You've been asked to pick a proxy provider for your team. One colleague needs residential IPs to monitor competitor prices, another needs mobile IPs to check app campaigns, and your manager wants a single invoice. You open a dozen pricing pages and find a dozen different ways of charging.
It's a common starting point, and it makes the decision feel harder than it is. Most providers are strong at one or two things. The trick is matching those strengths to what your team actually does, then checking the small print on expiry, refunds and targeting before you pay.
This guide does that matching for you. You'll find quick picks, a comparison table, nine providers with honest pros and cons, and a plain explanation of what a proxy provider does if you're new to the category.
Quick picks
Provider |
Residential |
Mobile |
Entry residential price |
Unused traffic |
ProxyEmpire |
Yes |
Rotating per GB and dedicated |
$3.50/GB |
Rolls over |
Webshare |
Yes |
No |
$3.50 (1 GB) |
Not stated |
DataImpulse |
Yes |
$2/GB per its blog |
$1/GB (50 GB) |
Never expires |
Decodo |
Yes |
From $2.25/GB |
$3.75/GB |
Not stated |
IPRoyal |
Yes |
From $10.11/day |
$7/GB |
Never expires |
NodeMaven |
Yes |
Shared balance with residential |
$2.20/GB monthly |
Rolls over |
Proxy-Seller |
Yes |
From $10/proxy |
$1.45/GB volume |
Valid 30 days |
Oxylabs |
Yes |
$7.50 to $3.50/GB |
$6/GB |
Not stated |
Bright Data |
Yes |
Not in current menus |
$4/GB with code |
Commitments lapse |
If your team needs residential and mobile proxies from one account, ProxyEmpire is built for that. Mobile isn't an add-on here: rotating mobile has its own monthly tiers, from 6 GB for $25 a month up to 1,000 GB for $2,000 a month, with custom volumes from $1.25 per GB. Rotating residential runs alongside, from 7 GB for $20 a month or $3.50 per GB without commitment, and both draw on one login, one invoice and one support team.
You can target residential IPs down to ZIP and ASN and mobile IPs down to carrier, all at no extra cost, and the company reports 30M+ residential and 4M+ mobile IPs in 170+ countries. Unused GB on GB plans roll over, so a quiet month for one colleague doesn't waste the team's budget. Dedicated mobile, static ISP and datacenter are on the same account if your needs grow. Before buying a tier, run the $1.97 trial: it includes 100 MB of residential and 50 MB of mobile traffic, so both colleagues can test their own targets in one go.
Pros:
Cons:
Webshare is the easiest way to get started without spending anything. You get 10 datacenter proxies free, permanently, with no credit card. When you need residential IPs, plans start at $3.50 for 1 GB and drop to $1.40 per GB from 250 GB.
You can build plans around the exact bandwidth and locations you want, and support runs 24/7 with dedicated account managers. The main gap is mobile: Webshare doesn't sell it, so your app-testing colleague would need another provider.
Pros:
Cons:
DataImpulse suits you if price per GB is your first concern. You pay $50 for 50 GB with no subscription, and nothing you buy expires. Mobile traffic is listed at $2 per GB in its official blog.
The trade-off is targeting. Country is free, but state, city, ZIP and ASN cost extra, so local price checks will cost more than the headline rate. A 7-day refund policy gives you some room to try it.
Pros:
Cons:
Decodo is a solid self-service choice with a free residential trial: 100 MB over 3 days. Every plan reaches the full pool of 115M+ residential IPs, and targeting down to ZIP and ASN is free.
Mobile starts from $2.25 per GB across 160+ locations. Watch the trial, though: it converts to a paid plan unless you cancel, and you can't run Wallet pay as you go alongside a subscription.
Pros:
Cons:
IPRoyal fits you if one IP needs to last a long time. Sticky sessions can hold for up to 7 days, and your residential traffic never expires.
The entry price is high for small purchases, at $7 per GB on a 1 GB subscription, and mobile is sold per day from $10.11 rather than per GB. Team features like workspace roles and 2FA make sharing the account easy.
Pros:
Cons:
NodeMaven is worth a look if your team manages social or marketplace accounts. Its IP Quality Filter checks every address for fraud score and blacklist status before you get it.
Residential and mobile share one balance from $2.20 per GB on monthly plans, unused bandwidth rolls over, and you can earn up to 10% cashback on used traffic. The mobile pool is listed at 250K IPs, small next to residential.
Pros:
Cons:
Proxy-Seller sells almost every proxy format, including IPv4 and IPv6, from one store. Residential volume plans start from $1.45 per GB, and mobile is sold per proxy from $10 with carrier targeting.
Residential traffic must be used within 30 days, and refunds or replacements need to be requested within 24 hours, so plan purchases carefully.
Pros:
Cons:
Oxylabs suits data teams that want proxies and scraping tools on one bill. A subscription from $30 a month covers proxies, a Web API, an unblocker and an agent browser.
Residential costs $6 per GB at the first tier, and mobile ranges from $7.50 to $3.50 per GB. Geo targeting is free, and a $5 credit lets you test.
Pros:
Cons:
Bright Data is the enterprise option, with 400M+ monthly residential IPs and certifications including ISO 27001 and SOC 2. Residential pay as you go costs $4 per GB with code RESIGB50, and a free trial needs no credit card.
You'll pass a KYC check before using residential IPs, unused monthly commitments don't roll over, and mobile proxies don't appear in its current menus.
Pros:
Cons:
A proxy provider gives you access to a pool of IP addresses that your traffic can pass through. When you send a request through a proxy, the website you visit sees the proxy's IP address instead of yours, along with its location.
Providers source those IPs from different places. Residential IPs belong to home internet connections, mobile IPs come from cellular carriers, ISP proxies are static addresses registered to internet providers, and datacenter IPs come from hosting companies. Each type suits different jobs, from price monitoring to ad verification to app testing.
Beyond the IPs themselves, a provider supplies the tools to use them, and these often matter as much as the pool: targeting by location, session control, dashboards, APIs, browser extensions and support. It also sets the commercial terms, which is where providers differ most: pricing per GB or per IP, trials, refunds and whether unused traffic expires.
Most teams need more than one kind of proxy, and the best provider is the one that covers those needs without forcing you into several contracts. ProxyEmpire is the strongest fit if you want residential and mobile on one account, with free targeting, separate monthly tiers for each network and GB that never expire. Webshare suits free starts, DataImpulse suits tight budgets, Decodo suits free trials, IPRoyal suits long sessions, NodeMaven suits account work, Proxy-Seller suits format variety, Oxylabs suits bundled scraping and Bright Data suits enterprises.