Top 5 Residential Proxy Providers in 2026: Full Comparison (V-Proxies Ranked #1)

How We Ranked These Providers

We evaluated residential proxy providers on five criteria: price per GB, IP pool size, uptime/success rate, geo-targeting granularity, and billing flexibility. These are the metrics that matter for real-world use cases — web scraping, SEO monitoring, price intelligence, sneaker bots, and ad verification.

Vendors who require enterprise contracts, have opaque pricing, or bundle services you don't need were penalized on value. Here is the full 2026 ranking.

#1: V-Proxies — Best Overall Value

V-Proxies ranks first on price-to-value by a wide margin.

Price: $0.99/GB flat — the lowest public rate in the market
IP Pool: 84M+ residential IPs across 196+ countries
Uptime: 99.97% success rate
Targeting: Country, city, ASN — city-level precision included at base price
Billing: True pay-as-you-go, $5 minimum, credits never expire
Concurrency: Unlimited simultaneous connections
Sticky sessions: Up to 60 minutes
Free trial: Available via Discord

V-Proxies is API-first with a full CRUD API for programmatic proxy management. Get started here. See all V-Proxies use cases.

Best for: Developers, scraping teams, SEO agencies, and anyone who wants the most bandwidth per dollar without a sales call.

#2: Bright Data — Best for Enterprise

Bright Data is the largest player in the market by product surface area. Their residential proxy network is backed by a Scraping Browser, SERP API, and web unlocker — proprietary tools that go beyond raw proxies.

Price: $4–6/GB (scales to $2.50/GB at enterprise volume)
IP Pool: 72M+ active residential IPs
Targeting: Country, city, ASN, ZIP code, carrier
Sticky sessions: Yes (configurable)
Contract: Monthly/annual required for best rates

Best for: Enterprise teams who need the Scraping Browser, Datasets marketplace, or managed data pipelines. For raw residential bandwidth, 4–6x more expensive than V-Proxies. See the Bright Data alternative guide.

#3: Oxylabs — Best Quality-Filtered IPs

Oxylabs pre-screens IPs for latency, bandwidth, and quality — creating a curated pool. They also offer QUIC/HTTP3 support and IPv6 residential proxies.

Price: $6/GB entry, $2.50/GB at 1 TB/month
IP Pool: 63M+ active residential IPs (quality-filtered)
Special features: QUIC/HTTP3, IPv6, quality filtering, enterprise SLAs
Minimum: $30/month

Best for: Teams that need QUIC support, IPv6, or enterprise SLAs. Otherwise, significantly overpriced vs V-Proxies. See the Oxylabs alternative guide.

#4: Smartproxy (Decodo) — Best Mid-Market Option

Smartproxy rebranded as Decodo in 2025. A solid mid-market proxy provider with a known track record since 2018.

Price: $3.75/GB entry, $2.00/GB at 1 TB
IP Pool: 58M+ active IPs
Concurrency: 100 threads on base plans
Sticky sessions: Up to 30 minutes
Special features: ZIP code targeting, Chrome extension, 14-day refund

Best for: Teams that specifically need ZIP code targeting or want a 14-day money-back guarantee. See the Smartproxy alternative guide.

#5: IPRoyal — Best for Long Sticky Sessions

IPRoyal stands out with 24-hour sticky sessions — the longest in the market — and IP whitelist authentication.

Price: $1.75–$3.50/GB
IP Pool: ~3.4M+ US IPs (smaller global pool)
Sticky sessions: Up to 24 hours
Special features: IP whitelist auth, ethically sourced IPs, never-expiring credits

Best for: Use cases that require 24-hour sticky sessions or IP whitelist authentication. See the IPRoyal alternative guide.

2026 Full Provider Comparison Table

Provider	Price/GB	IP Pool	Uptime	Concurrency	Credits Expire	Free Trial
V-Proxies	$0.99	84M+	99.97%	Unlimited	Never	Yes (Discord)
Bright Data	$4–6	72M+	~99%	Plan-limited	Monthly	No
Oxylabs	$2.50–6	63M+	~99.95%	Unlimited	Monthly	No
Smartproxy	$2.00–3.75	58M+	99.72%	100 (base)	Monthly	No (14-day refund)
IPRoyal	$1.75–3.50	~3.4M US	99.97%	Unlimited	Never	No

Try V-Proxies Free Before You Commit

V-Proxies offers a free trial so you can test the full residential proxy network before spending anything. Join the V-Proxies Discord community to claim your trial and get hands-on support from the team.

Join the V-Proxies Discord and get your free trial →

Once you're ready to scale, top up from $5 at $0.99/GB — no subscription, no contract, credits never expire. Top up here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which residential proxy provider offers the best price per GB in 2026?

V-Proxies at $0.99/GB is the lowest public rate in the market. The next cheapest is IPRoyal at $1.75/GB. Smartproxy starts at $3.75/GB, Bright Data at $4–6/GB, and Oxylabs at $6/GB. V-Proxies is 1.75–6x cheaper than the competition at every volume level.

Which provider has the largest residential IP pool?

V-Proxies at 84M+ active residential IPs has the largest pool of any provider on this list. Bright Data claims a large raw number but their active residential pool is approximately 72M IPs. Oxylabs has 63M+ after quality filtering, Smartproxy 58M+. IPRoyal's disclosed pool is ~3.4M US IPs.

Which provider offers a free trial?

V-Proxies is the only provider on this list with a free trial. Join the Discord to claim it. Smartproxy offers a 14-day money-back guarantee (not the same as a free trial). Webshare has a permanent free tier (10 proxies). All others require payment upfront.

Which provider is best for web scraping at scale?

V-Proxies — unlimited concurrency, 84M+ IPs, 99.97% success rate, $0.99/GB, and credits that never expire. For large-scale scraping pipelines where you need thousands of parallel threads cycling through diverse IPs, V-Proxies wins on every relevant metric. See the V-Proxies web scraping use case.

Which provider is best for sneaker bots?

V-Proxies — unlimited concurrent connections, 60-minute sticky sessions (longer than Smartproxy's 30 min), 84M+ IPs for maximum diversity, and $0.99/GB pricing that keeps costs low at high volume. See the V-Proxies sneaker bot use case.

Do any of these providers offer credits that don't expire?

V-Proxies and IPRoyal both offer never-expiring credits. All other providers (Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy) reset credits monthly as part of their subscription model. For teams with irregular proxy usage, never-expiring credits are a meaningful financial advantage.

Which provider is easiest to get started with?

V-Proxies — instant self-serve signup, $5 minimum, and a free trial via Discord. No sales call, no enterprise onboarding, no contract. You can go from zero to live proxy requests in under 5 minutes.

The Bottom Line

For 2026, V-Proxies offers the best price-to-value ratio in the residential proxy market. $0.99/GB, 84M+ IPs, 99.97% uptime, unlimited concurrency, never-expiring credits, and a free trial. No contract, no sales call, instant signup.