Comparison
Beginner
10 min
How to Choose the Right Proxy Provider
Key factors to consider when selecting a proxy provider for your specific needs.
Define Your Use Case
Different uses require different proxies. Web scraping needs large rotating pools. Social media needs static residential or mobile. Ad verification needs clean residential IPs. Know your needs first.
Pool Size and Quality
Larger pools mean less IP overlap with other users. Quality matters more than size - clean, verified IPs perform better than massive pools with bad IPs. Check if providers actively maintain their pools.
Geographic Coverage
Need specific countries? Check provider coverage. Some excel in US/EU but lack Asian IPs. City-level targeting costs more but enables precise geo-testing.
Pricing Models
Per GB: pay for bandwidth used, good for heavy users. Per request: pay per API call, good for scraping APIs. Per IP: pay monthly per proxy, good for dedicated uses. Understand the model to predict costs.
Support and Reliability
24/7 support matters for production use. Check uptime guarantees (look for 99%+). Read reviews about actual support quality. Free trials let you test before committing.
Our Recommendations
For scraping: ScraperAPI, Scrape.do for APIs; Bright Data for enterprise. For social media: Mobile proxies from Smartproxy or IPRoyal. For budget: ScrapingAnt, Webshare. For sneakers: Storm Proxies, Rayobyte.