The 10 Best Proxy Services in 2026

The proxy market in 2026 is more competitive than ever. From decentralized networks to enterprise-grade platforms, there is a provider for every use case. We tested and reviewed the top 10 services based on pricing, IP pool size, success rates, and developer experience.

1. PulseNet

PulseNet is the first decentralized proxy network built on Solana. Its residential IPs come from community node operators, making it transparent and cost-effective. Pay-as-you-go at $2.50/GB with a 30% discount when paying with $PULSE tokens.

• Pro: Lowest residential pricing, token incentives, no minimums
• Pro: Web Unlocker with built-in CAPTCHA solving
• Con: Smaller IP pool than legacy providers (growing rapidly)

2. Bright Data

The industry incumbent with the largest IP pool at 72M+ residential IPs. Bright Data offers a full suite including scraping browser, SERP API, and dataset marketplace. Best for enterprises with large budgets.

• Pro: Massive IP pool, enterprise features, scraping IDE
• Con: Expensive ($5-10/GB), $500/month minimum on most plans

3. Oxylabs

A strong enterprise contender with 100M+ residential IPs and dedicated account management. Known for reliable SERP scraping and e-commerce data collection tools.

• Pro: Huge IP pool, excellent documentation
• Con: Premium pricing ($4-8/GB), enterprise-focused

4. Smartproxy

Mid-market provider popular with small teams and solo developers. Offers a clean dashboard, good documentation, and competitive pricing for smaller volumes.

• Pro: Developer-friendly, affordable starter plans
• Con: Limited advanced features, smaller datacenter pool

5. IPRoyal

Budget-friendly provider with a growing residential pool sourced through their Pawns app. Good for price-sensitive use cases where success rate requirements are moderate.

• Pro: Very affordable ($1.75-3/GB), no expiration on traffic
• Con: Lower success rates on heavily protected sites

6. SOAX

Specializes in clean, ethically sourced residential IPs with fine-grained geo-targeting down to city and ISP level. Strong in ad verification and market research use cases.

• Pro: Granular geo-targeting, clean IPs
• Con: Higher pricing tier, limited unlocker features

7. NetNut

ISP proxy provider with a unique direct-from-ISP model that offers high speeds and stability. Good for use cases that need consistent IPs rather than massive rotation.

• Pro: Fast ISP proxies, stable connections
• Con: Less useful for anti-bot bypassing, enterprise minimums

8. ScraperAPI

Not a traditional proxy provider but an API that handles proxies, browsers, and CAPTCHAs behind the scenes. You send a URL and get back HTML. Simple but less flexible than raw proxy access.

• Pro: Dead simple API, handles everything
• Con: No raw proxy access, per-request pricing adds up

9. Webshare

Known for affordable datacenter proxies with a free tier. A solid option for developers who need datacenter IPs for non-protected targets and want to keep costs minimal.

• Pro: Free tier available, very cheap datacenter proxies
• Con: Datacenter IPs get blocked on protected sites

10. Grass (Wynd Network)

Another DePIN-based bandwidth network, Grass focuses on AI training data collection. It is more of a data pipeline than a general proxy service, but worth mentioning as a decentralized competitor.

• Pro: Decentralized, token incentives for node runners
• Con: Not a general-purpose proxy, limited API

Bottom Line

If you want the best value with transparent, decentralized infrastructure, PulseNet is the clear winner. For enterprises that need the largest possible IP pool and are willing to pay a premium, Bright Data and Oxylabs remain strong choices. Budget-conscious developers should look at IPRoyal or Webshare for simpler use cases.