8 Best Proxies for Web Scraping in 2026 (Compared & Ranked)

Web scraping proxies route scraping requests through proxy servers so the target site sees the proxy IP rather than the scraper’s original connection. The main proxy types are residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies. Providers may also offer rotating or sticky sessions to control how long an IP remains in use, along with HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 support for different scraping applications.

Reliable access is becoming more difficult as automated scraping activity continues to increase across the web. HUMAN Security’s 2026 State of AI Traffic & Cyberthreat Benchmark Report found that the global median share of traffic attempting scraping attacks approached 20% in 2025, nearly doubling from just over 10% in 2022. The report also recorded a 47% increase in attempted scraping attacks between 2024 and 2025.

For legitimate web scraping, this increasingly automated environment makes proxy selection an important part of the collection setup. IP reputation, success rates, block rates, speed, uptime, rotation controls, sticky sessions, location accuracy, protocol support, and pricing can all affect how consistently a scraper retrieves public data.

What Are Web Scraping Proxies?

Web scraping proxies route scraping requests through proxy servers instead of sending them directly from the scraper's original connection. They can help teams distribute requests across different IP addresses and, depending on the provider, target specific countries, cities, ISPs, or mobile carriers.

The term web scraping proxy does not refer to one specific proxy type. Residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile are network-based proxy types that describe where the proxy IP originates. Rotating and sticky describe IP or session behavior, while HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 describe connection methods.

Managed proxy APIs are a separate product or access layer that can simplify proxy management and data collection. The appropriate setup depends on the target website, data volume, required location, and session requirements.

Proxy Basics

The basic connection flow is straightforward: the scraper sends a request to the proxy endpoint, which forwards it to the target website and returns the response to the scraper. The website receives the proxy connection rather than the scraper's original connection.

For example, a Python scraper collecting public product pages could use a rotating residential proxy endpoint. The proxy service can assign different residential IPs to requests while allowing the scraper to specify a target country or other available location criteria.

Why Scrapers Need Proxies

Proxies can help distribute requests across multiple IP addresses, access location-specific versions of websites, and reduce reliance on a single network address. They are particularly useful when a scraping project needs data from several markets or has to make repeated requests over an extended period.

Proxies do not guarantee successful scraping by themselves. Request frequency, headers, cookies, browser behavior, JavaScript execution, session management, target-site restrictions, and the quality of the collected IPs can all affect results.

Proxy vs. VPN

For web scraping, proxies and VPNs differ mainly in how they route traffic and how much control they provide over individual requests. A VPN typically routes and encrypts traffic from the device through a VPN server, while a proxy can be configured at the application or request level, allowing a scraper to use specific IP addresses, locations, and rotation or session settings. This makes proxies more suitable for scraping workflows that require multiple IPs, geographic targeting, or concurrent requests.

Why Use Proxies for Web Scraping?

Proxies are useful when a scraping workflow needs to collect public web data across multiple requests, locations, or websites without relying on a single IP address. They can also provide location-specific access and different session options, depending on the proxy network.

Proxies are particularly helpful in public data collection, price monitoring, SEO monitoring, as verification, AI data collection, as well as App and website Quality Assurance (QA).

Public Data Collection

Businesses and developers use proxies to collect publicly available information from search engines, product pages, directories, marketplaces, travel websites, job boards, and review platforms. For example, a market research team can collect publicly displayed product information across several countries while routing requests through IPs in the relevant markets.

However, scraping workflows still need to account for website terms, applicable crawl directives, rate limits, and legal or compliance requirements.

Price Monitoring

Proxies are utilized by price monitoring systems to check product prices, stock availability, shipping messages, delivery estimates, taxes, discounts, and regional offers. A retailer, for example, can compare the same product across the US, UK, Canada, and Germany to identify differences in pricing and availability. For recurring monitoring, stable sessions and predictable rotation help keep data collection consistent.

SEO Monitoring

SEO platforms use proxies to collect search engine results and monitor rankings across different locations. A proxy with country, city, or other location targeting can help reproduce the search environment of users in specific markets. For example, an SEO team monitoring a local business can check how a keyword appears in search results from London, Manchester, or Birmingham and not rely on results from a single location.

Ad Verification

Proxies can help advertisers and agencies verify whether campaigns appear correctly in different locations and under different browsing conditions. A verification workflow helps check an ad's appearance, destination URL, redirects, and localized landing page. Teams can also record screenshots, timestamps, redirect chains, device information, and location data to help identify incorrect targeting, broken redirects, or unauthorized placements.

AI Data Collection

Proxies are relied on by AI teams as part of systems that refresh publicly available information for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), model evaluation, market monitoring, and dataset updates. A proxy layer can help distribute requests across appropriate locations and manage access to different public sources.

Application and Website Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) teams use proxies to test how websites and applications behave from different locations and network environments. This can include checking localized content, country-specific pages, feature flags, signup flows, mobile-only experiences, and regional availability.

What Are Web Scraping Proxy Types?

Proxy providers offer several types of proxy infrastructure, and the differences can affect speed, IP reputation, location accuracy, session stability, and cost. The main network types are residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies. Separately, providers may support HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 protocols, which determine how applications connect to the proxy.

Residential Proxies

Residential proxies route requests through IP addresses associated with residential internet connections. Because these IPs originate from consumer networks, they can provide access to websites that apply stricter controls to hosting or datacenter ranges. Residential proxies are commonly billed by bandwidth and generally cost more and have higher latency than datacenter proxies.

Rotating residential proxies are a residential proxy configuration rather than a separate network type. They automatically change the IP used for requests according to a provider's rotation rules. Rotation can occur after each request, at set intervals, or through a session-based gateway that keeps the same IP active for a defined period.

ISP Proxies

ISP proxies use IP addresses associated with internet service providers while hosting them on proxy or datacenter infrastructure. This combination can provide a stable connection while maintaining an IP identity associated with a residential ISP. They are useful for workflows that need a consistent IP over longer periods, such as multi-step scraping and sessions where frequent IP changes could interrupt the workflow.

Datacenter Proxies

Datacenter proxies use IP addresses hosted in data centers. Their main advantages are speed, predictable infrastructure, and comparatively low cost. This makes them suitable for high-volume crawling, public pages with limited access controls, uptime checks, and other workloads where residential IPs are not necessary. The trade-off is that datacenter IP ranges can be easier for websites to identify as hosting infrastructure.

Mobile Proxies

Mobile proxies route traffic through IP addresses assigned to cellular networks, including 4G and 5G connections. They are useful for workflows that need to reproduce mobile-network conditions, such as mobile ad verification, carrier-specific testing, and location-sensitive scraping.

Mobile proxies generally cost more than datacenter proxies and can have more variable performance because they rely on cellular networks. Depending on the provider, targeting may include carriers, countries, cities, or other location criteria.

Proxy Session Behavior

Session behavior describes how an IP is used, rather than where the IP originates. Providers may offer rotating sessions that change IPs according to defined rules or sticky sessions that retain the same IP for a specified period. These configurations can be available across different network types.

HTTP/HTTPS Proxies

HTTP/HTTPS are common protocols for web scraping because they work with many browsers, scraping libraries, SEO platforms, and automation tools. They use a proxy host, port, and authentication credentials to route web requests. For conventional web scraping, HTTP/HTTPS support is often sufficient.

SOCKS5 Proxies

SOCKS5 operates at a lower level than HTTP proxies and can handle different types of network traffic. It is useful when a scraper, browser, application, or automation tool specifically requires SOCKS5 support. Providers may offer SOCKS5 alongside HTTP/HTTPS across residential, mobile, ISP, or datacenter infrastructure.

Further reading: What is Web Scraping and How to Use It in 2025? and What Is a Web Crawler? Meaning, How It Works, Examples & Types.

What Are Proxy APIs?

Proxy APIs provide a managed alternative to configuring individual proxy endpoints. Depending on the service, an API can handle proxy rotation, retries, headers, browser execution, JavaScript rendering, CAPTCHA-related workflows, and target-specific routing.

This approach can reduce the amount of proxy infrastructure a development team needs to maintain. The trade-off is that managed APIs can cost more than raw proxy access and may provide less control over individual IP selection, session behavior, and request handling.

What Makes the Best Web Scraping Proxy Provider?

The best web scraping proxy provider depends on how consistently a provider can deliver usable IPs for the specific websites, locations, request volumes, and session patterns involved. Independent proxy benchmarks measure factors such as connection success, latency, session reliability, IP quality, and geographic accuracy when comparing networks.

Success Rate

Success rate measures how often scraping requests return the expected result instead of a timeout, blocked page, CAPTCHA, or other failed response. It is one of the most useful metrics for comparing providers because a cheap proxy that repeatedly fails can cost more through retries and wasted requests.

However, success rates need to be tied to a specific target and testing method. When comparing providers, track completed requests, HTTP status codes, CAPTCHA frequency, retries, and failed pages using the same test conditions.

IP Quality

IP quality covers factors such as reputation, previous abuse, blacklist exposure, pool freshness, reuse, and replacement policies. A large IP pool does not automatically mean better performance if many addresses have already been heavily used or flagged by target websites. A smaller pool of clean, relevant IPs can therefore be more useful than a much larger pool with poor reputation.

Rotation Control

Rotation determines how frequently the proxy IP changes during a scraping session. Common options include changing IPs after every request, rotating at timed intervals, maintaining sticky sessions, using static IPs, or manually switching endpoints. There are no right or wrong settings, as the right setting depends on the workflow.

Location Targeting

Location targeting allows a scraper to request IPs from specific geographic areas. Depending on the provider, this can include country, state, city, ZIP or postcode, ASN, ISP, or mobile carrier targeting. Precise location matters when websites change search results, prices, inventory, delivery information, advertisements, or other content according to the visitor's location.

Speed and Uptime

Speed is more than the advertised bandwidth of a proxy network. Useful ways to measure speed include connection latency, time to first byte, page-load time, throughput, timeout frequency, and the. A provider with occasional very fast connections but frequent gateway failures can be less useful than one that delivers consistent performance. For a fair comparison, run the same URLs, concurrency, request pacing, and test period across each provider.

Protocols and Authentication

Most scraping workflows need HTTP or HTTPS proxy support, while some applications also require SOCKS5. Authentication may be handled through username and password credentials, IP allowlisting, API keys, generated proxy endpoints, or a combination of these methods.

Compatibility matters because different scraping libraries and automation tools accept different proxy formats. Before purchasing, confirm that the provider supports the protocol and authentication method required by the intended scraper and proxy type.

Pricing and Trials

Proxy providers use several pricing models, including payment per gigabyte, per IP, per request, monthly subscriptions, pay-as-you-go billing, and custom enterprise contracts. Some scraping APIs also charge based on successful requests rather than raw proxy traffic.

The advertised price is only part of the cost. Traffic limits, concurrency restrictions, location add-ons, request credits, session duration, JavaScript rendering, CAPTCHA-related charges, and overage rates can affect the final bill.

Trials and refund policies are also useful because proxy performance varies by target. Testing a small sample before committing to a larger plan provides a more meaningful cost comparison.

Support and Documentation

Good documentation reduces the time needed to connect a proxy network to a scraper and troubleshoot failed requests. Useful resources include setup instructions, Python and Node.js examples, browser automation guides, API documentation, authentication instructions, status pages, and clear acceptable-use policies.

Support options can include live chat, email tickets, technical support, or a dedicated account manager for larger customers. Replacement and refund policies also matter when an IP pool or service does not perform as expected. A provider's support quality becomes particularly important when scraping jobs run continuously, and failures need to be diagnosed quickly.

What Are the 8 Best Proxies for Web Scraping in 2026?

The 8 providers below were selected based on the proxy infrastructure and features most relevant to web scraping. They are:

1. Live Proxies: Focuses on flexible residential and mobile proxy infrastructure with private allocation, session controls, and B2B support for recurring scraping workflows.
2. Oxylabs: Provides enterprise-grade proxy networks and managed scraping infrastructure for large-scale public data collection.
3. Decodo: Combines broad proxy coverage with scraping APIs and self-service tools designed for developers and data teams.
4. IPRoyal: Offers accessible residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies with flexible plans for smaller and mid-sized scraping projects.
5. SOAX: Emphasizes precise geographic targeting and residential and mobile infrastructure for location-sensitive data collection.
6. ProxyEmpire: Focuses on flexible residential, mobile, and datacenter access with location and session controls for multi-region workflows.
7. Webshare: Targets cost-conscious users with affordable proxy plans, a self-service dashboard, and straightforward scraping infrastructure.
8. Rayobyte: Specializes in stable proxy infrastructure, including datacenter, ISP, residential, and mobile proxies, with dedicated IP allocation available for workflows that prioritize consistent access.

Ranking Criteria

The ranking evaluates each provider against the factors that have the greatest impact on web scraping performance and operating costs. These include scraping success potential, IP quality, residential and rotating residential availability, ISP and datacenter coverage, and mobile proxy availability.

Other factors like HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 support, rotation and sticky sessions, country and city targeting, ASN or ISP targeting, speed, uptime, pricing transparency, and trial and refund policies were put into consideration.

Feature Comparison Table

The table below compares the proxy infrastructure, concurrency, session controls, geographic targeting, and managed scraping tools that can affect web scraping at scale.

Pricing Snapshot Table

Pricing varies significantly across proxy providers because some charge by bandwidth, others by IP, subscription, request, or successful result. The table below gives a starting-point comparison of the 8 providers.

1. Live Proxies

Live Proxies specializes in rotating residential and rotating mobile proxies for web scraping, brand protection, ad verification, price monitoring, and SEO research. Founded in 2020 and based in California, Live Proxies operates a network with millions of IPs across 55+ countries, with strong coverage in the US, UK, and Canada.

The service combines private IP allocation, unlimited threads, and country, city, and ASN targeting for teams running location-sensitive monitoring at scale. It also supports HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 connections, making it suitable for a range of scraping and automation workflows.

Key Features

• Private proxy allocation: IPs are allocated privately, reducing overlap with other customers and giving teams greater control over the connections used in recurring scraping workflows.
• Flexible sticky sessions: Standard residential sessions maintain the same IP for up to 60 minutes, while extended configurations support up to 24 hours for eligible B2B deployments requiring continuity across multiple scraping requests.
• Country, city, and ASN targeting: Users can select a country, city, or ASN where supported, allowing scrapers to collect location-specific data and reproduce regional web experiences.
• HTTP/HTTS and SOCKS5 support: Both protocols provide compatibility with a broad range of scraping software, browsers, automation tools, and applications.

Pros

• Handles high-concurrency workloads: Unlimited threads allow teams to run multiple scraping tasks simultaneously without a fixed thread ceiling.
• Useful for multi-market scraping: Broad geographic coverage makes it practical to collect and compare public web data across multiple countries and markets.
• Supports long-running workflows: Extended session options can help maintain continuity during scraping jobs that span multiple related requests.
• Scales with larger teams: Private infrastructure and flexible configurations can accommodate businesses running recurring or higher-volume scraping operations.

Cons

• Product-specific protocol support: SOCKS5 and other connection options vary by proxy product, so users need to check the supported protocols for their chosen service before deployment.
• B2B-focused free trials: Free trials are available for B2B customers, but they are not a standard feature across all individual proxy plans.

Best Use Cases

• Web scraping: Collect data from websites while distributing requests across different IP addresses and locations.
• SEO monitoring: Check localized search results and website experiences across countries, cities, and networks.
• Price tracking: Monitor product prices and availability across different markets and locations.
• Ad verification: Verify that ads and campaigns appear correctly in their intended locations.
• AI data collection: Collect large volumes of public web data across multiple geographic markets for AI and machine-learning workflows.
• Website and app QA: Test websites and applications from different locations and network environments.
• Multi-city audits: Compare localized content, search results, pricing, and other web experiences across multiple cities.

Pricing Note

Live Proxies currently lists rotating residential plans starting at $70, with the displayed starter plan including 200 IPs and 4 GB for 30 days. Enterprise plan starts at $2,000/1TB monthly.

2. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a large-scale public data acquisition provider offering residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies alongside managed scraping products. Its network covers 195 locations, with granular targeting available across supported products, making it suitable for large international and location-specific data collection projects.

Founded in 2015 and based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Oxylabs combines proxy infrastructure with managed tools for teams that need to collect public web data at scale. Its business offering also includes technical support and dedicated account management on applicable plans.

Key Features

• Advanced geo-targeting: Supported products can target locations at country, state, city, ZIP code, and ASN levels, allowing scrapers to collect data from specific markets or network environments.
• Rotation and sticky sessions: Users can switch between changing IPs for large-scale collection and persistent sessions when a workflow requires the same connection across multiple requests.
• Broad protocol support: HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/3, and SOCKS5 support allow integration with different scraping applications, libraries, and automation environments.
• Web Scraper API: The managed API handles public-data collection and can simplify workflows such as price monitoring, SEO research, and market intelligence without requiring teams to build the entire scraping infrastructure themselves.
• Enterprise support: Applicable business plans include 24/7 technical support and dedicated account management for larger or more complex scraping operations.

Pros

• Built for large-scale collection: Extensive infrastructure and managed data tools can support scraping projects involving large datasets, multiple targets, and frequent collection cycles.
• Effective for global research: Wide geographic coverage makes it possible to collect comparable data across international markets while maintaining location-specific access.
• Lower infrastructure overhead: Managed scraping products can take care of parts of the collection process that would otherwise require separate development and maintenance.
• Suitable for complex workflows: The combination of proxy infrastructure, APIs, browser controls, parsers, and scheduling options gives technical teams more ways to build customized data-collection systems.

Cons

• Higher entry cost: Oxylabs is positioned toward professional and enterprise users, with residential proxies starting at $6/GB.
• Product complexity: Its extensive range of proxy and scraping products can be more than a small project needs.

Best Use Cases

• Enterprise web scraping: Collect large volumes of public web data across multiple targets and markets with infrastructure designed for high-volume workflows.
• SERP monitoring: Track search results across different locations to support SEO research and competitive analysis.
• eCommerce intelligence: Collect product, inventory, and category data across online marketplaces and retail sites.
• Price monitoring: Track product prices and changes across markets to support pricing analysis and competitive research.
• Travel data collection: Monitor rates, availability, and other travel-related data across locations and booking platforms.
• Ad and review monitoring: Verify localized advertising and track customer reviews across different websites and markets.
• Brand protection: Monitor online marketplaces and other public sources for unauthorized listings, counterfeit products, and brand-related activity.

Pricing Note

Oxylabs' current public pricing starts at $6/GB for residential proxies, $7.50/GB for mobile proxies, $1.60/IP for ISP proxies, and $1.20/IP for dedicated datacenter proxies. Its Web Scraper API starts at $49/month, while enterprise plans use custom pricing.

3. Decodo

Decodo, formerly known as Smartproxy, is a web data collection platform founded in 2018 and based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Its proxy network covers 195+ locations and includes residential, static residential (ISP), mobile, and datacenter infrastructure for localized and large-scale data collection.

Decodo also provides managed scraping products, including Web Scraping API, eCommerce Scraping API, SERP Scraping API, and Site Unblocker. These tools are designed to reduce the infrastructure and development work involved in collecting public web data from complex targets.

Key Features

• Rotating and sticky sessions: Rotating gateways can change IPs automatically, while sticky sessions can retain the same IP for up to 24 hours when a workflow requires session continuity.
• Precise targeting: Supported products offer targeting by city, state, ASN, ISP, and carrier, giving scrapers more control over localized data collection.
• Specialized scraping APIs: Web, eCommerce, SERP, and social media APIs provide purpose-built access to structured data without requiring teams to develop separate collection systems.
• Site Unblocker: The managed service can handle challenges such as CAPTCHAs, IP bans, and JavaScript rendering when collecting data from more restrictive public websites.
• Proxy management API: The API allows teams to manage proxy users, traffic limits, whitelisted IPs, usage, and proxy endpoints programmatically.

Pros

• Covers different scraping workloads: The combination of proxy infrastructure and specialized data products lets teams handle everything from straightforward proxy-based collection to more demanding managed scraping projects.
• Reduces development requirements: Managed APIs and Site Unblocker can take over technical parts of the collection process that would otherwise require custom development.
• Useful for localized datasets: Granular network and location controls make it easier to build datasets that reflect specific markets, carriers, or search environments.
• Easy to scale from testing to production: Self-service tools, integrations, documentation, and trial options allow teams to validate targets and workflows before expanding collection volumes.

Cons

• Traffic-based costs: Residential and mobile products are generally priced according to traffic, so high-volume scraping can become expensive as bandwidth consumption increases.
• Product-specific targeting: Not every targeting option is available across every proxy type, meaning users need to check the capabilities of the specific product they plan to deploy.

Best Use Cases

• eCommerce data collection: Decodo’s eCommerce Scraping API is suited to collecting product, pricing, availability, and catalog data from online stores and marketplaces.
• SERP data collection: Its SERP Scraping API supports automated collection of search results for keyword research, ranking analysis, and localized search monitoring.
• Website data extraction: The Web Scraping API provides a managed route for collecting public web data without building the entire proxy and extraction infrastructure internally.
• Difficult-to-scrape targets: Site Unblocker can handle technical requirements such as JavaScript rendering, CAPTCHAs, and IP bans when standard proxy connections are insufficient.
• Localized research: City, state, ASN, ISP, and carrier targeting can help teams collect market data that varies by geographic or network location.
• Social media data collection: Its social media scraping tools support automated collection from social platforms for research and monitoring workflows.

Pricing Note

Decodo's current public pricing starts at $3.75/GB for regular residential proxies and $2.25/GB for enterprise. Mobile proxies start at $3.75/GB while ISP proxies start at $3.0/GB.

4. IPRoyal

IPRoyal is a proxy provider offering residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies alongside managed web data tools. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, it supports flexible rotation, sticky sessions, location targeting, and HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 connections.

Beyond proxy infrastructure, IPRoyal provides API access, authentication options, and integrations with more than 650 tools. Its Web Unblocker provides a managed scraping endpoint priced by successful requests, while its proxy products support workflows such as web scraping, SEO and SERP monitoring, and price tracking.

Key Features

• Flexible rotation and sticky sessions: Users can change IPs based on their scraping workflow or maintain the same IP when a session requires continuity.
• Geo-targeting: Country, city, and state targeting supports localized SERP collection, pricing research, and market-specific scraping.
• HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5: Multiple connection protocols provide compatibility with common scraping software, browsers, and automation tools.
• API and integrations: API access supports programmatic proxy management, while integrations with 650+ third-party tools simplify deployment across existing workflows.
• Web Unblocker: A managed scraping endpoint handles access and proxy infrastructure for automated data collection, with pricing starting at $1 per 1,000 successful requests.

Pros

• Works across different scraping setups: The combination of proxy types and connection methods lets teams choose infrastructure based on target requirements rather than using one proxy category for every project.
• Suitable for variable workloads: Pay-as-you-go options and non-expiring residential traffic can help teams manage projects with uneven or unpredictable scraping volumes.
• Easier tool integration: Broad third-party integrations reduce the setup work required to connect IPRoyal with existing scraping and automation systems.
• Offers a managed alternative: Web Unblocker can reduce the infrastructure and maintenance involved in handling difficult targets compared with building a scraping stack around raw proxies.

Cons

• Product-specific limitations: Targeting, session controls, and protocol options can vary depending on the proxy category, so users need to verify the requirements of their chosen plan.
• Limited public enterprise pricing: Larger deployments may require a custom quote rather than relying on a single published enterprise starting price.

Best Use Cases

• Variable-volume scraping: Pay-as-you-go options and non-expiring residential traffic suit projects where scraping demand changes from one period to another.
• Pre-deployment proxy testing: IPRoyal’s proxy testing tools can help teams verify connectivity and destination access before integrating proxies into larger scraping workflows.
• SEO and SERP research: Country, city, and state targeting supports localized search checks and SEO research across different markets.
• Reseller and eCommerce research: Residential and ISP proxies can support research into product listings, pricing, and availability across online stores and marketplaces.
• Travel data collection: Location-targeted proxies can help collect region-specific fares, availability, and travel-related pricing from different markets.
• Managed scraping: Web Unblocker provides an alternative to configuring raw proxies when teams want a managed approach to collecting data from more challenging websites.
• Custom scraping integrations: API access and broad third-party integrations make IPRoyal suitable for teams connecting proxy infrastructure to existing scraping and automation tools.

Pricing Note

IPRoyal's public pricing for residential proxies starts at 7/GB for a 1GB pay-as-you-go purchase, $1.80 per ISP proxy for 24 hours, $1.39 per datacenter proxy, and $10.11 per day for mobile proxies.

5. SOAX

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in the United Kingdom, SOAX combines proxy infrastructure with managed web data tools and APIs. Its network supports residential and mobile use cases with country, region, city, ASN, ISP, and carrier targeting where available, alongside rotating and sticky sessions.

SOAX also provides HTTP(S), SOCKS5, and applicable UDP/QUIC support, with unlimited concurrent connections for high-volume workflows. Its Web Data API adds managed proxy selection, rotation, retries, browser rendering, and other collection functions for teams that want to reduce the infrastructure required for scraping.

Key Features

• Precise geo-targeting: Residential and mobile proxies support country, region, city, ASN, ISP, and carrier targeting where available, giving teams control over the location and network characteristics of scraping requests.
• Rotation and sticky sessions: Users can rotate IPs between requests or maintain the same IP for a defined period. Mobile sessions support custom durations of up to 60 minutes.
• Multiple protocols: Residential proxies support HTTP(S) and SOCKS5, while applicable residential and mobile products also support UDP/QUIC for workloads that require those connection methods.
• Web Data API: The managed API handles proxy selection, rotation, retries, headers, cookies, fingerprinting, and browser rendering, reducing the amount of scraping infrastructure teams need to build themselves.
• Dashboard and API access: Users can manage proxy configurations, credentials, and usage through the dashboard, while API access supports programmatic proxy management and integration with custom workflows.

Pros

• Useful for location-sensitive research: Detailed geographic and network targeting makes SOAX suitable for collecting market data that varies by region, city, ISP, or carrier.
• Supports different session requirements: Teams can switch between rotating and sticky configurations depending on whether they prioritize fresh IPs or continuity across requests.
• Reduces scraping infrastructure work: Web Data API takes care of several technical components that would otherwise require separate proxy management and browser automation systems.
• Scales across custom workflows: Unlimited concurrent connections and developer access give teams flexibility to integrate SOAX into larger scraping and data-collection systems.

Cons

• Product-specific availability: Proxy types, targeting levels, and protocol options can vary between products, so users need to verify the exact configuration before deployment.
• Managed API adds another pricing layer: Teams using Web Data API pay for a managed scraping service rather than only raw proxy traffic, which can increase costs compared with self-managed proxies.

Best Use Cases

• Localized web research: Country, region, city, ASN, ISP, and carrier targeting supports data collection where results vary by location or network.
• Mobile experience testing: Mobile proxies with carrier targeting can help teams test location- and network-dependent website or app experiences.
• SERP and ad verification: Location and network controls allow teams to check search results and advertising experiences from specific markets.
• Competitive pricing research: Regional targeting supports comparisons of prices, availability, and offers that differ between markets.
• eCommerce intelligence: Residential and mobile infrastructure can be used to collect product and marketplace data across different geographic markets.
• Complex web data collection: The Web Data API handles proxy selection, rotation, retries, fingerprinting, and browser rendering for workflows that require more than basic proxy access.
• Market-specific brand monitoring: Granular ISP and carrier targeting can help track how branded content, offers, and other public web experiences appear across different networks.

Pricing Note

SOAX offers a Builder plan that starts at $200/month including VAT and a Team plan starting at $500/month plus VAT. A free Sandbox trial is also available.

6. ProxyEmpire

ProxyEmpire offers residential, mobile, static residential, and datacenter proxies for web scraping, data collection, market research, price monitoring, SEO, ad verification, and location-sensitive QA. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Burgas, Bulgaria, the provider covers 170+ countries with country, region, city, and ISP targeting, plus carrier targeting on applicable mobile products.

Its infrastructure supports rotating and sticky sessions alongside HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 connections on applicable products. ProxyEmpire also provides dedicated scraping APIs for web, eCommerce, SERP, and social media data, giving teams the option to use managed collection tools instead of configuring raw proxies themselves.

Key Features

• Flexible session controls: Rotating connections provide fresh IPs for successive requests, while sticky sessions maintain an IP when a workflow requires connection continuity.
• Multiple protocols: Datacenter proxies support HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, and SOCKS5, while residential and mobile products support HTTP and SOCKS5.
• Scraping APIs: Dedicated APIs for web scraping, eCommerce, SERPs, and social media provide managed data collection without requiring teams to build the entire proxy layer themselves.
• Granular geo-targeting: Country, region, city, ISP, and mobile-carrier targeting support localized collection where available for the selected proxy type.
• Management and support tools: A centralized dashboard, proxy checker, and 24/7 support give users tools for configuring, testing, and monitoring their proxy setup.

Pros

• Fits varied scraping requirements: The mix of residential, mobile, static residential, and datacenter infrastructure lets teams use different network types across the same data-collection operation.
• Useful for localized datasets: Regional, city, ISP, and carrier targeting can help teams collect data that changes according to market or network location.
• Works for both raw and managed collection: Users can build their own scraping workflows around proxies or use dedicated APIs when they want more of the collection process handled for them.
• Supports location-sensitive testing: The combination of mobile and geographic targeting is useful for workflows where content, ads, prices, or user experiences vary by location or carrier.

Cons

• Product-specific protocol support: Protocols and targeting capabilities differ between proxy products, so users need to verify the exact configuration before deployment.
• Mobile proxies cost more: Mobile infrastructure is more expensive than datacenter alternatives, making it less economical when mobile-network IPs are not required.

Best Use Cases

• Multi-market data collection: Coverage across 170+ countries supports research and scraping projects that need data from multiple international markets.
• Mobile-specific testing: Mobile and dedicated mobile proxies can help test location-and carrier-dependent experiences, including mobile ads and websites.
• Regional eCommerce research: Country, region, city, ISP, and carrier targeting supports comparisons of product listings, availability, and pricing across markets.
• Travel fare research: Location-specific connections can help collect market-dependent fares, availability, and travel offers from different regions.
• Ad verification: Residential and mobile routing can help verify that location-specific advertisements and landing pages are displayed as intended.
• SEO and SERP monitoring: Geographic targeting supports localized search checks across different countries, cities, and network environments.
• Managed data collection: ProxyEmpire’s dedicated scraping APIs provide a managed option for web, eCommerce, SERP, and social media data collection.

Pricing Note

ProxyEmpire’s pay-as-you-go entry tier starts at $3.50/GB. The Starter plan costs $2.85/GB while Static residential proxies start at $2.86/GB and rotating mobile proxies start at $4.17/GB.

7. Webshare

Founded in 2018 and based in California, USA, Webshare provides self-service proxy infrastructure for developers, SEO teams, data teams, and smaller businesses. Its network covers 195 countries and includes rotating residential, static residential, datacenter, and ISP proxies, with HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 support.

Webshare also offers a free proxy plan without requiring a credit card, while paid plans provide larger IP pools, higher bandwidth, and increased concurrency. Its platform includes API access, IP allowlisting, username/password authentication, proxy-list exports, and a dashboard for managing proxy configurations and usage.

Key Features

• Rotating residential proxies: Residential IPs can rotate automatically between requests, providing IP diversity for scraping workflows that make repeated requests to the same targets.
• Multiple proxy types: Residential, static residential, datacenter, and ISP options allow users to select infrastructure based on speed, IP source, and session requirements.
• HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5: Support for common web-proxy and SOCKS5 connections gives developers flexibility across scraping applications and automation tools.
• API access: The API enables programmatic management of proxy infrastructure and integration with custom scraping applications.
• Self-service management: The dashboard supports proxy configuration, authentication, usage monitoring, subscription management, and proxy-list generation.

Pros

• Low barrier to testing: The free plan lets developers test proxy connectivity and basic workflows before committing to a paid plan.
• Works well for smaller teams: Self-service configuration and published pricing reduce the need for sales-led onboarding or custom infrastructure planning.
• Scales as traffic grows: Paid plans provide additional bandwidth, IP capacity, and concurrency for projects that outgrow entry-level usage.
• Easy to integrate into existing tools: API access, proxy-list exports, and multiple authentication methods make it straightforward to connect Webshare with different scraping environments.

Cons

• No mobile proxy product: Webshare's current core offering does not include mobile proxies, limiting its suitability for carrier-specific testing and mobile-network workflows.
• Limited managed scraping infrastructure: Unlike providers with dedicated scraper APIs and site-unblocking products, Webshare primarily provides proxy infrastructure rather than a full managed scraping stack.
• Advanced targeting is more limited: While Webshare offers broad country coverage, some deeper targeting capabilities are still developing or vary by product.
• Enterprise features may require a custom plan: Larger organizations with specific bandwidth, concurrency, or infrastructure requirements may need to contact Webshare for customized arrangements.

Best Use Cases

• Small-scale scraping: The free and low-cost plans make Webshare suitable for testing scrapers and running projects with modest traffic requirements.
• SEO and SERP checks: Residential and datacenter proxies can support recurring checks of search results and localized website performance.
• Datacenter crawling: Datacenter proxies provide a cost-conscious option for high-volume crawling of public pages where residential IPs are not necessary.
• Price and market research: Geographic proxy options can help collect product prices, availability, and other market data from different locations.
• Automated workflows: API access allows developers to connect proxy management with custom scripts, scraping applications, and automation systems.
• Ad verification: Location-based proxy connections can help check whether ads and landing pages are displayed correctly in different markets.
• Development and testing: The self-service dashboard, proxy-list exports, and free plan provide a practical environment for testing proxy configurations before scaling a project.

Pricing Note

Webshare's current public pricing starts with a free plan offering 10 proxies and 1 GB of monthly bandwidth. Paid datacenter proxy plans start at $2.99/month for 100 proxies, while residential proxies start at $1.40/GB. ISP/static residential proxies start at $0.30 per proxy.

8. Rayobyte

Founded in 2015, Rayobyte is a US-based proxy and public web data provider serving individuals and businesses. Its portfolio includes rotating residential, static and rotating ISP, static and rotating datacenter, and rotating mobile proxies, alongside Web Unblocker and a Web Scraping API.

The platform also provides geographic targeting, API access, a browser proxy extension, 24/7 support, and free trial options. Its managed scraping products give teams an alternative to configuring and maintaining individual proxy connections for every data-collection workflow.

Key Features

• Web Unblocker: A managed service designed to handle parts of the access and proxy infrastructure required for collecting public web data.
• Web Scraping API: Provides API-based access to managed scraping infrastructure for teams that prefer integrating data collection without building the full proxy layer themselves.
• Multiple proxy protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 are available across applicable products, supporting a range of scraping tools, browsers, and applications.
• Geo-targeting: Geographic targeting is available across applicable products, while some rotating services use pooled IP allocation rather than assigning a fixed IP to a specific city.
• Browser extension: The Rayobyte Proxy Extension lets users configure and manage supported residential, mobile, datacenter, and ISP proxies directly within a browser.

Pros

• Covers varied scraping requirements: The range of residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile infrastructure lets teams select different network types according to target requirements.
• Useful for persistent connections: Static ISP and datacenter options provide IP continuity for workflows where frequent rotation could disrupt sessions or account access.
• Offers managed and self-managed options: Teams can work directly with proxy infrastructure or use Web Unblocker and the Web Scraping API when they want more of the technical collection process handled for them.
• Can accommodate higher concurrency: Applicable residential services support unlimited connections and threads, giving developers flexibility to set concurrency according to their application and target.
• Flexible purchasing options: Pay-as-you-go and bandwidth-based options across applicable products allow traffic costs to scale with usage rather than requiring the same commitment for every project.

Cons

• Advanced location targeting varies: Rotating and advanced services use pool-based allocation, so users requiring fixed city-level IP assignment may need to verify whether the desired targeting method is supported.
• Product-specific features: Protocols, targeting, rotation behavior, and session options vary between proxy categories, so buyers need to check the exact product configuration.

Best Use Cases

• Stable-IP scraping: Static ISP and datacenter proxies suit workflows that need the same IP across multiple requests or longer sessions.
• Large-scale web scraping: Rotating residential and datacenter infrastructure gives teams options for distributing requests across larger scraping jobs.
• eCommerce data collection: Residential and ISP proxies can support product, availability, and marketplace data collection across different locations.
• SEO and SERP monitoring: Geographic targeting allows teams to check search results and localized web experiences from different markets.
• Travel data aggregation: Location-specific proxy connections can help collect market-dependent fares, availability, and travel information.
• Browser-based testing: The proxy browser extension provides a convenient way to test websites through different proxy types without configuring each connection manually.
• Managed public-data extraction: Web Unblocker and the Web Scraping API provide managed alternatives for teams that prefer not to build and maintain their own scraping infrastructure.

Pricing Note

Rayobyte uses different pricing models across its products. Current public pricing starts at $3.50/GB for rotating residential proxies, $5/IP for static ISP proxies, $3.75/GB for rotating ISP proxies, and $0.30/GB for rotating datacenter proxies. Mobile proxies start at a $250 trial for 500 GB, while Web Unblocker starts at $6/GB.

What is the Difference Between Proxy APIs and Proxy Providers?

Raw proxy providers and managed proxy APIs solve different parts of the web scraping problem. A raw proxy service gives you the infrastructure and lets your scraper control how requests are routed, rotated, retried, and handled, while a proxy API takes over more of that infrastructure for you. The right choice depends largely on how much control your development team needs versus how much scraping infrastructure it wants to manage.

Raw Proxies

Raw proxies provide proxy endpoints that your own scraper, browser, or automation tool uses to make requests. You receive a host, port, username, and password or an IP allowlist, then configure those credentials inside tools such as Python Requests, Scrapy, Puppeteer, or Selenium. This approach gives developers direct control over rotation, sessions, headers, cookies, retries, concurrency, and target-specific logic.

Proxy APIs

Proxy APIs provide programmatic access to proxy infrastructure and can manage functions such as authentication, rotation, geolocation, and proxy configuration. However, they do not necessarily perform scraping or data extraction.

When an API also handles tasks such as retries, browser rendering, CAPTCHA handling, or structured data extraction, it is more accurately described as a scraping API or managed web scraping API. This distinction helps clarify whether the service manages proxy access or the broader data-collection process.

Which Option Fits Your Scraping Workflow?

Choose raw proxies when your team has the engineering capacity to manage rotation, retries, sessions, headers, browser automation, and target-specific scraping logic. Choose a proxy API when faster implementation, managed rotation, automatic retries, rendering, and reduced infrastructure maintenance matter more than low-level control.

Are Free Proxies Suitable for Web Scraping?

Free proxies can be useful for basic experimentation, but they are rarely suitable for consistent web scraping at scale. Their main limitation is the lack of control over proxy quality, availability, and performance.

Free Proxy Lists

Free proxy lists publish basic connection details such as IP address, port, country, protocol, anonymity level, HTTPS support, latency, uptime, and last-checked time. The lists are typically updated as proxies become available or stop responding.

Because these proxies are publicly listed, their availability and performance can change quickly. Free lists also provide limited information about how an IP is maintained or how many other users share it.

Free Proxy Risks

Free proxies introduce several risks that make them unsuitable for recurring or sensitive scraping workflows. This includes:

• Unstable availability: Proxies can stop working without notice, interrupting scraping jobs.
• Shared IPs: Heavy reuse can lead to slower connections and a higher likelihood of blocks.
• Unpredictable locations: Listed countries or locations may not accurately reflect the IP's current routing.
• Limited scalability: Free proxies rarely offer the concurrency, session controls, or replacement capacity needed for larger workloads.
• Unknown operators: Users may have little information about who operates the proxy or how traffic is handled.
• No service guarantees: Free lists typically do not provide dedicated support, replacement policies, or uptime commitments.

Safer Alternatives

For production scraping, start with a small paid proxy package that matches the target's requirements. This provides greater control over IP type, location, rotation, and session behavior, while allowing you to test performance before increasing traffic. For example, Live Proxies offers B2B clients a trial period to evaluate its proxy infrastructure before committing to a larger plan.

How Do You Use Proxies for Web Scraping?

Using a proxy for web scraping involves routing requests from your scraper through a proxy endpoint instead of connecting directly to the target website. The basic setup requires the proxy host, port, authentication details, and protocol.

However, more advanced workflows also configure rotation, sticky sessions, location targeting, concurrency, retries, and error handling. The exact implementation depends on whether you are using a Python library, Node.js application, browser automation tool, or a scraping API.

Python Setup

Python scraping libraries such as Requests, Scrapy, Selenium, and Playwright can work with proxy connections. At a basic level, the scraper needs the proxy endpoint and, where applicable, a username and password.

For larger scraping jobs, the configuration also needs to account for rotation, session persistence, request pacing, timeouts, retries, and the proxy protocol supported by the chosen service and required by the target URL. Scrapy can use proxy middleware for automated requests, while Playwright and Selenium can configure proxies at the browser or context level.

Node.js Setup

Node.js applications can connect to proxies using HTTP agents or proxy-aware libraries. On the other hand, browser automation frameworks, such as Playwright and Puppeteer allow proxy settings to be configured when launching a browser.

A configuration needs the same core information as a Python scraper: host, port, username, password, and protocol. The application can then add rotation logic, retries, timeouts, and session management according to the scraping workflow.

Built-In Rotation Tools

Some proxy providers include rotation directly in their proxy gateway or scraping API. Instead of selecting a new IP manually, the scraper sends requests to a gateway that automatically assigns and rotates proxy IPs according to the selected configuration.

This simplifies implementation because the application does not need to maintain a large list of individual proxy addresses. The trade-off is reduced control over exactly which IP is used and when it changes.

Session Strategy

The rotation strategy needs to match the scraping workflow. Common rotation strategies include per-request rotation, timed rotation, and sticky sessions. For example, a scraper collecting thousands of independent listing pages can benefit from frequent rotation. However, a product-to-cart workflow can require a sticky session so that multiple requests remain associated with the same IP.

How Do You Test Web Scraping Proxies?

When testing proxies, compare the same URLs, request volume, locations, proxy types, concurrency, and time period across providers. Live Proxy Tester can also be used as a practical first check for connection status, response time, location, protocol compatibility, and basic reliability before moving to a larger scraping test.

Connection Test

Start by confirming that the proxy actually works with your scraper or automation tool. Test the host, port, username, password, IP allowlist, and HTTP or SOCKS5 compatibility as required by your workflow. Record authentication failures, connection errors, timeouts, and unexpected protocol behavior.

Speed Test

Measure more than the advertised proxy speed. Record latency, time to first byte, full page response time, timeout rate, throughput, and the slowest 10% of requests. Run the same URL set through each provider and keep the request configuration consistent. Testing 20 requests from one provider and 500 from another does not produce a useful comparison.

For high-volume scraping, the slowest requests matter. This is because repeated delays can increase the total time required to complete a dataset even when the average response time looks good.

Location Test

Check whether the proxy delivers the location you purchased. Verify country, city, state or region, ASN, ISP, and carrier where these targeting options are important to the project.

Using an IP geolocation service alone is not always enough because different databases can assign different locations to the same IP. Ensure you test the proxy against the actual target as well.

Block Test

Run a controlled batch of requests against the public pages you intend to scrape. Track successful responses, HTTP errors, blocks, CAPTCHAs, retries, connection failures, and replacement requests. Test different proxy types separately where possible. The result to focus on is the successful-request rate for your specific workflow.

ROI Test

The final test is financial. Calculate how much it costs to obtain a successful page or completed workflow to get a more realistic picture of the proxy value. Track cost per successful page, retry volume, block rate, replacement needs, support time, and debugging time.

What Are the Common Web Scraping Proxy Problems?

Web scraping proxies can introduce problems such as the wrong proxy type, frequent blocks, slow performance, broken sessions, unexpected costs, and compliance issues. Identifying the cause helps determine whether you need a different proxy, changes to your proxy configuration, or adjustments to the scraper itself.

• Wrong proxy type: Datacenter proxies can work well for open public pages but may perform poorly against websites that aggressively identify hosting-provider IPs. Match the proxy infrastructure to the target and scraping workflow.
• Too many blocks: Frequent blocks can result from poor IP reputation, aggressive request rates, excessive concurrency, inconsistent sessions, or target-side restrictions. Review request pacing, headers, cookies, session handling, concurrency, and retry logic before changing providers.
• Slow scraping: Slow performance can result from overloaded proxy servers, distant routing, excessive concurrency, mobile-network variability, target-side delays, or inefficient retries. Test a closer proxy location and compare providers using the same URLs and response-time measurements.
• Session breaks: Frequent IP rotation can interrupt workflows that depend on cookies or session continuity. Use sticky residential, static residential, or ISP proxies when the same IP needs to remain active across multiple requests.
• Hidden costs: Proxy pricing may not reflect the total cost of a scraping project. Check traffic limits, request credits, failed-request charges, rendering or CAPTCHA fees, concurrency restrictions, location surcharges, overage rates, minimum commitments, and refund policies.
• Weak compliance: Using proxy infrastructure does not remove the legal or contractual responsibilities associated with web scraping. Keep workflows focused on public or authorized data, apply appropriate rate limits, and establish internal rules for which websites can be accessed, what data can be collected, and how it is retained and used.

Further reading: Web Scraping with Javascript and Nodejs: Automation and Dynamic Content Scraping and How to Improve and Automate Data Collection Process?.

Conclusion

The best web scraping proxy depends on your target difficulty, scraping volume, location needs, session length, speed, and budget. Live Proxies offers reliable residential and mobile scraping with controlled sessions and B2B support, while Oxylabs suits enterprise-scale workloads. Decodo offers broad proxy coverage and scraping tools, while IPRoyal provides flexible multi-type proxies.

SOAX focuses on precise geo-targeting, ProxyEmpire suits location-sensitive research, Webshare fits budget projects, and Rayobyte works well for stable ISP and datacenter workflows. Before choosing, test a small package against your actual targets and compare success rate, block rate, speed, bandwidth use, and cost per successful page.

FAQs

What is the best proxy for web scraping?

The best choice depends on the website, data volume, location, and session requirements. Residential proxies suit stricter targets, datacenter proxies work well for fast and affordable scraping, ISP proxies fit longer sessions, mobile proxies suit mobile workflows, and proxy APIs simplify managed scraping.

What is the best free proxy for web scraping?

Free proxies are mainly suitable for learning and low-risk testing. They often have poor uptime, slow speeds, reused IPs, and limited security, making paid proxies more suitable for production scraping.

Are residential proxies best for scraping?

Residential proxies are often effective for stricter and location-sensitive targets because their IPs are associated with residential networks. They cost more than datacenter proxies, so they are not necessary for every scraping project. They are particularly useful for localized SERPs, eCommerce pages, marketplaces, and price monitoring.

Are datacenter proxies good for web scraping?

Yes. Datacenter proxies offer high

speeds and lower costs and work well for clean public targets, SEO crawls, and internal testing. However, stricter websites can identify datacenter IP ranges more easily. They are a practical choice when IP reputation is less important than speed and cost.

What is the best proxy for Node.js web scraping?

The best option depends on the target and Node.js workflow. Playwright, Puppeteer, and HTTP-agent configurations can work with residential, datacenter, ISP, or mobile proxies depending on the required session and location controls. Choose a provider that supports your preferred protocol and offers the rotation or sticky sessions your application needs.

What is the best proxy for Python web scraping?

Python tools such as Requests, Scrapy, Selenium, and Playwright support proxies. The right provider depends on the target, proxy type, rotation, session controls, protocol support, and retry requirements. Test the proxy with the exact Python library and target before scaling to find out if there are compatibility or performance issues.

How many proxies do I need for web scraping?

A small SEO or price-monitoring project may need only 10 to 50 stable IPs or a small bandwidth package. Larger projects should calculate requirements using URL volume, page size, request frequency, locations, retries, concurrency, and expected bandwidth. A high-volume scraper may need more bandwidth rather than simply more IP addresses.

Should I use rotating or sticky proxies?

Use rotating proxies when collecting many independent pages and sticky sessions when multiple requests need to come from the same IP. Choosing the wrong session strategy can cause unnecessary blocks or interrupt workflows that depend on IP continuity**.**

Do I need a proxy API for web scraping?

Not always. Proxy APIs are useful when you want managed rotation, retries, browser rendering, CAPTCHA handling, or other scraping infrastructure without building it yourself. Raw proxies are better when your development team needs direct control over requests and sessions.

Which proxy locations are best for scraping?

The best location depends on the target market. Common choices include the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, India, and Spain. However, country, city, ISP, ASN, or carrier targeting is more useful when the website changes its content, prices, or search results by location. Always choose locations based on where the target data is actually localized.