5 Best Web Scraping Proxy Providers in 2026 (Complete Guide)
Software comparisonsDiscover the best web scraping proxy providers in 2026. Compare residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies for scraping, automation, and data extraction.

Milena Popova
Key Takeaways
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Web scraping relies on proxy servers to ensure good data extraction success rates.
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There are multiple proxy types suited for different web scraping tasks.
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Proxy services that offer web unblockers and scraping APIs automate numerous manual tasks.
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A worthwhile proxy service provider must offer a network of high-trust-score IP
Web scraping is one of the most efficient online data-gathering methods. Increasingly, professional web scraping companies develop sophisticated web scraping tools. Their clients forward an HTTP request, while the web scraping tool handles proxy management, anti-bot measures, IP bans, and JavaScript execution.
Proxy services are essential in most web scraping workflows. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare and Akamai protect websites from bots and unauthorized public data access, as not all scraping requests comply with their rules. Proxy servers help maintain access to information for legitimate use cases.
For example, market research, price comparison, or real estate intelligence gathering is perfectly fine and beneficial for businesses. Such companies can either use proxy services or work with web scraping companies that use them.
In turn, web scraping proxy providers offer anonymous proxies and residential IPs to extract information effectively. If you’re looking for a suitable web scraping proxy provider, this article explains how to choose one and lists five companies that ensure the best quality.
Types of Proxies for Web Scraping
Choosing the correct proxy type from a reliable provider for your web scraping project is essential. Typically, they are differentiated by IP address source, such as residential, ISP (Internet Service Provider), data center, or mobile. Residential proxies are highly popular, but datacenter proxy servers can be significantly faster.
Before we go into more detail, take a look at their comparison in the table below.
| Detectability | Cost | Use Case | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | Low | Medium to high | Scraping protected websites, accessing geographically restricted data |
| Datacenter | High | Lowest | Fast scraping of public data from minimum-protection websites, automation, testing |
| Mobile | Lowest | Highest | Scraping websites and apps with the strictest protection, such as social networks |
| ISP | Low to medium | Medium | High-speed scraping of protected websites, ad verification, maintaining consistent sessions |
As you can see, each proxy type has its own characteristics.
Residential proxies are typically considered the most popular type of proxy for web scraping. A residential proxy server is a device on a genuine user’s network that gets its IP address from an ISP, such as AT&T or Comcast. They resemble a genuine person browsing, so websites rarely block residential IPs.
Datacenter proxies are easiest to detect, but also the most affordable and fastest. Well-protected websites will easily recognize them, as CDNs keep datacenter proxy lists and IP intelligence databases. They are great for scraping public data, such as public records on dedicated .gov websites.
Mobile proxy servers are the most expensive, but also very rarely blocked. Because a single mobile IP can be shared across thousands of users simultaneously, websites and CDNs are very reluctant to ban them. However, their steep cost and sometimes shaky connection speed make mobile proxies a selective option only when undetectability is of utmost importance.
Lastly, ISP or static residential proxies are a mix of datacenter and residential proxies. They are located in datacenters, but get their IPs from genuine ISPs. In reality, they are easier to detect than residential proxies, but that also depends on your chosen provider. They also offer fast datacenter-level connection speeds, which makes them an excellent choice when you need a stable static IP address.
Keep in mind that each proxy type can still be banned using TLS or browser fingerprinting. It is now a prevalent bot detection method that top web scraping proxy providers aim to bypass. Without modifying HTTP request headers, the chances of getting banned increase significantly - even if you use a mobile or residential proxy. We will discuss how to modify browser fingerprints later.
Best Proxies for Web Scraping in 2026
There are plenty of web scraping proxy services, and many of them are worth your attention. To help you choose, we list the five best that offer multiple proxy types, large proxy pools, features like IP rotation and web scraping APIs, and competitive prices.
| Provider | Proxy types | Residential proxy pool | Web scraping API |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPRoyal | Residential, datacenter, ISP, mobile, enterprise | 32M+ | Offers Video Scraper API |
| MarsProxies | Residential, ISP, datacenter (including IPv6), mobile, sneaker | 1M+ | Does not offer |
| Oxylabs | Residential, ISP (including dedicated), mobile, datacenter (including dedicated) | 175M+ | Offers Web Scraper API, Fast Search API |
| Bright Data | Residential, ISP, datacenter, mobile | 400M+ | Offers Unlocker API, SERP API, Scraper APIs, and more |
| Proxywing | Static and rotating residential, datacenter, mobile | 32M+ | Does not offer |
IPRoyal
At IPRoyal, we focus on global coverage, flexible rotation, and fully customizable plans with non-expiring residential traffic. Once you place your order, you can come back at your convenience, and the bandwidth and proxy servers will be ready for further scraping.
We also offer a video scraper API, so if you’re extracting videos, you’ll get them as fast as possible with the current technology. Our latest product, Web Unblocker, helps you bypass CAPTCHA prompts and geo-restrictions automatically. It helps mimic human-like behavior and is easy to integrate, even with zero coding knowledge.
Pros
- Non-expiring residential traffic
- Customizable plans
- Video scraper API
- Web Unblocker
Cons
- Limited proxy pool compared to larger providers
Pricing: Starts from $7/GB for residential proxies
IP pool: 32M+ residential / 500K+ ISP
Uptime: 99.9%
MarsProxies
MarsProxies is relatively compact, but it makes up for it in quality, named one of the best proxies of 2025 by PCMag. Regarding web scraping, that means fast speeds, high success rates, and affordable prices.
Aside from regular IPv4 options, MarsProxies also offers IPv6 datacenter proxies at highly competitive prices. You can also get fast pay-as-you-go residential proxies. And although the network is too limited for large enterprises, affordability is a priority for smaller businesses or personal projects. This is one of the best inexpensive proxy services.
Pros
- Fast residential proxies
- Competitive pricing
- IPv6 datacenter IP addresses
Cons
- Limited proxy pool
Pricing: Starts from $4.99/GB
IP pool: 1M+ residential
Uptime: 99.9%
Oxylabs
Oxylabs is a major player in both proxy services and web scraping. It offers a Web Scraper API, a Fast Search API for AI and ML training models, a headless browser to scrape challenging sources, and an AI-powered OxyCopilot to generate scraping and parsing requests.
Oxylabs also offers a product named Web Unblocker to avoid website restrictions and IP bans. There’s a variety of proxy types and community-driven open source scraping tools. It has a somewhat more challenging learning curve than others, but that pays off for large enterprises looking for uniquely tailored solutions.
Pros
- A variety of scraping APIs and proxy types
- Web Unblocker
- An extensive proxy pool
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Residential proxy traffic expires
Pricing: Starts from $30/month for 5GB of rotating residential proxy traffic
IP pool: 175M+ residential / 2M+ dedicated datacenter IPs
Uptime: 99.9%
Bright Data
Bright Data is a highly scalable proxy provider for web scraping and data science. Similar to Oxylabs, it offers multiple APIs, including the SERP API and Unlocker API, the latter monetized only on successful requests. There’s also a free trial without a credit card required to try it out.
Its proxy pool is limited to four types, but it covers web scraping demands. Bright Data proxies are GDPR and CCPA-compliant, which is crucial for ethical data collection. However, you will encounter a steep learning curve and pricing, so it’s not the best choice for small businesses or personal use.
Pros
- A variety of scraping APIs
- GDPR and CCPA-compliant proxies
- No credit card free trial
Cons
- Complex pricing
- Very expensive
Pricing: Pay as you go starts from $8/GB
IP pool: 400M+ residential / 1,3M+ ISP
Uptime: 99.9%
Proxywing
ProxyWing is a provider focused on accessibility and ease of use with highly competitive pricing. It supports standard proxy use cases well, but lacks dedicated scraping tools, making it less suitable for large-scale or complex data extraction tasks.
It offers residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies, giving it a solid variety compared to similar providers. The service provides global coverage and a sizable IP pool, but does not offer a web scraping API.
Pros
- Wide proxy type variety
- Global coverage
- Easy to use
Cons
- No scraping API
- Limited advanced features
Pricing: $2.5/GB for standard and $6/GB for premium residential IPs
IP pool: 32M+ residential (180+ countries)
Uptime: 99.9%
How to Choose the Web Scraping Proxy Provider
With the current sophisticated anti-bot and anti-scraping protection, scraping success rates are more important than affordability. Cheap proxies with limited success rates are likely to become more expensive in the long run.
Paid proxy providers that ensure high IP trust scores and compliance with international data security standards deliver high-quality services. Since you’re investing, here’s what to consider for the best results.
Dedicated or Shared IPs
Dedicated IPs offer more control, but you lack IP rotation for large-scale scraping. However, static IPs are essential when you need to maintain a single session in social networks or e-commerce websites.
In this case, you must ensure your chosen web scraping proxy provider has tools that offer the required level of online undetectability. For example, our Web Unblocker strips HTTP headers of your unique identifiers and simulates human-like behavior without using additional scraping tools . It controls rate limiting, so that a single IP does not exceed what a normal person would request while browsing.
Shared IPs offer better undetectability because they cannot be traced to a single device. However, you risk IP reputation if another person uses your IP address for illegal purposes. But they are also much more affordable, so you can easily switch to a different one and continue scraping.
Static or Rotating IPs
IP rotation is paramount for business-grade scraping, be it dozens of websites, a single site, or a database. Even if you use rate limiting and mimic human behavior, a single IP address that makes thousands of similar HTTP requests will likely get flagged.
Instead, web scrapers rotate through IPs , either changing them at set intervals or assigning a different IP per request.
You can also streamline single website scraping by using multiple IPs for a selected website (make sure to adhere to its robots.txt rules, first), and target specific elements. You will get accurate information quickly with a higher success rate, while the target website’s reverse proxy servers will handle server load.
HTTP or SOCKS5 Proxies
If you are scraping standard websites, collecting images, or gathering pricing intelligence from HTML/JSON files, HTTP proxies are sufficient. These are standard web scraping proxies that interpret traffic and can also perform content filtering to eliminate unnecessary data and save bandwidth.
In some cases, you don’t need proxies that stop and interpret traffic. Instead, SOCKS5 proxies simply create a tunnel to pass traffic through it. This logic applies to real-time data sharing, such as video streaming, and can scrape mobile apps. SOCKS5 is also protocol-agnostic, so it works with TCP, UDP, FTP, and HTTP(S) protocols.
Predict Costs
When choosing proxy services for your web scraping project, estimate the cost at the very beginning. Start with a website evaluation. Does it have a straightforward codebase that lets you extract the required data easily? Or is it JavaScript-heavy and requires simulating human interaction?
Then, calculate the scraping volume. This affects pricing the most, as large-scale scraping requires significant bandwidth. Lastly, compare this to your budget to avoid financial issues once all the decisions have been made.
How to Use Proxies for Web Scraping
You will rarely do all the heavy lifting when scraping with modern tools. Proxy service with web scraping APIs now takes care of IP rotation automatically and assigns a different user agent so you don’t have to. Here are a few tips on successful proxy management.
Code or No-Code Tools
Writing code gives you the biggest customization freedom. You can tailor a web scraping tool specifically for your needs. The Python programming language opens up numerous possibilities. Its BeautifulSoup library is great for parsing static HTML files, while Selenium or Playwright handles JavaScript-heavy websites, extracting elements that need to load first.
Naturally, this requires good Python knowledge. If that’s not a possibility, you can now opt for no-code solutions. Some of them are so simple that you get a ‘point and click’ window to select the required elements, and the tool does the rest. However, this approach is more limited and may not overcome strong restrictions.
Proxy Rotation Strategies
Implement a robust proxy rotation strategy. You can assign a new proxy IP to each HTTP request or customize your sessions if the website requires it. Alternatively, scraping APIs and web unblockers handle IP address rotation, so you don’t have to.
Ethicality and Legality
Online data collection must adhere to data security standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PIPEDA . Firstly, it is paramount to stay within their guidelines. Also, it is generally agreed to refrain from collecting personal data, collect only the minimum required, and delete data that is no longer used for business purposes.
Common Web Scraping Proxy Mistakes
There are a few common proxy management mistakes that can result in IP bans. Here’s what you should avoid from the start.
Using Too Few IPs
Typically, scraping the web requires a lot of IP addresses, which depends on how many websites you’re scraping daily. Also, social networks often have a request limit, which means you must carefully adjust IP rotation.
Although Facebook does not reveal any precise data, this guide for developers explains the platform’s rate limiting very well. Typically, you would need a few dozen proxies for daily scraping, but large business demands can skyrocket this number fast.
Wrong Proxy Type
As discussed previously, a correct proxy type lets you target challenging websites or save money when scraping simpler ones. The IP trust score is paramount, as a list of flagged proxies will immediately result in error code 403, which means the access is forbidden. Meanwhile, fresh residential IPs that have never been used for scraping will reach most sources.
Ignoring Headers and Fingerprinting
In 2026, switching between headers and browser fingerprints is crucial for successful web scraping. It is just as important as managing proxies. Websites and CDNs now use AI-powered behavioral analysis, so mimicking a human online has become much more challenging.
Keep in mind that online scraping tools are also improving. Python’s Playwright library can mimic mobile devices by assigning legitimate user agents and modifying screen sizes. For example, you can instruct the program to write search queries letter by letter, instead of copying and pasting them, as computer programs do.
Overloading Target Servers
Overloading target servers is a very common scraping mistake, and it’s a considerable violation, which can be classified as a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. Website servers have limited resources, and sending too many requests too quickly can slow them down or even force them to go offline.
Also, consider that you’re not just browsing. When you scrape, you ask servers for specific elements. It uses more CPU and RAM power, and if you do not set the appropriate limits, scraping can drain its resources too fast. Setting time limits between HTTP requests is a solution.
Free vs Paid Proxies for Web Scraping
Before concluding, we’d like to point out the risks of free proxies for web scraping. Firstly, you risk your own data, as free proxies may be intentionally set as honeypots. Legitimate free proxies generally have hundreds of other users, which renders their IP trust score to zero.
However, they are not entirely baseless. If you’re learning Python, you can use a free proxy for testing. Also, they will have zero issues on websites without any bot protection if you find one that’s fast enough to get the required data. In the end, all professional business scraping tasks rely on a paid professional service provider.
Conclusion
Top web scraping companies work closely with proxy service providers. We listed five that offer multiple types of scraping tools, like web unblockers, web scraping APIs, and numerous other features for online data gathering.
When choosing the best provider for your needs, first consider how challenging your targeted websites are. It will determine the correct proxy type, which affects pricing. Lastly, make sure the content you gather complies with international data protection laws and standards.
FAQ
Can I scrape websites without proxies?
Yes, but under specific circumstances. You will use your own IP address, risking its reputation. If you’re in the office, your colleagues may start getting CAPTCHA prompts and access blocks. If you target multiple protected websites from the same IP address, your scraper will likely get blocked fast.
Which proxy type is best for scraping?
Residential IPs are considered best for scraping. They have the highest IP trust scores, come from genuine users’ devices, and offer good connection speed when sourced ethically.
How many proxies do I need for scraping?
That depends. You will need more proxies if you target a protected website that has strict rate limiting. A large-scale web scraping project targeting e-commerce websites for market research, price comparison, or large language model training will demand significantly more.
What is proxy rotation in web scraping?
Proxy rotation means assigning a new IP address per HTTP request or at selected intervals. It is essential to safeguard the IP address trust score, target multiple websites simultaneously, and maintain high success rates.
HTTP vs SOCKS5 proxy: which is better for scraping?
That depends. HTTP(S) proxies are standard for most scraping tasks, and they can perform content filtering. Meanwhile, SOCKS5 proxies support multiple protocols and simply create a tunnel to extract data, which is necessary for scraping real-time data, such as streaming.