10M+ IPs)
- –Country coverage 150+ vs
- –No Fortune-500 references
IPRoyal
От $1.75/GB · $1.39/IP DC · $117/mo mobile
Подходит: Multi-product mid-budget: 'traffic never expires', 5G mobile, Web Unblocker API.
- ✓32M+ residential, 4.5M+ mobile 5G
- ✓60+ datacenter locations
- ✓Traffic never expires
- ✓Web Unblocker $1/1000 req
- –$1.75/GB entry
- –Mobile $117/month
- –No IPv6
Smartproxy (Decodo)
От $3.75/GB (3GB $11.25/mo) · $0.035/IP datacenter
Подходит: Mid-market: cheap datacenter shared, 14-day money-back.
- ✓115M+ residential
- ✓Datacenter $0.035/IP at 100 IPs
- ✓14-day money-back
- ✓Rebranded to Decodo 2024
- –Brand rebrand confusion
- –No IPv6
- –ISP 15 countries
Webshare
От $3.50/GB · 10 datacenter free forever
Подходит: Free-tier seekers, cheap datacenter at scale. Acquired by Oxylabs 2022.
- ✓10 datacenter free forever
- ✓Datacenter $0.0299/IP at 100 IPs
- ✓ISP $0.30/IP (AT&T/Sprint/Cox)
- ✓30-47% annual discount
- –$3.50/GB residential entry
- –No IPv6
- –US-focused ISPs
- –No daily billing
SOAX
От $3.60/GB (25GB $90/mo) · $1.99 trial
Подходит: Mobile-heavy: 33M+ mobile IPs, unified credit system.
- ✓33M+ mobile IPs in 195+ countries
- ✓Unified credits
- ✓UDP/QUIC
- ✓24h sticky sessions
- –$90/month Starter
- –No IPv6
- –No proxies in Texas (stated policy)
NetNut
От $2.92/GB (72GB $210/mo)
Подходит: Direct ISP partnerships, one-hop low-latency architecture.
- ✓85M+ residential
- ✓Direct ISP partnerships
- ✓1M+ ISP IPs
- ✓5G mobile network
- ✓3/6/12 month plans
- –$210/month minimum
- –No PAYG below $2.92/GB
- –No IPv6
Bright Data
От $4/GB PAYG · $499+/mo volume
Подходит: Enterprise data teams, LLM labs (14 of top 20).
- ✓400M+ residential IPs
- ✓195 countries
- ✓Won Meta/X cases 2024
- ✓14 of top 20 LLM labs
- –$4/GB PAYG
- –Volume $499-$2,500/mo commitments
- –No IPv6
- –Enterprise onboarding
Oxylabs
От $6/GB Starter (5GB $30/mo)
Подходит: Enterprise data teams, premium ASN ISP (Lumen, Comcast, BT, Orange, Cox).
- ✓175M+ residential
- ✓Proxyway/PCMag 2025 awards
- ✓HTTP3
- ✓EU HQ
- –$30/month minimum Starter
- –ISP 22 countries
- –No IPv6
Сравнительная таблица
| Параметр | Значение |
|---|---|
| All 8 providers support SOCKS5 | SOCKS5 |
| Only GProxy | SOCKS4 (legacy) |
| Only SOAX (plus standard SOCKS5) | UDP/QUIC modern protocols |
| Only Oxylabs | HTTP3 |
| GProxy $0.85/GB | Cheapest SOCKS5 residential PAYG |
SOCKS5 vs HTTP — quick context
SOCKS5 operates at a lower network layer than HTTP — supports UDP, any TCP-based protocol, and is lighter on overhead. For pure HTTP traffic, HTTP proxy is equally fast and simpler. For non-HTTP workloads (gaming, torrenting, custom protocols), SOCKS5 is required.
Methodology
For each provider we visited their public product/pricing page on 2026-05-16, recorded the lowest published price, the disclosed network size (with the caveat that "number of IPs" claims are vendor-self-reported), and noted unique product offerings. We did NOT include affiliate codes, kickbacks, or per-conversion sponsorship in this ranking. GProxy is the publisher; we rank ourselves where the data supports it and concede other providers' wins where the data supports them.
FAQ
Is SOCKS5 better than HTTP proxy? +
Do these providers support SOCKS4? +
What's the difference between SOCKS5 and HTTP proxy speed? +
Итог
All 8 providers offer SOCKS5. Cheapest for SOCKS5 residential: GProxy at $0.85/GB. For SOCKS5 datacenter shared at scale: Webshare $0.0299/IP. For modern protocol support (UDP/QUIC): SOAX. For HTTP3: Oxylabs.
