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Picks by need
| If you need… | Look at | Stay with PacketStream if… |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise compliance and the broadest toolset | Bright Data | You’re an individual or small team, or budget is the constraint |
| Strong measured performance with 24/7 support at mid-market prices | Decodo | You want one flat $1.00/GB rate and a balance that never expires |
| The lowest price with city targeting | Evomi | You want one flat rate with no multipliers, a longer track record, or the APIs on one balance |
| Multi-day sticky sessions with traffic that never expires | IPRoyal | You want non-expiring traffic for less per GB |
| Large, steady volume where reliability and pool size matter most | Oxylabs | Spend is irregular or below Oxylabs’ subscription tiers |
| The lowest pay-as-you-go rate at 1–5 TB, with deep filters | Rayobyte | You buy under 250 GB at a time |
| Residential and mobile IPs from one account, with fine rotation control | SOAX | You want a balance that never expires, at one flat rate |
| A committed 3 TB+ per month, or cheap monthly plans with city targeting | Webshare | Usage is irregular or under 3 TB a month |
| The simplest flat-rate pricing: one rate, no tiers or multipliers | PacketStream | — |
How these picks work
Each provider below is matched to the need it serves best, based on list prices from each official pricing page as of October 2026 and on dated third-party test results (Proxyway). The picks are by use case, not a ranking: providers are listed alphabetically, and none is an overall winner. Each pick also says when PacketStream is the better choice. For context, Proxyway’s 2026 market research put the median residential price at $4.00/GB at entry and $1.94/GB at 1 TB. See the methodology for how picks are chosen.
The picks, A–Z
Alphabetical by provider. No order of merit is implied.
Bright Data
[BEST FOR: ENTERPRISE COMPLIANCE AND THE BROADEST TOOLSET]- Entry price
- $8/GB PAYG list ($4 with promo code RESIGB50 for 3 months)
- Volume price
- Stated list rates $7 / $6 / $5 per GB on $499 / $999 / $1,999 monthly plans; custom 1 TB+
- Minimum
- None on PAYG; plans from $499/mo
- Expiry
- n/v
- Targeting
- Country, city, ZIP, ASN, carrier
- Sticky sessions
- n/v
- Latest test
- Proxyway residential test, March 2024: 98.96% success, 1.12 s
Bright Data offers residential, ISP, datacenter, unblocker, SERP and browser products from one account, with ZIP, ASN and carrier targeting and a claimed 400M+ monthly IPs. Its residential network measured 98.96% success in Proxyway’s March 2024 test. Its SERP API costs $1.50 per 1,000 requests pay-as-you-go, billed only for successes, with 5,000 free records a month.
It is the most expensive option here ($8/GB PAYG list, $5 on the $1,999 plan) and residential access is limited to verified companies after human-reviewed KYC, with a corporate email required.
You are an individual or small team (Bright Data’s residential network is for verified companies only), or the budget is the constraint: $1.00/GB against $5–$8/GB list, and PacketStream’s terms describe no up-front verification.
Decodo
[BEST FOR: STRONG MEASURED PERFORMANCE WITH 24/7 SUPPORT AT MID-MARKET PRICES]- Entry price
- $4/GB PAYG; $3.75/GB on the 3 GB plan
- Volume price
- $3.00 (50 GB), $2.75 (100 GB); Enterprise from $2/GB
- Minimum
- 3 GB plan, $11.25
- Expiry
- Plans: no rollover; PAYG: 12 months
- Targeting
- Country, city, ZIP, ASN
- Sticky sessions
- 24 hours
- Latest test
- Proxyway, April 2026 test: 99.92% success, 0.53 s
Decodo (Smartproxy until April 2025) pairs a 99.92% success rate and 0.53 s response time (Proxyway, April 2026 test) with city, ZIP and ASN targeting, 24-hour sessions and 24/7 support. Plans start at $11.25 for 3 GB.
It costs two to four times PacketStream’s rate ($4/GB PAYG, down to $2.75 at 100 GB and from $2 on Enterprise); plan traffic does not roll over and PAYG traffic expires after 12 months.
You want one flat rate and a balance that never expires. At 100 GB a month PacketStream costs $100 against Decodo’s $275, and nothing you buy expires.
Decodo pricing · PacketStream vs Decodo · Formerly Smartproxy (renamed 22 Apr 2025); part of Source.ai since 13 Oct 2026
Evomi
[BEST FOR: THE LOWEST PRICE WITH CITY TARGETING]- Entry price
- $0.99/GB PAYG (Core), from 15 GB
- Volume price
- $0.79/GB PAYG from 1,000 GB; $0.49/GB on the 100 GB/$49 monthly Core plan
- Minimum
- 15 GB PAYG (about $14.85)
- Expiry
- PAYG data does not expire
- Targeting
- Country, city, region and ISP included; ASN targeting uses 4× traffic
- Sticky sessions
- Up to 120 minutes
- Latest test
- Proxyway, July 2026 (Core): 99.91% success, 0.70 s global average
Evomi Core costs $0.99/GB pay-as-you-go from 15 GB (about $14.85 minimum), $0.79/GB from 1,000 GB, or $0.49/GB on a $49/100 GB monthly plan, and PAYG data does not expire. Country, city, region and ISP targeting are included at no extra cost, and Proxyway’s July 2026 test measured 99.91% success with a 0.70 s global average.
Downsides: Proxyway measured a “rather small” pool (about 1.5 million unique IPs); extra features multiply traffic use by up to 15× (6× for additional IPs, 4× for ASN targeting); there is no IP whitelisting and no sub-users; the free trial continues at $49/month unless cancelled; and Evomi, a Swiss company, was founded in 2024.
You want one flat rate with no feature multipliers, prefer a company with a longer track record (founded 2018) and a low-risk consent rating from Synthient, or want the Search, Fetch and MCP tools on the same balance as your proxies.
IPRoyal
[BEST FOR: MULTI-DAY STICKY SESSIONS WITH TRAFFIC THAT NEVER EXPIRES]- Entry price
- $7.35/GB (1 GB PAYG)
- Volume price
- $5.51/GB at 10 GB; $1.84/GB PAYG or $1.75 subscription at 10 TB+
- Minimum
- 1 GB ($7.35)
- Expiry
- Never
- Targeting
- Country, city, ISP
- Sticky sessions
- 7 days
- Latest test
- Proxyway, April 2026 test: 96.11% success, P95 4.13 s
IPRoyal’s traffic never expires, sticky sessions last up to 7 days, and it adds city and ISP targeting and 24/7 support. You can start with a single gigabyte ($7.35). Proxyway’s April 2026 test measured 96.11% success.
Per GB it costs more than PacketStream at every tier ($5.51 at 10 GB, $1.84 at 10 TB+), some features require KYC, and its Trustpilot rating is suspended for a guidelines breach.
You want non-expiring traffic for less per GB: both balances never expire, and PacketStream is cheaper than IPRoyal at every published tier.
Oxylabs
[BEST FOR: LARGE, STEADY VOLUME WHERE RELIABILITY AND POOL SIZE MATTER MOST]- Entry price
- $6/GB (Starter, $30/mo)
- Volume price
- $5 (≤20 GB), $4 (≤125 GB), $2.50 (1 TB+, Enterprise $2,500+/mo)
- Minimum
- $30/mo subscription
- Expiry
- Monthly
- Targeting
- Country, city, ZIP, coordinates, ASN
- Sticky sessions
- 24 hours
- Latest test
- Proxyway: 99.93% success, 0.60 s (test date not stated in our sources)
Oxylabs had the largest measured pool in Proxyway’s tests (3,241,404 unique IPs), 99.93% success and 0.60 s, with targeting down to ZIP, coordinates and ASN, and 24-hour sessions.
It is subscription-only ($30/month Starter at $6/GB, down to $2.50/GB from $2,500/month), plans expire monthly and self-service purchases are non-refundable.
Your spend is irregular or below Oxylabs’ subscription tiers: PacketStream needs no plan, nothing expires, and the remaining balance is refundable within 24 hours. At 125 GB a month it costs $125 against $500.
Oxylabs pricing · PacketStream vs Oxylabs · Part of Source.ai since 13 Oct 2026 (with Decodo, Webshare, ScrapingBee, Honeygain)
Rayobyte
[BEST FOR: THE LOWEST PAY-AS-YOU-GO RATE AT 1–5 TB, WITH DEEP FILTERS]- Entry price
- $3.50/GB (Premium PAYG, 1–49 GB)
- Volume price
- $2 (50–249 GB), $1.50 (250–999 GB), $0.70 (1–5 TB); Enterprise from $0.50
- Minimum
- 1 GB
- Expiry
- n/v (Proxyway: non-expiring)
- Targeting
- Country, city, ZIP, ASN, OS
- Sticky sessions
- 60–120 min (Rayobyte states 120; Proxyway measured 60)
- Latest test
- Proxyway: slow residential responses (1.86 s)
Rayobyte’s Premium residential product falls from $3.50/GB (1–49 GB) to $2 (50–249 GB), $1.50 (250–999 GB) and $0.70/GB at 1–5 TB, with Enterprise from $0.50 — the lowest pay-as-you-go rate at that volume here (Evomi’s monthly Core plan works out lower, at $0.49/GB). It offers city, ZIP, ASN and OS targeting, SOCKS5 plus UDP and HTTP/3, and sticky sessions of 60–120 minutes (Rayobyte states 120; Proxyway measured 60).
Proxyway measured slow residential responses (1.86 s) and notes two dashboards, messy docs and SumSub KYC for residential. Its separate “Scale” product is not comparable per GB.
You buy less than 250 GB at a time, where PacketStream’s $1.00/GB is cheaper than Rayobyte’s tiers, and you want the balance to wait for you between jobs.
SOAX
[BEST FOR: RESIDENTIAL AND MOBILE IPS FROM ONE ACCOUNT, WITH FINE ROTATION CONTROL]- Entry price
- $5/GB for Tier-1 countries (e.g. US) on Sandbox credits
- Volume price
- $3.00 Builder ($200/mo), $2.20 Team, $1.50 Scale; Enterprise ($3,000/mo) from $0.85
- Minimum
- None (Sandbox credits)
- Expiry
- Credits expire 60 days after purchase
- Targeting
- Country, city, ISP
- Sticky sessions
- n/v
- Latest test
- Proxyway, April 2026 test: 99.78% success, 0.89 s
SOAX sells residential and mobile IPs priced in credits by exit-country tier: $5/GB for Tier-1 countries such as the US on Sandbox, down to $1.50 on the $1,500 Scale plan and from $0.85 on Enterprise. Proxyway’s April 2026 test measured 99.78% success, and it praised the rotation controls.
Credits expire 60 days after purchase, tier pricing takes effort to model, there is no free trial on the pricing page, and support was cut to weekdays 7am–7pm UTC.
You want a balance that never expires (SOAX credits lapse after 60 days) at one flat rate, without country tiers.
Where PacketStream is the pick
| Pick for | Why |
|---|---|
| The simplest flat-rate pricing | $1.00/GB at every volume, rotating or sticky; no tiers, plans or feature multipliers |
Other strengths that come with that rate:
- A pay-as-you-go balance that never expires, with no subscription. Buy once and use it over months; nothing renews.
- Google search and page reads for agents on the proxy balance. The Search API, Fetch API and one MCP server draw on the same never-expiring balance at $2.50 per 1,000 successful calls, failed calls are free, and the terms describe no up-front ID check.
- Rated sourcing. Synthient rates PacketStream’s opt-in sharing program LOW risk for consent practices.
The full picture is in the PacketStream review.
Who owns whom
Several “competitors” are now related. On 13 October 2026 Source.ai launched as an umbrella over Oxylabs, Decodo and Webshare (plus ScrapingBee and Honeygain); the brands keep their own products (Proxyway). Webshare has been owned by Oxylabs since late 2022. If you are diversifying suppliers for resilience, picking two of those three may not diversify as much as it seems. PacketStream, Evomi, IPRoyal, Rayobyte, Bright Data and SOAX are not part of that group.
When to stay with PacketStream
Stay with PacketStream if
- usage is irregular, so a never-expiring balance saves real money;
- you want one flat price with no tiers or feature multipliers;
- you would rather not commit to a subscription;
- you use its Search, Fetch or MCP tools on the same balance;
- you target by country, for example for localisation and QA checks.
Head-to-heads with full side-by-side specifications: Evomi, Decodo, IPRoyal, Webshare, Bright Data, Oxylabs.