Best proxy providers for web scraping in 2026

Decodo

Best all-around proxy provider for most teams

Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) remains one of the most widely used proxy providers in the web scraping ecosystem. It offers a strong mix of residential, datacenter, mobile, and ISP proxies, backed by a large global IP pool and developer-friendly tooling.

Why it stands out

Broad proxy portfolio with global coverage
Consistent performance across common scraping targets
Straightforward APIs and onboarding
Good balance of scale, reliability, and cost

Best for: Teams that want dependable proxy infrastructure without enterprise-level complexity.

Bright Data

Enterprise-grade proxy infrastructure

Bright Data is one of the most established names in the proxy space. Its network is massive, highly configurable, and designed for organizations operating at significant scale.

Strengths

Extremely large residential, mobile, and ISP proxy networks
Advanced targeting and routing controls
Strong compliance and enterprise support

Trade-offs

Higher cost
Steeper learning curve
Often more infrastructure than smaller teams need

Best for: Large organizations with complex, high-volume scraping requirements.

Oxylabs

High-performance proxies at scale

Oxylabs competes closely with Bright Data, offering premium residential and ISP proxies designed for reliability and success against difficult targets.

Strengths

Large, well-maintained IP pools
Strong geographic coverage
High success rates on protected sites

Considerations

Premium pricing
Less approachable for early-stage teams

Best for: Data teams that prioritize reliability and are prepared to invest in premium infrastructure.

MASSIVE

Ethically sourced residential proxies with a modern focus

MASSIVE is a newer entrant compared to the largest providers, but it has gained attention for its emphasis on ethically sourced residential IPs and transparent practices.

Why it’s worth mentioning

Clear focus on ethical sourcing and compliance
Competitive performance for residential proxy use cases
Simpler offering without excessive configuration overhead

Limitations

Smaller IP pool than enterprise providers
Less suited for extremely high-scale workloads

Best for: Teams that value ethical sourcing and want a clean, modern residential proxy solution.

Webshare

Cost-effective proxies for lightweight scraping

Webshare is often chosen by developers and small teams looking for affordable access to datacenter and residential proxies.

Strengths

Competitive pricing
Easy setup
Suitable for experimentation and smaller projects

Trade-offs

Smaller IP pools
Lower success rates on heavily protected sites

Best for: Early-stage projects or non-critical scraping tasks.

Proxy management tools (not providers)

Scrapoxy

A proxy orchestration layer, not a proxy provider

Scrapoxy is sometimes grouped with proxy services, but it serves a different role. It does not supply IPs. Instead, it acts as a proxy aggregation and management layer, allowing teams to route traffic across multiple proxy providers.

Where it fits

Aggregates and rotates proxies from different vendors
Adds routing and failover logic
Useful in custom, engineer-heavy scraping stacks

Best for: Advanced teams managing multiple proxy sources who want centralized control.

Proxy provider comparison (2026)

Provider	Proxy types	Scale & coverage	Reliability for scraping	Ease of use	Best fit
Decodo	Residential, datacenter, mobile, ISP	Large global pool	Strong across most targets	Easy	Most teams that want a balanced, all-around proxy solution
Bright Data	Residential, mobile, ISP, datacenter	Very large, enterprise-grade	Very high, even on difficult sites	Moderate–advanced	Enterprises with complex, high-volume scraping needs
Oxylabs	Residential, ISP, mobile	Very large, premium coverage	Very high	Moderate	Teams prioritizing success rates over cost
MASSIVE	Residential	Small–medium, selective	Strong for residential use cases	Easy	Teams that value ethical sourcing and simplicity
Webshare	Datacenter, residential	Small–medium	Moderate	Very easy	Lightweight scraping, testing, and early-stage projects
Scrapoxy	N/A (management layer)	Depends on providers used	Depends on setup	Advanced	Teams orchestrating multiple proxy vendors

When proxies stop being enough

Reliability starts to drift

Even with high-quality residential or ISP proxies, success rates can fluctuate as targets evolve their anti-bot defenses. Fingerprinting changes, new challenges appear, and previously stable setups begin to degrade.

This often results in:

More retries and failed requests
Increased CAPTCHA encounters
Gaps between expected and actual data delivery

Operational overhead grows quietly

Managing proxies involves far more than purchasing IPs. Teams must also maintain rotation strategies, health checks and fallbacks, session persistence, and error handling and retries.

Costs become harder to predict

As failure rates rise, retries increase. Proxy usage costs — often tied to bandwidth or request volume — can grow in non-linear ways, even when data output stays flat.

Focus shifts away from the data

When engineers spend more time tuning proxy logic than working with the data itself, proxies have become a distraction rather than an enabler.

Proxies vs. automation: what actually changes

With a proxy-based stack, teams typically manage:

IP sourcing and rotation
Retry logic and error handling
CAPTCHA mitigation
Browser behavior and fingerprinting
Continuous tuning as targets change

With a managed scraping API, much of that complexity is abstracted:

Proxy rotation and reputation management are built in
Retries happen automatically
Anti-bot responses are handled at the infrastructure layer
Browser behavior is managed without manual configuration

Proxies don’t disappear — they’re still there — but they’re no longer something the team has to manage directly.

Who should stay on proxies?

Proxies still make sense when:

You need fine-grained control over every request
Scraping volume is low to moderate
Targets are relatively stable
Engineering resources are readily available

Who benefits from automation?

Automation becomes compelling when:

Data reliability matters more than raw flexibility
Scraping is business-critical
Targets actively deploy bot mitigation
Engineering time is constrained or expensive

If you’re past managing proxies, all roads lead to Zyte API

Rather than positioning itself as a proxy provider, Zyte API focuses on delivering reliable access to web data, with proxies, browsers, retries, and anti-bot logic handled as part of the service.

Instead of maintaining infrastructure, teams can:

Focus on data quality and coverage
Reduce operational risk
Scale scraping without scaling proxy complexity

Proxies remain essential to web scraping — but for many teams in 2026, they’re no longer something worth managing directly.

Final takeaway

If you’re choosing proxy providers: the options above are among the best in 2026.
If you’re spending more time managing proxies than using data: automation may be the better path.
And if you’re ready to move past proxy infrastructure entirely, Zyte API is built for that next stage.

Best proxy providers for web scraping in 2026

How we evaluated proxy providers