Bright Data vs Infatica: An In-Depth Comparison Guide

Collecting data is more important than ever for businesses today. Whether it’s for market research or keeping an eye on competitors, having access to accurate and timely data can make all the difference. Web scraping is a powerful tool for gathering this data, but it often comes with obstacles like IP blocks and CAPTCHAs. That’s where residential proxy services like Bright Data and Infatica come in. They offer large networks of IP addresses, helping businesses bypass these barriers and scrape data efficiently. Both of these providers are well-known in the proxy world, but they each have their strengths. In this article, I’ll break down the features, performance, and pricing of both to help you choose the right one for your needs.

About Bright Data

Bright Data is a top name in the residential proxy market. It has built a massive proxy network that supports businesses in many industries. Bright Data provides a range of proxy types, including residential, mobile, and data center proxies, making it a versatile choice for various needs.

In addition to its proxies, Bright Data offers powerful tools that help businesses manage large-scale data extraction. Whether you’re scraping websites, tracking competitors, or handling large datasets, Bright Data’s platform is designed to make the process more efficient and effective.

Key Features:

• Proxy Network: Bright Data boasts over 150 million residential IPs, spread across 195+ countries and 7 million mobile IPs. This vast network ensures broad coverage and minimal risk of IP blocking.
• Geo-Targeting: Bright Data allows users to target specific countries, regions, states, and even cities. The platform also supports carrier and ZIP code targeting for more precise data collection.
• Success Rate and Speed: Bright Data is known for its high success rate of 99.17% and impressive response time of around 1.02 seconds.
• Advanced Tools: Bright Data includes a Proxy Manager for managing proxy settings, session control, and rotating IPs. It also provides built-in CAPTCHA solving for enhanced performance.
• Enterprise-Grade Scalability: The platform supports up to 60,000 concurrent connections per zone and offers auto-scaling options for large enterprises.

Use Cases:

• Price comparison and market research
• SEO monitoring and competitive intelligence
• Ad verification and brand protection
• Travel aggregation and financial market research

About Infatica

Infatica is a newer company in the proxy market. It was founded in 2019 and is based in Hong Kong. Despite being relatively new, it has quickly made a name for itself by offering residential, mobile, and data center proxies, along with web scraping APIs. Infatica stands out for its strong commitment to ethical data collection and user privacy.

While it may not have the same long history as Bright Data, Infatica is gaining popularity for its reliable services and focus on ensuring responsible usage. This makes it a solid choice for businesses looking for ethical proxy solutions.

Key Features:

• Proxy Network: Infatica has around 15 million residential IPs and 5 million mobile IPs, spread across 150+ countries. While smaller than Bright Data’s network, it still offers solid global coverage.
• Geo-Targeting: Infatica allows users to target countries and specific regions for web scraping, though it doesn’t provide the same level of granular targeting as Bright Data.
• Success Rate and Speed: Infatica has a success rate of 95.95% with an average response time of 1.20 seconds. While it performs well, it generally lags behind Bright Data in terms of speed and reliability, especially in high-demand scenarios.
• Simple Dashboard: Infatica offers a straightforward dashboard for proxy management that is user-friendly, especially for smaller businesses or developers looking for an easy solution.
• Ethical Compliance: Infatica emphasizes ethical proxy usage, requiring KYC (Know Your Customer) verification for its users and offering consent-based traffic from device owners.

Use Cases:

• Market research and price comparison
• Social media management and SEO monitoring
• Data collection for e-commerce and competitive intelligence

Feature Comparison: Bright Data vs Infatica

Now let’s compare the two services in more detail to understand their strengths and weaknesses across several key factors.

Proxy Network

When it comes to proxy services, network size and diversity are key factors to consider. Bright Data leads in this area, offering an impressive 150 million residential IPs and mobile proxies across over 195 countries. This vast network is ideal for large-scale, high-demand scraping projects.

In comparison, Infatica has a smaller pool of 15 million residential IPs. While it still provides good coverage across many countries, its smaller network may limit businesses needing precise geo-targeting or a wider range of IPs. This makes Bright Data the better choice for those requiring extensive network options.

Speed and Reliability

Speed is crucial when it comes to web scraping. Faster response times mean more data can be collected in less time. Bright Data excels in this area, offering a success rate of 99.95%. In comparison, Infatica has a reliable success rate of 95.95%.

When tested on scraping US-based e-commerce sites, Bright Data outperforms Infatica with a success rate of 99.99% compared to Infatica’s 94.43%. Bright Data’s larger network and infrastructure give it the edge in speed and reliability.

Geo-Targeting

Both Bright Data and Infatica offer geo-targeting features, enabling businesses to focus on specific regions or countries. However, Bright Data stands out with more detailed targeting options, including the ability to target particular cities, ZIP codes, and mobile carriers. This level of precision is especially useful for businesses needing hyper-local data.

While Infatica offers geo-targeting by country and region, it doesn’t provide the same detailed options. If your business requires precise geo-targeting, Bright Data would be the better choice due to its more granular targeting capabilities.

Session Control and Proxy Rotation

Proxy rotation is essential to prevent IP bans and CAPTCHAs from disrupting web scraping. Both Bright Data and Infatica offer customizable proxy rotation intervals, but Bright Data goes a step further by providing sticky sessions. This feature helps maintain session states across multiple requests, which is crucial for tasks that require staying logged in or keeping consistent session data.

Infatica also supports session control but lacks sticky sessions, which may limit its effectiveness for scraping tasks that require multi-page navigation or maintaining login sessions. Bright Data offers superior options for more advanced session management.

Scalability

Scalability is essential for businesses with large-scale data extraction needs. Bright Data is built to handle high volumes of data, offering up to 60,000 concurrent connections per zone. This makes it a great option for enterprises with extensive scraping requirements. Its auto-scaling feature also allows resources to adjust dynamically as workloads increase.

Infatica supports up to 1,000 concurrent ports, which may be sufficient for smaller businesses. However, for larger enterprises or those with massive data collection needs, Infatica’s scalability may not be enough to meet the demands of high-volume scraping.

Pricing

Pricing is always an important consideration. Infatica generally offers a more affordable pricing structure compared to Bright Data, making it a viable option for smaller businesses or developers with a limited budget. Infatica’s simpler pricing model is transparent, with no hidden costs.

Bright Data, on the other hand, reflects its extensive network and advanced pricing features. While it may be more expensive, businesses that require large-scale data collection and high performance may find the cost justifiable.

Customer Support and Documentation

Bright Data offers extensive customer support, including 24/7 assistance via email, chat, and ticketing systems. Its documentation is thorough and accessible, providing users with the resources they need to integrate and use the platform effectively.

Infatica also offers support, but it is more limited than Bright Data. It provides customer support via email, but its documentation is not as detailed as Bright Data’s. Infatica does assign dedicated account managers to users, which can be helpful for smaller businesses.

Final Notes

Both Bright Data and Infatica offer strong proxy services for web scraping, each catering to different needs. Bright Data stands out with its large network, high speed, advanced geo-targeting, and scalability. It’s the best choice for large businesses or complex data extraction tasks that require extensive IP coverage and advanced features.

However, Infatica provides a more affordable and straightforward solution. It’s perfect for smaller businesses and developers who don’t need Bright Data’s massive scale. While Infatica doesn’t offer the same performance or network size, it remains a reliable and cost-effective option. Ultimately, choosing between Bright Data and Infatica comes down to your business size, budget, and data collection needs.