Introduction
Web scraping has become a critical aspect of the data extraction strategy for businesses and individuals alike. While web scraping can be a valuable tool, it can also be a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, especially when done improperly. Many websites today incorporate anti-scraping and anti-bot technologies that can flag your IP and prevent you from accessing the data - for example, through CAPTCHAs or other IP-based blocks - as and when needed.
Proxies can be a solution to this. These alternative IP addresses act as buffers or intermediaries between you and your target site, ensuring anonymity for your data extraction. But as websites utilize more and more sophisticated blocking technologies, data center proxies may not always get the job done, especially when it comes to accessing geo-locked data. Also, their ethical sourcing and compliance with data privacy laws can pose legal risks.
This is where residential proxies come in. Unlike data center proxies, residential proxies are IP addresses that belong to real devices, making them more genuine and trustworthy. Additionally, residential proxies allow for specific location targeting(such as country, city or mobile carrier), which is often essential for scraping data from the web.
In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at the top residential proxy providers that offer secure and anonymous web scraping services in 2023. We'll discuss each provider and their features and advantages - in detail - so you can make an informed decision when selecting a proxy provider for your web scraping needs.
1. Nimble
Nimble IP is the first premium residential proxy platform that uses AI models, providing a zero-downtime proxy solution for seamless and continuous data collection. It offers a multitude of fully compliant and secure premium-quality residential proxies with 99.9% success rate, with a dynamic proxy infrastructure that can seamlessly scale to projects of any size, with minimal latency.
Unlike other proxy providers that use a round-robin distribution of IPs, Nimble IP utilizes a quality-controlled platform that serves only first-rate residential, data center, and ISP IPs, distributed worldwide. Nimble's AI-powered IP optimization engine finds the best IPs for each request and rotates them intelligently, allowing for longer sessions and faster responses in all use cases, and - in case of failure - automatically reassigns the session to the next best available IP address, maintaining a seamless user experience.
Nimble's proxy infrastructure is committed to security and compliance. The platform prioritizes selecting only trustworthy peers and incorporates built-in encryption. API requests are AES-encrypted, and decryption keys are stored on separate computers.
👉Learn more: Nimble IP
Other key features of Nimble IP include:
- To oversee multiple proxy use cases, Nimble offers IP pipelines, allowing you to compartmentalize usage and performance metrics, facilitating more detailed analysis of budget allocation. With IP pipelines, you can conveniently configure proxy settings - such as session control, target geolocation, and IP rotation - only once, which are then automatically inherited by all requests made through that pipeline.
- An intuitive user-friendly dashboard for efficient data collection management with features like usage stats, budget control, real-time notifications, and one-click settings.
- You can easily target down proxy choice to country, state, and city levels for any geolocation worldwide, allowing you to bypass website blocks like geo-blocks, rate-limits, or CAPTCHAs with as much granularity as you need, while still ensuring maximum success rates even for particularly sensitive pages.
- Nimble caters to both non-technical and technical users, also offering a flexible, developer-friendly API on top that allows for easy and fast integration of Nimble's proxies with your current deployment. Streamlined, no-hassle programmatic access, with all the documentation you'll ever need.
- A global support team of engineers who are available round the clock to help you with any problems you face.
Whatever your use case, from eCommerce intelligence to SEO to brand management analytics and more, Nimble's premium proxy infrastructure has you covered. Nimble IP comes with various pricing plans depending on your use case but most importantly, they offer a 22GB free trial of their entire platform, including their premium IP infrastructure.
2. Smartproxy
Founded in 2018, Smartproxy has become the preferred choice for proxy services and solutions for publicly available data for businesses and individuals. Throughout the years, Smartproxy has introduced a range of proxy and scraping solutions, including residential, static (ISP) residential, mobile, datacenter, dedicated datacenter proxies, five scraping APIs, and the most recent addition - Site Unblocker. What sets Smartproxy apart from other competitors is its easy-to-use dashboard, making proxying journeys a breeze for both seasoned and beginner users.
Starting at $4/GB, Smartproxy's residential proxies offer 99.99% uptime, advanced targeting options with 195+ around the globe, a 99.47% success rate, unlimited connections and threads, and one of the industry's best response time at <0.6s. Residential proxies support HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 protocols and are ethically sourced from real mobile and desktop devices.
Users value Smartproxy for its customer-centric approach with 24/7 technical support through live chat, extensive quick start guide, and a range of free tools like Chrome Browser Extension, X Browser, and Address Generator.
Smartproxy offers four regular subscriptions. Customizable Enterprise plans according to traffic usage, and a no-commitment option, Pay As You Go, perfect for users planning a one-off project and needing GBs, which can later be used for up to 12 months.
Key features of Smartproxy:
- 40M+ IP pool
- 195+ locations worldwide
- 24/7 technical support through live chat
- Free advanced targeting options
- Sticky and rotating sessions up to 30 mins
- Unlimited concurrent sessions
- 99.47% success rate
- Country & city-level targeting
- Pay As You Go option
- 14-day money-back option
3. IPRoyal
IPRoyal has a proxy pool that is composed of legitimate users from around the world and obtained through ethical means. Its dashboard is both easy to use and customizable for managing the service.
IPRoyal's proxy services come in a range of solutions, such as residential, data center, 4G mobile, and sneaker proxies, and has a track record of being a dependable service provider. The residential proxies, in particular, are reasonably priced and highly desirable.
For those operating on a tight budget, IPRoyal also provides a catalog of free proxies that are updated every 10 minutes and offer a range of options. However, it's worth noting that while these free proxies may be used as a short-term solution, they may also be slower and less secure, and potentially be exploited by malicious third parties for gathering sensitive data.
Key features of IPRoyal:
- IP rotation is automatic.
- Multiple types of proxy servers available.
- Residential IP proxies can be switched automatically.
- Offers unlimited simultaneous connections.
- Dedicated residential proxies available.
- IP change through dashboard with a simple click.
- Supports multiple locations.
- No contract obligation for proxy service.
4. NetNut
NetNut provides a reliable and robust infrastructure, boasting an impressive network of over 52M+ million IPs spread across the globe. With a vast selection of rotating and static residential proxies, NetNut is well-equipped to cater to a variety of business needs, ranging from SEO monitoring and SERP tracking, ad verification, price comparison, to cybersecurity and much more.
Their static IPs are exclusively assigned to users, ensuring they haven't been previously used with the target domain. This adds an extra layer of security and exclusivity. Despite the higher cost, mobile IPs offer greater durability, with both static and mobile IPs available for a free trial.
NetNut's residential proxies are compatible with all main protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5. The company provides extensive support through 24/7 customer service, ensuring a seamless user experience.
The pricing structure is competitive and cost-effective, with unbeatable prices compared to competitors. They offer numerous pricing plans, from monthly subscriptions to pay-as-you-go options, catering to the needs of large-scale proxy users as well as those with more specific requirements.
Beyond traditional targeting options like country, state, and city, NetNut also offers ASN targeting. This versatility, combined with the NetNut Proxy Manager that allows for IP rotation rules, blacklisting underperforming IPs, and bandwidth usage optimization, makes it an excellent choice for those with specific targeting needs.
NetNut prioritizes high success rates and reliability. Their rotating residential proxies and static residential proxies have a 99% success rate, while mobile IP requests enjoy a 100% success rate.
Key features of NetNut include:
- Over 52M+ million static and rotating residential IPs distributed globally.
- Support for HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS protocols.
- Wide range of targeting options, including ASN.
- Dynamic IP rotation or persistent sessions options.
- Unlimited simultaneous requests.
- Whitelisted IPs and username/password authentication options.
- Integration via API, browser extension, and proxy manager.
- Comprehensive documentation.
- 99% uptime.
- 24/7 dedicated customer support and dedicated account manager.
- Custom solutions tailored to individual client needs.
NetNut is trusted by companies around the world for its premium proxies, proactive support, and exceptional performance. It's easy to integrate and offers a fantastic web UI. It's not just the robust network that users praise but also the responsive and personal customer support.
Discover more:
NetNut - Your Best Choice for Secure Web Data Extraction
5. Oxylabs
Oxylabs offers a network of residential proxies covering all countries and cities, with a total of 100 million IPs. These proxies can be targeted based on country, city, and autonomous system number (ASN). However, the residential IPs use backconnect gateway servers, which require manual modification to add targeting parameters. The provider also claims to offer mobile IPs in their residential proxies, but these cannot be specifically selected. Proxies rotate IPs at every request to avoid being blocked.
In addition to standard rotating residential proxies, Oxylabs also provides static, non-rotating residential proxies sourced directly from ISPs. These support the SOCKS5 protocol, while the standard rotating residential proxies do not. Oxylab's pool of over 2 million dedicated data center IPs also supports the SOCKS5 protocol and offers a proxy rotator add-on.
Oxylabs' next-gen residential proxies use machine learning and AI to bypass blocks and captchas. The provider also offers a web scraping tool called Scraper APIs, which provides data in HTML or JSON format.
The provider claims to prioritize quality and performance, with mostly landline and mobile IP addresses, which delivered over 62% unique IPs during testing, with a near-perfect success rate, stability, and quick response time. Oxylabs also offers a wide range of tools, including the Web Unblocker and dedicated account manager support.
However, the pricing of Oxylabs' services may not be suitable for individuals or those with limited budgets, as they require a substantial investment to maximize the benefits of their offerings.
Key features of Oxylabs:
- 100 million peer-to-peer and static residential IP addresses
- HTTP and HTTPS protocols supported
- Targeting options for every country, thousands of cities, and autonomous system numbers (ASN)
- No limit on concurrent requests
- IP rotation with every request, with option for sticky sessions up to 30 minutes
- Whitelisted IPs and user/password authentication available
- Public API provided
- Detailed documentation available
- 24/7 live support and a dedicated account manager for assistance
Honorable mentions
6. Live Proxies
Live Proxies is a leading provider of high-quality proxy services, featuring an extensive network of over 50 million IPs around the world. Specializing in both rotating and static residential proxies, Live Proxies offers unparalleled capabilities for a diverse array of applications such as SEO analysis, ad verification, competitive price scraping, and cybersecurity initiatives.
Live Proxies equips you with exclusive, static IPs that have never been used for your specific target domains, ensuring superior security and confidentiality. Experience the resilience of our mobile IPs, available alongside our static and mobile offerings, all accessible through a risk-free trial.
Live Proxies is compatible with all major protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS. With a commitment to delivering a hassle-free user experience, we provide 24/7 customer support to assist you at every step.
The pricing is competitive and incredibly flexible to meet your specific needs. Choose from various plans, ranging from monthly subscriptions to pay-as-you-go options, designed to accommodate both large-scale operations and more niche use cases. Ideal for SMM (Instagram, Tiktok), e-commerce (eBay), and many more.
Go beyond conventional targeting methods. Live Proxies provides advanced targeting capabilities like ASN options. Coupled with the Live Proxies Manager for bandwidth management, IP authorization, and other features, we deliver unparalleled versatility for specialized requirements.
Reliability You Can Trust We prioritize delivering high success rates; our rotating and static residential proxies achieve a 99% success rate, while mobile IPs boast a 100% success rate.
Key Features of Live Proxies:
- Over 50 million static and rotating residential IPs worldwide.
- Compatibility with HTTP and HTTPS protocols.
- Multiple targeting options, including advanced ASN targeting.
- Dynamic or persistent session controls.
- No limit on simultaneous requests.
- Whitelisting and username/password authentication supported.
- Easy integration to API, browser extensions, and proxy management tools.
- Comprehensive user guides and documentation.
- Exceptional 99% uptime.
- 24/7 customer support and dedicated account management.
- Tailor-made solutions to meet individual needs.
Live Proxies is not just celebrated for its robust IP network but also for its proactive customer service and top-notch performance. Easily integrate our services with your API, browser extension, or proxy manager and experience the intuitive web interface that our users have come to love.
Discover More: Live Proxies - The Ultimate Platform for Secure, High-Performance Web Operations
Conclusion
This article highlights the top residential proxy providers that offer secure and anonymous web scraping services in 2023. Among them, Nimble IP stands out as an enterprise-grade solution due to its quality-controlled platform, premium-quality residential IPs, and commitment to security and compliance. While it may seem more expensive when compared to a provider like Smartproxy, it's a far more robust solution. Additionally, you can also register for a free trial, making it easy to test and verify if it is the right option for you.
Bright Data is another notable provider with an extensive proxy pool of over 72 million IPs, diverse options for rotating and static residential IPs, mobile IPs, and ASN targeting options. Oxylabs, with its vast pool of proxies, advanced technology, and excellent customer support, is also a reliable partner for your data extraction needs.
Overall, your choice of provider will depend on your specific requirements, but with the information provided in this article, you can make an informed decision to help ensure successful and efficient data extraction for your business or personal needs.