The 10 Best Web Scraping Proxy Services in 2023

Scaling web scrapers can be a huge headache since it often leads to getting detected by antibots and, the best way to solve this problem, is to use a web scraping proxy.

A good proxy for scraping can prevent your scraper from getting throttled or blocked, making it possible to crawl web pages faster and better. There are different proxies available and, in this guide, we'll be going over the basics of web scraping proxies, the types as well as the 10 best proxy providers for web scraping.

Let's dive right in!

Why do you need Proxies for Web Scraping?

You need proxies for scraping because they hide and protect your IP address, making it possible to access and crawl data without getting blocked. It helps you avoid being recognized as a non-human entity, which can lead to getting blocked and blacklisted by the targeted site.

What are the different types of Proxies for Scraping?

The differences in these proxy types lie in their prices and how well they can help you scale your web scraping process.

Public Proxies

Public Proxy is a free proxy for scraping and it's one of the most accessible proxies out there. They're usually used by multiple users at the same time since they're free proxies for scraping and are highly accessible by pretty much everyone.

This makes their connection speed slower compared to other private proxies, making it a real headache when it comes to web scraping. A public proxy is also considered one of the least reliable proxies since they're prone to crashing, as well as being more susceptible to malicious viruses and attacks.

Anonymous Proxies

This type of proxy does what it says on the tin: it keeps your identity anonymous! While a Public Proxy cannot guarantee the hiding of your IP address, an anonymous proxy will do just that, preventing you from being blocked when web scraping.

They're expensive and, similarly to public proxies, can be used by multiple users at once. Although continuous usage depends on the number of current users.

Anonymous proxies are often used by spammers, which can result in bans for the whole proxy from certain sites since this type of proxy uses the same IP address for all users.

High Anonymous Proxies

The high anonymous proxy is an upgrade to the anonymous proxy, mainly to solve the issue of getting blacklisted by websites while scraping, which is achieved by different techniques depending on the provider.

The first is by giving all users a unique IP address so that websites are much less likely to think your proxy is a robot. These IP addresses are often updated in situations where they get blacklisted, keeping the user experience fresh and non-restricted. Of course it's more expensive compared to a regular Anonymous Proxy.

High anonymous proxies are fast and secure, especially when it comes to web scraping.

And even if you're using a shared proxy, it's still an upgrade since these companies will usually be rotating these IPs, as well as investing in the highest quality infrastructure and user services. This makes High Anonymous Proxies very useful for a wide range of different web scraping activities.

Shared and Dedicated Proxies

When it comes to selecting a proxy for scraping or for other purposes, it's important to know the key differences between major providers. One of these is if the proxy is shared or dedicated.

Shared Proxy IP addresses are shared amongst all users, meaning they're easily accessible and cheap. One of the disadvantages is that you're exposed to the risk of being blacklisted by websites (since many users are using the same IP address for different purposes).

A Dedicated Proxy, on the other hand, is where an individual IP address is given exclusively to each user. You get a much faster connection and face less risk of being blacklisted when web scraping. They tend to be more secure compared to shared proxies as they're private and have less chance of getting overloaded since each proxy is exclusive to one user.

Datacenter Proxy

Datacenter proxies are created and managed by non-ISPs (Internet Service Providers), giving you a completely private and anonymous IP address.

They're known to be cheap and fast, but the major drawback is that the companies that supply these types of scraping proxies use cloud servers, meaning users can be using the same space at the same time. Although speed won't be greatly affected, it does mean there's a higher risk of being flagged and blacklisted by certain sites.

If you plan on using a datacenter proxy, you'll need to make sure that you go with a reputable provider to eliminate the chance of being blacklisted.

Residential Proxies

Residential proxies are servers with IP addresses connected to real residential addresses making it difficult to get banned when web scraping because they make use of real IP addresses. They're known to be more secure compared to datacenter proxies and can be more expensive.

It's advisable to purchase a residential proxy from a proxy provider that collected these proxies ethically.

4G Proxies

4G proxy is one of the newest around and it exclusively uses a Mobile IP Address when establishing a connection online. In most cases, a 4G Proxy will provide a single IP address to each user for every new session, making it dynamic rather than static.

Being dynamic simply means that the network operator will provide a brand new IP address to each device every time a new connection is established, which is perfect when web scraping as you'll avoid getting blacklisted.

4G Proxies are also some of the most reliable proxies thanks to its speed and quality, but they can be much more expensive compared to others.

10 Best Proxy Providers for Web Scraping

Before digging deeper into each web scraping proxy provider, let's first take a look at the below table that compares the best 10 providers head-to-head.

Let's dive into the list. Here are 10 of the best proxy providers for web scraping:

1. ZenRows

ZenRows is a tool with excellent premium web scraping proxies. It's more than just a proxy provider, it's an all-in-one tool that, with a single API call, handles all anti-bot bypass for you, from rotating proxies and headless browsers to CAPTCHAs.

ZenRows' API is equipped with smart residential proxies that make it hard for websites and anti-bots to detect and blacklist. Take advantage of its free trial available and see what it's capable of.

2. Shifter

They provide residential proxies that can either be Rotating or Static in nature depending on the user's needs, as well as an ultra-fast speed and 99.99% uptime since they use a distributed cloud infrastructure. The Shifter web scraping proxy can also be connected to using various protocols including HTTP/S & Socks 4/5.

Although you might need to purchase the web scraping API separately from the proxy, at an additional cost. The cheapest proxy starts at $74.99 per month, which includes 25 static residential proxies.

3. Oxylabs

Founded in Lithuania in 2015, Oxylabs is one of the good proxy providers for web scraping. They provide Public Residential proxy services and scraper APIs to unlock public web data at scale.

Oxylabs has a proxy pool of around 100 million IPs, which are conveniently located all around the world. Their proxies start at $300 USD on a monthly subscription, which includes 25GB of traffic.

4. NetNut

NetNut's Hybrid Proxy Network connects directly to global ISPs and can handle hundreds of gigabytes per second of network traffic, so you'll be able to access any geo-targeted web data content you need.

They have 6 different plans, with the starter plan being the cheapest at a monthly cost of $100 USD. That includes 100GB and access to their extensive range of worldwide proxies.

5. Smartproxy

Smartproxy is an affordable proxy server for web scraping with residential and dedicated datacenter proxies priced as low as $12.5 and, like ZenRows, their proxies are capable of scraping web pages without getting detected by the bots.

6. ScrapingBee

With a large proxy pool, it's possible to easily bypass rate-limiting websites and lower the chance to get blocked using ScrapingBee API. Although it costs as low as $49 per month, you can start your scraping journey using the free trial available.

The major downside of using ScrapingBee is that they do not provide 4G or Private IPs within their plans, whilst most other providers supply these.

7. Zyte

Formerly known as Scrapinghub, Zyte is a data scraping proxy provider specializing in residential proxies. It has a high percentage of data accuracy (99.9%), giving you a very reliable service without paying extortionate amounts.

The Starter Plan costs just $29 a month. This includes large proxy pools worldwide for geolocation, as well as automatic proxy rotation (both very useful features when web scraping). Zyte also offers a 10% discount on annual plans too!

8. BrightData

Previously known as Luminati, BrightData has one of the largest proxy pools with over 70 million rotating IPs in every single country. They provide residential proxies, datacenter proxies and mobile proxies, and guarantee some of the most reliable and high-quality proxies out there on the market.

The starting price is $500 a month, making it one of the most expensive scraping proxies on this list. The main disadvantage of using BrightData is that their CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) rate is set at $3.00, whilst other providers are also much more inexpensive in this regard.

9. Rayobyte

Previously known as Blazing SEO, Rayobyte is a web scraping proxy provider that manages datacenter, residential and mobile proxies. It's a good option for those getting started with scraping proxies since there's more flexibility when it comes to pricing options.

It has unlimited bandwidth and also supports HTTP, HTTP(S) and SOCKS protocols.

10. HomeIP

HomeIP is a web scraping proxy provider with a large pool. It offers rotating residential proxies and lets you customize how often you want the proxy's IP to rotate. Their Start Plan begins with a cost of $85, which includes unlimited parallel requests.

Which Web Scraping Proxy is best for you?

Selecting the best proxy for web scraping depends on your needs and objectives. For example, BrightData is good for large-scale web scraping, while SmartProxy might be a good option to stick with if you're starting out and looking to take the cheap route.

But if you need a reliable web scraping proxy to handle every type of scraping operation and at a good price, then ZenRows is the best option for you, and you can even try it for free.

Conclusion

There are different web scraping proxy providers available online, but it can get hectic when it comes to selecting the right one for your web crawling needs. Safe to say you can avoid that headache since we have listed the best ones in this article.

ZenRows API is the best scraping proxy because it's capable of satisfying different scraping needs, like anti-bot and CAPTCHA bypass, rotating proxies and headless browsers. Test it out for free!

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a Proxy for Web Scraping?

Using a proxy for scraping is essential: it's one of the best ways to scrape a web page without getting blocked. Web scraping proxies hide your real IP address and give you IPs that can be rotated and used without worrying about getting blocked.

What are the Benefits of using a Proxy for Web Scraping?

A web scraping proxy uses a different and secure IP address to connect to your target site, hiding your real IP and preventing it from getting blacklisted. Many proxies have been programmed to act like humans, making it possible to crawl a website as you please with less risk of getting blocked.

Lastly, some proxies (such as 4G and High Anonymous) have a very speedy connection, often quicker than what the performance would be without a proxy!

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