10 Best Proxies for Web Scraping in 2026: Residential & Datacenter Compared

Not all proxies are built the same, and choosing the wrong type for web scraping is an expensive mistake. Datacenter proxies get blocked on protected targets. Residential proxies work but cost 5–10x more. ISP proxies sit in between — fast and clean, but harder to find at scale.

I've tested and compared 10 proxy providers specifically for scraping workloads. This covers success rates on difficult targets (Amazon, Google, LinkedIn), integration with Python, Scrapy, and Playwright, pricing structures for bulk bandwidth, and which IP types hold up under high-frequency requests.

The short answer: residential proxies are the right default for most scraping targets. Datacenter proxies still work on less-protected sites at a fraction of the cost. If you need both, a provider that offers multiple IP types under one dashboard saves you time.

Web Scraping Proxies — Quick Comparison

10 Best Proxies for Web Scraping in 2026

1. Bright Data — Best Overall for Complex Scraping Targets

Bright Data operates the largest commercially available proxy network — 400M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries — but what makes it the top pick for scraping isn't just pool size. It's the tooling built on top of it: a dedicated Web Unlocker that automatically handles CAPTCHAs, browser fingerprinting, and TLS signatures on difficult targets; a Scraping Browser that runs a real Chromium instance through their infrastructure; and a SERP API that delivers parsed Google results directly.

For Python and Scrapy integrations, Bright Data provides detailed documentation and an official proxy manager. The proxy endpoint format is standard HTTP/HTTPS (zproxy.lum-superproxy.io:22225), making it drop-in compatible with any scraping framework. SOCKS5 is also supported.

PAYG starts at $8/GB, but committed monthly plans scale to $2.50/GB at 798 GB/month. New business accounts get a 7-day trial with up to $500 deposit matched. If you're scraping Amazon, Google Shopping, LinkedIn, or any target that actively runs bot detection, Bright Data's infrastructure handles cases that cause all other proxies to fail.

Pricing

Pros

• Web Unlocker and Scraping Browser handle CAPTCHAs and JS rendering automatically
• 400M+ IP pool with residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile types under one account
• Official integrations with Scrapy, Playwright, and Puppeteer

Cons

• PAYG at $8/GB is the highest entry rate on this list
• Platform complexity requires time to set up correctly for new users

Visit Bright Data

2. NodeMaven — Best Mid-Scale Residential for Python Scrapers

NodeMaven's 30M+ ISP-verified residential IPs across 190+ countries make it the standout option for developers running Python scrapers at mid-scale. ISP-verified means the IPs are sourced from real ISP-assigned devices and validated for quality — not just volume. The result is a higher-than-average success rate on targets like e-commerce sites and social platforms that scrutinize IP quality over sheer pool size.

Targeting goes down to city level (1,400+ cities) and ZIP code, critical for scraping localized pricing, search results, or inventory data. Sticky sessions hold for 24 hours, which is long enough for multi-step scraping workflows. The HTTP/HTTPS endpoint integrates directly into requests, httpx, Scrapy, or Playwright's proxy settings with standard http://user:pass@host:port format.

Pricing starts at $2/GB (5 GB for $10) with traffic rollover — unused bandwidth carries to the next billing cycle. The $3.50 trial for 750 MB lets you benchmark against your actual targets before committing.

Pricing

Pros

• ISP-verified IPs outperform standard residential on quality-conscious targets
• City + ZIP targeting for localized data extraction
• Traffic rollover — no wasted bandwidth at month-end

Cons

• 30M IP pool is smaller than top-tier networks — expect more IP reuse at very high frequency
• Trial bandwidth (750 MB) is enough for benchmarking but not production testing

Visit NodeMaven

3. Geonode — Budget Residential for High-Volume Crawling

Geonode is the best entry point when cost per GB is the primary constraint. Pricing starts at $0.79/GB (10 GB for $7.92) with a rollover policy that carries unused bandwidth to the next billing cycle. For high-volume crawling projects where you're processing millions of pages per month, the difference between $0.79/GB and $4/GB is not trivial.

Coverage spans 190+ countries with the bandwidth rollover making it particularly suited for scraping workloads where monthly usage is hard to predict. The dashboard is straightforward, and the API endpoint is standard HTTP proxy format compatible with any framework.

At the entry tier, geo-targeting granularity is less documented than established competitors — use country-level targeting for initial deployments and test city-level availability against your specific targets.

Pricing

Pros

• From $0.79/GB with rollover — lowest verifiable residential rate for scraping
• Scales to $0.50/GB at 1 TB — ideal for high-volume projects
• No lock-in contracts, cancel any time

Cons

• Geo-targeting depth less documented at entry tiers
• IP pool size not publicly disclosed — harder to estimate repeat-IP rates

Visit Geonode

4. SOAX — Flexible Rotation for Structured Data Pipelines

SOAX provides 155M residential IPs across 150+ countries with a rotation interval that's configurable from 90 seconds to 600 seconds — a level of control unusual at this tier. For scraping pipelines that need to balance IP diversity against session continuity (product pages vs. checkout flows, for example), this configurability is genuinely useful.

City and ASN-level targeting is included. SOCKS5 and UDP protocols are supported alongside HTTP/HTTPS. The $1.99 trial for 100 MB is enough to validate latency and success rates against your primary target before committing to a plan.

Pricing starts at $4/GB, which puts it in the mid-range, but the combination of pool size, targeting granularity, and rotation control justifies the rate for structured data extraction workloads.

Pricing

Pros

• Configurable rotation interval (90–600s) — rare control at this price point
• City + ASN targeting with 155M IPs
• SOCKS5 and UDP supported for specialized scraping tools

Cons

• 150+ countries is narrower coverage than Bright Data or Decodo
• $4/GB starting rate is mid-range, not budget

Visit SOAX

5. Decodo — Best Multi-Type Proxy for Mixed Workloads

Decodo (the rebranded Smartproxy) covers residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile IPs under one dashboard — a practical advantage for scraping teams that run different proxy types for different targets. Residential IPs ($4/GB) for protected sites, datacenter IPs for unprotected ones at a fraction of the cost, and ISP proxies for targets that need speed with clean IP reputation.

The residential network has 115M+ IPs across 195+ countries with 24-hour sticky sessions. The 3-day free trial with 100 MB residential bandwidth lets you test performance before spending. Volume pricing drops to $2/GB at 1 TB/month.

The API documentation is clean, and the proxy endpoint format is standard. Compatible with Scrapy, Playwright, Puppeteer, and any Python HTTP library without additional configuration.

Pricing

Pros

• Multiple IP types (residential, ISP, DC, mobile) under one account
• 115M+ residential IPs with 24h sticky sessions and clean API docs
• Volume pricing scales to $2/GB at 1 TB

Cons

• Residential starting rate of $4/GB is not budget-tier
• 100 MB trial is too small for meaningful benchmark on high-bandwidth targets

Visit Decodo

6. Rayobyte — ISP and Datacenter Proxies for Bulk Scraping

Rayobyte (formerly Blazing SEO) specializes in ISP proxies and datacenter proxies at scale — the right choice when you need high-volume bandwidth on targets that don't require full residential quality. ISP proxies from Rayobyte are hosted in real ISP infrastructure, giving them cleaner IP reputation than standard datacenter while costing significantly less than residential.

The network covers 195+ countries with dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 options. For scraping workloads like price monitoring on unprotected e-commerce sites, news aggregation, or job board crawling, Rayobyte's datacenter speeds and bulk pricing deliver cost-per-page economics that residential networks can't match.

Custom pricing is available for large-scale deployments. Rayobyte also supports residential proxies if your targets require it, making it a flexible option as your scraping requirements evolve.

Pricing

Pros

• ISP proxy infrastructure delivers datacenter speed with cleaner IP reputation
• Covers residential, ISP, and datacenter types under one provider
• Strong for bulk crawling targets that don't need full residential quality

Cons

• No public self-serve pricing — must contact for rates
• Setup less streamlined than dashboard-first providers

Visit Rayobyte

7. IPRoyal — Non-Expiring Bandwidth for Intermittent Scrapers

IPRoyal's key differentiator is non-expiring traffic — bandwidth you buy never resets. For scraping projects that run on irregular schedules (quarterly research, periodic competitive audits, one-off data pulls), this eliminates the monthly-reset pressure that makes most proxy plans wasteful.

The pool covers 32M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries with rotation intervals fully configurable from 1 second to 24 hours. HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 are all supported. Entry pricing starts at $7/GB for 1 GB, scaling to $4.90/GB at 50 GB — higher than most providers on this list, but the non-expiry model changes the math for infrequent use.

24/7 support is included across all plans, and the dashboard provides detailed usage analytics.

Pricing

Pros

• Traffic never expires — spread purchases across months without waste
• Rotation interval configurable from 1 second to 24 hours
• 195+ country coverage with SOCKS5 support

Cons

• $7/GB entry rate is the highest on this list
• 32M IP pool is smaller — higher repeat-IP rates on heavy-volume targets

Visit IPRoyal

8. DataImpulse — $1/GB Residential with SOCKS5 and UDP

DataImpulse delivers 90M residential IPs across 195+ countries at a flat $1/GB rate that never expires. That's a genuinely rare combination — most providers at this price point either have smaller pools, expire monthly, or lack the protocol support that advanced scrapers need.

SOCKS5 and UDP are both supported alongside HTTP/HTTPS — relevant if you're running scrapers that use SOCKS5 connections or protocols beyond standard web requests. Targeting is available at country, state, city, ASN, and ZIP levels. Sticky sessions last up to 120 minutes.

The minimum purchase is $50 (50 GB), with a $5 trial for 5 GB. For high-volume scraping where cost-per-GB is the controlling variable and SOCKS5 protocol support matters, DataImpulse is the most cost-efficient option on this list.

Pricing

Pros

• Flat $1/GB with traffic that never expires — best value for bulk scraping
• SOCKS5 and UDP protocol support included
• City, state, ASN, and ZIP targeting at entry-tier pricing

Cons

• $50 minimum spend (50 GB) — no per-GB starter option
• Sticky sessions limited to 120 minutes maximum

Visit DataImpulse

9. Proxy-seller — Broadest Geographic Coverage

Proxy-seller operates across 220+ countries — the broadest geographic coverage on this list, which matters when your scraping targets include markets in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, or Africa where most providers have thin IP coverage.

The residential network covers 20M+ IPs with pricing from $3.50/GB (1 GB) to $2.20/GB (100 GB). A 3-day trial is available for $1.99. Three rotation modes are supported — per-request, time-based, and sticky — along with HTTPS and SOCKS5 protocols. The platform has served 500,000+ clients over 10+ years, which speaks to stability and reliability.

For scraping projects that need targeting in countries not well-served by larger providers, Proxy-seller's 220+ country footprint is a genuine differentiator.

Pricing

Pros

• 220+ country coverage — most geographically comprehensive on this list
• Three rotation modes with HTTPS and SOCKS5 support
• 10+ years in operation with 500K+ clients

Cons

• 20M IP pool is smaller than top-tier residential networks
• No UDP support — HTTPS and SOCKS5 only

Visit Proxy-seller

10. Infatica — GDPR-Compliant Residential for Data Pipelines

Infatica operates a GDPR-compliant residential proxy network across 195+ countries, purpose-built for data collection pipelines and ad technology applications. The GDPR compliance and transparent IP sourcing practices make it relevant for businesses that handle scraping as part of a regulated data product — market research firms, analytics vendors, and enterprises with compliance obligations.

Infatica supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols with country and city-level targeting. The network is optimized for high-concurrency scraping with stable rotation and session management. Custom pricing is available depending on volume requirements.

For teams operating in regulated environments where IP sourcing compliance needs to be documented, Infatica's transparency around its network practices is a meaningful advantage.

Pricing

Pros

• GDPR-compliant with documented IP sourcing practices
• 195+ country coverage suitable for international scraping pipelines
• Optimized for high-concurrency data collection workloads

Cons

• No self-serve public pricing — requires contact for rates
• Less suited for small-volume or individual scraping projects

Visit Infatica

What to Look for in a Web Scraping Proxy

Residential vs. Datacenter vs. ISP Proxies

Residential proxies come from real ISP-assigned devices. They look identical to organic user traffic and bypass most bot-detection systems. The trade-off: they're 5–10x more expensive than datacenter proxies and have higher latency. Use them for protected targets — Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Cloudflare-protected sites.

Datacenter proxies come from cloud servers. They're fast, cheap, and available at scale — but easily identified as non-residential. Use them for unprotected targets (news sites, public government data, basic e-commerce without bot detection). Rayobyte specializes here.

ISP proxies are the middle ground — datacenter-hosted but registered under real ISP ASNs. They combine datacenter speeds with cleaner IP reputation. Good for mid-tier targets that block obvious datacenter ranges but don't require full residential quality.

Rotation Control

Per-request rotation maximizes IP diversity — a new IP on every request. Essential for high-frequency scraping that would trigger rate limits with any single IP.

Sticky sessions hold the same IP across multiple requests. Required for multi-step workflows: login → browse → add to cart. Pick a provider with configurable session duration (NodeMaven supports 24 hours; SOAX is configurable from 90–600 seconds).

Protocol Support

Standard HTTP/HTTPS covers the vast majority of scraping use cases. SOCKS5 support is needed for lower-level tools, non-HTTP protocols, or scrapers that require CONNECT tunneling. UDP support (DataImpulse, Bright Data) is relevant for specialized networking tasks beyond HTTP. Check your scraping stack against what protocols the proxy provider actually supports.

Pool Size and Target Difficulty

Target difficulty determines how large a pool you need. For low-protection targets, 10–30M IPs is plenty. For heavily-protected targets like Google or Amazon, you need 100M+ IPs to keep per-IP hit rates low enough to avoid permanent blocks. Bright Data (400M), Decodo (115M), and DataImpulse (90M) cover the high end.

Proxy Integration with Common Scraping Stacks

Python requests:

proxies = {
    "http": "http://user:pass@proxy-host:port",
    "https": "http://user:pass@proxy-host:port",
}
response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)

Scrapy (settings.py):

ROTATING_PROXY_LIST = ["http://user:pass@proxy-host:port"]

Or use the scrapy-rotating-proxies middleware with your proxy provider's endpoint.

Playwright:

browser = playwright.chromium.launch(proxy={
    "server": "http://proxy-host:port",
    "username": "user",
    "password": "pass",
})

FAQs

What type of proxy is best for web scraping?

Residential proxies are the default choice for protected targets because they appear as genuine user traffic. For unprotected sites (no bot detection), datacenter proxies are faster and cheaper. ISP proxies offer a middle ground — datacenter speed with cleaner IP reputation.

How many GB of proxy bandwidth does a web scraping project use?

A single HTTP request uses roughly 0.5–2 MB. 1 GB covers approximately 500–2,000 page loads. For crawling 10,000 pages per day, expect 10–20 GB/month. Large-scale scraping pipelines (millions of pages/month) typically need 100–500+ GB.

Can I use free proxies for web scraping?

Free proxies are unreliable, frequently blocked, and often log your traffic. For any production scraping, use a paid residential or ISP proxy provider. The cost per GB from providers like DataImpulse ($1/GB) or Geonode ($0.79/GB) is low enough that free proxies are not worth the reliability tradeoff.

How do I avoid getting blocked while scraping?

Use residential or ISP proxies, rotate IPs on every request (or per session for multi-step flows), add realistic delays between requests, randomize user-agent strings, and handle CAPTCHAs either via Bright Data's Web Unlocker or a dedicated CAPTCHA-solving service. Matching request headers to a real browser profile also reduces fingerprinting risk.

What is the best proxy for scraping Amazon?

Amazon runs aggressive bot detection that blocks datacenter and many low-quality residential IPs. Bright Data's Web Unlocker is purpose-built for Amazon and handles CAPTCHAs automatically. NodeMaven's ISP-verified residential IPs also perform well on Amazon without requiring the Web Unlocker overhead. At scale, both are viable; at small scale, NodeMaven is cheaper.

Do I need SOCKS5 for web scraping?

Most web scraping uses HTTP/HTTPS and doesn't require SOCKS5. You need SOCKS5 if your scraping tool requires it specifically, if you're working with non-HTTP protocols, or if you need lower-level connection control. DataImpulse and Bright Data both support SOCKS5 alongside HTTP.

Which Proxy Should You Use for Web Scraping in 2026?

Three questions narrow it down: What are you scraping? How much bandwidth? What's your stack?

Test two providers against your actual targets before committing to a plan. Success rates vary significantly by target site, not just proxy type.