Skip to content
IPStar
Reviews

Proxy provider reviews

Small and mid-tier providers are the focus — we buy plans, run our own Worker + VPS probes, and re-score every 30 days. Big names get a brief, sober recap instead of a sponsored microsite.

Small / Mid-tier (deep test)Static ISP Updated 2026-08-11

NetNut Static ISP

Clean US/EU static ISP pool with real Comcast / Virgin / Orange ASNs. Hygiene is better than most mid-tier; 72h soak scores rarely drop more than 5 points.

Pros
  • Real ISP ASNs, not relabeled DC
  • 90+ day IP stability in 8/10 subnets
  • No per-GB overcharge on static plans
Cons
  • Asian coverage thin
  • Dashboard UX still janky
  • Dedicated account manager only on >50 IPs
Best for: Multi-marketplace sellers with 5–50 accounts.
Small / Mid-tier (deep test)Residential Updated 2026-07-20

Smartproxy (Residential)

Solid rotating residential gateway. Actual residential share ~88% in our 200-IP sample, which is better than most $3/GB competitors.

Pros
  • Transparent bandwidth billing (egress only)
  • 24/7 chat with real engineers, not tier-0
  • Good JP / SG / AU coverage
Cons
  • Failed requests still billed on some endpoints
  • Sneaker / ad-targeted sub-pools are oversold
Best for: Medium-volume scrapers (10–100 RPM) with mixed geo targets.
Small / Mid-tier (deep test)Residential Updated 2026-06-30

GeoSurf

Decent coverage, very inconsistent IP hygiene. 30-day average reputation swing of ~20 points means you have to re-test subnets monthly.

Pros
  • Hard-to-find MEA cities
  • Simple per-GB pricing, no minimums above starter plan
Cons
  • Reputation drop-off after first week of use
  • Ticket support < 1 response / day on weekends
Best for: Short-tail geo jobs when nobody else covers the country.
Giant (quick take)Residential Updated 2026-08-01

BrightData (giant)

Coverage and volume are unmatched. But the small-seller experience is clearly deprioritized — minimums, opaque pricing tiers, and hands-off self-service that makes you pay for mistakes.

Pros
  • Widest geo / ASN coverage
  • Enterprise-grade SLAs on upper tiers
  • Captcha / unlocker add-ons actually work
Cons
  • Minimum spend often required after trial
  • Small-plan support is mostly ticket bot
  • Oversold pools in top e-commerce geos
Best for: Teams doing 500K+ requests/month who have a dedicated operator.
Giant (quick take)Residential Updated 2026-08-01

Oxylabs (giant)

Stable, well-documented, enterprise-priced. For small shops the math rarely works vs mid-tier providers once you add bandwidth overages.

Pros
  • Predictable success rates on major targets
  • Good SDK & docs
  • Dedicated account manager on all paid tiers
Cons
  • Premium pricing with long contracts
  • Custom pricing opaque for non-reference use cases
Best for: Scaling teams who value SLA over marginal cost per GB.
Small / Mid-tier (deep test)Datacenter Updated 2026-05-22

ProxyRack (Datacenter)

Cheap, fast, honest datacenter pool. No fake "residential-masked" marketing. Exactly what you want if you know your target tolerates DC IPs.

Pros
  • $0.40–$1.20 per GB prices match invoices exactly
  • Subnet diversity is real — 1200+ ASNs in US sample
  • No minimums, pause anytime
Cons
  • DC is still DC — do not use for seller account logins
  • Latency spikes to 300ms+ outside NA/EU
Best for: APIs, public data, light scraping of non-protected sites.

Methodology: all paid plans purchased with our own funds. Each provider is tested from our Worker broker → 3 overseas VPS (FRA, SJC, SIN) with 200 random IPs per residential plan, 50 per static ISP, 100 per datacenter. Success rate & latency measured against 6 real-world target sites, not provider-owned echo endpoints. Ratings are relative to the tier — a 4/5 small-mid is not directly comparable to a 4/5 giant.

Proxy Provider Reviews — Focused on Small & Mid-tier Services · IPStar