Smartproxy Alternatives: An In-Depth Guide for 2022

Hey there! Smartproxy is pretty popular among web scrapers and automation users for good reason – it provides reliable, affordable residential proxies with easy setup. But you‘re smart to consider alternatives too.

Let‘s compare Smartproxy against some other top options out there for different needs and budgets. I‘ll break down the key pros, cons, features and pricing so you can make an informed choice. Sound good? Let‘s dive in!

A Quick Intro to Smartproxy

First, a quick rundown on Smartproxy itself. It‘s known for providing web scraping-friendly residential rotating proxies starting at just $75 per month.

Smartproxy controls around 40 million IPs, mostly from regular home residential internet connections. These bypass many anti-scraping protections compared to datacenter proxies.

The IPs come from 130+ locations worldwide, including the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Brazil. Each plan includes all locations by default.

Some other notable benefits:

• Fast proxy rotation with minimal latency
• Dedicated apps for quick setup
• Unlimited bandwidth on all plans
• Generous free trial to test it out

Advanced features like white-label reports, Webhook notifications, and custom port support provide a lot of value too.

For most casual to moderate web scraping and automation, Smartproxy delivers perhaps the best overall package. But let‘s see how some alternatives compare for different needs.

Oxylabs: Premium Residential & Mobile Proxies

Oxylabs is like a high-powered Ferrari compared to Smartproxy‘s well-rounded SUV. It‘s built for large-scale web scraping and data mining operations.

The headline feature is the sheer size of Oxylabs‘ proxy network – over 100 million residential and mobile IPs worldwide. That‘s around 3x bigger than Smartproxy‘s pool.

These proxies come from 180+ locations globally including more exotic ones like South Africa, Egypt and Indonesia.

Beyond scale, Oxylabs offers more advanced proxy types compared to Smartproxy:

• Residential – 70 million IPs from regular home connections
• Mobile – 15 million 4G/LTE IPs from thousands of devices
• Datacenter – 5 million IPs from cloud providers
• ISP – 6 million IPs from 1300+ ISPs in the USA
• IoT – Proxies from smart devices like cameras

Dedicated proxy plans provide exclusive access to IPs just for your use. For blazing speed, there are proxy packages specifically for sneaker bots.

Oxylabs also provides an API and integrations to automate proxy management across tools like Python, TikTok scrapers, Google Sheets etc.

Pros of Oxylabs:

• 102 million IP pool, 3x larger than Smartproxy
• Global residential and dedicated IPs
• Specialized proxy types like 4G mobile
• Dedicated account manager
• Advanced web scraping tools and APIs
• Comprehensive location targeting

Cons of Oxylabs:

• Much higher minimum spend of $450/month
• Complex setup and usage
• caters to devs and pros more than casual users
• residential proxies slower than datacenter
• smaller US/EU proxy pools (~10M each)

With premium pricing comes premium performance and features. For hardcore web scraping at a large scale, Oxylabs is likely worth the high spend.

Bright Data: Scraping Proxies with Unique Value Adds

Bright Data is another Smartproxy alternative focusing on proxies and tools for web scraping professionals and businesses. Like Oxylabs, it‘s overkill for simple usage but brings unique strengths.

Bright Data‘s core proxy network is also large, with 72 million residential IPs and around 15 million mobile IPs according to reports. Proxy locations number over 190 globally.

The cool part is the value-added services around Bright Data‘s proxies:

• Luminati – Their proprietary proxy management platform
• Web Scraping API – Handles JS rendering, automation etc.
• Data services – Buy ready-made scraped datasets
• Cloud integrations – Proxy API for AWS, GCP, Azure etc.

So Bright Data isn‘t just selling proxies – it‘s offering an end-to-end web scraping platform out of the box.

The Web Scraping API for example lets you scrape complex sites without managing proxies yourself. The pre-built datasets also save time.

Pros of Bright Data:

• All major proxy types
• Luminati proxy manager
• Web scraping API handles Javascript, CAPTCHAs etc.
• Ready-made datasets available
• Cloud platform integrations
• Pay only for usage, no minimums

Cons of Bright Data:

• No browsing-only residential proxies
• Setup and usage has learning curve
• Data services are pricey
• Proxies exhibit failures and bot-like behavior

Bright Data shines for devs building custom scrapers at scale. For ad-hoc web scraping, the complexity may be overkill.

SOAX: Reliable and Optimized Proxies for SMBs

If Oxylabs and Bright Data seem too robust and pricey, SOAX hits a nice middle ground. It‘s designed for SMBs doing consistent web scraping.

The core value proposition is providing a smaller but optimized pool of web scraping residential and mobile proxies. Currently SOAX controls around 8 million IPs.

Rather than pure scale, SOAX focuses on proxy quality and performance. Each IP is tested for uptime, speed and anonymity. Unreliable IPs get removed to ensure consistently good results.

You also get more granular targeting options out of the box:

• Location targeting by city or state
• Target specific ISP networks
• Remove proxy types like mobile or datacenter
• Frequency capping to mimic human behavior

SOAX claims over 90% success rate even against tough sites thanks to these optimizations.

Pros of SOAX Proxies:

• Affordable entry point from $75/month
• Small but optimized proxy pool
• Advanced city and ISP targeting
• Hits 90%+ success rate
• Rapid 5 sec proxy rotation

Cons of SOAX Proxies:

• Smaller pool of 8M IPs
• No mobile-only proxy plans
• Caps at 5 concurrent threads
• Limited locations (100+)
• No dedicated support staff

For moderate web scraping needs, SOAX delivers reliable performance and advanced filters without high spending and complexity.

IPRoyal: Budget Residential Proxies

Say you want residential proxies on a budget. IPRoyal should be on your radar. It sells reliable backconnect residential proxies starting at $3 per GB.

IPRoyal has around 100K proxy IPs in its global pool. Locations include US, Canada, UK, Europe and Australia. These cover both cities and rural areas.

The pricing model is pay-as-you-go based on usage rather than monthly plans. This flexibility allows scaling up and down cost-effectively.

Advanced targeting options are available like ISP and ASN filtering. You can configure IP refresh rates from 5 minutes to a week. Authentication is handled by username/password or IP whitelisting.

Pros of IPRoyal:

• Costs around $3 per GB used
• Pay only for data needed
• Target ISPs and ASNs
• 100+ proxy locations
• Flexible authentication

Cons of IPRoyal:

• Small proxy pool at 100k IPs
• Proxies exhibit failures
• Speeds are slow in testing
• Proxies get throttled when abused
• Limited concurrent threads

For light to moderate usage, IPRoyal delivers capable proxies on a budget. But performance concerns persist at larger scales.

Storm Proxies: Unlimited Bandwidth Residential Proxies

Storm Proxies is another cost-effective residential proxy service. It skips the usage limits and offers unlimited bandwidth.

You get access to a pool of 200,000 residential IPs from locations around the world. Each plan includes unlimited data usage.

The network is focused on residential IPs from mobile carriers, ISPs and datacenters. IPs automatically rotate every 5 minutes.

Pricing starts at $14 per month for 1 port and scales up based on the number of concurrent threads you need. Storm claims over 99.9% uptime.

Pros of Storm Proxies:

• Unlimited monthly bandwidth
• Global pool of 200k residential IPs
• Constantly rotating proxies
• Plans for unlimited threads
• High uptime with failover

Cons of Storm Proxies:

• Small pool limits targeting options
• Mixed datacenter IPs
• Lacks advanced targeting filters
• Latency is higher
• Mediocre success rates

For heavily used proxies, Storm Proxies delivers unlimited data at affordable rates. But advanced users may prefer more filtering and targeting capabilities.

Comparing the Pricing Models

Pricing varies widely for residential proxy services. Let‘s break it down across the major providers:

Provider	Entry Plan	IPs Included
Smartproxy	$75/mo	40M
Oxylabs	$450/mo	100M+
Bright Data	Pay per use	87M+
SOAX	$75/mo	8M
IPRoyal	$3 per GB	100K
Storm Proxies	$14/mo	200K

Smartproxy strikes an excellent balance of affordability with a large, high-quality pool. Oxylabs and Bright Data cost substantially more but bring advanced capabilities. Among the budget options, SOAX outshines IPRoyal and Storm with optimizations despite a smaller network.

For light usage, pay-per-use models like Bright Data and IPRoyal provide flexibility without minimums. But costs add up quickly for larger scale usage.

Which Provider Should You Choose?

The right residential proxy service depends on your specific use case and needs:

• For general web scraping at small to moderate scale, Smartproxy likely has everything you need at a great value.

• If you need to scrape lots of complex sites reliably at large scale, Oxylabs and Bright Data justify higher investments.

• For cost-sensitive SMB usage, SOAX delivers optimized proxies on a budget.

• If you have lightweight needs, IPRoyal and Storm Proxies offer basic proxies cheaply without minimums.

Evaluate factors like price, number of IPs, locations, features, performance, scale needs and ease of use. Prioritize what matters most to you.

Be sure to take advantage of free trials and demo plans where available too. Testing proxies yourself is the best way to choose the right provider.

The Takeaway on Smartproxy Alternatives

While Smartproxy makes an excellent overall choice, it‘s not necessarily the best fit for every need. The proxy services above each bring unique strengths and value depending on your use case, scale, tech comfort and budget constraints.

Hopefully this detailed comparison helps you make sense of the options and confidently find the best residential proxies for your needs, whether that‘s Smartproxy or one of its capable alternatives.

Let me know if you have any other questions!