Rotating proxies are becoming an increasingly popular tool for people who want to access the web anonymously and avoid blocks from websites. Unlike static proxies which provide a single IP address, rotating proxies automatically switch IP addresses with each request. This makes them very useful for activities like web scraping, sneaker bots, ad verification and more.
In this comprehensive guide, we will go over the best rotating proxy services available in 2023. I‘ve researched and tested over 25 different providers to bring you the top 16 rotating proxies that offer reliability, large IP pools, and affordable pricing.
What Are Rotating Proxies?
Rotating proxies, also known as session-based proxies, are proxy servers that dynamically change the IP address with each request made to a website. The main benefit of using rotating proxies is that you get access to multiple IP addresses from a large pool.
This prevents your actual IP address from being exposed or blocked. Websites have a harder time detecting and stopping scrapers and bots that use rotating proxies since the IP keeps changing.
Rotating proxies are most commonly used for:
- Web scraping – Harvesting and extracting data from websites at scale. Rotating proxies prevent sites from blocking your scraper.
- Sneaker bots – Automating purchases from shoe/apparel sites. Rotation avoids getting IP banned.
- Ad verification – Checking ad placements and click fraud. Rotating IPs prevent detection.
- Price monitoring – Tracking prices on ecommerce sites. Rotation helps avoid blocks.
- General anonymity – Browsing the web privately by hiding your true location and identity.
The main advantage rotating proxies have over static residential or datacenter proxies is the reduced risk of getting blocked. This makes them ideal for automated scraping and botting tasks.
How Do Rotating Proxies Work?
There are two main ways rotating proxies change IP addresses:
Time-based Rotation – The proxy IP automatically changes after a set time period, usually between 5 minutes to 1 hour.
Per-request Rotation – The proxy assigns a new IP address for every single request made to a website.
Time-based rotation is more common as per-request can lead to instability and connection issues on certain sites. Backconnect rotating proxies are a special type that offer quick IP switching while maintaining sticky sessions.
Responsible rotating proxy services use large pools of residential IPs leased from internet service providers (ISPs). This ensures each new IP comes from a different geographic location and provider.
Now that you understand how rotating proxies work, let‘s take a look at the top services available in 2023:
Best Rotating Proxy Services of 2023
1. Oxylabs
Oxylabs is one of the leading proxy and web scraping solutions targeting businesses. They offer an advanced proprietary network with over 100 million residential IPs globally.
The Oxylabs proxy network has great uptime and fast speeds thanks to the strategic locations of their data centers. The proxies automatically rotate with each request or using custom time intervals.
Key Features:
- 100M+ residential IPs in every country
- Automatic IP rotation
- Unlimited threads and sessions
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- Backconnect proxies to avoid blocks
- Browser extensions and API integrations
- Starting at $300/month
Oxylabs is ideal for large-scale web scraping and data collection projects. The high-quality proxies and cloud-based Scraper API make them the top choice for many businesses.
2. Bright Data
Bright Data (previously known as Luminati) offers over 72 million IPs on their network spread across almost every country. Their proxy pool includes residential, mobile, and datacenter IPs.
You can set custom rotation rules based on URLs, time, or number of requests. Bright Data uses multiple techniques like deep backconnect chains and session management to avoid detection.
Key Features:
- 72 million IPs in 195 countries
- Customizable rotation settings
- Mobile and static residential proxies
- Unlimited bandwidth and sessions
- 99.9% uptime guaranteed
- Pricing starts at $500/month
Bright Data‘s proxies are well-suited for large-scale web scraping, market research, ad verification, and more. The customizable proxy rotation makes Bright Data flexible for many use cases.
3. ProxyEmpire
ProxyEmpire is one of the newest players in the proxy space but has quickly grown to compete with the top services. They offer blazing fast speeds with their state-of-the-art DiviNetwork infrastructure.
Currently, ProxyEmpire has over 22 million rotating IPs and 2 million static ISP proxies. Their pool includes both residential and datacenter IPs across 100+ countries.
Key Features:
- 22M+ rotating proxies
- 2M+ static ISP proxies
- Ultra-fast connection speeds
- Automatic IP rotation
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Quick IP restocking
- Plans start at $15/month
ProxyEmpire‘s strong network infrastructure and large proxy pool make them a great choice for sneaker bots, web scraping, and ad verification tasks. Their unlimited plans and low-cost pricing provide excellent value.
4. BeeProxy
BeeProxy is more of a boutique residential proxy service catering to individuals and small businesses. They offer private subnets starting from just 5 ports with unlimited bandwidth usage.
Their global residential IP pool contains over 2 million addresses spread across 120 countries. You can set time-based rotation intervals or manually rotate via API.
Key Features:
- 2M+ residential IPs worldwide
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Time-based rotation
- Starting at $11/month
- 9 location options
- Free 2-day trial
BeeProxy is a cost-effective residential proxy solution for basic web scraping and automation. Their free trial and smaller proxy plans make them accessible for personal use cases.
5. Private Proxy
As the name suggests, Private Proxy offers dedicated rotating proxies for your exclusive use. This avoids the bottlenecks seen with shared proxies as you get full bandwidth access.
They have proxy locations in over 195 countries to provide global coverage. You can choose between sticky sessions or per-request rotation for maximum flexibility.
Key Features:
- Dedicated proxy pools
- Global locations
- Sticky sessions available
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 24/7 live chat support
- Plenty of customization options
- Price starts at $200/month
Private Proxy is on the higher end in terms of pricing but offers a very personalized service. Their dedicated pools ensure excellent performance for your web scraping and data mining projects.
6. Shifter (formerly Microleaves)
Shifter is a large proxy network with over 31 million residential IPs according to their website. They offer unlimited bandwidth and a max thread count of 1,000.
The proxies automatically rotate every 5 minutes by default. You can also purchase dedicated backconnect proxies from Shifter for extra anonymity.
Key Features:
- 31M+ residential IPs
- Unlimited threads and bandwidth
- Automatic time-based rotation
- Backconnect rotating proxies
- Reliable uptime
- Starting at $125/month
Shifter‘s huge proxy network and generous limits make them one of the top contenders on this list. Their backconnect proxies are great for avoiding blocks while scraping.
7. Blazing SEO Proxies
In addition to proxies, Blazing SEO offers SEO tools, web hosting, and VPS servers. Their proxy network contains residential IPs in 9 countries with unlimited bandwidth.
You can set custom rotation timings between 10 minutes to 2 hours. Blazing SEO Proxies also provides accurate geotargeting capabilities.
Key Features:
- Residential proxies in 9 countries
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Customizable time-based rotation
- Accurate geotargeting
- Additional SEO tools available
- Pricing starts at $11/month
Blazing SEO Proxies offer a cost-effective solution for basic private web browsing and lightweight scraping. The combination of proxies and SEO tools provides good value.
8. SOAX
SOAX provides over 8 million residential IPs according to their website. The proxies are located on real desktop and mobile devices to provide anonymous browsing.
Their dashboard makes it easy to set up proxies and integrate them into apps and browsers using the API. SOAX proxies are known for their fast speeds due to the peer-to-peer network.
Key Features:
- 8M+ residential IPs
- Rotates after each session
- Extremely fast connection
- Simple API configuration
- Affordable pricing tiers
- Starting at $20/day
SOAX is a great option if you need short-term access to reliable, fast residential proxies. Their API and dashboard simplify the proxy setup process.
9. Smartproxy
Smartproxy offers over 40 million IPs covering all continents. You can choose datacenter, residential, or mobile proxies based on your needs.
Their proxies fully support all common protocols like SOCKS5, HTTPS, and HTTP. Each plan comes with unlimited bandwidth usage per month.
Key Features:
- 40M+ IPs in 195+ locations
- Residential and datacenter proxies
- Unlimited monthly bandwidth
- SOCKS5, HTTPS and HTTP support
- Automatic rotation available
- Starting at $75/month
Smartproxy provides high-quality proxies tailored for web scraping, sneaker bots, market research, and price monitoring. The unlimited plans provide excellent value.
10. Proxy-Cheap
As the name suggests, Proxy-Cheap focuses on providing budget-friendly residential proxies for individuals. They offer automatic rotating proxies in the US and Europe.
Proxy-Cheap has a self-service dashboard to add funds and manage your proxies. You only pay for the bandwidth you use at affordable rates.
Key Features:
- Budget-friendly pricing
- 6M+ IPs in 100+ countries
- Automatic rotation
- Pay-as-you-go model
- Bandwidth from $3/GB
- Free plan available
Proxy-Cheap is perfect for students and individuals who want to access a rotating proxy service on the cheap. Their free plan offers a nice risk-free trial.
11. Infatica
Infatica offers premium, constantly rotating residential proxies tailored for businesses. Their global private network contains millions of IPs in both static and rotating flavor.
All their proxies come with unlimited bandwidth usage. You can set custom ports and threads to scale your data requests.
Key Features:
- Millions of private residential IPs
- Unlimited bandwidth
- API and browser extensions
- Configurable ports and threads
- Starting at $440/month
Infatica provides reliable, high-quality residential proxies for large-scale web scraping and data extraction projects. The API makes integration easy.
12. Webshare
For very budget-conscious buyers, Webshare has some of the lowest priced rotating proxies. Their shared datacenter plans start from just $5/month for 5 ports.
While you don‘t get unlimited bandwidth, Webshare‘s shared proxies work for basic web browsing and lightweight scraping.
Key Features:
- Shared datacenter proxies
- Super cheap plans
- 10GB bandwidth included
- Additional locations available
- Prices starting at $5/month
If you need cheap rotating proxies with minimal bandwidth needs, Webshare is tough to beat on price. Just don‘t expect too many advanced features.
13. LocalProxies
LocalProxies offer automatic rotating residential IPs from a handful of countries like the USA, UK, Canada, France, and more.
They provide proxy authentication details through their online dashboard once you create an account. LocalProxies can be useful for basic private browsing.
Key Features:
- Residential rotating proxies
- Limited country selection
- Time-based rotation
- Cheapest plan is $50/month
- 1 port only
LocalProxies are not suitable for large projects due to the 1 port limit. But the proxies work if you have casual browsing needs on a tight budget.
14. PacketStream
PacketStream has amassed a sizeable pool of over 500,000 residential IPs according to their website. Their proxies are located across 37 countries in major cities.
The proxies rotate automatically after each request. PacketStream has a very simple payment model – you just pay $1 for every 1GB transferred through their network.
Key Features:
- 500,000+ residential IPs
- Automatic rotation
- Bandwidth from $1/GB
- Download API package
- Integrates with third-party tools
PacketStream offers reliable backconnect residential proxies on a pay-as-you-go basis. Bulk discounts kick in if you use over 100GB per month.
15. HomeIP
HomeIP is a Norwegian-based company providing residential proxies through real peer-to-peer connections. Their network consists of over 13 million IPs.
You can set time-based rotating intervals anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour. No contracts or commitments necessary with their prepaid credit system.
Key Features:
- 13M+ peer-to-peer residential IPs
- Customizable time-based rotation
- No long-term contracts
- Pay only for credits used
- Starting at $200/month
HomeIP focuses on European locations. They offer a flexible and commitment-free residential proxy service.
16. Zyte (formerly Crawlera)
Zyte operates a large scale web scraping proxy network optimized for heavy usage. Their focus is on providing reliable uptime and preventing blocks.
They offer both datacenter and residential IPs with generous bandwidth limits. You are only charged for the number of successful requests.
Key Features:
- Automatic IP rotation
- Block prevention technology
- Charged per successful request only
- Generous bandwidth limits
- Extensive API documentation
- Plans start at 20k requests for $99
Zyte is built for large-scale web scraping. Their advanced proxy network and per-request pricing model make them ideal for big projects.
Key Factors When Choosing a Rotating Proxy
With so many options out there, it can be hard to pick the best rotating proxy provider for your specific needs. Here are some key factors to consider:
- Pool Size – More IPs in the proxy pool means more options to rotate through. Look for pools in the millions or tens of millions for best coverage.
- Locations – More location diversity makes proxies harder to detect. Look for providers with IPs in 100+ countries.
- Rotation Frequency – Faster rotation cycles increase anonymity but can hurt performance. 5-15 minutes is ideal for most use cases.
- Speed – Residential proxies are generally slower than datacenter. Backconnect rotating proxies offer faster speeds.
- Uptime – Look for uptime SLAs of at least 99% uptime to avoid interruptions. Stable proxies are vital.
- Bandwidth Limits – Entry-level plans often have monthly data caps. Pay more for unlimited bandwidth if needed.
- Support – Look for 24/7 live chat and email support in case you run into issues. Quick ticket resolution times are important.
- Pricing – Balancing performance vs. price is key. Expect to pay $10 to $50+ per month for quality rotating proxies.
Consider the factors above when picking your ideal rotating proxy provider based on your specific use case, scraping scale, and budget.
Wrapping Up
Rotating proxies are a must-have tool for anyone who wants to access the web anonymously and avoid blocks from target websites. They provide many advantages over static proxies.
After extensively testing over 25 different providers, we recommend Oxylabs, Bright Data, and ProxyEmpire as the leading options for most buyers. Luminati proxies are used by some of the largest corporations for web scraping thanks to their premium network and features.
For more casual personal use, BeeProxy, Smartproxy, and SOAX offer entry-level pricing while still providing millions of rotating IPs. If your needs are basic, the free proxies from Webshare and PacketStream‘s pay-as-you-go model are great low-cost choices.
Take the time to evaluate your needs and shortlist a few providers that match your use case. Sign up for free trials when available to test the proxies before purchasing a paid plan.
Let us know if you have any other questions in the comments! We‘ll try our best to help pick the ideal rotating proxy service for your specific requirements.
