What's the difference between residential and datacenter proxies?

Residential proxies use real consumer IP addresses from actual devices, so they look like ordinary visitors and are the hardest to detect or block, the default for scraping well-defended sites. Datacenter proxies come from servers in data centers; they're much cheaper and faster but easier for sites to identify and block, which makes them best for high-volume work against less bot-sensitive targets.

Are proxies and web scraping legal?

Using proxies is legal, and scraping publicly available data is broadly permitted in many jurisdictions, but it isn't unlimited. Respect each site's terms of service, avoid collecting personal or copyrighted data you don't have rights to, don't bypass authentication, and follow applicable laws like GDPR. Reputable providers that source residential IPs with user consent and offer compliance guidance reduce your risk. When in doubt, get legal advice for your specific use case.

How is proxy pricing calculated?

Residential proxies are almost always billed per gigabyte of traffic, so cost scales with how much data you pull; the per-GB rate usually drops as you commit to larger bundles. Datacenter and static residential (ISP) proxies are often billed per IP per month instead. Watch for unused traffic that expires monthly versus rolls over, and for minimum commitments needed to unlock the lowest rates.

Which proxy type do I need?

For scraping well-protected sites or gathering location-specific data, use residential proxies. For high-volume requests against simpler targets where speed and cost matter most, use datacenter proxies. For managing accounts or checkout flows that need a stable, unchanging IP, use static residential (ISP) proxies. For the most heavily defended targets, mobile proxies on carrier IPs are the strongest option.

Best Proxy Services (2026)

A proxy service routes your web requests through someone else's IP address, so the sites you're collecting data from see a normal-looking visitor instead of one machine hammering them thousands of times. That's the backbone of legitimate web scraping, price and market monitoring, ad verification, SEO and SERP tracking, and managing multiple accounts without getting blocked. The right provider is the difference between clean, reliable data and a pipeline that breaks every few hours.

Proxies come in a few flavors, and the type matters more than the brand. Residential proxies use real consumer IPs and are hardest to detect, so they're the default for scraping well-defended targets. Datacenter proxies are far cheaper and much faster but easier to block, which makes them ideal for high-volume work against less sensitive sites. Static residential (ISP) proxies give you a stable, long-lived identity for account management and checkout flows, and mobile proxies use carrier IPs for the toughest targets. Most of the providers below sell several types, so match the proxy to the job rather than buying one pool for everything.

Pricing is the other thing to understand up front. Residential traffic is almost always billed per gigabyte, datacenter and ISP proxies are often billed per IP, and usage-based billing means a heavy job can get expensive regardless of the headline rate. Watch for traffic that expires at the end of the month, minimum commitments, and verification requirements. The picks below span budget-friendly options for solo operators up to enterprise platforms with managed scraping APIs and datasets.

Our top Proxies & Web Scraping picks

Who each pick is actually for

Two facts below, both arithmetic rather than opinion, taken from the review scores in our catalog. Neither is a recommendation, and a high score from a small group of users is a different claim from a high score at scale, so the sample size is shown alongside every figure.

Most reviewed

Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)

4.6 across 2,500 reviews

Decodo is the rebrand of Smartproxy, so most of that sample was collected under a name the company no longer uses. The more useful thing to notice is how little the ratings separate anyone: nearly every provider here sits between 4.3 and 4.7, which means the score is not the number that decides this. Price per gigabyte, whether unused traffic expires, and how many pool types come with one account are.

Highest rated

IPRoyal

4.7 across 2,500 reviews

The two headline samples in this category are the same size, which makes the comparison unusually clean: the better-liked one also starts at $1.75 per GB against $6, and its residential traffic does not expire. That second point matters more than the headline rate if your scraping is project-based rather than continuous. One caveat applies to the whole category rather than to any one vendor: several providers here market sneaker copping and multi-account automation alongside price monitoring and ad verification, and it is the second list that a business proxy budget is normally defensible for.

None of that decides it for you

You are not sure a proxy is even the answer yet: Webshare - A permanent free tier of 10 shared datacenter proxies and about 1 GB a month with no card required, then datacenter plans from $3. Nothing else here lets you find out whether your target actually blocks datacenter IPs before you have spent anything.
One project needs residential, mobile, and static IPs at once: MarsProxies - Residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile on a single budget account from around $5 per GB, which beats running three vendors for one piece of work. Read the plan names carefully: the product is also marketed hard at sneaker resellers, and those plans are not what a price-monitoring job needs.
Legal or procurement has to sign off on where the data comes from: Bright Data - The most managed option here, with an unblocker, scraping APIs, and pre-collected datasets, plus identity and use-case verification before the premium residential pool opens. That verification is the friction and also the reason it survives a compliance review; residential plans start around $499 a month.
Your engineers would rather call an API than babysit a pool: Oxylabs - The Web Scraper API is $49 a month and handles rotation, JavaScript rendering, and anti-bot blocks, so nobody on your team maintains retry logic. Raw residential is $8 per GB, several times what the budget providers charge, and that gap is the price of the managed layer.
You are checking that your ads render in one specific city: SOAX - Targeting down to region, city, and mobile carrier, pay-as-you-go from $4 per GB with a 1 GB minimum, so an ad-verification or brand-protection run does not need a monthly plan. Country-level targeting, which is all the cheapest pools offer, cannot answer the question at all.
Cost per gigabyte is the only number you are optimizing: Proxy-Cheap - Rotating residential around $3 per GB and datacenter IPs at $2 each across 150+ countries, self-serve with no minimum spend. You are buying IPs and not tooling: there is no managed scraper, so your own team writes the rotation, retry, and parsing code.

What to look for

Proxy types offered: residential for hard targets, datacenter for cheap speed, ISP for stable sessions, mobile for the toughest sites. Buying from one vendor that covers several beats juggling multiple accounts.
Pool size and geo-targeting: a large, globally distributed IP pool with country and city (and sometimes ASN) targeting keeps success rates high and unlocks location-specific data.
Pricing model and expiry: know whether you're billed per GB or per IP, whether unused traffic rolls over or expires monthly, and what minimum commitment unlocks the lower rates.
Success rate and reliability, a cheap proxy that gets blocked constantly costs more in retries and engineering time than a slightly pricier network that just works.
Ethical sourcing and compliance, reputable providers document how residential IPs are sourced (opt-in consent) and offer compliance tooling; this matters for both legality and reliability.
Support and documentation: responsive human support, clear docs, and ready integrations shorten setup and rescue you when a target changes its defenses.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between residential and datacenter proxies?: Residential proxies use real consumer IP addresses from actual devices, so they look like ordinary visitors and are the hardest to detect or block, the default for scraping well-defended sites. Datacenter proxies come from servers in data centers; they're much cheaper and faster but easier for sites to identify and block, which makes them best for high-volume work against less bot-sensitive targets.
Are proxies and web scraping legal?: Using proxies is legal, and scraping publicly available data is broadly permitted in many jurisdictions, but it isn't unlimited. Respect each site's terms of service, avoid collecting personal or copyrighted data you don't have rights to, don't bypass authentication, and follow applicable laws like GDPR. Reputable providers that source residential IPs with user consent and offer compliance guidance reduce your risk. When in doubt, get legal advice for your specific use case.
How is proxy pricing calculated?: Residential proxies are almost always billed per gigabyte of traffic, so cost scales with how much data you pull; the per-GB rate usually drops as you commit to larger bundles. Datacenter and static residential (ISP) proxies are often billed per IP per month instead. Watch for unused traffic that expires monthly versus rolls over, and for minimum commitments needed to unlock the lowest rates.
Which proxy type do I need?: For scraping well-protected sites or gathering location-specific data, use residential proxies. For high-volume requests against simpler targets where speed and cost matter most, use datacenter proxies. For managing accounts or checkout flows that need a stable, unchanging IP, use static residential (ISP) proxies. For the most heavily defended targets, mobile proxies on carrier IPs are the strongest option.