10 Best Web Scraping Proxy Services in 2023

Scaling web scrapers can be a huge headache since it often leads to getting detected by anti-bots, 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.

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,  preventing getting blocked and blacklisted by the targeted site.

What Are the Different Types of Proxies for Scraping?

There are different types of proxies used in web scraping:

• Public proxies.
• Anonymous proxies.
• High anonymous proxies.
• Shared and dedicated proxies.
• Datacenter proxies.
• Residential proxies.
• 4G proxies.

Let's understand their difference!

Public Proxies

Public proxies are free for scraping and are among the most accessible options. That's why they're usually used by multiple users simultaneously.

Unfortunately, that makes their connection speed slower compared to private proxies, making it a real headache when it comes to web scraping. 

Public proxies are also unreliable, prone to crashing, and 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 can't guarantee the secrecy of your IP address, an anonymous proxy will do just that. It'll prevent you from being blocked when web scraping.

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

Spammers often use anonymous proxies, which can result in bans for the whole proxy from certain sites since it 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 to give all users a unique IP address so that websites are less likely to think your proxy is a bot. These IP addresses are often updated when they get blacklisted, keeping the user experience fresh and non-restricted. Of course, it's more expensive than a regular anonymous proxy.

High anonymous proxies are fast and secure for web scraping. And even if you're using a shared proxy, it's still an upgrade since these companies will usually rotate the IPs and invest in the highest quality infrastructure and user services. 

That makes high anonymous proxies useful for a wide range of web scraping activities.

Shared and Dedicated Proxies

When it comes to selecting a proxy for scraping, it's important to know the key differences between major providers. One consideration is whether 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 the same IP address is used for many different purposes).

A dedicated proxy, on the other hand, is an IP address 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 than shared proxies as they're private and less likely to get overloaded.

Datacenter Proxies

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

They're known to be cheap and fast, but the major drawback is that the companies that supply them use cloud servers. That means users can use the same space at the same time. Although speed won't be greatly affected, 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 you go with a reputable provider.

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

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

Let's dive into the list of the top proxy options for web scraping!

1. ZenRows

ZenRows is a tool with excellent premium web scraping proxies. However, it's more than that: It's an all-in-one tool that handles any anti-bot bypass using rotating proxies, anti-CAPTCHA, headless browsers and more with a single API call.

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

👍 Pros:

• Smart rotating proxies.
• 99.9% uptime with a high success rate.
• Custom-built web scrapers developed for specific sites such as Amazon and Google.
• Low chance of getting blocked.
• High-quality support team.

👎 Cons:

• No proxy manager since it's not needed.
• No proxy browser extensions.

2. Shifter

Shifter provides residential proxies that can be rotating or static depending on the user's needs. Thanks to its distributed cloud infrastructure, it provides ultra-fast speed and 99.99% uptime. This web scraping proxy can connect 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.

👍 Pros:

• Rotating and residential proxies.
• Worldwide coverage.
• 99.9% uptime guarantee.

👎 Cons:

• No API included in the proxy plan.
• A single location for its dedicated and shared proxies.

3. Oxylabs

Founded in Lithuania in 2015, Oxylabs is one of the most respected proxy providers for web scraping. It offers 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.

👍 Pros:

• Multiple proxy types, including 4G and residential.
• 24/7 premium support.
• No restrictions on concurrent sessions.

👎 Cons:

• High-cost plans.
• Not suitable for beginners or smaller-scale projects.

4. NetNut

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

It has 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.

👍 Pros:

• Multiple proxy types, including 4G and rotating.
• Handles over 100GB per second.
• Connects directly to global ISPs.

👎 Cons:

• High-cost plans.
• Limited and basic support.

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, its proxies are capable of scraping web pages without getting detected by the bots.

👍 Pros:

• Residential and datacenter proxies.
• Very affordable plans.
• Chrome and Firefox browser extensions are supported.

👎 Cons:

• APIs aren't included in the scraping proxy plan.
• SOCKS5 not supported.

6. ScrapingBee

With ScrapingBee's 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.

ScrapingBee's major downside is the lack of 4G or private IPs, which most of its competitors offer.

👍 Pros:

• Smart rotating proxies.
• Low chance of getting blocked.
• High-quality support team.

👎 Cons:

• Private IPs not included in proxy plans.
• Lower-than-usual concurrent requests supported.

You might want to check out a Scrapingbee alternative.

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 reliable service.

Its proxy 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).

👍 Pros:

• Smart rotating and residential proxies.
• 99.9% data accuracy.
• 10% discount offered on annual plans.

👎 Cons:

• Advanced features are only available as add-ons.

You might want to check out a Zyte alternative.

8. BrightData

Previously known as Luminati, BrightData has one of the largest proxy pools with over 70 million rotating IPs in every single country. It provides residential proxies, datacenter proxies and mobile proxies, and guarantees 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, while other providers are much more inexpensive in this regard.

👍 Pros:

• Multiple proxy types, including rotating, residential, mobile, and datacenter.
• Over 70 million rotating IPs in every country.
• Manages projects of all scales and demands.

👎 Cons:

• Expensive pricing.

You might want to check out a BrightData alternative.

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 beginners as it offers flexible pricing options.

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

👍 Pros:

• Multiple proxy types, including residential, mobile, and datacenter.
• Very affordable.
• Unlimited bandwidth included.

👎 Cons:

• Expensive if used for large-scale crawling.
• Limited and basic support.

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.

👍 Pros:

• Rotating and residential proxies.
• Unlimited parallel requests in all plans.
• High-quality support team.

👎 Cons:

• High-cost plans.
• No free trial available.

Which Web Scraping Proxy Is Best for You?

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

But if you need a reliable web scraping proxy to handle every type of scraping operation at a good price, then ZenRows is the best option. Don't hesitate to try it for free.

Conclusion

There are so many web scraping proxy providers available online that selecting the right one for your needs can get hectic. Safe to say you can avoid that headache since we have listed the best ones above.

As a recap, the ten best proxy services for web scraping are as follows:

• ZenRows.
• Shifter.
• Oxylabs.
• NetNut.
• Smartproxy.
• ScrapingBee.
• Zyte.
• Bright Data.
• Rayobyte.
• HomeIP.

ZenRows API is the best proxy because it can satisfy different scraping needs, like Cloudflare and CAPTCHA bypass, rotating proxies and headless browsers. Test it out for free!

Frequent Questions

Do I Need a Proxy for Web Scraping?

A proxy for scraping is essential, ensuring you'll scrape a web page without getting blocked. It hides your real IP address and gives you rotating IPs, so your scraper's requests will appear as coming from multiple real users.

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 are programmed to act like humans, making it possible to crawl a website with less risk of getting blocked.

Lastly, some proxies, such as 4G and high anonymous, have a speedy connection, often quicker than the performance without a proxy!

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