Data security and location-restricted content are two of the most crucial aspects of web scraping, and residential proxies have been one of those influential tools that help you pass all the IP-related blocks to make our web scraping tasks easier.
Whether you are a web scraper, a researcher, a digital marketer, or tech-savvy, an additional layer of anonymity is needed for quick, successful scraping in any field.
A residential proxy is that secured layer you need to have.
With years of experience in digital marketing and trying different proxy services on websites, I’ll share some of the best residential proxy service providers I’ve used to elevate my website’s performance, along with their key features and pricing.
Why are Residential Proxy Services Essential?
Before we move ahead, choosing the right residential proxy platform is essential for an individual or a business.
- A suitable residential proxy helps you mask your identity and safeguard your privacy.
- For anyone looking to gain knowledge on varied market trends and evaluate their competitors, residential proxies can offer you limitless data.
- The suitable residential proxies will help you maintain your activities within the legal compliance guidelines.
Here’s a table listing the top data center proxy providers for seamless web access based on the information you provided from the URL and additional details:
| Providers | Proxy Pool (million IPs) | Response Time (seconds) | Supported Protocols | City-Level Targeting | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | 72 | 0.5 | HTTP/S, SOCKS5 | ✅ | $10 |
| Smartproxy | 55 | 0.6 | HTTPS | ✅ | $8.5 |
| Oxylabs | 100 | 0.6 | HTTP | ✅ | $99 |
| Infatica | 10 | N/A | HTTP/SOCKS | ✅ | $96 |
| SOAX | 5 | 1.1 | HTTPS, SOCKS5 | ✅ | $99 |
1. Bright Data: The world’s leading web data platform
Founded in 2014, Bright Data has been in the web intelligence market for 9 years and has acclaimed the title of the world’s best data platform.
This platform has catered to the needs of 20,000+ customers worldwide. While it offers its customers many services, its residential proxy solution has stood out as the best solution available in the market.
Bright Data also offers versatile tools, like the proxy manager and proxy browser extension.
It has more than 350 million residential IPs, with servers located in more than 195 locations across the globe. The price plans for residential proxies start at $10 and go up to $1000 when billed annually.
I recommend this platform to someone from a mid to large-sized business or who owns a consistently growing online brand. Signing up on Bright Data is simple, but setting it up in your browser can be lengthy.
Pros
- It works well with more than 100 different languages
- Supports HTTP and HTTPS protocols
- offers 24/7 support via email, telegram, live chat, and phone.
- Bright Data offers a 7-day trial period
- Pay-as-you-go plan
- Provides data rollover options
Cons
- Multiple users have reported 407, 429, and other error codes while using the residential proxies.
2. Smartproxy – The best value provider
Launched in 2015, Smartproxy is a dedicated platform to offer proxy and scraping solutions. Since then, it has served more than 50,000 users in different countries.
This platform has also been awarded with several titles. Besides providing proxy solutions, Smartproxy offers various tools for its users, like the Chrome proxy extension, Firefox add-on, and address generator.
It will soon be launching another tool, which is the proxy checker. Smartproxy serves more than 195 locations globally with 65 million+ proxy IPs.
I recommend this platform to anyone looking for flexible pricing plans, individuals, solopreneurs, enterprises, or universities. The basic plan starts at $8.5 and goes up to $520 when billed monthly.
Pros
- It supports HTTP (S) and SOCKS5 protocols
- Smartproxy offers code examples for 6 to 7 languages
- The average time response is less than 0.6s
- It offers custom trials, which can be availed of by contacting the team at [email protected].
- 24/7 support and can be reached via live chat or email
- Pay-as-you-go options
- 14-day money-back option
Cons
- Smartproxy offers limited targeting options
3. Oxylabs – The best proxy performance platform
Oxylabs has been an elite scraping and proxy provider in the web intelligence world for the past 8 years. With over 2000+ users, 450+ experts, and $20 million in revenue, this platform has been an ideal choice for large organizations.
Oxylabs has over 100 million proxies in more than 190 locations worldwide. Apart from the proxy solutions, the tools and add-ons they offer include a proxy rotator, a proxy manager for Android, and a proxy extension for Chrome.
What stands out about Oxylabs is their learning section. While many platforms offer blogs, this platform offers extended help in the form of webinars, white papers, oxycons, and, of course, support.
I believe this platform has been working great with universities and large organizations. Their price plans range from $99 to $6000.
Pros
- It supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols
- Offers great city-level targeting
- Pay-as-you-go option
- Offers 10% yearly subscription discounts
- Has a refund policy on specific plans only if the user meets their criteria for claiming the refunds
- 24/7 email and live chat support
Cons
- With the price plans available, affordability for individuals and small companies is sky-high.
- It mainly caters to large organizations.
4. Infatica – The best peer-to-business proxy network
Infatica is a Singapore-based, reliable proxy and scraping service provider focusing on business needs. It offers a portfolio of proxies with global networks to brands and enterprises for anonymous web monitoring.
This platform processes more than 300 million requests daily to maintain user satisfaction. It offers more than 10 million IPs in 150+ locations across the globe. Despite being in the market for three to four years, this platform has become a reliable choice for businesses.
Infatica’s pricing plans are much on the premium side. I recommend this platform to people from mid-sized businesses to large enterprises. Their residential proxy packages start from $96 and go up to $3500
Pros
- It supports HTTP and SOCKS protocols
- Works best for marketers and academic researchers
- 24/7 support through emails, live chat, and tickets
- 3-day trial plan for $1.99 on any of its plans
- Pay-as-you-go plan
- If needed, you can claim a refund for the leftover balance from the purchased plan.
Cons
- While this platform is loaded with great features and extended services, there are better solutions for everyone.
- It offers limited geo-targeting options.
5. SOAX- The top performer of 2023
SOAX is a newly formed company that caters to the needs of proxies, web unlockers, and scrapers. This platform was founded in 2019, and since then, it has been growing positively in the web scraping market.
What stands out and makes SOAX the best residential proxy service provider is its reliable whitelisted proxy pool IPv4 and IPv6. This platform offers 155 million+ residential proxies in more than 195 countries worldwide.
Despite serving clients in 3-digit numbers, SOAX has won the Top Performer Award 2023 from SourceForge.
This has been one of my favorite picks. SOAX is an ideal solution for anyone looking forward to seamless online monitoring. Their price plans are economical and affordable for all. The basic plan starts at $99 and goes up to $10,999.
Pros
- It supports UDP, HTTP, and SOCKS5 protocols
- Offers unlimited concurrency.
- 24/7 assistance to its users through chats, email, and WhatsApp
- Pay-as-you-o options starting at $1.99
- 3-day trial
- Includes 3-day refund policy
Cons
- The user dashboard needs to be more detailed and have easy navigation, which is troublesome for someone naive about dealing with proxies.
Quick Links:
Conclusion: Residential Proxy Service Providers in 2024
Coming to an end, these five residential proxy service providers are my top picks and have been carefully picked by considering their features, performances, versatility, and reliability.
All these platforms, as individuals, hold unique strengths; from wide location coverage to security measures, my picks have something for every reader.
However, be wise when jotting down your requirements and budget while picking your proxy provider.
FAQs
What makes residential proxies more worthy than the other ones?
While there are not one but many reasons to opt for residential proxies, some of the top reasons are that they give you access to a lot of confidential data that the government restricts, and they keep your systems secured by scanning the files being downloaded before being saved in your systems.
How to opt for the right residential proxy provider?
The best way is by following these steps
Research about the residential proxy providers online
Check if the proxy provider offers solutions that are compatible with your website or services
Note the location coverage of the proxy servers provided and if all the geo-locations are covered for your data scraping
Check for all the other specs, i.e, speed, response time, scalability, IP diversity, price plans, refund policy, and trial period
Shortlist the platforms and read the reviews online to pick a suitable service provider.