The best residential proxy service

It may seem impossible to find the best residential proxy service that can keep your online privacy. The proxy industry is huge; there are hundreds of services available, and everyone claims to be the best. We have removed several dubious proxy providers from the list. Although they haven’t been caught sharing user data yet, we are worried they will be there soon.

Our honest and detailed reviews will help you choose the right residential proxy service for you, whether you want Netflix US in another country, get over government censorship, or remain completely anonymous online.

Table of content

1. Why do you need the best residential proxy service?
2. Types of proxy server protocols
3. Where you can find the best residential proxy service?
4. Who is the best proxy provider for you?

Why do you need the best residential proxy service?

Proxy servers are third-party entities that operate as a go-between for you and the internet. Let’s say you live in the United Kingdom and want to watch a video on a website in the United States. You may use a proxy server to keep your current location and access material as if you were in the United States. This is a low-risk circumstance that does not necessitate the use of encryption.

Another example would be browsing the internet through a server in a location where the plane ticket is cheaper. Yes, airlines are doing this kind of stuff! It is also important to know that these proxy server connections are configured differently from application to application, which means that you must configure the browser to accept the proxy connection.

Keep in mind, if you’re looking for cheap proxies, especially residential proxies, you’re not necessarily going to get the best ones.

Types of proxy server protocols

The older of the two types of proxies, HTTP proxies, only works for web traffic. To use an HTTP proxy, connect the proxy server to the configuration file of your web browser or use a browser extension if the browser does not support native proxies. All web traffic will be routed through the remote proxy.

SOCKS proxies offer support for non-HTTP traffic, such as SMTP, FTP, and Torrent traffic.

More information regarding the two proxy server protocols you can find in this article: SOCKS proxy versus HTTP proxy.

Where you can find the best residential proxy service?

1. Bright Data

Bright Data offers over 72 million IPs worldwide, unlimited concurrent connections, and open-source proxy tools. Above all, you get access to the Bright Data proxy manager. This is an advanced open-source software you can use to manage proxies without any coding.

2. Infatica

Infatica offers residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies with HTTP/HTTPS support and, in the early phases, SOCKS5. Almost any proxy-related task can be performed with their dedicated or shared residential proxy servers. Even though it has only been in operation for a short time, it already possesses over 2.5 million home IP addresses that have been meticulously obtained all around the world.

3. IcedOutProxies

IcedOutProxies offers many unique features, such as HTTP protocol compatibility, IPv4 technology, and great customer discounts. They also provide more anonymity for sneakers. The provider’s private and shared proxy services include a range of proxy types. This company has grown in popularity because of the quality of its sneaker proxies and service delivery.

4. RSocks

RSocks is one of the numerous proxy providers that offer a wide range of proxies to satisfy all of your proxy needs. It has a big pool of IPs that have been established for several uses. They do, however, primarily supply residential proxies. VPN services are also available, which work similarly to residential proxies. It is one of the top suppliers on the market and has some intriguing features.

5. Smartproxy

Smartproxy has flexible pricing, a 3 days money-back guarantee (except Bitcoin payments), and awesome 24/7 support. It offers 4 monthly subscription plans with limited GB included ranging from 75 dollars to 600 dollars. You get an unlimited number of connections and countries because the pricing is based on traffic limits.

6. Stormproxies

Stormproxies offers unlimited bandwidth, with no hidden costs. After payment, you get instant access without any waiting time for account activation or proxies setup. You can try Stormproxies without any risk because you have 48 hours after purchase to send a mail and get your money back. The pricing is based on the number of proxy IPs for the private dedicated proxies, on the number of threads for the backconnect rotating proxies, or the number of ports for the residential rotating proxies. 

7. Proxy-Cheap

Proxy-Cheap offers a user-friendly dashboard. You can easily use it even if you are a beginner. The 4G mobile IPs and residential IPs help you stay ahead of the competition, go up in ranking and boost your online presence with any search engine, including Google. To access the network, you pay per GB and you can choose from 3 monthly plans according to your needed amount of traffic.

8. Proxyrack

Proxyrack is a dynamic proxy network that has new IPs added constantly. You can get a premium package with an included geolocation API. Proxyrack takes a different approach. After subscription, you get access to more than 2 million monthly IPs, including home residential WiFi connections. Afterward, the proxy API will go through the IP pool and select the best IP for you. You can process the requests through the API. Also, you can select from your dashboard the type of proxy port.

9. Shifter

Shifter offers backconnect proxies with real broadband, digital cable, and DSL residential IPs. Also, they have dedicated proxies with high-speed data center IPs as a dedicated solution. Moreover, here you will find shared proxies with high-speed data center IPs shared between 3 clients.

10. Oxylabs

Oxylabs offers instant access to more than 60 million residential proxies, using the fast and easy self-service checkout. For the best data gathering outcome, you can choose from rotating residential proxies or sticky sessions. With no additional fee, you also get a dedicated account manager, city-level targeting, advice on target scraping, usage stats dashboard, 24/7 live support, and country filtering. 

Who is the best proxy provider for you?

Before laying down our list, the last thing we need to mention is that not all proxies are equal. There are several free proxy services that you can take advantage of, but, when it comes to confidentiality and performance, you have to pay. Free proxies are free for a reason. In general, they have a short operating time, are full of advertisements and dangers. These are sometimes run by hackers who seek to steal your information. Although, if you want to know more about the risks you expose yourself, read the following article: Confidentiality risks.

Our Shortlist

Smartproxies has over 40 million IP addresses with unlimited connections and threads. You have the option to choose the targeted country and if you want a sticky proxy or a random one that changes every 5 minutes. The price varies according to the subscription plan you choose regarding data consumption limits. It is simple to use and easy to work with.

Bright Data is the leading proxy network with over 72 million IP addresses. This huge IP pool is partially owed to the fact that they give free access to Hola VPN in exchange for your IP address. Thus, the only downside is that a good brand renders a higher price. Also, the cheapest subscription is 500$ and it might be too much for a tight budget.

StormProxies has around 70.000 IP addresses which might not impress you like the other proxy services above. But, if there was a top of beginner proxy providers, this one would take the first spot. Mainly, because a wide variety of users would enjoy the pricing subscription plans and decent quality found here. Also, you have the option of purchasing a single port subscription.

Here you will find our list of providers that have a good residential proxy service.