Bright Data is the best all-round pick for proxies, scraper APIs and datasets in one place. Volza is the better choice when you need import-export trade data rather than scraped pages, and MangoProxy suits teams that just need flexible residential, ISP, datacenter or mobile proxies at a lower entry price.
The best web scraping and proxy tools in 2026 are Bright Data for teams that want one platform covering proxies, scraper APIs and ready-made datasets, MangoProxy for teams that only need flexible proxies at a lower entry price, Volza when the question is really about trade data, Oxylabs and Decodo for established proxy networks, Zyte and ScraperAPI for managed scraping APIs, Apify for no-code and low-code scrapers, and Firecrawl for turning web pages into clean text for AI workflows. The right pick depends less on brand and more on one question: do you need IP addresses, a service that fetches pages for you, or the finished data?
This guide is written for marketing, SEO, ecommerce pricing and market-research teams. Every starting price below was checked on the vendor's own pricing page in October 2026. Prices change often, and several are promotional or volume-based, so treat them as a starting point for your own quote.
Disclosure: GrowwithBA is an affiliate of Bright Data and may earn a commission if you sign up through our links. That does not change the facts or prices listed here.
How to choose a web scraping or proxy tool
Most buying mistakes happen because teams compare tools from different categories as if they were the same product. Start by deciding which layer you actually need.
Proxy provider vs scraper API vs no-code scraper vs dataset
- Proxy provider: sells IP addresses you route your own requests through. You write or run the scraper, handle retries, parse HTML and manage blocks. Cheapest per request, most work. Examples: MangoProxy, the proxy products of Bright Data, Oxylabs and Decodo.
- Scraper API (web unblocker): you send a URL, the service handles proxies, retries, JavaScript rendering and CAPTCHAs, and returns the page or structured data. You usually pay per successful request or per 1,000 results. Examples: Zyte API, ScraperAPI, Bright Data Unlocker and Scraper APIs, Oxylabs Web Scraper API.
- No-code or low-code scraper: point-and-click or pre-built "actors" for common sites, with scheduling and exports to sheets or a warehouse. Best when nobody on the team writes code. Example: Apify.
- Dataset: you buy data that has already been collected and structured, such as product listings or company profiles. No scraping at all, but less control over freshness and fields. Example: Bright Data Datasets.
Rotating vs static proxies
Rotating proxies give you a new IP per request or every few minutes. They suit high-volume collection like SERP checks or catalog crawls, where spreading requests across many IPs reduces blocks. Static (sticky or dedicated) proxies keep the same IP for days or months. They suit tasks that need a stable identity, such as logged-in account management, long checkout-flow tests or ad checks that must look like one consistent visitor.
Residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile IPs
- Residential: IPs assigned by consumer internet providers to real households. Hardest for sites to flag, priced per GB, the default for protected ecommerce and search targets.
- ISP (static residential): IPs registered to internet providers but hosted on servers. They combine a residential-looking reputation with datacenter speed, and are usually priced per IP per month.
- Datacenter: IPs from cloud and hosting providers. Fast and cheap, but easier to detect. Good for lightly protected sites and internal testing.
- Mobile: IPs from cellular carriers. The most trusted and most expensive. Useful for mobile ad verification and app-like traffic.
A simple rule: start with datacenter or a scraper API on easy targets, move to residential or ISP only where you get blocked, and reserve mobile for jobs that genuinely need carrier IPs.
The 9 best web scraping, proxy and data tools in 2026
1. Bright Data (our top pick)
Bright Data is a full web-data platform. It sells residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies, but also an Unlocker API, a SERP API, a Browser API for headless scraping, pre-built Scraper APIs for popular sites, Scraper Studio for building collectors, and ready-made Datasets. That range is why it sits at the top of this list: a team can start with a proxy, move to a managed API as volume grows, and buy a dataset when scraping a source is not worth the effort.
Best for: ecommerce, SEO and research teams that want proxies, scraping and data from one vendor, and that expect to scale.
Pricing model and starting price: usage-based per product. Residential proxies were listed from $2.50/GB (shown as 50% off a $5/GB rate at the time of checking), ISP proxies from $1.30 per IP, datacenter proxies from $0.90 per IP, Unlocker and SERP API from $1 per 1,000 requests, Scraper APIs from $0.75 per 1,000 records, and Datasets from $250 per 100,000 records. A free trial is offered.
- Pros: widest product range on this list; pay-per-result options on several APIs; datasets let non-technical teams skip scraping; strong fit for SERP and retail use cases.
- Cons: many products and price points make cost forecasting harder; the cheapest residential rate was promotional when checked; more platform than a small, one-off project needs.
For a deeper look, read our Bright Data review.
2. MangoProxy
MangoProxy is a proxy provider for teams working with web scraping, SEO, ad verification, market research, and other data-driven workflows. It offers residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies across 200+ countries, with rotating and static options and support for HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5.
It is a practical option for users who want to choose a proxy type based on their specific workflow without relying on a full web-data platform.
How the proxy types fit marketing work:
- Residential: a pool MangoProxy lists at 90M+ IPs, with targeting by country, state, city, ASN and ZIP. Suited to SERP checks, local search results and sites with strong anti-bot protection. Rotation can be instant, sticky, timer-based or manual.
- Dynamic datacenter and ISP: rotating IPs for bulk, independent requests such as catalog and price monitoring, with instant or sticky sessions.
- Static datacenter and ISP: a fixed IP for tasks that need the same address across related steps, such as logged-in dashboards or multi-step checks.
- Mobile: dedicated mobile IPs (46+ countries) for checking mobile-first experiences and ads.
MangoProxy says its pools update daily and that it supports 450+ tools, including scrapers, trackers and anti-detect browsers. An API key from the dashboard gives programmatic access to proxy management.
Best for: SEO, ecommerce and research teams that already use a scraper, rank tracker or monitoring tool and want to choose the right proxy type for each job, for example marketplace price monitoring on Amazon, eBay or Walmart, SERP tracking, or regional ad and landing-page checks.
Pricing model and starting price: rotating proxies are billed per GB and static proxies per IP. At the time of checking, MangoProxy listed residential from $2/GB, Residential Light from $0.99/GB, dynamic datacenter from $0.60/GB, dynamic ISP from $0.80/GB and static datacenter from $1.43 per IP. Card and crypto payments are accepted. GrowwithBA readers get 7% off MangoProxy Static ISP proxies with code GROWWITH.
- Pros: all four proxy types from one account; low entry prices on rotating datacenter and ISP traffic; detailed geo-targeting on residential; HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 across the range; instant delivery after purchase.
- Cons: it is a proxy service, not a scraping platform, so you bring your own scraper or tool; rotating proxies are not meant for payment, banking or government sites.
For a worked example of proxies in a regional launch, see marketing research through proxies.
3. Volza (ready-made trade data)
Volza is not a scraper or a proxy network. It is an import-export data platform built on shipment records, and it earns a place here because many market-research jobs that teams try to scrape are already answered by trade data: who imports a product into a country, which suppliers ship it, in what volumes and how often. Buying that data is often faster and cleaner than collecting it yourself.
Best for: exporters, importers, D2C and B2B brands researching new markets, finding buyers or distributors, and checking suppliers before they commit.
Pricing model and starting price: subscription plans (Startup, SME and Corporate) with search and download credits; paid plan prices are quoted on Volza's site rather than listed openly. A free trial is available, with Volza stating no credit card is needed. Country coverage depends on the plan, from 182 countries on Startup to 200+ on the higher plans.
- Pros: skips scraping entirely for trade questions; shipment-level detail including buyers and suppliers; contact data included on paid plans; useful for both India and US market research.
- Cons: covers trade and shipment data only, not prices on websites or search results; paid pricing is not published upfront; coverage and data depth vary by country and plan.
See our Volza review and import-export data tools comparison.
4. Oxylabs
Oxylabs is a large proxy and scraping provider with residential, mobile, ISP and datacenter proxies plus a Web Scraper API. It is one of the most common alternatives buyers compare against Bright Data.
Best for: data teams that want a premium proxy network and a general-purpose scraper API from one vendor.
Pricing model and starting price: residential proxies from $6/GB on the smallest tier, falling to $4/GB up to 125 GB and $2.50/GB at 1,000 GB and above. Mobile from $7.50/GB, ISP from $1.50 per IP, datacenter from $1 per IP, and the Web Scraper API from $0.50 per 1,000 results. New users get $5 in welcome credits.
- Pros: clear volume tiers; low per-result price on its scraper API; broad proxy line-up.
- Cons: residential traffic is relatively expensive at small volumes; no dataset marketplace on the scale of Bright Data's.
See our head-to-head Bright Data vs Oxylabs comparison for detail.
5. Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)
Decodo is the current name of Smartproxy, a long-running proxy provider popular with small and mid-sized teams. It sells residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile proxies and scraping APIs.
Best for: marketers and smaller teams who want a straightforward residential plan without enterprise contracts.
Pricing model and starting price: residential proxies on monthly bandwidth plans from $3.75/GB (3 GB plan), dropping to $2.75/GB on the 100 GB plan, or $4/GB pay as you go. A free trial is available.
- Pros: simple plans; pay-as-you-go option; a familiar product for teams that used Smartproxy before.
- Cons: the name change can confuse procurement and old documentation; per-GB price at small volumes is higher than some budget providers.
6. Zyte
Zyte, the company behind the open-source Scrapy framework, offers Zyte API: a managed scraping API that handles bans, browser rendering and extraction.
Best for: developer-led teams, especially those already using Scrapy, that want to stop managing proxies themselves.
Pricing model and starting price: pay per successful response, from $0.06 per 1,000 responses on the cheapest tier with a $500 monthly commitment. Pay-as-you-go HTTP requests cost $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000, and browser-rendered requests $1.01 to $16.08 per 1,000, depending on how hard the site is. Monthly commitments start at $100. New users get $5 of free credit for 30 days.
- Pros: you pay only for successful responses; deep Scrapy integration; no proxy management.
- Cons: price depends on the difficulty tier of each website, so costs on heavily protected targets can be much higher than the headline rate.
7. Apify
Apify is a cloud platform for running scrapers, called Actors, including thousands of community-built ones for common sites, plus scheduling, storage and built-in proxies.
Best for: marketing teams with little coding capacity that want ready-made scrapers for maps, social, marketplaces and search.
Pricing model and starting price: a Free plan with $5 of monthly usage, then Starter at $19/month, Scale at $199/month and Business at $999/month, each with prepaid usage plus pay as you go. Compute is billed per compute unit ($0.20 on Free and Starter), and residential proxy traffic costs $7 to $8 per GB depending on plan.
- Pros: fastest path from idea to data for non-developers; free tier for testing; scheduling and exports built in.
- Cons: costs mix subscription, compute units and proxy traffic, which takes time to forecast; community Actors vary in quality and upkeep.
8. ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is a scraping API that rotates proxies, retries failed requests and can render JavaScript, all behind one endpoint.
Best for: small developer teams that want predictable monthly pricing for a steady volume of requests.
Pricing model and starting price: monthly credit plans, starting with Hobby at $49/month for 100,000 API credits, then Startup at $149/month for 1,000,000 credits. Annual billing is 10% cheaper. A 7-day trial with 5,000 credits is offered without a credit card.
- Pros: simple to integrate; fixed monthly budget; concurrency rises with each plan.
- Cons: protected sites and rendering use more credits per request, so 100,000 credits does not always mean 100,000 pages.
9. Firecrawl
Firecrawl is an API that crawls websites and returns clean markdown or structured data, built mainly for feeding content into AI and LLM workflows.
Best for: content, SEO and research teams building AI summaries, competitor content audits or internal knowledge bases from public pages.
Pricing model and starting price: a Free plan with 1,000 credits a month, then Hobby at $16/month billed yearly ($19 billed monthly) for 5,000 credits, and Standard at $83/month billed yearly for 100,000 credits. A basic scrape uses 1 credit per page.
- Pros: output is ready for LLMs without HTML cleanup; generous free plan for testing; simple per-page credits.
- Cons: not a proxy network and not built for high-frequency price monitoring on heavily protected ecommerce sites.
Looking beyond this list? Our guide to Bright Data alternatives covers more options.
Comparison table
| Tool | Type | Best for | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | Web data platform (proxies, scraper APIs, datasets) | Scaling teams wanting one vendor | Residential from $2.50/GB (promo); APIs from $1/1K requests |
| Volza | Trade data platform | Market and buyer/supplier research | Free trial; paid plans quoted |
| MangoProxy | Proxy provider | Flexible proxy types at low entry price | From $0.60/GB (dynamic DC); residential from $2/GB |
| Oxylabs | Proxy provider + scraper API | Premium proxies and general scraper API | Residential from $6/GB; Scraper API $0.50/1K results |
| Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) | Proxy provider | Smaller teams wanting simple plans | Residential from $3.75/GB; PAYG $4/GB |
| Zyte | Scraper API | Developer teams using Scrapy | From $0.06/1K responses; $5 free credit |
| Apify | No-code / low-code scraper platform | Teams without coding capacity | Free tier, then $19/mo |
| ScraperAPI | Scraper API | Predictable monthly scraping budget | From $49/mo (100K credits) |
| Firecrawl | Crawl-to-markdown API | AI and content workflows | Free tier, then $16/mo (billed yearly) |
Use cases for marketing teams
SERP tracking
Rank trackers and SEO teams need search results from specific countries and cities. A SERP API, such as Bright Data's SERP API, avoids running your own search scrapers. If you use your own tool, rotating residential or ISP proxies with city-level targeting keep results local and reduce CAPTCHAs.
Ad verification
To check that ads appear where they should, with the right creative and landing page, you need to see the page as a real user in that location. Residential and mobile proxies with precise geo-targeting are the usual choice. Static ISP proxies help when the same check must run from one consistent identity.
Competitor pricing
Price monitoring means visiting many product pages on a schedule. Scraper APIs or pre-built ecommerce scrapers reduce maintenance when retailers change their layout. For a full walkthrough, read our guide to web scraping for ecommerce pricing.
Market research
Reviews, forum threads, marketplace listings and local-language search results all feed market research. For a step-by-step example, see marketing research through proxies. If a source is large and stable, buying a dataset can be cheaper than scraping it.
Legal and ethical note
This is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer about your specific project.
- robots.txt: check it and respect disallowed paths where you can. It signals what a site owner does and does not want crawled.
- Terms of service: many sites restrict automated access in their terms. Scraping behind a login usually means you have agreed to those terms, which raises the risk.
- Personal data: names, emails, profile details and anything that identifies a person bring privacy law into play. Under GDPR in the EU and UK, and CCPA/CPRA in California, you need a lawful basis, a clear purpose and data minimization. Avoid collecting personal data unless you truly need it.
- Rate limits: keep request rates reasonable, cache what you can and avoid peak hours, so you do not degrade the site for its real users.
- Copyright: facts such as prices are generally treated differently from creative content like articles and images. Do not republish scraped content as your own.
Common mistakes
- Buying residential proxies for every job. Many targets work fine with datacenter IPs or a scraper API at a fraction of the cost.
- Comparing per-GB prices with per-request prices. Work out the cost per 1,000 successful pages for your real targets before choosing.
- Ignoring promotional pricing. Check what the rate becomes after the offer ends or once you leave the entry tier.
- Skipping a small pilot. Run 500 to 1,000 real URLs on two shortlisted tools and compare success rate, speed and cost.
- Collecting personal data "just in case". It adds legal risk and storage cost with little marketing value.
- No monitoring. Scrapers break silently when page layouts change. Track success rates and empty fields.
Checklist before you buy
- Decide the layer you need: proxies, scraper API, no-code scraper or dataset.
- List your target sites and how heavily they are protected.
- Choose IP type and rotation (rotating for volume, static for stable identity).
- Confirm the geo-targeting you need: country, city or ZIP.
- Estimate monthly volume in pages, GB or records.
- Check the pricing page for minimums, promotions and overage rates.
- Run a pilot on real URLs and measure cost per 1,000 successful results.
- Review robots.txt, terms of service and any personal data involved.
- Set up monitoring and a plan for when layouts change.
For the bigger picture on pipelines, storage and compliance, see how to collect web data at scale.
Turn the data into growth
Scraped prices, rankings and reviews only pay off when they change what you do: your prices, your product pages and your content. If you want help turning competitor and search data into a stronger store, our ecommerce SEO service can take it from there.
Pricing sources (checked October 2026, plain text): Bright Data pricing page; MangoProxy homepage price comparison table; Oxylabs residential proxy pricing page; Decodo residential proxy pricing page; Zyte pricing page; Apify pricing page; ScraperAPI pricing page; Firecrawl pricing page.