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Don’t know who the best proxy provider is? Read this review and find it out!
Residential proxies are the most popular choice among users who need a proxy service. Why? Because of their unparalleled ability to protect users’ identities, ensure privacy, and access geo-restricted content through genuine IPs from real devices. In recent years, numerous providers have appeared online and finding the right one can become a daunting task. Fortunately, you have come to the right place!
A residential proxy is an intermediary server with an IP address associated with a real residential device instead of a datacenter. Like any other proxy server, it acts as a bridge between the user and the Internet, concealing the user’s identity and location. Since residential devices are connected to a local Wi-FI with a genuine IP registered by an ISP, resindential IPs are more difficult to detect by anti-bot solutions.
In other words, a residential proxy works by redirecting online traffic generated by a user through residential IP addresses. The advantage is that the destination server will see the connection as coming from a reliable IP and not from a datacenter server with a static IP.
In particular, the key facts to know about residential proxies are:
When evaluating the best residential proxy providers on the market, there are certain elements to focus on. In detail, these comparison aspects are:
Explore the top 8 residential proxy services selected and compared by applying the criteria presented above. Which will be the best residential proxy provider? Time to reveal it!
If you are eager to find out the winner, take a look at the summary table below:
Bright Data stands out as one of the leading residential proxy providers in the market, controlling millions of residential IPs since 2016. The provider boasts one of the largest, fastest, and most reliable pools of rotating residential IPs globally. It also offers a wide range of features, including precise targeting via ASN and ZIP code specifications.
Bright Data provides services for both individuals and businesses, featuring both all-in-one plans and pay-as-you-go models. Thanks to its strict KYC policy, it prioritizes transparency and advocates ethical practices. With an extensive network of proxies, Bright Data also offers browser extensions and other useful scraping services.
Features:
Pricing:
Proxy Network:
Average Response Time:
Uptime: 99.99%
Success Rate: 99.9%
Customers and Partners:
Customer Support:
Ethics:
Reliability:
Learn more about Bright Data in our full Bright Data review.
Oxylabs emerges as a prominent player in the realm of residential proxies, giving it access to one of the largest proxy pools in the world. That involves 100 million IPs in most countries and major cities. The company specializes primarily in proxies but complements its offerings with some web scraping services.
Oxylabs provides a solution that targets companies looking for high-performance proxies with a high success rate and fast response time. In fact, the lack of a free trial might discourage most individual users. To ensure a secure and reliable user base, card ID verification is required.
Success Rate: 99.5%
Trustpilot Score: 4.7/5
Learn more about Oxylabs in our full Oxylabs review.
Smartproxy is a popular choice for those in need of residential proxies, although its pool of 55 million IPs is not among the largest in the market. It offers broad location coverage, enabling users to select any city or state in 195 countries around the world. At the same time, it lacks carrier or ASN targeting.
Smartproxy focuses on a flawless user experience, providing numerous guides and ensuring award-winning customer support. With a focus on self-service, users can seamlessly navigate the platform right after signing up, as no KYC procedures are required.
Success Rate: 99.47%
Learn more about Smartproxy in our full Smartproxy Review.
SOAX is a well-known player in the proxy industry, controlling over 155 million proxies. Unlike most of the best residential proxy providers, it does not have a pay-as-you-go plan. Alternatively, it offers monthly plans where you pay to gain access to a specific number of GBs. This means that if you do not use all of them, this provider may not be the most cost-effective choice.
SOAX offers the ability to target regions, cities, and ASNs without incurring additional costs. Yet, the absence of a free trial, mandatory IP whitelisting, and limited concurrency might raise some concerns.
Uptime: 99%
Learn more about SOAX in our full SOAX review.
IPRoyal presents an affordable alternative in the field of residential proxy services, offering proxies that never expire. The provider offers support for Discord, several rotation options, and support for the SOCKS5 protocol.
The main disadvantage of IPRoyal lies in the size of its proxy pool, which is significantly smaller than its competitors. This limitation, along with the potential impact on IP reputation due to low prices and resale options, makes it less suitable for large applications. Plus, the absence of a refund and free trial raises concerns despite Trustpilot’s positive reviews.
Uptime: 99.9%
Success Rate: 99.8%
Learn more about IPRoyal proxies in our full IPRoyal review.
NetNut is an established provider in the proxy industry, with a large pool of rotating residential proxies. Its plans are on a monthly basis and target mainly large companies, as the basic plan starts at $300 per month.
The detailed statistics offered by NetNut are worth noting. Through these, users can delve into the usage patterns of proxies for comprehensive insights. On the other hand, all these features mean that the web application provided may seem less user-friendly than those of competitors.
Success Rate: 93%
Learn more about NetNut proxies in our full NetNut Review.
Webshare provides a good amount of distributed IP in many countries, although it does not guarantee global reach. While not overly feature-rich, the provider covers all the essentials, making it a good choice for individuals and small and medium-sized businesses.
Webshare offers email-only customer support and does not guarantee GDPR compliance out of the box. For that reason, as well as an unclear refund policy and KYC process, it may not rank high among the best residential proxy providers.
Uptime: 99.97%
Success Rate: >99%
Learn more about Webshare in our full Webshare review.
Geonode is the cheapest proxy providers that sell residential proxies. However, a paid trial and a questionable refund policy do not make it among the most transparent providers. Also, its documentation is not as technical as it should be.
Geonode only provides city targeting and email support, since it must cut costs to secure those appealing prices. At least, it offers some interesting free tools.
Learn more about Geonode in our full Geonode review.
As seen in the previous chapter and can be seen from the table below, prices range from $4 to $15 per gigabyte:
At the same time, proxy prices usually decrease as the number of GB increases. Thus, “Starting from $10/GB” means that this is the worst-case scenario and prices are generally only going lower.
There are a large number of proxy services online, and finding the right one based on proxy network, speed, customer support and reliability is not easy. Here, you learned what aspects to consider when comparing the best residential proxy providers. Testing them one by one based on those criteria would require a lot of time, money, and effort. Fortunately, you do not have to, as we did the comparison for you.