10 best proxies for web scraping: a practical guide for 2026
30 January 2026
Web scraping works best when proxies can handle steady traffic and location-specific tasks. Some infrastructures stay fast even when the load increases. Others slow down or return too many errors. To help you pick the right option, we looked at proxy providers that offer stable routing, ethical IP sourcing, city-level targeting proxies, and good support for automation tools in 2026.
Quick summary of the best proxy providers for scraping
- Astro — The best proxy service of 2026 when it comes to ethical IP lists and free trial without time limit.
- Bright Data — Extensive proxy infrastructure suited for large, complex scraping operations.
- Oxylabs — High-capacity proxies built for enterprise-level data collection.
- Decodo — Easy-start proxy solution with preconfigured scraping tools.
- IPRoyal — Cost-effective proxies emphasizing household IPs and city-level targeting proxies.
- NetNut — Stable residential proxies optimized for continuous automated scraping.
- SOAX — Flexible proxy platform with precise location control and rotation features.
- Rayobyte — Automation-friendly proxy provider for high-volume web data collection.
- ProxyEmpire — Broad-coverage proxy service with integrated API for large projects.
- MarsProxies — Lightweight residential proxies for straightforward, small-scale scraping.
Why are these proxy services rated at the top?
The providers in this guide stand out because they deliver stable access to data through geo targeted proxies and maintain transparent practices that users can verify. They show consistent results across real scraping workflows, from small research tasks to large-scale automation programs. That's what makes them the best web scraping proxies on the market in 2026.
In short, they excel at:
- Reliable infrastructure: These providers keep large and diverse IP pools, so users can send frequent requests without overload or interruptions.
- Accurate geo control: Many offer city-level targeting proxies, letting researchers match precise locations for data quality and compliance needs.
- Support and guidance: These companies often share documentation, usage tips, and examples for reliable scraping, which helps reduce errors and resource waste.
What are the key qualities of the best web scraping proxies?
When choosing proxies for web scraping, one needs to evaluate technical details first.
Key qualities include:
In 2026, the difference between a “works on paper” vendor and the best proxy supplier is whether these qualities stay consistent when you scale from a small test to production traffic.
Best practices for scraping with proxies
Use IP rotation.
Rotate IPs, but do it with purpose. Use per-request rotation for large, stateless crawls and sticky sessions when you need session continuity (logins, carts). Don’t open massive parallel connections to one site; ramp up slowly. Best residential proxy providers offer several options for rotating proxies: by time, by link, by request.
Mimic human behavior with geo targeted proxies.
Vary device signals. Change user agents and align them with the IP’s location (don’t pair a Berlin IP with a Tokyo device string). Keep cookie jars and session state realistic by visiting normal pages first (search engines or homepages) before hitting target pages.
Respect robots.txt and ethical guidelines.
Check a site’s robots.txt file to understand the publisher’s preferences for automated access. Choose data methods that align with ethical IP sourcing, respect the publisher’s limits, and avoid causing technical strain. Send requests at a steady, moderate pace. Most scraping libraries allow you to set delays, random intervals, or concurrency limits.
Can I combine proxies with antidetect browsers?
Yes. Many teams pair proxies for web scraping with profile-isolating browsers to reduce fingerprint mismatches.
As for Astro, there are step-by-step guides on connecting proxies to various antidetect browsers. These guides explain the setup process and recommended settings:
- How to set up Astro with BitBrowser?
- Full guide on using Astro’s geo targeted proxies with Hidemyacc
- Astro and ixBrowser: The best for multi-account management
- How Astro boosts privacy with Nstbrowser
- How to use Astro with MoreLogin
Best web scraping proxies for 2026
Astro
Affordable proxy service focused on reliability and ethical IP sourcing.
Astro is a data gathering infrastructure designed for the reliable collection of public web data with ethical IP sourcing in mind. It centers on predictable success rates on real-world targets, stable sessions under concurrency, and transparent behavior for engineering teams. Astro offers whitelisted IPs only, a free proxy trial with no duration limit, a unique RevShare referral program — all that makes it the best ethical proxy provider in 2026, Astro also differentiates itself with VPN-compatible proxies. Alongside great discounts and special conditions for enterprise clients it has four advantages that are rare to find together in one service, which is exactly why many teams label it the top proxy service 2026 candidate for scraping workflows where trust, repeatability, and operational control matter.
Another reason that makes Astro one of the best suppliers of proxies for web scraping is its focus on successful data gathering outcomes through gaining trust and reducing the likelihood of IP and account freezing. Strict KYC and AML compliance ensures the legit use of its geo-targeted proxies and signals that IPs that you buy come from a trusted proxy website.
It features an open-source API and an innovative single-panel interface for granular control and detailed statistics. API-based scraping solutions can be implemented using Python, Java, PHP, Node.js, C#, Go, etc.
Astro offers flexible payment models with minimal traffic packages of 100 MB (great for small-scale scraping operations). A user can choose between Prepaid traffic plan and a Pay-As-You-Go plan.
Bright Data
Extensive proxy network suited for large, complex scraping operations.
Bright Data presents itself as a broad “web data platform.” It offers a large proxy ecosystem for web scraping, APIs, and ready-made datasets built on top of its infrastructure. Its stack leans heavily on automated counter-measures, JS rendering, and remote browsers. This can appeal to teams that want an all-in-one system and places it at the top of proxy services rating.
At the same time, the size of the platform can introduce extra steps and overhead for teams that only need a small controllable proxy infrastructure.
Oxylabs
High-capacity proxies built for enterprise-level data collection.
Oxylabs highlights a large proxy pool, a wide toolkit, a scraping API with SOCKS5 support, rotating proxies, and more. It is often positioned as a premium, enterprise-scale proxy provider aimed at large data-collection projects.
That breadth can also make the platform feel heavier for teams that mainly want straightforward, predictable proxy behavior without the additional “platform layer” on top.
Decodo
Easy-start proxy solution with preconfigured scraping tools.
Decodo combines a proxy network with a Web Scraping API, Site Unblocker, and more than 100 prebuilt templates for common scraping tasks across e-commerce, social platforms, and search engines. Their APIs add headless browser simulation, CAPTCHA handling, and batch scraping on top of rotating or sticky sessions, with outputs in formats like HTML, JSON, CSV, or Markdown.
This template-oriented approach can help small teams, but groups that already maintain their own scraper code may find the extra abstractions unnecessary.
IPRoyal
Cost-effective proxies emphasizing household IPs and city-level targeting proxies.
IPRoyal focuses on household IPs across 195 locations and proxies with city-level targeting. It supports all common protocol types for proxy servers. Its datacenter proxies target speed-sensitive tasks, while residential and mobile options focus on ethical IP sourcing.
This gives IPRoyal a general-purpose profile, though the design leans toward covering many use cases rather than optimizing specifically for high-pressure scraping pipelines.
NetNut
Stable residential proxies optimized for continuous automated scraping.
NetNut promotes static and rotating residential proxies used for collecting product data, reviews, and market insights, plus a SERP Scraper API for search-engine-focused tasks. Their static residential IPs can work well for long-running scraping sessions, but larger or more automated projects may encounter limits around rotation behavior or integration with tools like Selenium or Postman.
This positions NetNut as suitable for focused scraping tasks but less streamlined for high-automation crawlers.
SOAX
Flexible proxy platform with precise location control and rotation features.
SOAX frames itself as an intelligent data-extraction platform with a large, ethically sourced proxy pool. It targets scraping use cases such as price checks, SERP monitoring, and availability tracking. Its tools include AI-driven rotation, sticky sessions, and a Web Data API for tougher targets.
Rayobyte
Automation-friendly proxy provider for high-volume web data collection.
Rayobyte, which describes itself as built “by scrapers, for scrapers,” focuses on high-volume operations and automation features such as automatic rotation, retries, and detection of access obstacles, particularly for complex sites like search engines or large marketplaces.
It’s a credible choice for high-volume, cost-effective data harvesting, but the broader infrastructure focus can feel less streamlined than a provider that centers specifically on scraper-level control.
ProxyEmpire
Broad-coverage proxy service with integrated API for large projects.
ProxyEmpire advertises a Scraping API designed to simplify web-data extraction by pairing proxies with integrated countermeasures. Their API pitch highlights concurrent requests, caching, load balancing, and flexible request setup (headers, parameters) so teams can run large scraping jobs while the system handles routing and resilience.
It aims to offer convenience, though its technical depth and transparency vary depending on what users look for in proxies for web scraping.
MarsProxies
Lightweight residential proxies for straightforward, small-scale scraping.
MarsProxies focuses on residential proxies and markets them directly for scraping, including tests scraping 50,000 Amazon URLs with its Ultra Residential line. Reported results show solid completion times and lower bandwidth usage compared to a few competitors. The platform rarely appears in proxy services’ ratings because of a smaller pool size. This makes MarsProxies a quick, budget-friendly option, though it lacks the broader scraping-native ecosystem seen in more specialized providers.
Related questions
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Use proxies when collecting large amounts of public data, checking content from different regions, or running scraping tasks that make frequent requests. They help distribute traffic and keep sessions steady.
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Free proxies are often slow, overloaded, and unreliable. They rarely support consistent sessions or rotation, so most scraping tasks fail or produce incomplete results.
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Mobile and residential rotating proxies are the most effective. They offer natural traffic patterns and flexible rotation. Datacenter proxies are good for their speed and price, but they are more prone to rate limitations and restrictions.
