The Best Scraper Proxies [Tested & Ranked]

Are you looking for the best scraper proxies?

In a flooded market, you risk wasting time and money.

But count yourself lucky. 

I went all out and tested 30+ providers. And now, I present to you the top ten to choose from. 

My evaluation was based on the following: 

• Features
• Ease of use
• Customer support
• Pricing

Buckle up, and let’s roll.

The best scraper proxies 

Here’s a roundup of the top ten proxy services for web scraping:

• Smartproxy – Best overall
• Oxylabs – Best for automating tasks
• BrightData – Best for market research
• ScrappingBee – Best for beginners
• Froxy – Best for lightweight web scraping
• ProxyScrape – Best free proxy for scraping
• Rayobyte – Best value for money
• IPRoyal – Dedicated proxies for scraping
• NetNut – Best for small-businesses
• Infatica – Best for casual scraping

Let’s examine these providers up close.

1. Smartproxy

Smartproxy is a robust solution for web scraping. It offers a rich mix of features ideal for beginners and professionals. 

The service boasts over 65 million IPs available in 195+ locations. They include residential, dedicated data center proxies. 

These come from ethical sources and are free from spam. That comes in handy for minimizing downtime by evading CAPTCHAs, IP blocks, and geo-restrictions. 

Their performance is another thing that stood out during testing. Response times averaged 0.5 seconds alongside a network uptime of 99.99%.

The no-code scraper does the heavy lifting for the painless configuring of proxies. Here, you can schedule tasks, target keywords/domains, schedule tasks, and set data delivery/output formats.

Smartproxy also provides scraping application programming interface (API) tools. They comprise web, SERP, and social media APIs for gathering data at scale.

It includes headless scraping to gather information from JavaScript-heavy websites. Moreover, its 100% success rate is something worth appreciating.  

But that’s not all. 

An endpoint generator is available to scrape any website on the internet. It supports filtering results based on country, city, and zip codes.

There are no limits to the number of connections you can run. As such, expect zero issues when scaling up data-gathering tasks.

You have the option of exporting data in raw HTML or JSON. Unfortunately, CSV format isn’t supported at the time of writing. 

Away from the features, getting started is super easy. The vendor offers a novice-friendly dashboard with the tools you need within reach.  

Smartproxy has an amazing customer support team as well. They’re reachable 24/7 and offer help even for technical problems. 

The vendor’s knowledge base is equally worth mentioning. It’s full of well-detailed guides with videos and tutorials.

Surprisingly, the starting price of $50/month is slightly affordable. You also get a mouthwatering 30-day free trial for the scraping APIs. 

2. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a prominent player in the web scraping and proxy service industry. It provides extensive resources for data harvesting, including 100+ million IPs in 195 countries.

Like Smartproxy, the service supports unlimited simultaneous connections. This is vital if you’re into bulk scraping, market research, and SEO monitoring.

Oxylabs also employs artificial intelligence (AI) to turbocharge the performance of its proxies. True to that, scraping tests generated response times of about 0.65 seconds.

You can choose between sticky and rotating proxies. Alternatively, there’s room to configure a timeout for switching IPs. 

The success rate of gathering data was equally good, averaging 99.9%. Still, Smartproxy has an upper edge, but the 0.09% difference isn’t significant. 

Security is top-notch, thanks to encryption protocols such as HTTPs and SOCKS5. There’s also the option of using the insecure HTTP for speed.

Geotargeting is available at no extra cost. You can effortlessly access content from the country level down to zip codes and postcodes.  

An end-point generator helps accelerate web scraping tasks. It’s developer-friendly and supports popular programming languages like Python, Node.js, Java, etc.

A custom parser analyzes data from the source, organizes, and structures it. You can export the information in CSV, JSON, and TXT from here.

And it gets better. 

Scraping APIs for the internet, search engines and e-commerce sites are within reach. They support the scrawling of up to 1,000 web pages at once. 

While at it, take advantage of the scheduler to automate recurring tasks. So you can spare time for the things that matter.

Support has a quick turnaround, even for technical problems. Unfortunately, the agents are accessible via ticket and email. 

Away from that, the starting price of $49/month is pretty decent. There’s also a week’s trial to test the service.

3. Bright Data

Bright Data is a leading proxy provider that targets small businesses and enterprises. Its core services suit scraping, market research, and brand protection.

The vendor offers over 80 million IPs available in 195+ countries. These comprise residential, data center, mobile, and ISP proxies.

They’re manually vetted and obtained from clean sources. A majority are also attached to real user devices for better performance. 

Under the hood, you get plenty of scraping solutions for different use cases. Top of that list is a scraping browser capable of unblocking any website.

It can render JavaScript, solve CAPTCHA, and retry failed queries automatically. Moreover, the tool supports multilevel fingerprinting that hides the fact that you’re using a proxy.

There’s a browser debugger if things go wrong. This helps to inspect session logs, troubleshoot issues, and fix errors. 

Bright Data isn’t left out on the AI-powered proxies bandwagon either. It employs the technology for unblocking even the toughest of websites.

The vendor additionally provides a web scraper integrated development environment (IDE). This tool comes with pre-built templates for scraping on the fly.

A SERP API is also available to fetch information from search engines. Like Oxylabs, it delivers structured data in HTML and JSON formats.  

Here comes the kicker: 

Bright Data provides readily available datasets to save time and money. These cover popular platforms like Amazon, Walmart, TikTok, and LinkedIn. 

You can make custom requests if the data you’re looking for is unavailable. That way, you get to focus on other tasks without worries. 

Unfortunately, there’s no live chat if you run into issues. The only way to reach support is by emailing your dedicated account manager. 

Apart from that, Bright Data offers usage-based pricing for its scraper proxies. They start from as little as $0.1/hour and include a 7-day free trial.

4. ScrappingBee

ScrappingBee is a little-known proxy service on the market. But it can give its more popular competitors a run for their money.

The intuitive user dashboard is the first thing you’ll notice about this vendor. It’s simple, easy to navigate, and has every tool within reach. 

There’s a test preview for every option of the console. It generates results instantaneously to give you a glimpse of what to expect. 

Onboard includes over seven different programming languages for coding wizards. This is way above what the big dogs in the industry offer. 

Loading of web pages is possible by grabbing a website’s HTML code. For complex sites, you’ll need to enable JavaScript rendering so you don’t miss anything.

But ScrappingBee doesn’t stop there. 

You can run AJAX requests to trigger web servers to provide more data. It’s a great addition for gathering cookies, metadata, and more.   

Marketers can make good use of the scraper for email addresses. But if you’re an SEO expert, the link extractor can help in discovering link-building opportunities. 

Downloading images from websites is another admirable feature of ScrappingBee. Even better, you can take screenshots of websites for later. 

While at it, there’s the option of using stealth proxies to maximize your productivity. Using them allowed me to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship while keeping my activities private. 

Of course, a powerful scraping API accelerates your data extraction activities. Supported outputs include readable formats like HTML and JSON. 

Other than that, the customer support of this vendor is exceptional. Agents are surprisingly fast in troubleshooting and fixing issues to your satisfaction. 

The documentation is also well-detailed, with plenty of easy-to-follow guides. Likewise, there’s a separate knowledge base that’s beginner-friendly. 

Pricing starts at $49/month, which is on par with popular providers on the market. A free limited trial with 1,000 API requests is also available.

5. Froxy

Froxy is a simple yet reliable proxy vendor, perfect for data collection tasks. It offers a wide range of services, including residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies.

The company has a large pool of 8.5+ million IPs across 200 countries. These enable targeting based on countries, cities, zip codes, and internet networks.

You can deploy a maximum of a thousand concurrent connections. Even though not unlimited like Smartproxy, it’s adequate for running bulk tasks hassle-free. 

IP rotation takes place automatically between each request. This prevents blocking of your proxies, which commonly happens when web scraping.

There are no limits when it comes to bandwidth consumption. Such a privilege is ideal for large-scale data gathering while keeping costs low. 

Network uptime averages 99.9%, which is decent for running tasks day and night. The success rate of proxies is also high, coming in at 95%.

This vendor also provides an API like most proxy service providers. As you’re aware, the tool makes automation and scaling of tasks super-easy. 

Here’s where it gets interesting. 

Froxy supports other third-party integrations designed for bulk scraping. Popular mentions include ScrapeBox, Octoparse, ParseHub, etc.

Proxy managers additionally make handling unlimited anonymous profiles feel like child’s play. Altogether, they make the job of gathering data on the web effortless. 

Aside from that, Froxy’s user dashboard is both functional and free from clutter. You will find it quickly to get around and configure your proxies.

Support is always on standby to offer help via chat and email. Likewise, referring to the knowledge base isn’t a bad idea when stuck.

Plans start from $70/month, slightly higher than the competition. But you can get a 3-day trial for $1.99 to check out the service.

6. ProxyScrape

If you’re looking for a free scraping service, get ProxyScrape. You’ll find a wide variety of anonymous and transparent data center proxies for data gathering.

There are multiple regions to choose from, including the United States, Canada, and China. Or else, you can opt for all countries to expand your geographical reach. 

The proxies feature SSL and SOCKS4/5 encryption despite being free. However, the non-secure HTTP alternatives are a better choice for speed.

Surprisingly, Proxyscrape allows configuring timeouts, which some vendors hardly provide. Adjusting it enhances the success rate by limiting querying overloaded servers. 

ProxyScrape also provides its API for free to all users. It includes well-outlined documentation and support for about thirty programming languages.

You also upgrade from $24/month to unlock more features. It includes ultrafast speeds, unlimited bandwidth, and infinite concurrent connections.  

Premium plans include access to 40,000+ data center proxies with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Further, the vendor includes 24/7 monitoring to resolve downtimes quickly. 

The user dashboard isn’t one of the best I have come across. Still, it’s easy to navigate and access the features.

Speeds of the proxies are insanely fast averaging 1,000Mbps. This provides higher performance for uninterrupted web scraping.  

Support is accessible through chat and email at all times. You can also search the knowledge base for quick answers.

ProxyScrape even allows users to make requests for missing features. But there are no guarantees about how long it takes to implement them.   

Overall, it’s an excellent choice for users with a tight budget.

7. Rayobyte

Rayobyte, formerly known as Blazing SEO, is a premium proxy provider that provides its scraping tool for free. The vendor’s wide variety of features makes it a good choice for individuals and businesses.

Its services include residential, data center, mobile, and ISP proxies. These are perfectly optimized to bypass IP bans, CAPTCHAs, and anti-scraping technologies.

Coverage is pretty limited to about 300,000 IPs across 25 locations. But its network capacity of 20+ petabytes/month shows it enjoys a wide customer base.

Securing your proxies is simple by using a username and password. Or you can whitelist your IPs that grant access to the service.

A proxy list generator helps you craft a list of servers for scraping tasks. All it takes is just a few clicks to get it ready. 

You can let Rayobyte switch regions automatically from a list of 150 countries. Likewise, it’s possible to set geographical locations based on your preference.    

Targeting by states and cities enables you to gather region-based data quickly. This can get even faster by assigning up to 10,000 IPs for sessions. 

Available protocols include HTTP for speed, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 for security. Regardless of your choice, you’re guaranteed to always experience reliable connectivity.

The outcome is different when it comes to network performance. Downloads average 100Mbps with a response time of 2.0 seconds. 

The 96.50% success rate of requests falls short of the competition. But it’s better than other services that didn’t make it on this list. 

When it comes to support, you have the option of sending email requests. Responses can take up to a day, so it’s better to get used to the knowledge base.

Pricing is pretty affordable, starting at $0.0018/scrape. Apart from that, Rayobyte provides 5000 free requests for using its scraping bot.

8. IPRoyal

Keeping up with monthly subscriptions can sometimes be a hassle. That’s why IPRoyal offers non-expiry bandwidth-based subscriptions starting from $1.95/GB. 

The service has slightly above two million IPs in 195+ countries. Services offered include residential, data center, mobile, sneaker, and scraping proxies.

There are flexible options for managing your proxy, like rotating and sticky sessions. These prevent IP bans and CAPTCHAs through the regular switching of addresses.

IPRoyal’s network uptime averages 99.9% for better reliability and performance. But the response time of about a minute lags behind the best in the game. 

Scaling data mining tasks shouldn’t be a problem using the zero-coding API. Just provide the URLs to scrape and let IPRoyal do the heavy lifting.

Going with the coding option unleashes the full potential of this scraping tool. It provides easy optimization of queries to collect information with accuracy.

You can use geo-targeting to filter location data from any country, state, or city. I was even able to target ISPs in regions like the United States.

That’s the tip of the iceberg.

IPRoyal has private proxies for those that need more without bandwidth caps. These offer super fast speeds and unlimited bandwidth, suitable for large-scale data collection. 

All the resources you get are entirely dedicated to you and not shared with anyone. As such, it provides better privacy and a high success rate for scraping. 

The pricing starts at $1.56/month for a single private proxy. But this might go higher depending on the number you need.

Support is available through live chat 24/7. The vendor also has quick starter guides to help you learn the ropes.

9. NetNut

NetNut is an enterprise-grade proxy service suitable for businesses of all sizes. It offers over 50 million proxies, including rotating, static, residential, and data center.

Accessing any information from the public is easier using the web unblocker. As the name suggests, it can bypass geo-restrictions and anti-scrapers on the internet.

The tool features an advanced CAPTCHA algorithm to solve anti-bot challenges on websites. Accordingly, you’ll appreciate collecting data with a 100% success rate.

NetNut includes dynamic fingerprinting to create unique browser profiles to aid with scraping. This helps build trust on the sites you frequently visit to scrape.

AI with machine learning is also present to outsmart platforms. with hardened firewalls. You can trust it to adjust and bypass even the toughest security measures on sites.

IP rotations take place on autopilot with minimal effort from your side. Moreover, the system includes an auto-retry function to rerun failed queries automatically.  

There are dedicated scraping tools, starting with Google’s SERP scraper API. It can gather data in any language and from all locations in real-time. 

The handy tool additionally structures and compiles the information in HTML and JSON formats. Even better, it can analyze the data for faster decision-making.

Another tool is the scraper for social networking sites. The data it gathers includes comments, likes, shares, follower counts, and so on. 

Apart from features, NetNut’s user interface is one of the best I have come across. It’s easy to access any tool and configure proxies before use.

The proxy generator is what I really fancy about this customer dashboard. You can quickly configure proxies and set geo-targeting with ease.

Support from this provider also deserves a standing ovation. There’s chat, email, video call, and private WhatsApp groups for one-on-one engagement. 

The prices start at $100/month, which is steep for the ordinary user. But it shouldn’t be a problem for small businesses and enterprises with good budgets.  

10. Infatica

If you’re looking for an all-around scraping proxy service, go for Infatica. The vendor offers different products ranging from residential, data center, and mobile proxies. 

Its IP pool averages about 40 million addresses available in 100+ countries. These are spam-free and less prone to online bans and CAPTCHAs. 

Infatica provides a powerful web scraping API to speed up data collection. It can render JavaScript-heavy sites for gathering dynamic content.

You can process up to a thousand URLs when bulk scraping. With such a heavy load, results can take around five minutes to generate. 

Mimicking any device is possible by configuring custom headers and sessions. This also enables you to maintain continuous connections for prolonged data extraction.

The supported formats for exporting results include CSV, XLSX, and JSON. These are usually in human-readable format files for quick decision-making.

Infatica secures proxy connections using username/passwords and SOCKS5. Likewise, there’s IP whitelisting to launch requests from specific devices.

You can configure the selection of regions to occur randomly. Alternatively, choose specific locations to limit results to certain territories.  

You’re also in control when it comes to the rotation of IPs. You can configure swapping from five to twenty-minute time-frames. 

Aside from the features, getting started on Infatica is a breeze. The user dashboard is simple and easy to master. 

Support is also within reach. But only support tickets are supported as of the time of writing.   

The documentation is not that extensive. But the articles are well-explained and easy to follow. 

Prices are affordable, starting from $25/month. There’s also a three-day $1.99 trial to test the service. 

Are you still spoilt for choice? Then the buyer’s guide next should help you out.

How to choose a scraper proxy provider?

Here are a few things to consider before choosing a scraper proxy provider. 

Network coverage

When choosing a scraper proxy provider, it is important to consider network coverage. This means looking at the number of countries and regions a proxy vendor covers. 

A wider reach gives you access to a broader selection of websites and apps. But fewer regions can limit you from getting the desired data. 

If this is important for you, go with vendors like ScrappingBee, Bright Data, and Oxylabs. They offer proxies available in 195+ countries, way better than Rayobyte’s 25 locations. 

IP pool size

A larger IP pool size is necessary to avoid getting blocked by the websites you scrape. It enables you to switch addresses frequently to prevent raising eyebrows. 

Oxylabs clearly stands out here with 100+ million IPs. But this is more than you’ll ever need when using a proxy service. 

As such, anything above a million IP addresses should do the job. But if you’re running tasks daily, then a higher number is always better. 

Performance/Reliability

The performance of a proxy provider is another important factor to consider. This includes the speed and reliability of their proxies.

For example, you’ll get the best out of the service with a 99% uptime guarantee or better. A response time of three seconds or less is highly preferable as well. 

A higher success rate like 100% for Smartproxy and NetNet also counts. It will give you a better outcome than Rayobyte’s and Froxy’s 95% performance.

Customer support

You should go with a provider that provides round-the-clock customer support. You’re assured to receive help when things fail to work. 

NetNut’s one-on-one approach is second to none. They offer assistance through video calls and WhatsApp chats 24/7.

But that doesn’t mean Smartproxy, Oxylabs, and the ScrappingBee fall short. Their customer agents are proactive and handle technical issues with ease.    

Budget

Consider your budget before choosing your provider. You can start with free trials and decide whether to upgrade or not. Other vendors like ProxyScrape even offer free proxies that you can use.

Why Use Proxies for Scraping?

Proxies are essential in web scraping for several reasons:

• Avoiding IP Bans: Regularly changing IP addresses with proxies helps prevent your scraper from being banned by target websites.
• Speed and Efficiency: By distributing requests across multiple IPs, proxies can significantly speed up the scraping process and reduce the chance of being rate-limited.
• Geo-Targeting: Proxies allow you to access geo-restricted content by providing IPs from specific locations, enabling more comprehensive data collection.
• Anonymity: They ensure your scraping activities remain anonymous, protecting your privacy and reducing the risk of legal repercussions.

How Do I Use Proxy for Scraping?

Here’s a basic guide to using proxies in your web scraping projects:

1. Choose the Right Type of Proxy

• Based on your scraping needs, budget, and target website’s security measures, select from residential, datacenter, rotating, or dedicated proxies.

2. Configure Your Scraping Tool with Proxy Settings

• Most advanced scraping tools and libraries (like Scrapy for Python) allow you to configure proxy settings directly within the tool. Input the proxy details (IP address and port) into your scraper’s settings.

3. Implement Rotating Proxies for Large-scale Scraping

• If using rotating proxies, ensure your tool or proxy provider supports automatic rotation. This will distribute your requests over numerous IPs, minimizing block risks.

4. Respect Target Websites

• Implement delays between requests and mimic human browsing patterns as much as possible to respect the target website’s resources and terms of service.

5. Monitor and Adjust

• Keep an eye on your scraper’s performance and adjust proxy configurations as needed. Be prepared to switch proxies if you encounter blocks or reduced efficiency.

Is a VPN or Proxy Better for Web Scraping?

While VPNs offer encryption and simplicity, proxies provide the specificity, control, and scalability necessary for effective web scraping, making them the preferred choice for most data extraction tasks.

VPN Advantages for Scraping:

• Encryption: VPNs encrypt your entire internet connection, offering superior security, especially on unsecured networks.
• Simplicity: A VPN is easy to set up and use, providing a straightforward solution for small-scale or occasional scraping tasks.

Proxy Advantages for Scraping:

• Flexibility and Control: Proxies, especially rotating and residential ones, offer greater flexibility by allowing you to change IP addresses with each request, reducing the risk of detection and blocking.
• Scalability: Proxies are more suitable for large-scale scraping operations, providing the ability to make numerous simultaneous requests from different IP addresses.

Summary

Finding the best scraper proxies isn’t an easy affair. But I hope the list above helps you make the right choice. 

If you’re undecided, start with free trials to evaluate the providers. You may also part with a small free to test some premium vendors. 

Overall, the ultimate choice is yours. Weigh your needs, check your budget, and go for the one that fits.