Residential Proxy APIs Compared for Web Scraping

Residential proxies route your scraping requests through real consumer IP addresses, making them nearly indistinguishable from regular user traffic. This is essential for scraping sites that block datacenter IPs — e-commerce platforms, social media, search engines, and price comparison sites all fall into this category.

But residential proxy pricing varies wildly, from $0.50/GB to $15/GB depending on the provider and features. This guide compares the top residential proxy APIs with real pricing, code examples, and recommendations based on use case.

Key Takeaways

• Residential proxies cost 10-50x more than datacenter proxies but are necessary for anti-bot bypass
• Pricing ranges from ~$0.50/GB (Bright Data pay-as-you-go) to $15+/GB for managed services
• SearchHive's ScrapeForge handles proxy rotation internally — no separate proxy management needed
• ScrapingBee and ZenRows bundle residential proxies with their scraping APIs
• For high-volume scraping, Bright Data and Oxylabs offer the best infrastructure

1. SearchHive (ScrapeForge with Built-in Proxies)

SearchHive's ScrapeForge endpoint includes proxy rotation as part of the service. No need to manage proxy pools, rotate IPs, or handle failures manually.

Pricing: Free 500 credits, Starter $9/5K, Builder $49/100K, Unicorn $199/500K. Proxy rotation is included at all tiers.

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrapeforge",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={
        "url": "https://ecommerce-site.com/products",
        "format": "markdown",
        "proxy": "auto",
        "render_js": True,
        "extract": {
            "products": {"selector": ".product-item", "type": "list"},
            "name": ".product-title",
            "price": ".price",
            "rating": ".stars"
        }
    }
)

data = response.json()
for product in data.get("data", {}).get("products", []):
    print(f"{product['name']}: ${product['price']} ({product.get('rating', 'N/A')} stars)")

Why it stands out: Instead of buying a proxy API and building scraping logic on top, SearchHive handles both. You send a URL and get structured data back. Proxy rotation, retry logic, and anti-bot measures are managed internally.

/compare/scrapingbee

2. Bright Data

Bright Data (formerly Luminati) operates the world's largest residential proxy network with 72M+ IPs across 195 countries.

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go residential proxies at ~$0.70/GB (ISP) and $4.20/GB (mobile). Monthly plans start at $50/month. Datacenter proxies at $0.11/GB.

import requests

# Bright Data super proxy
proxy_url = "http://brd-customer-USER-zone-residential:PASSWORD@brd.superproxy.io:22225"
proxies = {"http": proxy_url, "https": proxy_url}

response = requests.get(
    "https://example.com",
    proxies=proxies,
    headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}
)
print(response.text[:500])

Why it stands out: Largest proxy network, best geographic coverage, and an API that handles rotation, session persistence, and retry logic. The Web Unlocker feature automatically bypasses CAPTCHAs and anti-bot systems.

Best for: Enterprise-scale scraping needing maximum IP diversity and geographic targeting.

3. Oxylabs

Oxylabs offers residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies with a focus on compliance and enterprise features.

Pricing: Residential proxies from ~$0.60/GB. Datacenter from $0.045/GB. Minimum commitment varies by proxy type.

import requests

proxy_url = "http://user:pass@pr.oxylabs.io:7777"
proxies = {"http": proxy_url, "https": proxy_url}

response = requests.get(
    "https://target-site.com/page",
    proxies=proxies,
    headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}
)
print(response.status_code)

Why it stands out: Strong compliance features including GDPR controls, opt-out management, and usage analytics. The Scraper API product combines proxies with pre-built scraping logic.

Best for: Enterprise teams with compliance requirements.

4. ZenRows

ZenRows bundles residential proxies with their anti-bot bypass API. Instead of managing proxies directly, you send requests through their endpoint.

Pricing: Starts at $49/month for 250K requests. Residential proxy add-on available on higher tiers.

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.zenrows.com/v1/batches",
    params={
        "apikey": "YOUR_KEY",
        "url": "https://protected-site.com/products",
        "premium_proxy": "true",
        "js_render": "true",
        "antibot": "true"
    }
)
print(response.json()["result"]["content"][:500])

Why it stands out: ZenRows handles the entire anti-bot stack — proxy rotation, JS rendering, CAPTCHA bypass, and browser fingerprinting. You don't manage proxies; you just send URLs.

Best for: Scraping sites with heavy anti-bot protection without managing proxy infrastructure.

5. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee includes premium proxy rotation in their pricing. Their system automatically routes through the best proxy for each target.

Pricing: Freelance $49/250K credits, Startup $99/1M, Business $249/3M. Premium proxy requests cost 10-25 credits depending on the proxy type.

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/",
    params={
        "api_key": "YOUR_KEY",
        "url": "https://target.com",
        "render_js": "true",
        "premium_proxy": "true",
        "country": "us"
    }
)
print(response.text[:500])

Why it stands out: Geographic targeting by country, automatic proxy selection, and JS rendering in one call. At $99/1M base credits, the per-request cost with premium proxies is still competitive.

Best for: Mid-volume scraping needing geographic targeting with minimal setup.

6. Smartproxy

Smartproxy offers rotating residential proxies with a focus on ease of use.

Pricing: Residential proxies from $2.20/GB (monthly) to $0.60/GB (annual enterprise plans). Datacenter from $0.09/IP.

import requests

proxy_url = "http://user:pass@gate.smartproxy.com:7000"
proxies = {"http": proxy_url, "https": proxy_url}

response = requests.get(
    "https://target-site.com",
    proxies=proxies,
    headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}
)

Why it stands out: Clean API, good documentation, and competitive pricing at annual commitment. The scraping API product handles proxy management for you.

7. SOAX

SOAX provides residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies with real-time analytics.

Pricing: Residential from $1.50/GB. Mobile from $3.00/GB. Pay-as-you-go and monthly plans available.

Best for: Teams wanting detailed usage analytics and account-level controls.

Comparison Table

When to Use What

Managed proxy APIs (SearchHive, ZenRows, ScrapingBee): You want to send URLs and get data back without thinking about proxies. The proxy infrastructure is abstracted away. Best for most development teams.

Raw proxy providers (Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy): You need fine-grained control over proxy selection, geographic targeting, session management, or custom rotation logic. Best for teams building custom scraping infrastructure.

Verdict

If you're scraping at scale and need direct proxy control, Bright Data has the largest network and best tooling. For teams with compliance requirements, Oxylabs leads.

But if you don't want to manage proxies at all — which is most development teams — SearchHive and ZenRows abstract the entire proxy layer away. SearchHive's advantage is including search in the same API, so you can find pages and scrape them with one integration. ZenRows is better if anti-bot bypass is your primary concern.

Try SearchHive's free tier with 500 credits — the proxy rotation is included from the start.

/blog/best-web-scraping-apis-with-javascript-support /compare/scrapingbee