5 Best Proxy Providers: 2026 Comparison to Help You Choose a Brand
Ad verification and automation teams share an awkward problem: their proxy needs are precise and constantly changing. A campaign check must appear to come from a particular city and mobile carrier, while an automation script needs fresh sessions created on demand, without someone logging into a dashboard each time.
Many providers handle one side well and the other poorly. Some offer deep targeting but expect manual setup; others offer strong APIs but limited location control or no mobile network at all. Teams end up stitching together two vendors, or settling for less precision than their clients expect.
This comparison looks at five providers through that lens: how precisely each can target, how well each supports programmatic control, and what each costs to test and run.
Pick |
Best for |
ProxyEmpire |
Ad verification and automation teams |
Decodo |
Self-service teams wanting a free trial |
Bright Data |
Enterprise verification programs |
Provider |
Mobile carrier targeting |
API access |
Entry residential price |
Trial |
ProxyEmpire |
Yes, free |
Public API and endpoint generator |
$3.50/GB |
$1.97, residential and mobile |
Decodo |
Not listed |
Web Data API, SDKs, CLI |
$3.75/GB (3 GB plan) |
Free, 3 days, 100 MB |
Webshare |
No mobile product |
Full API |
From $3.50 (1 GB) |
Free datacenter plan |
Bright Data |
Listed on proxy services page |
Proxy management API |
$4/GB with code |
Free, no credit card |
SOAX |
Not listed; ISP targeting on mobile |
Full API |
Varies by country tier |
Free Sandbox account |
Free vs Paid Options
Free access in this group comes in three forms. Decodo's trial gives 100 MB of residential traffic for 3 days, then converts to a paid plan unless cancelled. Bright Data offers a free trial with no credit card and matches a first deposit up to $500. Webshare's free plan includes 10 datacenter proxies permanently, and SOAX's Sandbox account is free, though proxy traffic requires credits.
ProxyEmpire takes the paid route with a $1.97 activation fee that the company says filters out abuse. In return, the trial includes both residential (100 MB) and mobile (50 MB) traffic and does not convert automatically, which gives an ad verification team a direct way to test mobile IPs before buying.
For production work, paid plans add the pool size, concurrency and support that verification programs depend on.
ProxyEmpire (Best for Ad Verification and Automation Teams)
Fact |
Detail |
API |
Public API for sessions, locations and settings |
Mobile filters |
Carrier, city and country |
Residential filters |
Down to postcode, ASN and OS/TCP |
Parallel sessions |
No cap, for approved use cases |
ProxyEmpire gives automation managers programmatic control over the variables that matter most. Its public API manages sessions, locations and settings, and an endpoint generator produces connection strings for any target location, so scripts can request a new city, carrier or session without manual steps. Session behavior can be set by time, by session or to a new IP per request.
For ad verification, the same control reaches location: mobile traffic can be pinned to a carrier and city, and residential traffic to a postcode, ASN or OS/TCP profile, with no surcharge for any of it. A campaign can be checked as a specific carrier's subscriber would see it, then rechecked from a residential connection in another postcode.
Rotating residential costs $3.50 per GB and rotating mobile $4.50 per GB on pay as you go, and leftover bandwidth carries forward. By the company's count, the network spans more than 170 countries with over 30 million residential and 4 million mobile IPs, and it says mobile traffic meets far fewer blocks and CAPTCHAs.
The limitations: all sales are final, and mobile targeting does not include ZIP or ASN.
Decodo (Best for Self-Service Teams Wanting a Free Trial)
Fact |
Detail |
API |
Web Data API, Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs, CLI |
Residential filters |
Postcode and ASN included |
Mobile |
10M+ IPs, from $2.25 a gigabyte |
Trial |
Three days and 100 MB at no charge |
Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) suits automation teams that build their own tooling. Its Web Data API offers /scrape, /search, /map and /crawl endpoints, with SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server for AI agents.
Residential filters from continent down to postcode and ASN cost nothing extra, and whichever plan a team picks, it draws on the full 115M+ IP pool. Mobile proxies cover 3G, 4G, LTE and 5G across 160+ locations.
Its FAQ caps sticky sessions at half an hour, which can be short for some verification flows. The free trial converts automatically unless cancelled.
Monthly residential plans cost $11.25 for 3 GB and $275 for 100 GB. Setup guides exist for more than 50 tools, Dolphin Anty, AdsPower, GoLogin and Multilogin among them, which helps automation teams that manage many browser profiles.
Webshare (Best for Low-Cost Automation Testing)
Fact |
Detail |
API |
Full API with docs |
Residential filters |
Down to postcode and ASN |
Free tier |
Ten datacenter proxies |
Mobile |
Not offered |
Webshare suits automation teams testing scripts before scaling. The free datacenter plan and full API let developers build and debug integrations at no cost.
One residential gigabyte costs $3.50, filters reach postcode and ASN, and plans can be shaped around bandwidth and location. A rotating endpoint cycles through the IPs in an account.
Without a mobile product, Webshare cannot cover carrier-level ad verification on its own.
Its static residential addresses from Comcast, AT&T and similar providers, sold in blocks of 20 for $6 monthly, can support long-running automation that needs a stable home address. Support runs 24/7, and dedicated account managers are available as usage grows.
Bright Data (Best for Enterprise Verification Programs)
Fact |
Detail |
API |
Proxy management API; code samples in five languages |
Residential filters |
Postcode and ASN at no charge |
Residential network |
Over 400 million IPs a month |
Compliance |
CSA STAR Level 1, SOC 3, SOC 2, ISO 27001 |
Bright Data suits large verification programs that need scale and audit-ready documentation. Its proxy management API comes with code samples for Python, Java, C#, Node.js and Shell, and an open-source Proxy Manager supports complex routing.
Postcode and ASN filters carry no charge, and the proxy services page also mentions carrier filtering. With the RESIGB50 code, flexible residential traffic costs four dollars a gigabyte.
Identity checks, sometimes over video, come before any residential or mobile use, and mobile proxies no longer appear in its pricing navigation.
For finance teams, per-zone daily spending caps and invoicing via Azure or AWS Marketplace help keep large programs under control. The company reports 50,000+ customers and offers 24/7 support with dedicated account managers.
SOAX (Best for Verification Budgets Split Across Clients)
Fact |
Detail |
API |
Packages, sessions and analytics API |
Mobile filters |
Region, city, ISP and ASN |
Pricing |
One credit rate for residential and mobile |
No-cost access |
Sandbox account |
SOAX suits agencies running verification for several clients. Each package can carry its own traffic caps, protocol limits and domain lists, and the API manages packages, sessions and analytics.
Mobile traffic can be filtered by region, city, ISP or ASN as well as country, and one credit rate covers both networks, varying by market. IPs can change with each request, after a request count, on a schedule or after a failure.
Analytics separating delivered from blocked traffic help agencies report results to clients.
Teams can look around a Sandbox account before paying, and SOCKS5 is supported over TCP and UDP. Crypto payments require KYC, and per-GB costs vary by country tier, so budgets work best when tied to specific client markets.
Getting Better Results from Verification Proxies
Automate session creation. Use each provider's API or endpoint generator to request locations and sessions from scripts, rather than editing settings by hand.
Pair networks with checks. Use mobile IPs for app and mobile ad verification, and residential IPs for desktop campaigns. Testing both on the same account keeps results comparable.
Set session length to the flow. Short verification checks work with rotation per request; multistep checks need sticky sessions long enough to finish.
Log what you target. Recording the city, carrier and session used for each check makes results reproducible when a client asks. Over time, that log also shows which locations need mobile IPs and which work fine on residential, so spend can shift accordingly.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Verifying mobile campaigns from residential IPs is the most common error; the ad a carrier subscriber sees can differ.
Paying for targeting twice is another. Some providers include city and ZIP filters, so check before buying add-ons elsewhere.
Ignoring session limits causes failed checks when a sticky session ends mid-flow.
Skipping a trial on real targets leads to buying the wrong network, especially where refunds are limited. A low-cost test on the exact campaigns or scripts a team runs is cheaper than a month on the wrong plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
What proxies are best for ad verification?
Mobile and residential proxies with precise targeting. ProxyEmpire offers carrier targeting on mobile and ZIP targeting on residential at no extra cost, and Bright Data lists carrier targeting alongside free ZIP and ASN filters.
Can I automate proxy sessions through an API?
Yes. ProxyEmpire, Decodo, Bright Data, SOAX and Webshare all provide APIs, with different scopes. ProxyEmpire's covers sessions, locations and settings, while Decodo's Web Data API focuses on scraping and crawling.
Do I need mobile proxies for ad verification?
For mobile and in-app campaigns, yes, since what a carrier's users see can differ from what a home connection sees.
Which providers offer free trials?
Decodo and Bright Data offer free trials, Webshare has a free datacenter plan and SOAX a free Sandbox. ProxyEmpire's trial costs $1.97.
How precise can proxy targeting get?
ProxyEmpire, Decodo and Bright Data list ZIP and ASN targeting on residential, and ProxyEmpire adds carrier targeting on mobile.
Which Provider Should You Choose?
Choose ProxyEmpire if you need carrier and ZIP targeting plus API-driven session control for verification and automation.
Choose Decodo if you want a free trial and developer tooling for custom pipelines.
Choose Bright Data if you run enterprise verification with compliance requirements.
Choose SOAX if you split verification budgets across clients.