5 best residential proxy providers in 2026
With the fast growing digital landscape, it’s essential to keep up with the means needed for your online privacy and data security. Residential proxies are a great solution to stay undetected and bypass geo-restrictions.
However, with so many options to choose from, picking a residential proxy can become time consuming. For this reason, I reviewed and compared the 6 best residential proxies in 2026, to help you save time and choose the best provider for your needs.
Top 6 residential proxy providers – shortlist
- Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) – budget-friendly residential proxy provider
- Oxylabs – best premium residential proxy provider
- Webshare – best small-to-midsize-market proxy provider
- IPRoyal – ethically sourced residential proxy provider
- DataImpulse – residential proxy provider with worldwide coverage
- Bright Data – feature-rich proxy
We take proxy testing seriously – every service is put through real-world scenarios, benchmark checks, and hands-on feature evaluations. Our in-house team collects the data, and experts review and verify the results. Take a look at how we test proxies and what truly stands behind their performance.
How we tested residential proxies
Together with our research team, I evaluated residential proxies focusing on the aspects, which are most relevant for residential use. These aspects include performance, proxy pool size, customer support, reviews, and reputation. Here’s a detailed breakdown of all criteria we took into account:
- Performance (25%). To determine each proxy’s efficiency, we reviewed parameters such as reliability, speed, and network stability.
- Proxy pool size (20%). I looked into each proxy provider’s IP pool size, their geographical coverage, and ability to overcome geo-location blocks.
- Customer support (15%). I checked how responsive and helpful customer support is when dealing with clients and the issues they encounter.
- Reviews (15%). I studied reviews and ratings from major platforms like G2 and Trustpilot to see how satisfied the customers are with each proxy’s services.
- Ethics and reputation (15%). I took into account the provider's adherence to legal and ethical guidelines. Also, together with our research team, we assessed their transparency in data handling practices.
- Starting price (5%). I reviewed and compared the pricing of residential proxy plans to select only affordable providers.
- Free trial (5%). I also looked for free trial possibilities to test residential proxies before fully committing to a paid service.
Best residential IP proxy providers – detailed list
After testing multiple services, with the help of our research team, I selected 6 best residential proxy providers based on the evaluation criteria discussed above. All of these providers offer good performance, affordable pricing, and have a good reputation.
1. Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) – affordable residential proxy provider
| Rating: | |
| Locations: | 195 countries |
| Protocols: | HTTP(S), SOCKS5 |
| Uptime: | 99.99% |
| Price from: | $3.00/GB |
Decodo is one of the most reliable proxy providers on the market. It offers a vast pool of 115M+ ethically sourced residential IP addresses across more than 195 global locations. Decodo is also among the fastest residential proxy servers, ensuring swift onboarding through self-service for all its offerings.
Decodo claims to be the most efficient in testing, launching, and scaling up your data projects. It backs up its claim with ease of use, offering the quickest time-to-value and full self-service. Additionally, its robust infrastructure and high performance are unmatched, with its residential proxies boasting the industry's top speeds and success rates.
Decodo provides user-friendly features such as an intuitive dashboard, round-the-clock responsive customer support, a browser extension for easy proxy management, and additional tools like an anti-detect browser and proxy address generator. This makes it suitable for both businesses and individual entrepreneurs.
Decodo’s Trustpilot and G2 ratings are 4.4 and 4.7 stars, respectively, with customers highlighting the customer support and quality of residential proxies.
Decodo offers extra features, including HTTPS and SOCKS5 support, unlimited concurrent sessions, country and city-level targeting, rotating and sticky sessions, <0.5s average response time, and 99.99% uptime.
Decodo distinguishes itself for affordability. The prices depend on the plan you choose, starting from $3.00/GB. You can take advantage of Decodo’s 3-day full self-service free trial with 100MB. Moreover, with the 14-day money-back guarantee you can test Decodo’s services risk free. Just keep in mind that if you opt for a 3-day free trial, you can no longer take advantage of the 14-day money back-guarantee policy. There's also a pay-as-you-go option for extra flexibility, enabling users to pay solely for the data they use.
| Plan | Price | Rate per GB |
| No commitment | $3.50/month | $3.50/GB |
| 2 GB | $6.00/month | $3.00/GB |
| 8 GB | $22.00/month | $2.75/GB |
| 25 GB | $65.00/month | $2.60/GB |
| 50 GB | $123.00/month | $2.45/GB |
| 100 GB | $225.00/month | $2.25/GB |
2. Oxylabs – best residential proxy provider with premium services
| Rating: | |
| Locations: | 195 countries |
| Protocols: | HTTP(S), HTTP, SOCKS5 |
| Uptime: | 99.99% |
| Price from: | $3.49/GB |
Oxylabs is a well-known residential proxy provider that offers premium services. It features a vast pool of over 175M residential IPs covering 195 countries. Also, Oxylabs provides unlimited bandwidth and advanced geo-targeting capabilities without additional fees, which sets it apart from rivals that commonly charge extra for such features.
Additionally, Oxylabs ensures robust support for its proxy solutions, offering tools like a proxy manager app and extension, third-party integrations, and a residential proxy endpoint generator.
Yet, what truly distinguishes Oxylabs is its commitment to ethical procurement practices for residential proxies. Oxylabs meticulously selects residential proxies from trusted partners, making most of the network tier A+ model proxies.
Moreover, Oxylabs is highly rated by its customers, with a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot and 4.5 stars on G2. Users mainly praise the top-notch customer service, fast speed, and reliability of residential proxies.
Oxylabs supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5, offers unlimited concurrent sessions, country, city, state, ZIP code, coordinate, and ASN-targeting.
Oxylabs' residential proxy prices start from $3.49/GB. Also, you can test its services completely free with its 3-day money-back guarantee.
| Plan | Price | Rate per GB |
| Pay as you go | - | $4.00/GB |
| Micro | $45.50/month | $3.87/GB |
| Starter | $150.00/month | $3.75/GB |
| Advanced | $300.00/month | $3.49/GB |
3. Webshare – reliable residential proxy provider for small markets
| Rating: | |
| Locations: | 195 countries |
| Protocols: | HTTP, SOCKS5 |
| Uptime: | 99.97% |
| Price from: | $1.91/GB |
Webshare is a premier proxy provider known for its excellent value for small markets. This company stands out for its exceptional price-to-performance ratio and commitment to ethically sourced proxies, all while ensuring high levels of anonymity across all proxy types.
Webshare provides over 30M residential IPs in 195 countries and a very adaptable proxy environment facilitated by its user-friendly dashboard and infrastructure.
Upon registration, users are effortlessly guided through the proxy setup process via tutorial videos and helpful pop-up prompts. Moreover, custom plan options, sub-user management, usage tracking, and other features make the user experience enjoyable.
Webshare has an established 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot. Customers are mainly positive about the quality of the product and customer service.
Extra features include HTTP and SOCKS5 support, IP authorization, and proxy usage and dashboard analytics.
Prices start at $1.91/GB if you choose longer subscriptions with more gigabytes. Unfortunately, there is no free trial for residential proxies.
| Plan | Price | Rate per GB |
| 1 GB | $7.00/month | $7.00/GB |
| 10 GB | $5.50/month | $5.50/GB |
| 25 GB | $5.20/month | $5.20/GB |
| 50 GB | $4.90/month | $4.90/GB |
| 100 GB | $450.00/month | $4.50/GB |
| 3000 GB | $8,400.00/month | $2.80/GB |
4. IPRoyal – residential proxy provider with ethically sourced IPs
| Rating: | |
| Locations: | 195 countries |
| Protocols: | HTTP(S), SOCKS5 |
| Uptime: | 99.99% |
| Price from: | $2.45/GB |
IPRoyal is another established market player, which offers residential proxies. This company offers a selection of 32M+ ethically sourced IPs in 195 countries.
In addition to proxies, IPRoyal provides user-friendly browser extensions that are compatible with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. These extensions come with various management tools making switching between proxies seamless.
IPRoyal earns high acclaim from its customers, securing a 4.6-star rating on Trustpilot and 4.6 stars on G2. Users specifically highlight affordable pricing and seamless proxy integration.
IPRoyal also offers extra features, such as country, state, and city-level targeting, rotating and sticky sessions. However, it doesn’t come without disadvantages, among which is the absence of subscription-based payments and a free trial.
The prices of IPRoyal residential proxies start at $2.45/GB. Also, it offers a flexible discount system, meaning the more gigabytes you purchase, the bigger the discount.
| Plan | Price | Rate per GB |
| 1 GB | $3.50 | $3.50/GB |
| 2 GB | $5.95 | $2.98/GB |
| 10 GB | $26.25 | $2.63/GB |
| 50 GB | $122.50 | $2.45/GB |
5. DataImpulse – cheapest residential proxy provider
| Rating: | |
| Locations: | 195 locations |
| Protocols: | HTTP(S), SOCKS5 |
| Uptime: | 99.99% |
| Price from: | $1/GB |
DataImpulse is a fast-growing proxy service provider offering a reliable infrastructure with over 90M residential IP addresses across 195 locations, competitive pricing, and high connection stability.
Furthermore, DataImpulse offers a user-friendly proxy management with flexible rotation settings, detailed usage statistics, and easy API integration. I found its dashboard clean and intuitive, making it especially suitable for beginners and businesses looking for a straightforward proxy solution.
DataImpulse has earned positive feedback from its users, securing a 3.8-star rating on Trustpilot and a 4.8-star rating on G2. Customers often highlight affordable pricing, stable residential proxies, and the platform’s ease of use.
Available features include country, city, ZIP, and ASN targeting, flexible IP rotation options, sticky sessions, and support for both HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 protocols.
DataImpulse plans start at $5 for 5GB, or just $1/GB, making it one of the cheapest residential proxy plans on the market. The provider also offers a pay-as-you-go model with no monthly commitment.
6. Bright Data – residential proxy provider with the most features
| Rating: | |
| Locations: | 195 countries |
| Protocols: | HTTP(S), SOCKS5 |
| Uptime: | 100% |
| Price from: | $2.50/GB |
Bright Data is another prominent proxy service provider renowned for its vast proxy pool, which includes 150M+ rotating residential IPs in 195 countries and top-notch performance.
Additionally, Bright Data provides a range of handy proxy management tools, including an open-source proxy manager, browser extension, and API. However, due to its extensive features, beginners may find its dashboard challenging to navigate.
Bright Data receives praise from its clients, boasting a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot and a 4.6-star rating on G2. Customers particularly commend the exceptional customer service and the performance of residential proxies.
Bright Data features include country, city, zip code, carrier, and ASN targeting, unlimited concurrent sessions, and SSL verification.
Bright Data prices for residential proxies start from $2.50/GB. It also offers a free trial, but it’s available only after signing up, and the length will depend on individual circumstances.
| Plan | Price | Rate per GB |
| Pay as you go | - | $4.00/GB |
| 138 GB Included | $499.00/month | $3.50/GB |
| 316 GB Included | $999.00/month | $3.00/GB |
| 678 GB Included | $1999.00/month | $2.50/GB |
Best residential proxy providers compared
The table below summarizes the comparison of the top 6 best residential proxy providers.
| Provider | Rating | Proxy pool size | Locations | Free Trial | Protocols | Starting price |
| Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) | 115M+ | 195 | ✅ Yes, 3-day free trial with 100MB and a 7-day free trail with 1k requests for Scraping API | HTTP and HTTPS | $2.25/GB | |
| Oxylabs | 175M+ | 195 | ✅ Yes, 3-day money-back guarantee | HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 | $3.49/GB | |
| Webshare | 30M+ | 195 | ✅ Yes | HTTP | $1.19/GB | |
| IPRoyal | 32M+ | 195 | ❌ No | HTTP and HTTPS | $2.45/GB | |
| DataImpulse | 90M+ |
195 | ❌ No | HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 | $1.60/GB | |
| Bright Data | 150M | 195 | ❌ No | HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 | $2.50/GB |
Conclusion
With an ever-changing digital landscape, choosing a reliable residential proxy provider is a complicated task. Therefore, if you are looking for a provider which can guarantee both good performance and anonymity, my top 6 providers of 2026 are all worth consideration.
From Decodo’s flexible pricing and top-tier performance to other providers’ niche strengths, each brings something unique to the table. Whether you're managing multiple Instagram accounts or running large-scale automation, Decodo delivers a powerful, reliable solution that fits a wide range of use cases.
FAQ
What is the best residential proxy service provider?
Decodo is the top residential proxy provider in 2026. It offers 115M+ ethically sourced IPs, top-tier speeds, 99.99% uptime, and full self-service. It’s ideal for scalable data projects, with flexible pricing and excellent customer support.
Can residential proxies be tracked?
Yes, residential proxies could be tracked; but trustworthy residential proxy providers implement strategies to reduce tracking, including frequent IP rotation and utilization of advanced security protocols. Selecting a reliable provider and implementing extra precautions are essential to safeguarding privacy and security when using residential proxies.
What is the difference between a datacenter proxy and a residential proxy?
A datacenter proxy is a type of proxy server that is provided by a data center and uses IP addresses owned by the data center. A residential proxy uses IP addresses assigned by internet service providers (ISPs) to actual homes, making them appear as if real people are accessing the website. This makes residential proxies less likely to be blocked, providing better access to localized content.
