Top 10 Best Residential Proxy Service Providers in Winter 2024-2025 ❄️

Updated! Imagine you're on a thrilling mission in the digital world and need to access restricted areas, gather valuable information, elevate your eCommerce business, and remain undetected. How can you accomplish this in 2024/2025 winter season?

Yes, residential proxies!

But with the still booming proxy industry with new companies opening and closing every day, many trusted service providers now offer different residential proxies, proxy services, customer support capabilities, flexible pricing options, quality of the buying experience, varying IP pool sizes, targeting options, and more. Finding the best residential proxy provider is like going on an adventure to the unfamiliar mountains – it’s pretty easy to get lost. So, let us show you the way while you pick the most suitable residential proxy provider for your needs. Shall we begin?!

What are residential proxies?

First, let’s get the basics down. A residential proxy is an IP address provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to a homeowner or individual user. Unlike datacenter proxies, residential proxies are sourced from real user devices.

These proxies enable you to route your internet traffic through residential IP addresses, making it seem like the requests come from real residential users rather than datacenters or commercial servers.

With a residential proxy, you become a resident of a virtual neighborhood equipped with a genuine IP address tied to a real home. It's as if you've temporarily moved into a different house in another city.

Learn more about residential proxies in our guide updated for 2024/2025.

Why do you need residential proxies?

That’s the real question. And when we say that the reasons are as plenty as a field of wildflowers in Spring – believe us!

Here’re some of the main reasons why:

• Anonymity and privacy. Residential proxies can help protect your online privacy by masking your actual IP address. Using a residential proxy makes your internet activities appear to originate from a residential user, enhancing your anonymity and reducing the risk of being tracked or monitored.
• Web scraping and data gathering. Residential proxies are commonly used for web scraping and data gathering. They enable you to extract data from websites without being detected or blocked. You can mimic genuine user behavior by rotating residential IP addresses and avoid triggering anti-scraping measures.
• Accessing restricted content. Some websites, services, or online platforms may impose geographical restrictions. Using a residential proxy with an IP address from a desired location, you can bypass these restrictions and access content or services unavailable in your area.
• Ad verification and SEO monitoring. Residential proxies are valuable for ad verification and search engine optimization activities. By simulating user behavior from different locations, you can verify that advertisements are displayed correctly and monitor search engine rankings accurately.
• Social media management. If you're a social media manager or marketer, residential proxies can help manage multiple social media accounts or engage with audiences in different regions. By using proxies with IP addresses from specific locations, you can tailor your content and engagement strategies to specific local audiences.
• Market research and competitor analysis. Residential proxies allow you to gather market research data and conduct competitor analysis. As a resident from different locations, you can gain insights into local trends, consumer behavior, and competitor strategies by accessing websites, forums, or social media platforms. But what really gives context and inspiration are real success stories from entrepreneurs, social media managers, and small startups who achieved their goals using proxy services! We have some inspiring client success stories to share. Check our case studies for real-life use cases!

Residential proxies vs. other types of proxies

Before we get into proxy providers, it’s essential to understand how residential proxies compare with other proxy types in the most critical aspects:

• Datacenter proxies may offer faster speeds but are less anonymous and more susceptible to blocking.
• Dedicated datacenter proxies could be more suitable if you prioritize speed, lower costs, and have less sensitive tasks like SEO monitoring, price comparison, or general browsing.
• Static residential (ISP) proxies may be considered one of the residential proxies types. Those are well-suited for activities requiring a fixed and trustworthy IP address, such as accessing region-restricted content or conducting market research.
• Mobile proxies may be considered one of the residential proxies types. If anonymity and trustworthiness are paramount, residential proxies may be preferred. On the other hand, mobile proxies are faster and perform significantly better with various social media targets.
• HTTPS/SSL proxy is commonly used for secure browsing, accessing restricted websites, and protecting sensitive information during online transactions. However, they may not provide websites with the same natural and trusted appearance as residential proxies.

Best residential proxy providers in winter 2024-2025

So, whether you’re looking for the fastest residential proxies, cheapest residential proxies, affordable prices, or simply the best residential proxies for your specific use case, we’ll help you find a proxy provider here! We've updated our best service providers list according to Proxyway Market Research 2024 findings and insights.

Here are the best residential proxy providers in Winter, 2024/2025. In overall, all leaders remained the same from Autumn and Summer (2024), with minor position switches.

Please note that we're ranking them strictly from the residential proxies network and service perspective:

1. Smartproxy 🥇: Best Value Proxy Provider

Since its founding in 2018, Smartproxy has created a perfect recipe for a blend of affordability and ample features. This rare balance ensures top-notch performance without breaking the bank. They have a staggering 55M+ proxy pool spanning 195+ countries, allowing you to set your sights on any country, city, state, and/or ZIP code you choose.

But what truly sets Smartproxy apart is its dedication to proxy servers' quality, self-service user experience, award-winning 24/7 client support, rich documentation, quick start guide, success rates, residential IPs locations, and worldwide coverage making it an ideal heaven for mid-segment business and hustling beginners seeking a seamless journey into residential proxies. But it’s not all about residential proxies; they also offer a package of different proxy solutions, such as static residential proxies, ISP proxies, mobile proxies, Web scraping APIs, free multi-accounting and anti-detection tools, such as X Browser, browser extensions for proxy management (for Chrome and Firefox), advanced proxy tester (free to download and use), and more.

The only minor drawback earlier was its limited targeting options. But they promised and delivered – from now on Smartproxy supports targeting by country, state, city, ASN, and ZIP code.

Smartproxy offers residential proxies from $2.2/GB with a 14-day money-back options, and/or a 3-day free trial may be included for all new users.

2. Oxylabs 🥈: Best Proxies for Enterprise

Oxylabs is a premium proxy provider offering an extensive array of products beyond residential proxies, including data center, mobile, rotating ISP, and SOCKS5 proxies. Additionally, you have the choice of utilizing versatile search engines or e-commerce scraper APIs.

They also have one of the most impressive proxy pools of 100M IPs and can provide its proxy service for big business use cases, for example, ad verification, brand protection, and SEO monitoring.

Oxylabs, though premium, may not benefit beginners or those seeking individual use because of its high pricing compared to other proxy providers.

Their residential proxy prices start from $15 for 1GB with a 7-day free trial for businesses and a 3-day refund for individuals.

One notable update from Oxylabs is their new OxyCopilot also known as first AI-powered assistant in the field. It enables Oxylabs clients to speed up data collection process. OxyCopilot is designed to handle diverse website structures and meet custom data extraction needs without manual coding.

3. Bright Data 🥉: Best Platform for Proxies (↑1)

Bright Data is one of the market's largest and most popular proxy service providers, and they don’t settle with residential proxies only, offering more products and solutions such as dedicated datacenter proxies, ISP proxies, data collection and extraction tools, proxy manager, scraping browser, and more. They also have numerous features, including targeting specific ASN and ZIP codes.

Moreover, one of their more notable highlights is their open-source proxy manager, custom API, and 72M proxy pool size.

For those new to the realm of proxies or are used to significantly smaller providers, Bright Data's web dashboard might come across as an unexpectedly difficult experience. Their prices are also quite steep, especially for beginners.

You can purchase their residential proxies for $15 for 1 GB. They also offer a 7-day free trial for businesses and a 3-day refund for individuals.

4. Webshare: Best Entry Choice (↓1)

Webshare stands out in the market by emphasizing anonymity. Their proxy takes proactive measures to outpace these challenges by utilizing constantly updated software. 

This strategy encompasses safeguarding against intricate detection methods like HTTP header inspection, TCP fingerprint proxy, port scan prevention, and DNS leak detection. 

Their proxy pool is quite rich, with 30M monthly IPs and a filter that allows 195 locations selection. And they also don’t shy away from supporting HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 protocols.

Webshare pricing starts from $7 for 1 GB. No free trial for residential proxies, but they offer 10 free proxies though (non-residential).

5. Infatica

Among the positive aspects of Infatica's residential proxies is its compatibility with a wide range of protocols, including SOCKS5. To enhance value, their main proxy pool encompasses mobile IPs, too, and offers targeting options in approximately 150 countries worldwide.

While city and ASN targeting can be made available upon request, they also provide flexible proxy choices such as IPv4, ISP, private proxies, and more, going beyond residential proxies.

If your business prioritizes cost-efficiency and needs to access the data of any major platform, Infatica could suit your proxy needs well.

Infatica’s residential proxy prices begin from $96 for 8GB ($12/GB). Also, a 3-day trial for $1.99 is available.

⚠️ Note that Proxyway found Infatica's proxy pool to be quite abused (according to the Market Research 2024). It is one of the reasons why this provider lost one position in our top list this time.

6. SOAX

Compared to some of its counterparts, SOAX's collection of over 8.5 million IPs might not be considered exceptionally large. Nonetheless, it becomes notably impressive when considering that this count only refers to residential proxies. 

However, if limitations bother you, keep in mind that SOAX doesn’t have any application or browser plugin that enables you to harness its proxy pool for privacy protection. 

Furthermore, it doesn’t provide a combined pool of WiFi and Mobile IPs, a feature that could have potentially presented a more affordable alternative for users.

SOAX residential proxies pricing starts from $99 for 8GB. A 3-day trial for $1.99 is available.

7. Rayobyte

Rayobyte offers extensive online services list encompassing servers, Windows VPS, and proxies. Essentially, it stands as a proxy provider with a primary focus on datacenters, with its IP pools spanning over 29 countries, including Brazil and the US. 

While residential proxies are a relatively recent addition to Rayobyte's arsenal, they can already boast several notable features such as 10M IP pool size, CAPTCHA avoidance, adherence to residential proxy ethics, and geo-targeting capabilities.

But when evaluating the provider's suitability for your specific needs, you should consider the absence of SOCKS5 support, slower proxies, and limited rotation settings.

They offer residential proxies from $15 for 1G and a 2-day free trial with 50 MB.

8. NetNut

NetNut's ISP-derived proxies offer a range of advantages. Effectively, these proxies provide stability and performance characteristics akin to datacenter IPs while incorporating the resilience of residential IPs.

There’re no constraints on the number of concurrent requests users can make. In fact, NetNut encourages users to initiate as many concurrent sessions as possible for optimal outcomes.

NetNut asserts that its proxies are compatible with all websites and search engines. Additionally, the company extends the offering of tailored private proxy pools optimized according to specific targets to ensure the highest possible success rates.

Their pricing starts from $100 for 5GB ($20/GB) with a 7-day free trial for companies.

9. IPRoyal

Besides proxies from across 195 countries and additional IPs through datacenters and sneaker proxies, IPRoyal offers convenient browser extensions designed for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. These extensions are equipped with various management tools that facilitate seamless switching between proxies. 

With these tools, users can configure existing proxies with easily swappable profiles, all without requiring changes to the operating system. Interestingly, IPRoyal also offers a well-organized list of free proxies.

However, it's important to note that while free proxies can serve as a temporary solution, they tend to be slower, less secure, and might be exploited by malicious third parties to gather sensitive personal data.

IPRoyal offers residential proxies from $7 for 1GB with no free trial option.

⚠️ Note that Proxyway found IPRoyal's proxy pool to be quite abused (according to the Market Research 2024). It is one of the reasons why this provider lost one position in our top list this time.

10. PacketStream

PacketStream presents a proxy service exclusively centered around residential proxies. As such, it doesn’t include mobile proxies or stable ISP-based residential proxies. Instead, they have a different approach to proxies, opening up the possibility for users to generate income by sharing their residential internet connections.

Anyone can sell their underutilized bandwidth to PacketStream, which subsequently leases it to its user community. Participants who contribute to a proxy node have their bandwidth quantified and receive credits corresponding to the consumption by PacketStream's users. 

Despite their limitations, such as a small proxy pool, specific targeting, and slower performance, for businesses operating within tight budgets, PacketStream's affordability makes it a provider worth giving a try.

Their price starts from $1 for 1GB with no free trial.

Here’s a summary of the top 10 residential proxy providers in winter 2024/2025:

1. Smartproxy
2. Oxylabs
3. Bright Data
4. Webshare
5. Infatica
6. SOAX
7. RayoByte
8. NetNut
9. IPRoyal
10. PacketStream

Conclusion

Whether you’re seeking high-performance proxy servers for enterprise-level operations or cost-efficient solutions for smaller tasks, each provider has something to offer. Additionally, location targeting, rotation flexibility, and customer support determine the best fit for your needs.

In making your decision, we advise careful evaluation and testing to ensure the chosen residential proxy service provider aligns with your goals, budget, infrastructure (if any), and performance expectations. By leveraging these powerful tools responsibly and ethically, users can gain a competitive edge, access valuable data, and confidently maintain online privacy.

If you'd like to dig deeper, take a look at our residential vs. ISP proxies or ISP proxies vs. other types of proxies guides. And if you'd like to know more, check out our list of the best mobile proxies.

The information provided here is valid as of 22-11-2024. Please be advised that circumstances and facts may change over time, rendering this information outdated or incomplete. Performance data is taken from Proxyway Market Research 2024.