Comparisons

Which proxy, and which provider

Eighteen comparisons: FleetProxy against five named vendors, alternatives round-ups, and seven explainers covering every proxy type we sell.

Start with proxy types See the rate card

Comparisons: 18
Proxy types explained: 7
Vendors covered: 6
Last reviewed: 15 Jan 2026

How these are written

Written by us, and checkable anyway

A comparison published by one of the parties is an argument, not an audit, and pretending otherwise would be the first false claim on the page. What we can offer instead is a set of rules the pages are held to, and which you can check.

Competitor pricing is never quoted as fact. List prices, promotions and negotiated terms change constantly, so any figure we published would be wrong within weeks — and a wrong price about a rival is both a legal risk and trivially falsifiable. Tiers are described qualitatively and readers are sent to the vendor's own page.

Differences are framed as positioning rather than as defects, because "built for enterprise procurement" is checkable and "bad support" is not. Every vendor page carries a real section on when the other provider is the better purchase. And every page is dated, so you know how old the snapshot is.

Our own numbers come from the database. Prices shown on any comparison page are resolved from the same pricing tiers checkout uses, so a comparison and an invoice cannot disagree.

Proxy types explained

Which proxy type does the job

Technology comparisons: what each proxy type actually is, how targets treat it, and which workloads need which.

Proxy types explained
residential vs datacenter proxies
Use datacenter proxies until a target starts scoring the network type, then escalate only that target to residential.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Proxy types explained
static vs rotating proxies
Rotate when requests are independent. Hold a static address when a session, a login or an account has to persist.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Proxy types explained
ISP vs residential proxies
ISP proxies for a stable identity that reads as consumer space. Rotating residential for breadth across many addresses.
Recommended product from $3.50/IP/wk
Proxy types explained
mobile vs residential proxies
Mobile when the target treats a shared carrier address as inherently plausible. Residential for everything else, at a fraction of the cost.
Recommended product from $1.60/IP/day
Proxy types explained
SOCKS5 vs HTTP proxies
Use HTTP for web traffic and SOCKS5 for everything that is not HTTP. Then make sure you are resolving DNS at the proxy either way.
Recommended product from $2.50/IP/wk
Proxy types explained
IPv4 vs IPv6 proxies
IPv6 where the target supports it and does not weigh address scarcity. IPv4 everywhere else, which is still most of the commercial web.
Recommended product from $0.30/IP/wk
Proxy types explained
proxy vs VPN
VPN for device-wide privacy and encryption. Proxy for per-request control, concurrency and geographic precision.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB

Head to head

FleetProxy against a named vendor

Direct comparisons with named vendors, including the cases where the other provider is the better purchase.

Head to head
FleetProxy vs Bright Data
Choose FleetProxy when your team owns the scraping stack and needs egress. Choose Bright Data when you want the collection problem outsourced.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Head to head
FleetProxy vs Oxylabs
Oxylabs if you want managed scraping products with an account team behind them. FleetProxy if you want the network, priced per gigabyte, with no sales cycle.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Head to head
FleetProxy vs Smartproxy
Two providers built for the same buyer. Choose on bandwidth expiry, ASN targeting and how you want to pay — not on pool-size claims.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Head to head
FleetProxy vs IPRoyal
IPRoyal for the smallest budgets and one-off jobs. FleetProxy when the workload is recurring and targeting depth starts to matter.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Head to head
FleetProxy vs SOAX
Very close on capability. Decide on commercial terms — bandwidth expiry, minimums and how rotation is configured — rather than on feature lists.
Recommended product from $1.60/IP/day
Head to head
FleetProxy vs Webshare
Webshare while cheap datacenter IPs still work. FleetProxy the moment your targets start scoring the network type.
Recommended product from $2.00/IP/wk

Alternatives

Shopping around for an incumbent

Round-ups for buyers shopping around, with a candidate list that names competitors as well as us.

Alternatives
Bright Data alternatives
If you are leaving for cost, buy a network and keep your own collectors. If you are leaving for fit, be honest about which platform pieces you actually used.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Alternatives
Oxylabs alternatives
Want the network without the sales cycle? Buy self-serve egress. Want the managed products? Your alternatives are narrower than you think.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Alternatives
Smartproxy alternatives
Switch for bandwidth terms, targeting depth or session control. Do not switch on a pool-size claim you cannot verify.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Alternatives
IPRoyal alternatives
Stay in the value tier while the job is small. Move when targeting depth, session control or supply documentation becomes a requirement.
Recommended product from $2.65/GB
Alternatives
SOAX alternatives
Match on targeting granularity and mobile quality first. Then decide whether you want the rotation policy in a dashboard or in your code.
Recommended product from $1.60/IP/day

Choosing

Every proxy type, and the page that explains it

Entry prices are resolved from the same tiers checkout uses. Volume breaks apply automatically and are listed in full on the pricing page.

Proxy-type comparisons, the products they cover and the entry price
Comparison	Products covered	From
residential vs datacenter proxies	Rotating residential proxies Dedicated datacenter IPv4	$2.65/GB
static vs rotating proxies	Rotating datacenter proxies Static residential (ISP) proxies	$1.20/GB
ISP vs residential proxies	Static residential (ISP) proxies Rotating residential proxies	$3.50/IP/wk
mobile vs residential proxies	Mobile LTE proxies Rotating residential proxies	$1.60/IP/day
SOCKS5 vs HTTP proxies	SOCKS5 proxies Dedicated datacenter IPv4	$2.50/IP/wk
IPv4 vs IPv6 proxies	Dedicated datacenter IPv4 Datacenter IPv6 blocks	$2.00/IP/wk
proxy vs VPN	Rotating residential proxies	$2.65/GB

Questions

About these comparisons

Are these comparisons impartial?

They are written by us, so no comparison that names a competitor can be called impartial and we will not claim otherwise. What we can do is be checkable: every vendor page carries a real section on when the other provider is the better purchase, competitor pricing is described qualitatively rather than quoted, and every page carries the date its claims were last reviewed. Treat them as a well-informed argument rather than as a neutral audit, and verify the parts that matter to you.

Why do you not publish competitors' prices?

Because they change constantly and any figure we publish is wrong within weeks. A stale price about a rival is a legal risk and is trivially falsifiable by a reader with a browser tab open, which would undermine every other claim on the page. Tiers are described qualitatively instead — self-serve entry points, quote-based enterprise agreements, commitment discounts — and readers are pointed at the vendor's own pricing page.

Which comparison should I read first?

If you have not decided what kind of proxy you need, start with the proxy-type explainers — residential versus datacenter is the decision that matters most and the one most often made backwards. If you already know the product and are choosing a supplier, go straight to the head-to-head for the vendor you are considering.

How often are these updated?

The vendor pages are reviewed on the cadence in our content checklist and each carries its review date. The proxy-type explainers describe technologies rather than companies, so they change far more slowly; they are revised when the underlying behaviour changes rather than on a schedule.

Want to check a claim yourself? The proxy tester works against any provider's endpoint, so the same measurement can be run on ours and on theirs.

Stop comparing and start measuring

Every argument on these pages resolves to one number: cost per successful request on your own targets. Claim 50MB of free residential bandwidth and find out what yours is.

Claim 50MB free See pricing

No card required for the trial. Cancel or downgrade at any time.