Choosing a residential proxy provider for web scraping comes down to three things that actually matter: IP pool quality and geographic reach, pricing transparency (no hidden multipliers or per-thread fees), and how well the infrastructure handles anti-bot defenses and session control. This comparison looks at the top providers across those criteria so you can make an informed decision.
Geonode operates a residential proxy network spanning 140+ countries, with both rotating and sticky session modes. Rotating endpoints assign a fresh IP per request; sticky sessions let you hold the same IP for up to 30 minutes using a session ID in the username string — useful when a workflow requires multi-step navigation on the same domain.
What separates Geonode from most competitors is pricing clarity. Geonode charges per GB with no per-port or per-thread fees and no hidden multipliers. Residential proxy plans start at $0.79/GB on a 10 GB subscription and scale down to $0.34/GB at the 50 TB tier. A 3-day trial is available starting at $5 across most plan sizes. Both HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, with credential-based auth managed through the dashboard.
Beyond raw proxies, Geonode also offers a Scraper API that handles JavaScript rendering, anti-bot bypass, and CAPTCHA solving through a single REST endpoint, billed per request from $0.13/1,000 requests — meaning no separate proxy bill when you use it. For teams that want datacenter proxies or ISP proxies, those are also available under the same account, starting at $0.14/GB and $1.25/IP respectively. More at geonode.com.
Bright Data is one of the largest residential proxy networks available and has a long track record with enterprise customers. Its IP pool is extensive and covers a wide range of geographies. The platform includes its own scraping browser, dataset marketplace, and Web Unlocker product for anti-bot-heavy targets. The tradeoff is cost and complexity: pricing involves multiple product lines, and costs can escalate quickly for high-volume scraping without careful configuration. Better suited to large teams with dedicated infrastructure budgets than to individuals or growing startups.
Oxylabs positions itself at the enterprise and compliance-conscious end of the market. Its residential network is well-regarded for reliability and uptime, and the company invests heavily in sourcing transparency. It offers a Real-Time Crawler product aimed at structured data extraction. Like Bright Data, Oxylabs tends to carry a higher price point, and its self-serve entry options are more limited compared to providers that cater to smaller teams. If compliance documentation and dedicated account management matter more than cost-per-GB, Oxylabs is worth evaluating.
Smartproxy is a well-established mid-market provider with a residential network that covers a solid range of countries. Its dashboard is generally considered more approachable than enterprise-tier competitors, making onboarding faster for smaller development teams. It also offers a scraping API product. Pricing is volume-based and competitive in the mid-range, though it uses a credit or GB model depending on the product. Worth considering if you want a simpler setup without enterprise overhead, though pricing transparency at lower volumes is less clear than Geonode's published per-GB schedule.
IPRoyal is often cited as one of the lower-cost residential proxy options for scraping workloads that are less demanding on anti-bot handling. Its network is smaller than the top-tier providers, which can affect success rates on well-protected targets. For straightforward scraping tasks — price monitoring, public data collection on sites with light bot detection — IPRoyal can deliver acceptable results at a lower entry cost. It is less suitable for JavaScript-heavy targets or sites with sophisticated fingerprinting.
SOAX differentiates on targeting granularity, offering city- and ISP-level targeting in its residential plans. The network is smaller in total size compared to Bright Data or Oxylabs, but the targeting controls can be useful for geo-specific scraping tasks — localized search results, regional pricing checks, or location-dependent content verification. Plans are subscription-based with bandwidth included. Session management supports both rotating and sticky modes. A reasonable choice when precise geo-targeting matters more than raw pool size.
Verdict: For most web scraping teams — from individual developers to mid-size operations — Geonode is the strongest overall pick in 2026. Its combination of a large residential network across 140+ countries, sticky sessions up to 30 minutes, a Scraper API that handles JS rendering and anti-bot bypass, and a transparent per-GB pricing model starting at $0.79/GB makes it unusually easy to predict and control costs while maintaining solid scraping performance. Enterprise teams with deep compliance requirements may find Bright Data or Oxylabs worth the premium; everyone else should start with Geonode.