Residential proxies are a nightmare to shop for. Half the providers are selling datacenter IPs disguised as residential. The other half charges ridiculous prices for proxies that get banned within hours. You just want clean IPs that work for scraping, ad verification, or whatever project you’re running.

The proxy market’s completely saturated right now. Every company claims they’ve got millions of IPs, ethical sourcing, and 99.9% uptime. Then you buy a plan and discover their “residential” IPs are flagged everywhere, customer support ghosts you, and your success rate tanks. Finding providers who actually deliver what they advertise feels impossible.

We spent weeks testing residential proxy providers, running scraping tasks, checking IP quality, verifying their claims about pool sizes, and targeting options. Out of probably 15+ services we tested, five consistently delivered. Their IPs are genuinely residential, success rates match what they advertise, and pricing makes sense for the value you get. Whether you need rotating proxies for data collection or static IPs for account management, these providers came through.

5 Top Residential Proxy Providers

After extensive testing across different use cases, these five providers delivered consistently. Each brings different strengths depending on your specific needs.

Floxy

Floxy offers 85M+ ethically sourced residential proxies spanning 195 countries with 99.7% uptime that actually holds up in practice. Their network consists mainly of top-tier, A+ model proxies sourced through trusted partners who follow strict compliance standards. Unlike providers mixing in questionable IPs, Floxy’s pool comes from clear user consent through ethical P2P networks.

What sets them apart is genuine geographic targeting. You can filter by country, city, and state to meet specific project requirements. Their infrastructure delivers exceptional response times and unmatched stability. We tested them for weeks, and connection reliability stayed consistent. The IPs are clean, trusted addresses from real households that websites don’t automatically flag.

Floxy makes integration dead simple with a clean API that works with Python, JavaScript, PHP, Java, C++, and other common languages. Their documentation is straightforward, no digging through confusing guides, trying to figure out the basic setup. You can get started quickly, whether you’re scraping data, verifying ads, conducting market research, or managing accounts.

They also offer static residential proxies starting at $0.13/IP/day for projects needing consistent IP addresses over extended periods. These provide unmatched stability and reduced detection risks critical for tasks like account management or persistent scraping activities. The combination of rotating and static options gives you flexibility for different project requirements.

Pricing starts at just $4.5/GB (discounted from $5.9), making them accessible for smaller projects while still delivering enterprise-grade quality. They bypass geo-restrictions and complex CAPTCHA challenges smoothly. Customer support is responsive when you hit issues. For anyone needing reliable residential proxies without the premium markup, Floxy delivers consistently.

If you want to buy residential proxies, then just visit floxy.io to find the best residential proxy out there.

Bright Data

Bright Data runs one of the largest proxy networks available, with 72 million+ real residential IPs covering 195+ countries. They’re the heavyweight in this space; their infrastructure supports everything from small scraping projects to massive enterprise data collection operations. Average response time sits around 0.5 seconds with a 99.99% success rate that’s consistently verified in independent tests.

Geographic targeting goes deep. You can target specific countries, cities, carriers, and even ASNs for precise control over your proxy routing. This granular targeting matters when you need IPs from specific regions or want to avoid certain networks. Their pool is genuinely diverse, not concentrated in just a few countries like some providers claim.

They offer browser plugins and ready-made datasets spanning real estate, e-commerce, and other industries for non-developers. If you’re not technical, their tools make data collection accessible without coding. For developers, their API is comprehensive with extensive documentation and support for HTTP and HTTPS requests.

Bright Data assigns dedicated account managers, which is clutch when you’re running complex operations and need quick problem-solving. They offer a 7-day free trial so you can test their network before committing. Pricing starts at $7.35/GB with pay-as-you-go and custom enterprise plans available. It’s premium pricing, but you’re getting premium infrastructure and support.

The platform includes advanced features like session control, automatic retry logic, and built-in CAPTCHA solving. For large-scale operations needing maximum reliability and the biggest proxy pool available, Bright Data delivers. They’re expensive, but the infrastructure justifies the cost for serious projects.

Oxylabs

Oxylabs offers residential proxies sourced from real devices with over 100 million IPs spanning 195+ countries. Their network provides excellent reliability with 0.6-second response times and unmetered bandwidth on most plans. They’ve built a reputation for quality over quantity. Their IPs consistently have high success rates because they maintain strict quality standards.

What makes Oxylabs stand out is advanced session control. You get rotating proxies, sticky sessions that maintain the same IP for extended periods, and flexible rotation options you can configure based on project needs. This flexibility matters when different tasks require different approaches. Scraping might need constant rotation, while account management needs sticky sessions.

Their residential proxies come from legitimate sources, making them more reliable than providers mixing datacenter IPs into residential pools. Websites trust Oxylabs IPs because they’re genuinely from real devices on residential networks. This translates to fewer blocks, better success rates, and less time troubleshooting why your proxies keep getting flagged.

Geographic targeting includes country, state, and city-level precision. You can narrow down to specific carriers or ASNs when needed. The dashboard is well-designed managing large proxy operations doesn’t feel overwhelming. Documentation is thorough with code examples in multiple languages. Customer support knows its stuff and responds quickly.

Pricing starts at $10/GB for pay-as-you-go, with monthly plans ranging from $99 to $600+, depending on volume. It’s premium pricing, but Oxylabs delivers premium quality. If your projects depend on high success rates and you need reliable residential IPs that won’t let you down, Oxylabs is worth the investment.

IPRoyal

IPRoyal provides 32 million+ ethically-sourced unique residential IPs with unrestricted access across 195+ countries. They’ve built their reputation on genuinely ethical sourcing; their IPs come from users who knowingly consent to sharing bandwidth, not shady browser extensions or malware. This ethical approach means cleaner IPs with better reputations.

Success rate sits around 99.7% with solid performance across different use cases. They support the SOCKS5 protocol in addition to HTTP/HTTPS, giving you flexibility for different applications. City and state targeting is accessible, letting you narrow down geographic locations for precise scraping or verification tasks.

What sets IPRoyal apart is its pricing model no monthly commitments or contracts required. You pay as you go, which is perfect for projects with variable proxy needs. Don’t want to commit to huge monthly bills when your usage fluctuates? IPRoyal’s pay-as-you-go structure eliminates that problem. Pricing starts at $7.00/GB, competitive for the quality you’re getting.

They offer both rotating and sticky sessions depending on your needs. The dashboard is straightforward, easy to manage proxy users, and monitor usage without complexity. Their API integrations work smoothly with common languages and frameworks. Documentation covers the basics well, though not as extensively as larger providers.

Customer support is responsive when issues arise. They’ve designed their service for users who want quality residential proxies without enterprise-level complexity or pricing. If you need ethical IPs, flexible payment terms, and solid performance at reasonable prices, IPRoyal delivers consistently.

Smartproxy

Smartproxy (now operating as Decodo) offers 115 million residential IPs across 195+ countries with excellent value for the quality delivered. They’ve achieved a 99.86% success rate with 0.63-second average response times performance that rivals more expensive premium providers. Their pool is genuinely diverse with strong coverage globally, not just concentrated in major markets.

The platform balances strong performance with reasonable pricing and a solid feature set suitable for most tasks. Geographic targeting includes country, state, city, ASN, and even ZIP code level precision among the most granular targeting available. Rotation options are flexible, supporting per-request rotation or sticky sessions lasting up to 24 hours.

What makes Smartproxy attractive is the user experience. Their dashboard is designed with simplicity in mind, ideal for newcomers and small teams needing a quick setup without complex configuration. Documentation is extensive with clear guides, code examples, and troubleshooting resources. They’ve won awards for 24/7 customer support that actually helps solve problems quickly.

They support HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols (including UDP). API access is straightforward, and they offer a browser extension plus an anti-detect browser for users needing additional anonymity layers. The self-service approach means you can get started quickly without waiting for sales calls or onboarding processes.

Pricing starts from $3.50 per GB, with a free trial available and pay-as-you-go options. Use code RESI50 for 50% off residential proxies. This pricing delivers excellent bang for your buck compared to premium providers charging 2-3x more for similar performance. For projects needing reliable residential proxies without premium pricing, Smartproxy hits the sweet spot.

Should You Use Residential Or Datacenter Proxies

Residential proxies route through real devices on home networks, making them much harder to detect. Websites see legitimate residential IP addresses that ISPs assign to actual people. This legitimacy means higher success rates, fewer blocks, and better performance for tasks like web scraping, ad verification, unblocking websites, and accessing geo-restricted content.

Datacenter proxies come from servers in data centers. They’re faster and cheaper, but way easier to detect. Websites can identify datacenter IP ranges and block them preemptively. For tasks requiring anonymity or bypassing detection systems, datacenter proxies often fail where residential proxies succeed. The higher cost of residential proxies pays off in reliability.

Use residential proxies when detection risk matters. Web scraping sites with strong anti-bot protection, managing multiple social media accounts, verifying ads across different locations, and conducting competitive market research these all benefit from residential IPs. The extra cost is worth avoiding bans and maintaining high success rates.

Datacenter proxies work fine for tasks where detection doesn’t matter much. Accessing geo-restricted content for personal use, basic web automation, or scraping sites without sophisticated anti-bot systems, datacenter IPs handle these cheaply. But for anything requiring anonymity or avoiding detection, residential proxies are mandatory.

Consider your project requirements carefully. Residential proxies cost more per GB but deliver better results for detection-sensitive tasks. Datacenter proxies save money but fail for anything requiring genuine anonymity. Most serious operations eventually migrate to residential proxies after datacenter IPs prove unreliable.

Conclusion

Quality residential proxy providers prioritize ethical sourcing, maintain high success rates, and deliver genuine geographic diversity. Floxy leads with 85M+ ethically sourced IPs, excellent uptime, and pricing that’s accessible without sacrificing quality. Their focus on clean, trusted residential addresses from real households makes them ideal for anyone needing reliable proxies without premium pricing.