Use-Cases
Intermediate
12 min
Best Proxies for Web Scraping in 2024
A comprehensive guide to choosing the right proxy type and provider for your web scraping projects.
Why Proxies Are Essential for Scraping
Websites limit requests from single IPs to prevent abuse. Without proxies, you'll quickly hit rate limits or get blocked. Rotating proxies let you distribute requests across thousands of IPs, appearing as different users.
Choosing the Right Proxy Type
For simple APIs and unprotected sites: datacenter proxies work fine. For most websites: residential proxies provide the best balance. For heavily protected sites (Cloudflare, PerimeterX): consider scraping APIs with built-in bypass.
Scraping API vs Raw Proxies
Scraping APIs (like ScraperAPI, Scrape.do, ScrapingBee) handle proxy rotation, browser rendering, and CAPTCHA solving automatically. They're easier to use but cost more per request. Raw proxies are cheaper but require you to manage rotation and anti-detection.
Proxy Rotation Strategies
Random rotation: new IP every request (best for broad scraping). Sticky sessions: same IP for 1-30 minutes (best for multi-page sessions). IP pools: rotate within a geographic region for consistency.
Top Providers for Scraping
For APIs: ScraperAPI, Scrape.do, ScrapingBee offer turnkey solutions. For residential proxies: Bright Data and Smartproxy have the largest pools. For budget options: ScrapingAnt and Webshare offer free tiers.