We compared the major residential proxy providers on verified, current pricing and terms. There is no single "best" — each wins at something. If your priority is the cheapest pay-as-you-go rate with no subscription and no expiring traffic, Roam tops the list at a flat $2/GB. Full comparison table and honest per-provider verdicts below.
Roam charges one flat $2/GB with no monthly plan and a balance that never expires — the cheapest true pay-as-you-go residential rate here. Rotating or sticky sessions, 190+ countries, plus datacenter ($0.80/GB) and 4G/5G mobile ($9/GB) on the same wallet.
Formerly Smartproxy — a polished dashboard, good docs and scraping APIs at a mid-tier price. Solid all-rounder, but its pay-as-you-go rate is double Roam's and its best rates need monthly commitment.
The industry giant: huge network, Web Scraper APIs, dataset marketplace, enterprise compliance. Unmatched at scale — and priced for it, with KYC onboarding and pay-as-you-go at $8/GB list.
Premium enterprise provider with a large pool, dedicated account management and strong tooling. Subscription-first pricing makes it costly for small and mid-size users.
Budget-friendly with the same never-expiring-traffic model Roam uses, plus handy per-IP datacenter and ISP products. Its small-volume residential rate is the catch — 3× Roam's at the entry point.
Clean pools and fine-grained ASN/city targeting suit agencies with steady monthly volume in premium geos. But there's no real pay-as-you-go and the entry plan is $200/month.
Famous for a generous free datacenter tier and rock-bottom shared DC proxies — great for hobby projects. Its residential product is subscription-based and pricier per GB at low volume.
| Roam | Decodo (Smartproxy) | Bright Data | Oxylabs | IPRoyal | SOAX | Webshare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest PAYG $/GB | $2 | $4 | $4* | ~$6 | $7.35 | — | $7 (sub) |
| Subscription required? | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Balance never expires | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Free trial | 300MB | 100MB | Yes | Yes | paid | $1.99 | Free DC |
| Min to start | $2 | $4 | trial | $30/mo | $7 | $200/mo | $3.50/mo |
| Datacenter per-GB | $0.80 | $0.60 | $0.60 | $0.59 | per-IP | incl. | per-IP |
| Countries | 190+ | 195+ | 195+ | 195+ | 195+ | 190+ | 195+ |
| Alipay/crypto | Yes | crypto | — | — | crypto | — | crypto |
Pricing verified July 2026 from official provider pages; promotional rates marked. *Decodo PAYG. Figures change — confirm with each provider before buying.
It depends on your priority. For the cheapest pay-as-you-go rate with no subscription, Roam leads at a flat $2/GB with a balance that never expires. For enterprise scale and tooling, Bright Data and Oxylabs are strongest. For an affordable premium dashboard, Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) is a solid pick. This page ranks each by what it's genuinely best at.
On pay-as-you-go pricing, Roam is the cheapest at a flat $2/GB with no minimum plan (as of July 2026). Decodo and Bright Data's promo sit at $4/GB, IPRoyal starts at $7.35/GB, and SOAX and Webshare have no true PAYG. Enterprise committed rates can reach $2.50/GB but require $1,999–$2,500/month spend.
Not necessarily. Price mostly reflects business model, not IP quality — Roam keeps costs low with a lean pay-as-you-go wallet and crypto/Alipay payments rather than enterprise sales overhead. All the providers here use real home-broadband IPs; the difference is pricing structure, tooling, and support depth.
Match it to your job: cheapest per-GB and no lock-in for scraping and testing (Roam), granular geo-targeting for localized data (SOAX), or enterprise tooling and SLAs for large teams (Bright Data, Oxylabs). Also check whether traffic expires, minimum spend, country coverage, and payment options.
Yes. Roam offers a 300MB residential free trial with no card required. Decodo has a 3-day/100MB trial, Bright Data and Oxylabs offer trials, and Webshare has a free datacenter tier. Trials are the best way to test proxy quality on your own target sites before paying.
Flat $2/GB, no subscription, balance never expires. Start with 300MB free — no card required.