The best residential proxies depend on your volume and how much you care about sourcing: large providers suit big data projects, smaller providers suit testing and modest scraping, and ethically sourced networks suit teams that need to explain where their IPs come from. Eleven options follow in no particular order.
Residential proxies route your requests through IP addresses belonging to home internet connections, so websites see a normal visitor from a chosen country or city. Businesses use them to collect public web data, check ads and search results by location, and test how sites behave around the world.
The eleven providers below are listed alphabetically and in no particular order. Every description comes from the provider's own site, read this week. If you're not sure what a proxy is for, my explainer on whether you need an Instagram proxy covers the basics.
Proxy providers side by side
In the free plan column, Yes means the tool's own site names a free plan, a free version, a free tool or an open source edition. Trial only means a time-limited trial. Not stated means the pages I read named neither, even where there's a button inviting you to try it.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | Residential proxies and web data | Large data collection projects | Not stated |
| Decodo | Residential proxies and scraping APIs | Developers who want proxies plus scraping | Not stated |
| Evomi | Ethical proxies and web data | Teams that care how IPs are sourced | Trial only |
| Infatica | Residential and ISP proxies | Ethically sourced residential IPs | Trial only |
| IPRoyal | Residential proxies and scraping tools | Smaller projects testing locations | Trial only |
| Live Proxies | Private residential and mobile proxies | Keeping the same IP for weeks | Trial only |
| Oxylabs | Large residential proxy pool | Enterprise-scale proxy pools | Not stated |
| PacketStream | Peer-to-peer residential proxy network | Sticky sessions on a peer network | Not stated |
| Rayobyte | Residential, ISP and mobile proxies | City-level targeting | Not stated |
| SOAX | Residential proxies for web data | Market research and cybersecurity | Not stated |
| Webshare | Self-serve proxies | Getting started free with no sales calls | Yes |
Eleven residential proxy providers to compare
Bright Data
Best for: Data teams running big web data projects that want residential proxies plus scraper APIs and ready-made datasets.
Decodo
Best for: Developers who want residential proxies alongside simple scrape and search endpoints that return clean data.
Evomi
Best for: Buyers who care how proxy IPs are sourced and want ethical residential and mobile proxies, with a free trial.
Infatica
Best for: Businesses that want ethically sourced residential and ISP proxies and an easy trial to test them first.
IPRoyal
Best for: Smaller projects that want residential proxies plus a web unblocker, with a free trial to test.
Live Proxies
Best for: Users who need the same residential IP for 30 days or longer, plus rotating mobile IPs, with a free trial.
Oxylabs
Best for: Enterprises that want a very large residential proxy pool with browser extensions, datasets and documented proxy sourcing.
PacketStream
Best for: Engineers who want residential proxies from a peer network where people share bandwidth, with sticky sessions available.
Rayobyte
Best for: Projects that need residential proxies targeted down to city level, plus datacenter and mobile options.
SOAX
Best for: Teams in market research, ecommerce and cybersecurity that need residential proxies for collecting web data at scale.
Webshare
Best for: Developers who want self-serve proxies with no sales calls, starting with free proxies and no credit card.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Rotating, sticky or static residential IPs?
Rotating proxies give you a new IP address for each request or every few minutes, which suits collecting lots of public pages. Sticky sessions keep the same IP for a while, which suits tasks that need a consistent visitor, such as checking a logged-in journey. Static residential or ISP proxies keep one address for days or weeks.
Many providers sell all three, plus datacenter and mobile proxies. Start with the type your task needs, then compare location coverage and success rates for the sites you care about.
Where do residential IPs come from?
The FBI warns that compromised home devices can become part of the BADBOX 2.0 botnet and residential proxy services known to be used for malicious activity, and that the botnet consists of millions of infected devices with backdoors to proxy services.
That's the uncomfortable side of this market. Some residential IPs come from people who agreed to share bandwidth, often through an app; others come from devices that were never meant to be part of a network. Ask every provider how its IPs are sourced and prefer ones that explain consent clearly.
Questions to ask before you choose
- How does the provider source its residential IPs, and how is consent handled?
- Which countries and cities do we need?
- Do we need rotating, sticky or static addresses?
- What success rates does it report for the sites we'll use?
- Does it offer scraping APIs, or only raw proxies?
- What are its rules on acceptable use?
Red flags when choosing a proxy provider
- No word on how IPs are sourced. Ask before you buy.
- Promises to get round any block. That invites misuse.
- No acceptable use policy. Serious providers set rules.
- Huge pools with no proof. Test success rates yourself.
Do you make residential proxies? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on choosing a proxy provider
Run a small trial against the exact sites you need, from the exact locations you need, and measure success and speed yourself. Results vary a lot by target site, so general claims won't tell you much.
Use proxies for public data and testing, respect each site's terms and never use them to get round logins or limits you agreed to. For privacy at work rather than data collection, a business VPN is the better tool; see my guide to the best VPN for business.
Frequently asked questions
What are residential proxies?
They're proxies that use IP addresses from home internet connections, so requests look like they come from ordinary visitors in a chosen location.
What's the difference between residential and datacenter proxies?
Datacenter proxies use addresses from server farms, which are faster but easier for sites to spot. Residential proxies look like home users.
Are residential proxies legal?
Using them is generally legal, but what you do with them must follow the law and each site's terms. Sourcing also matters.
What is a sticky session?
It's a setting that keeps the same IP address for a set period, so a site sees one consistent visitor.
Are there free residential proxies?
Some providers in the table name free proxies or a free trial on their own site. Check the free plan column.
Is a residential proxy the same as a VPN?
No. A VPN protects your own connection. Residential proxies route automated requests through other people's connections.
