If you're searching for the best proxy providers in 2023, you've stumbled across the right corner of the internet. Here in this round-up, I'm revealing some of the best options on the market.
I'll look at what these proxy providers offer, their pros, cons, and pricing so that, hopefully, you'll get a clearer idea of which (if any) best meets your needs.
There's lots to cover, so let's hop to it!
What to Look for When Choosing a Proxy Provider
Before diving into which proxy providers are best, let's ensure we're on the same page about what a proxy server actually is.
A proxy server acts as an intermediary between the internet user and the web pages they browse.
How?
As you may already know, when your device connects to the web, it uses an IP address. However, when you connect to a proxy server, it acts as a separate device with its own IP address – which the internet server sees, effectively masking your actual IP address and providing you with more anonymity. Needless to say, this goes a long way to preventing cyber attackers from entering your private network.
In this article
With that said, here are a few things to consider when picking your proxy provider:
- The size of the IP pool (the larger, the better)
- Are the IP addresses real? (IP addresses from genuine devices are less likely to fall foul of IP bans or CAPTCHAs).
- Is there a free trial or a money-back guarantee you can take advantage of?
- What kind of proxy do you need? A datacenter proxy? Residential IPs? ISP proxies? Mobile proxies?
- What's the customer support like?
- How do customers review these services?
With the above in mind, you'll be better positioned to pick a provider that best meets your needs.
So without further ado (and in no particular order), let's examine some of the best proxy providers out there:
What are the Best Proxy Providers in 2023?
1. IPRoyal
IPRoyal offers five proxy products: Residential, static residential, datacenter, sneaker, and mobile. Below I've quickly noted some of the key features associated with each proxy type:
Residential:
- Access to over 195 proxy locations (including city/state targeting)
- Your proxy traffic never expires, so you can use it whenever you want
- SOCKS5 is supported
- Flexible rotation and sticky options are available (sticky proxies keep the same IP address for a specified time. In contrast, rotating proxies provide a pool of IP addresses to choose from).
Static Residential:
- Access to premium ISP providers
- Unlimited traffic (i.e., there aren't restrictions on the data you can upload or download within a given period).
- Use of genuine residential IPs
- Over 21 countries are covered.
- SOCKS5 support
Datacenter:
- 99.9% uptime
- Market-leading speeds (when I spoke to IPRoyal's customer support, they said that speed is 10 Gbps unmetered bandwidth or 60ms to 120ms. Speed also depends on user location).
- Not shared
- Unlimited traffic
- Easy integration and API support
Sneaker:
- Access to a private proxy pool with unique IPs (sold per proxy with non-rotating private IP)
- Unlimited traffic
- Compatible with most retail sites
Mobile:
- Access to over one million genuine residential mobile IPs (you get one mobile proxy, but you can rotate that proxy in a pool of 500,000 for each location)
- Unlimited bandwidth and sessions
- Easy integration and API support
- Auto-rotation toggle
- 5G/4G/3G/LTE support
Pros
- Unlike when I wrote my IPRoyal review when I reached out to IPRoyal's customer service team, their support this time around was excellent. Its 24/7 live chat provided me with quick and helpful technical advice. Aside from that, users also have access to a Discord channel and contact form on its website.
- Users praise IPRoyal for being able to unblock tons of platforms, including major streaming platforms.
- Proxies are available across an impressive number of locations.
- IPRoyal is cheaper than other proxy provider alternatives.
Cons
- Some users complain about slow speeds, making gaming and torrenting impossible.
- Some users complain about having to give IPRoyal a fair amount of personal information when purchasing multiple proxies.
- The self-help documentation is limited.
- Compared to other competitors listed IPRoyal's IP pool is on the smaller side.
Pricing
- Residential: from $1.75 per GB
- Datacenter: from $1.39 per proxy
- Sneaker: from $1.00 per proxy
- Static residential: $2.40 per proxy
- Mobile: from $81 a month
Best for
Overall, IPRoyal seems like an excellent option for beginners looking for a user-friendly platform with several proxy packages that meet the needs of various use cases. It's ideal if you want a proxy for a short time (some packages are available for as little as a day!).
However, if you're looking to use a proxy for gaming or torrenting, then reportedly, you might have to look elsewhere.
2. Bright Data
Bright Data offers four proxy types:
- Residential proxies: Benefit from over 72 million rotating IPs from real-peer devices across 195 countries
- ISP proxies: Access over 700,000 genuine household IPs located around the world for long-term use
- Datacenter proxies: Access more than 770,000 shared datacenter IPs across different geolocations
- Mobile proxies: Access over 7,000,000 IPs – this is one of the market's largest real-peer 3G/4G mobile proxy networks.
Pros
- Some users praise Bright Data's prompt customer support.
- Bright Data's IP pools are impressively large
- A few users applaud the reliability of Bright Data's IPs.
Cons
- Bright Data is quite expensive (outside of its pay-as-you-go options)
Pricing
- Residential proxies: Pay as you go starting from $15/GB
- ISP proxies: Pay as you go starting from $15/GB
- Datacenter proxies: Pay as you go starting from $0.110/GB
- Mobile proxies: Pay as you go starting from $24.00/GB
Best for
Bright Data, with its tiered pricing plans, reliable uptime, fast speed, and first-rate 24/7 customer support, is an appealing choice if you want an all-around proxy provider that can facilitate most proxy-related tasks.
3. Marsproxies
Marsproxies only offers two proxy types:
- Shopping proxies
- Sneaker proxies
Within both categories, you’ll find the following options:
- Ultra Residential Proxies: These are optimized for all major online sneaker retailers (and other websites). Plus, you also benefit from non-expiring GBs, USER: PASS or IP authentication, SOCKS5 support, and sticky sessions.
- Mars ISP Proxies (Residential): These proxies claim to be unbanned on most stores. You'll also enjoy 10Gbps of speed, unlimited bandwidth and threads, dedicated and static proxies, and SOCKS5 support.
- Mars Obsidian Proxies (Datacenter): Monthly and daily plans are available. You get everything in the previous proxies, plus a speed of six to 120 ms and access to US and EU locations.
Pros
- Marsproxies has over one million IPs worldwide
- Marsproxies offers specialized proxies for sneaker copping and online shopping, so if this is your use case, this proxy provider is certainly worth a second glance! Marsproxies are unbanned on Nike, YeezySupply, Footlocker, Supreme, About You, Offspring, etc.
- 24/7 support is available
Cons
- If you’re not looking to purchase limited-edition apparel, you might be better served by another proxy provider
- There isn't much self-help documentation available
Pricing
- Ultra Residential Proxies: €3.00 per GB
- Mars ISP Proxies (Residential): €2.00 per proxy
- Mars Obsidian Proxies (Datacenter) (Daily Plan): €0.80 per proxy
- Mars Obsidian Proxies (Datacenter) (Monthly Plan): €1.40 per proxy
Best for
Marsproxies is best for anyone looking for reasonably priced, fast data center or residential proxies for online shopping and/or sneaker copping. It's also a good choice if 24/7 support is essential to you.
4. Oxylabs
Oxylabs provides the following:
- Residential Proxies: According to Oxylabs, this is best for ad verification, load testing, and review monitoring. Here you can access a continuously rotating (and ethically sourced) proxy pool of over 100 million residential IP addresses with HTTP(S) protocols. Furthermore, country, city, state, and ZIP code geo-location targeting is available across 195 locations. Oxylab also boasts a 99.95% success rate and an average response time of 0.6s. You can also run unlimited concurrent sessions. Oxylab describes its integration process as ‘easy.' Lastly, you can also manage your proxy usage via Oxylabs' dashboard.
- Dedicated Datacenter Proxies: According to Oxylabs, this is best for cybersecurity, market research, brand protection, and email protection. You can access a pre-tested proxy pool of over two million (from 7,850 subnets) across 188 locations (with HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols). You'll also benefit from a 99.9% uptime, unlimited bandwidth and domains, and city and state-level geo-targeting. You can replace your IPs anytime and use Oxylabs's proxy rotator to switch your IP address while connected to a server to stay block free.
- Shared Datacenter Proxies: According to Oxylabs, this is best for price monitoring, review monitoring, and market research. You can access over 29,000 shared data center proxies across 15 geo-locations in the US, Europe, and Asia. You also benefit from unlimited concurrent sessions, automatic proxy rotation, and 99.9% uptime. Sticky sessions are also available.
- Web Unblocker: This AI-powered proxy solution bypasses sophisticated anti-bot systems, so regardless of your location, you can access localized content from near-on anywhere. The Web Unblocker utilizes an ethically sourced proxy pool of over 102 million. You can also benefit from country, city, and coordinate-specific geo-targeting across 195 countries.
Pros
- Oxylabs offers a large proxy pool across lots of countries
- There's a free trial
- Oxylabs's uptime and success rate seem pretty reliable
- You can access sophisticated proxy features like session control, IP rotation, and advanced geo-targeting.
- Their range of proxy services ensures various use cases are covered.
- Their customer support is reportedly excellent.
Cons
- Oxylab's pricing is on the steep side, so if you're a smaller business with a tight budget, this might not be the right platform for you.
- Some users have complained about Oxylab not taking payments correctly and, consequently, their service being disrupted.
Pricing
- Residential Proxies: Start from $15 (pay as you go)
- 3G/4G/5G Mobile Proxies: Start from $30 (pay as you go)
- Rotating ISP Proxies: Start from $340 a month
- Shared Datacenter Proxies: Start from $50 a month
- Dedicated Datacenter Proxies: Start from $180 a month
- Web Unblocker: Start from $75 a month
Best for
Overall I think that Oxylabs is a top-tier proxy service, and that's reflected in its price. Also, because it's a slightly more complex solution, be prepared for a steeper learning curve.
5. Webshare
Webshare provides the following:
- Proxy Servers: According to Webshare, these are optimized to handle fast web traffic worldwide. Proxy servers are fully private and affordable, with plans starting at $2.99/mo. They're also fully customizable, so you can configure the countries you're targeting (with 40+ countries to choose from, including the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, and Spain), bandwidth, and threads to suit your needs. Webshare also offers HTTP/SOCKS5 proxy endpoints, 100Gbps, 99.97% uptime, and integration with Webshare RESTful APIs.
- Residential Proxies: According to Webshare, these offer highly diverse IPs and are best for smaller bandwidth usage. Available in 195 countries with a 99.97% uptime, they come with 100Gbps and HTTP/SOCKS5 protocol support. This proxy type is assigned a real IP address provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). You can access over ten million addresses, no CAPTCHAs or IP blocks, and integration with Webshare RESTful APIs.
- Static Residential Proxies: Webshare’s website tells us that this option is a faster alternative to standard residential proxies with speeds of up to 1Gbps. Users can buy static residential proxies from well-known ISPs such as AT&T, Sprint, and Lumen. Bandwidth is unlimited, and static residential proxies are assigned to you, so you won't share your IP address with anyone. Uptime is 99.97%, plus you can access 100k+ IPs and integrate with Webshare RESTful APIs.
Pros
- Freebies are available with the proxy server product
- 99.97% uptime
- Affordable prices
- Some customers praised the user interface
- Some users praised the freedom they had to choose their own countries and subnets.
Cons
- Self-help articles are limited in their online help center.
- Each price plan states you receive “up to unlimited bandwidth,” with no explanation or clarification on what that means.
- Some users complain that it took days to hear back from customer support.
- One TrustPilot reviewer said that they purchased over 20 static residential proxies, and they were all blocklisted and had very high fraud scores, rendering them useless (they did manage to get a refund, though!)
Pricing
- Proxy servers: start from 10 proxies for free and then $2.99/mo for up to 100 proxies
- Residential proxies: begin from $18.75/mo
- Static residential proxies: start from $24/mo for up to 20 proxies
Best for
Webshare is best for anyone looking for a free or affordable proxy server.
6. SOAX
SOAX provides the following:
- Mobile proxies: You can purchase 3G/4G/5G/LTE mobile proxies with a 99.9% uptime with worldwide coverage. Soax states it has quick and easy integration with five API methods. It also boasts user-friendly and customizable dashboards, legitimate IPv6/IPv4 addresses, and no CAPTCHAs.
- Residential proxies: You benefit from unlimited access to data, a 99.9% uptime, and legitimate IPv6/v4 addresses. Residential proxies are aimed at businesses that want to connect with customers in particular cities, regions, and countries. You can target specific locations without IP blocks or restrictions, gather real-time data, and collect large data volumes from different sources.
- US ISP proxies: Use US ISP proxies for fast and anonymous data scrapping and switch the IP rotation on and off, depending on what you need. Soax states that these proxies guarantee reliable and long sessions, so you can collect as much data as you need uninterrupted.
Pros
- Access to ethical proxies
- 99.9% uptime
- 24/7 live support
- There's a 20% discount on all plans if you pay annually
- Soax has a proxy IP pool of 8.5m+
- Top-tier plan subscribers get access to a dedicated account manager
Cons
- Prices are on the steeper side
- You have to pay $1.99 for a 3-day trial
- There's limited information on the Soax website about each product
Pricing
You benefit from 20% off if you pay annually. However, the prices below are based on monthly (without the discount):
- Mobile proxies: from $99/mo and from $2,500/mo for enterprise customers
- Residential proxies: from $99/mo and from $2,500/mo for enterprise customers
- US ISP proxies: from $99/mo and $3,250/mo for enterprise customers
Best for
Soax is best for businesses with big budgets that are keen to have unrestricted web access with ethical proxies.
7. Proxydrop
Proxydrop offers just one type of proxy aimed specifically at sneaker copping.
Residential proxies: Access an IP pool of over 28 million with smart server routing closest to your location. You'll also benefit from low CAPTCHA proxies, YouTube and Google unblocked, USER:PASS authentication, unlimited connections and targets, and instant delivery.
Pros
- There's a free proxy checker tool for Windows and iOS devices for fast proxy verification
- Proxydrop reportedly has a large user base and supply channels, allowing consumers access to highly sought-after goods, particularly in Asia.
Cons
- There's no online help center; you can only reach out to Proxydrop via a form on its website.
- Prices are expensive and somewhat confusing; it’s unclear if the price underneath each price plan is an additional cost for more storage. It’s also unclear if the prices quoted are per month.
- No free trial
Pricing
There are two price levels: Prestige and Apex
- Prestige: Three plans starting at $44 + VAT aimed at individuals and US and EU regions
- Apex: Three plans starting at $36 + VAT offering drop-type specific endpoints and available in 30+ countries
Best for
Proxydrop is best for sneaker lovers and collectors looking for residential proxy servers with no expiration date.
My Final Thoughts On The Best Proxy Providers
So, there you have it; that's my round-up of some of the best proxy providers on today's market.
It's difficult to pick a winner, but if forced, I'd say Soax is likely the best option for major data-scraping projects. It has one of the biggest residential IP pools (over 8.5 million), claims to only use whitelisted IPs, 91% of its ratings on TrustPilot are five-star, and boasts an impressive 99.9% uptime. However, to access such a high-caliber service, you need a bigger budget.
In contrast, if you're looking for a more economical proxy provider with a decent array of proxy types to choose from IPRoyal is certainly worth a second glance. Not least because it claims to ethically source its IPs, it has residential proxies available in nearly 200 countries, and 81% of users rate it five stars on TrustPilot!
That's enough from me, over to you. Which do you think are the best proxy providers? Tell me your thoughts in the comments box below!
Comments 0 Responses