What Are the Best Residential Proxies? 7 Brands Compared for Scraping and Research

A market analyst is tracking retail prices across a dozen regions for a study that runs two quarters. Some weeks the crawler pulls thousands of pages; other weeks it sits idle while the team writes up findings. The proxy bill, meanwhile, keeps arriving on the same date every month, whether the traffic was used or not.

That rhythm, heavy bursts separated by quiet stretches, describes most scraping and research work, from academic studies to competitive intelligence and SEO tracking. A pricing model that resets every month quietly taxes every quiet week. The seven residential providers below are judged on how well they serve it: pool reach, targeting, session control and, above all, what happens to the traffic a team pays for but has not yet used. A comparison table closes the piece for quick reference.

#1 ProxyEmpire

For research that stretches over months, ProxyEmpire is the provider whose billing matches the work. Gigabytes bought on its GB plans never expire and carry forward indefinitely, with no contract tying a team to a monthly minimum. A study can buy a block of traffic at the start, use it in bursts and finish the project without losing a gigabyte to a renewal date.

The network behind it is built for location work. The company reports 30M+ residential IPs in 170+ countries, shows a live IP availability counter on its homepage, and includes targeting by region, city, ISP, ASN, OS/TCP and ZIP at no extra cost. Sessions can be fixed for a set time, held for a session or rotated per request, and concurrent sessions are unlimited for approved use cases.

For research teams, the practical effect is simple budgeting. A grant or project budget can be converted into traffic once, then drawn down as fieldwork allows, rather than split into monthly purchases that may go partly unused.

Pricing starts at $3.50 per GB without commitment, and monthly plans fall to $1.50 per GB at 1,000 GB. All sales are final, so the $1.97 trial, which includes residential and mobile traffic, is the sensible first step. ProxyEmpire also offers scraping APIs for ecommerce, SERP and social media for targets that resist raw proxies, and mobile, ISP and datacenter proxies sit on the same account if a study's needs change midway. Support is available around the clock by live chat and email, and a public status page shows network health during long crawls.

#2 Proxy-Seller

Proxy-Seller offers some of the lowest volume residential rates in this group, from $1.45 per GB after a $3.50 per GB test option, with enterprise deals from $0.30 per GB and a premium SLA. Its pool covers 47M+ IPs across 220+ locations, targetable by country, state, city and ISP. The company has operated since 2014 and reports 185,000+ users.

For researchers, unlimited concurrent sessions and unlimited proxy lists help parallel crawls, and session TTL controls let a task hold one IP or rotate by time or request. An API with SDKs in five languages makes it straightforward to automate purchasing and track consumption.

The constraint is time, and it matters for academic and long-cycle research. Residential traffic is valid for 30 days, which suits steady monthly crawling better than studies with long gaps between bursts. Refunds or replacements must also be requested within 24 hours of purchase.

#3 IPRoyal

IPRoyal shares the no-expiry approach to residential traffic, with no monthly minimum, and pairs it with sticky sessions of up to 7 days. That combination suits research that logs into accounts or dashboards over long periods, such as monitoring members-only pricing or tracking a marketplace seller's listings.

Country, state and city targeting are free across 195+ countries, SOCKS5 is supported, and the provider lists 650+ supported integrations for scraping tools. Timed rotation every 1, 10 or 30 minutes is available for crawls that prefer predictable IP changes.

Entry pricing is the drawback: a single gigabyte costs $7 on subscription, or $7.35 without one, with the $1.75 rate reserved for 10 TB orders. ZIP and ASN targeting are not listed, which limits hyper-local studies.

#4 Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)

Decodo suits research teams that want granular targeting without add-on fees. Continent, country, state, city, ZIP and ASN targeting are included on every plan, and every plan reaches its full 115M+ residential pool. For regional price studies, that means postcode-level precision costs nothing beyond the base rate.

Its Web Data API, with /scrape, /search, /map and /crawl endpoints, gives research teams an alternative to running their own crawlers, and SDKs cover Python, TypeScript and Go. An MCP server lets AI research agents call the API directly, and integration guides cover more than 50 tools for teams that prefer their own crawlers.

Monthly plans start at 3 GB for $11.25 and fall to $2.75 per GB at 100 GB, with enterprise volumes reaching $2 per GB. Whether unused subscription traffic rolls over is not stated, and the free 3-day trial converts automatically unless cancelled. Mobile proxies are available from $2.25 per GB for studies that need carrier IPs.

#5 SOAX

SOAX gives research teams budget control per project. Each package can carry its own traffic cap, protocol limits and domain lists, so one study cannot consume another's allowance. For research agencies juggling several client projects, that separation simplifies both budgeting and reporting.

Residential and mobile share a single credit-based price, with each credit worth $1, that varies by country tier; one plan builder example shows US traffic at $3.00 per GB on 100 GB. Analytics separate delivered from blocked traffic, a useful signal when a target starts resisting. Rotation can trigger per request, after a count, on a timer or on error.

The company says it powers 5,000+ product teams, reports an average of 717M+ daily requests over the last 90 days and offers a free Sandbox account before purchase. It publishes an SLA, a DPA and a KYC and KYB policy for institutional buyers.

#6 Bright Data

Bright Data brings the largest residential pool in this comparison, at 400M+ monthly IPs across 195 countries, with free targeting down to ZIP and ASN. For research needing broad geographic coverage, that reach is its main draw, and the company lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 and SOC 3 for institutions with strict data policies.

It also sells ready-made datasets, a SERP API and scraper APIs, which can replace crawling altogether for some research questions. Integrations with AWS, Databricks and Snowflake help teams move results straight into analysis.

Residential pay as you go costs $4 per GB with the RESIGB50 code, and monthly plans begin at 141 GB for $499. A KYC check, which may include a video call, precedes residential use, and unused monthly commitments do not roll over, which makes it better suited to steady, well-funded programs than bursty ones.

#7 Webshare

Webshare is the low-cost on-ramp for researchers new to proxies, students and small teams included. A permanent free plan of 10 datacenter proxies allows early experiments, and rotating residential starts at $3.50 for 1 GB. Researchers can learn configuration on free IPs before spending on residential traffic.

Plans can be built around exact bandwidth and locations, with residential targeting down to ZIP and ASN, and the rate falls to $1.40 per GB from 250 GB. A full API and a rotating endpoint help automate collection.

Webshare does not sell mobile proxies, and its pages do not state an expiry policy for residential traffic. Static residential IPs from $6.00 a month for 20 addresses suit studies that need a fixed home-style identity.

Side by Side for Research Teams