If you‘ve researched proxies before, you‘ve likely come across Oxylabs – one of the most well-known premium proxy providers today. With over 50 million residential IPs and a robust infrastructure, Oxylabs has become the go-to choice for large enterprises needing high-quality proxies at scale.
However, as a friend recently asked me, "Are there any good cheaper alternatives to Oxylabs out there?"
I looked into the various options in-depth, and turns out there are several capable proxy services that can match Oxylabs‘s capabilities at more affordable rates.
In this guide, I‘ll compare the top alternatives to Oxylabs across key metrics like price, features, and performance. Let‘s dive in!
Why Proxies Matter
First, let‘s briefly understand why proxies are so vital for many online activities today.
Proxies work by routing your internet traffic through an intermediary server, masking your real location and IP address. This provides crucial anonymity and the ability to access blocked or geo-restricted content.
Some of the most common use cases for proxies include:
- Web scraping – Extracting large volumes of data from websites. Proxies help bypass blocks.
- Price monitoring – Checking competitors‘ prices for market research.
- Brand protection – Detecting fake products and reviews abusing brand names.
- Ad verification – Analyzing ad placements on target sites.
- Account automation – Managing multiple social media accounts without getting banned.
For most proxy activities, residential proxies are ideal as they provide the best anonymity. Datacenter IPs are more prone to get blacklisted if overused from a single location.
Now let‘s explore some top-notch residential proxy alternatives to Oxylabs.
Oxylabs Alternatives for Proxies
Here are the best proxy services that can compete with Oxylabs on metrics like price, features, and performance:
| Proxy Provider | Starting Price | IP Pool Size | Bandwidth | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxylabs | $500/month | 50+ million | 40Gbps | 98% |
| Bright Data | $300/month | 72+ million | 40Gbps | 99% |
| ProxyEmpire | $75/month | 5.3+ million | 1Gbps | 95% |
| Proxy-Seller | $30/month | 1+ million | 1Gbps | 93% |
| Rayobyte | $65/month | 300,000+ | 1Gbps | 90% |
| PrivateProxy.me | $9/month | 500,000+ | 100Mbps | 85% |
| SSLPrivateProxy | $200/month | 500,000+ | 1Gbps | 97% |
Next, let‘s look at each of these top providers in more detail.
Overview of Oxylabs
As a pioneer in the proxy space, Lithuania-based Oxylabs has grown rapidly since launching in 2015. Today, it serves over 300 enterprise customers globally.
Some key facts about Oxylabs:
- 50+ million residential IPs across 195+ locations
- 40Gbps bandwidth capacity
- Advanced rotating proxies for web scraping
- Integrations for Python, PHP, Ruby, and other languages
- Prices from $500/month for 5GB traffic
Oxylabs provides premium residential proxies optimized for large-scale data extraction and web scraping. With advanced features like real-time crawler, API libraries, and expert support, it‘s a great high-end option.
However, for smaller users, Oxylabs can be overkill both in terms of capabilities and costs. Next, let‘s look at more affordable alternatives.
Bright Data
Founded in 2014, Israel-based Bright Data has fast emerged as one of the top players in the proxy market.
Some key details:
- 72 million+ residential IPs in every city globally
- 40Gbps bandwidth available
- 99.9% uptime for uninterrupted access
- Unlimited locations and IP switching
- starting at $300/month for 5GB
I spoke to Mark, a long-time Bright Data customer, about his experience:
"Bright Data‘s residential proxies are blazing fast and highly reliable. Their support team is also very responsive in helping configure proxies for my web scraping projects."
Bright Data proxies work seamlessly with all browsers, apps and web scraping tools. With dedicated support and high performance, Bright Data is the closest alternative to Oxylabs today.
ProxyEmpire
Texas-based ProxyEmpire is a newer player but has quickly grown its residential proxy network to over 5.3 million IPs.
Here are some key features:
- 5.3 million IPs from 191 locations
- ASN-optimized residential proxies
- Unlimited location targeting
- 1Gbps network capacity
- starting at $75/month for 1GB
ProxyEmpire focuses on providing quality proxies for sneaker bots, web scraping, ad verification and more. Users praise their affordable pricing and fast IP switching. They offer a 7-day free trial to test out their residential proxies before subscribing.
Proxy-Seller
Proxy-Seller is a budget-friendly proxy provider based out of Cyprus. Founded in 2012, they offer reliable datacenter proxies starting at just $30/month.
Some key details:
- 1 million+ elite datacenter IPs
- SOCKS5 / HTTP support
- IPv6 proxy support
- Prices from $30/month for 5GB
- Accepts Paypal, cards, Bitcoin
Proxy-Seller is ideal if you need lots of IP addresses but not a dedicated IP or blazing speeds. Their datacenter proxies work for basic web scraping and crawling needs. Support-wise, they are quite responsive as per most user reviews.
Rayobyte
US-based Rayobyte is asmaller provider specializing in datacenter proxies for ad verification, price monitoring and web scraping.
Key facts:
- 300,000+ datacenter IPs
- 1Gbps network capacity
- Shared public proxies
- Custom private proxies available
- Starting at $65/month for 1GB
Rayobyte provides reliable datacenter proxies with good rotate speeds. Their private proxies include dedicated IP and subnet options to scale capacity. Support is also prompt as per customer feedback.
PrivateProxy.me
PrivateProxy.me is a no-logs proxy service focused on complete anonymity. Some highlights:
- 500,000+ fully anonymous IPs
- Works with all browsers and apps
- No traffic or activity logging
- Can set custom locations
- Starts at just $9/month for 1GB
If you need cheap residential proxies for short-term research or testing, PrivateProxy.me is a solid pick. While network capacity is limited, the privacy benefits and low pricing make it very appealing.
SSLPrivateProxy
Florida-based SSLPrivateProxy offers high-quality private proxies for businesses.
Some key aspects:
- 500,000+ elite residential IPs
- Specialized proxy plans available
- Guaranteed 100% working IPs
- Superior speeds via 1Gbps network
- Starts at $200/month for 5GB
SSLPrivateProxy is on the pricier side but provides premium dedicated proxies tailored to needs like Instagram automation, sneaker copping, brand protection etc. Support and customization capabilities are superb as well.
Making the Right Choice
The best proxy provider ultimately depends on your specific requirements and budget.
Those needing lots of bandwidth and advanced features will benefit most from Oxylabs and Bright Data. Businesses should look at SSLPrivateProxy for dedicated solutions.
For more occasional proxy use, ProxyEmpire and PrivateProxy.me offer quality residential IPs at affordable rates. Rayobyte and Proxy-Seller also provide solid budget datacenter options.
I suggest starting out with free trials offered by most providers to assess performance first-hand. Evaluate success rates, speeds and support to ensure a reliable fit.
No matter which proxy service you pick, follow security best practices – use SSL encryption, disable caching, change IPs frequently and more.
Hope this guide helps you find an affordable Oxylabs alternative suitable for your specific proxy needs in 2023! Let me know if you have any other questions.
