The Best Datacenter Proxies to Use in 2024
Looking for the best datacenter proxies? You came to the right place. Datacenter proxies are probably the best solution for budget projects as they offer the cheapest price per GB of usage and fit a wide range of use cases.
In this piece, we are going to cover the best datacenter proxy providers based on different criteria such as pricing, proxy quality, pool size, geographical coverage, security, user experience, and online reputation.
Don’t have much time? The ultimate datacenter proxy provider is:
What Are Datacenter Proxies?
Datacenter proxies are IPs that are stored on servers that are located in datacenters. Those IPs aren’t assigned to a specific device and that’s the reason they are a lot cheaper than the other proxy types.
Since datacenter proxies use IPs that are provided through the datacenter providers, they are easier to spot by anti-bot systems and are more likely to get blacklisted or blocked, especially on projects related to large websites. Now, let’s go over the main advantages of datacenter IPs.
Advantages of Datacenter Proxies
The main drawback of datacenter proxies is that they are more likely to get blocked by websites. But what are the main advantages that make them popular among web scraping professionals?
- Speed – Datacenter proxies are much faster than all the other proxy types because they are hosted on servers that are built for that reason only – handling large amounts of traffic and data. There is a direct connection between your app and the datacenter proxy, without the need of using a “middleman” like with residential proxies.
- Availability – Datacenter proxies are available 24/7/365 as they are not relying on user devices, which makes it easier to scale up the volume whenever you want. It’s important to say though that some providers have an enormous residential pool that offers the same levels of availability.
- Reliability – Unlike other proxy types, datacenter ones require fewer resources to operate successfully. This means that you will experience less downtime and connectivity errors and issues, making it easier to operate your web scrapers.
- Price – As we already stated, datacenter proxies are the cheapest among all proxy services. Thanks to the simple infrastructure, providers can offer datacenter proxies at low and competitive prices.
Shared Vs. Dedicated Datacenter Proxies – Which to Choose?
Now that we know the general advantages of using those proxies, it’s time to learn about the 2 main types there are: shared and dedicated.
Shared Datacenter Proxies
As the name suggests, those proxies (IPs) are shared between multiple users. Usually, when you are using a shared proxy, the exact same IP is in use by another user or even several different users. You can compare that to website hosting when a shared hosting plan (same IP) hosts a bunch of different websites that eventually share the same IP even though they are not related at all.
As you can already guess, the main advantage of those proxies is that they are the cheaper option between the 2 and they still include most of the benefits that datacenter proxies offer in general.
Dedicated Datacenter Proxies
When you are choosing dedicated proxies, you are the only user that is using the same IP. Since you have exclusive usage of the IP, you can expect better results and handle larger volumes of traffic and data transfers because you are the only one using the dedicated resources of that IP which include bandwidth, processing power (CPU), and memory.
Now that we’ve covered the advantages and types of datacenter proxies, let’s move to the list of the best providers for this year!
The Best Datacenter Proxy Providers of 2023
TL;DR: The winner for this year is Oxylabs. By having the largest global coverage it manages to offer the perfect solution for projects from almost every country, all with superb quality and a large pool.
1. Oxylabs
Best overall solution
Total rating: 9.5/10
Oxylabs is a top player in the proxy industry for all proxy types, but in terms of datacetner ones it’s the clear winner. Offering both shared and dedicated proxies with a guaranteed uptime of 99.9% and including all the great features we are used to seeing from premium providers, like 24/7 support, amazing dashboard/control panel, auto-rotation, location targeting, and more.
Its shared datacenter proxies plan begins at $50/mo with a self-checkout option, offering you an unlimited number of IPs from the total pool of 29K IPs and a high traffic limit of 77GB. The main drawback is that the shared option comes with “only” 12 countries available (still a lot) and without a dedicated account manager, but it’s totally understandable at those price points.
The dedicated option is the holy grail here. 188 countries, a personal account manager, and affordable plans starting from $180/mo. Bandwidth is unlimited here and the thing you are paying for is IPs. For $180 a month, you’ll get 100 US IPs or 60 worldwide ones. The dedicated datacenter pool is huge, offering more than 2M unique IPs.
The customer support is doing a great job and replies quickly and there is a 0% chance that you’ll find yourself stuck with an unsolved issue.
Features – Oxylabs
- 24/7 live chat support
- Huge dedicated pool
- 188 countries
- Great customer support
- All premium features are included
- Unlimited concurrent sessions
Disadvantages – Oxylabs
- The shared pool isn’t big enough
- No self-checkout for dedicated proxies
2. Smartproxy
Best solution for US proxies
Total rating: 9/10
Smartproxy keeps coming on top of our best proxy provider lists. Its flexible pricing options and amazing response time of below 300ms have earned it 2nd place. When it comes to shared datacenter IPs, they offer a large pool with more than 100K IPs worldwide across 400 subnets.
Its dedicated solution is the best one for US use cases as it offers more than 400K dedicated US datacenter IPs, distributed over 1500 subnets providing you a fast scraping experience with a 99.99% uptime guarantee. Of course, on both options, you are getting access to the different features which include the browser extension, an address generator, and advanced rotation options.
You can do a self-checkout without having to wait for a sales representative and the prices are more than affordable, starting from $7.5/mo for dedicated proxies and $10/mo for the shared ones.
Features – Smartproxy
- Lowest pricing plans
- Perfect for US-based projects
- Self-checkout
- Advanced features and tools
- Great 24/7 support
- Choose between pay per IP and GB
Disadvantages – Smartproxy
- Global coverage isn’t close to Oxylabs
3. Bright Data
The premium solution
Total rating: 8.5/10
Bright Data is a company that started its way from the wrong foot but quickly realized it and re-branded itself to become the world’s most successful proxy provider. What makes Bright Data special is its perfectionist approach and the thousands of patent claims to its name.
The datacetner proxies network is as stable as it gets, with 99.99% uptime and no downtime at all in the last few months. It offers a large pool of over 770K different IPs with an impressive number of 400K+ IPs in the US. Of course, you can choose between shared and dedicated IPs, offering you the flexibility you need.
The prices are fair but are still much higher than the competitors mentioned above. On the pay-as-you-go plan you’ll pay $0.8 per IP and $0.11 per GB. Even though the proxies are flawless in terms of quality, there is no real justification for those prices.
In terms of support, you can expect the best experience, but only if you are willing to work with tickets and emails.
Features – Bright Data
- Flawless quality
- 24/7 email support
- Large proxies pool
- Easy integration
- Top speed
Disadvantages – Bright Data
- Expensive
- No live chat
4. Netnut
Top-tier customer support
Total rating: 8/10
Netnut is again part of our list thanks to its superior customer support. The quality of its datacenter proxies isn’t disappointing too as we managed to get an average of 0.37s with the US IPs. The total number of IPs in the pool is 150K, making it less than the top-rated alternatives but it’s still a high number and you most definitely won’t even need that many IPs.
Its pricing is flexible, especially when we compare them to other premium solutions. Prices start from $100/mo/$1/GB with an unlimited number of IPs and concurrent connections for all plans. If you want to enjoy the premium support in a live chat, you’ll have to go with the $185/mo plan or higher.
We don’t know how many US IPs there are, so keep that in mind and make sure you double-check with the support before subscribing.
Features – Netnut
- Decent pool
- Shared and dedicated available
- Simple self-serve checkout
- High speed
- Fair prices
- Superior support quality
Disadvantages – Netnut
- No live chat support for the starter plan
- No pay-as-you-go plan
- No info on the number of US datacenter IPs
5. Webshare
Great for small projects
Total rating: 7.8/10
Webshare is a solution that would fit small businesses and freelancers the best. Its uptime is around 99.97% and you get access to datacenter proxies from more than 40 different countries. What caught our eye the most though, is the fact that the folks at Webshare offer a completely free plan of 10 different proxy IPs and a bandwidth of 1GB.
Having a free plan for life can be very helpful for small one-time projects that don’t require a large pool of IPs, like scraping a few hundred of pages from a simple website. The pricing for all the other plans is also affordable, starting with a $2.99/mo plan that offers you 100 IPs and unlimited bandwidth! The total datacenter proxies pool of Webshare has more than 100K IPs.
Online reputation is there too, with a 4.4/5 score on Trustpilot with reviews from a bunch of happy customers. This is a great budget option and probably the best free datacenter proxies solution. The main thing that needs improvement is the support – it’s hard to find the contact details and there is no live chat available at all.
Features – Webshare
- Free forever plan
- Amazing prices
- IPs from 40+ countries
- Both HTTP & SOCKS5
Disadvantages – Webshare
- Hard to find contact details
- No live chat
- Proxy pool is not big enough
6. Rayobyte
The highest number of unique subnets
Total rating: 7.5/10
Rayobyte is a US-based company that understands perfectly the importance of offering US proxies and does it for 17 different cities! In general, it offers proxies from 26 countries and 9 different ASNs with an astonishing number of 20K unique subnets!
One thing that we really like here is that you can opt-in for IPv6 proxies which start from a funny monthly payment of $0.15/IP, something that we would like to see from other providers too. Of course, all plans come with the cool features Rayobyte has to offer: unlimited bandwidth, unlimited concurrent requests, easy API access, new IPs every month, 24/7 support, and more!
You can choose between HTTP/S and SOCKS proxies and based on your needs you can choose dedicated, semi-dedicated (up to 3 users), and rotating (only HTTPS connection). The support? Great, available 24/7 for all your needs.
Features – Rayobyte
- The highest number of subnets
- Impressive pool of 300K+ IPs
- IPs from 17 different US cities
- Both HTTP/S & SOCKS5
- Unlimited bandwidth with all plans
- IPv6 proxies available for a lower price
Disadvantages – Rayobyte
- Dedicated IPs are a bit expensive
- Not enough countries
- Proxy pool is not big enough
- Low rating on Trustpilot
7. IPRoyal
No shared proxies at all
Total rating: 7.5/10
IPRoyal would’ve been much higher on our list if it offered shared proxies too. We understand the goal of providing a “premium” solution where the customer is the only one using the IPs, but by doing so they can’t offer really low prices.
Its dedicated datacenter proxies include IPs from more than 15 countries and offer a speed of up to 10Gbps, one of the highest in the industry. All proxy plans come with unlimited bandwidth and concurrent requests with a SOCKS5 support.
Prices are very fair, starting from $1.8/IP and can drop to $1.57/IP on the $157/mo plan. If you need a plan that includes more than 100 IPs, you’ll have to contact its sales department. The support is helpful and available 24/7 via chat, although slow at times, especially at peak hours when the queue can reach 10 users.
Overall IPRoyal a good solution with a limited number of countries available and only dedicated IPs. There isn’t enough information on the number of datacetner IPs in its pool.
Features – Rayobyte
- 99.9% uptime
- Unlimited bandwidth and threads
- Simple pricing
Disadvantages – Rayobyte
- No shared proxies
- Support can be slow
- Not enough countries
- Not enough information about number of IPs
- Not enough subscription plans
- No free trial
Datacenter Proxies Use Cases
After we’ve understood what those proxies are and who are the best service providers to work with, it’s time to see if those proxies are the right solution for your projects.
- Sneaker drops: These proxies are often used in combination with sneaker bots. You should remember that major websites like Nike or Adidas will block sneaker proxies that are based on datacenter IPs.
- Bypassing geo-restrictions: By using datacenter proxies you can easily bypass geo-restrictions on different websites. As stated previously, more sophisticated websites tend to block those IPs.
- Social media management: These proxies are perfect for managing multiple social media accounts on browsers like Multilogin, allowing you to connect to a bunch of accounts. Especially helpful if you are an agency that specializes in social media marketing.
- Market research: You can use datacenter IPs to gather the information you need about your competitors or other information types to improve the performance of your business.
- Load testing: Datacenter IPs are the cheapest way to do load testing on websites. You can easily simulate the traffic of thousands of users at the same time by using datacenter IPs and by doing so, evaluate the performance of your website under traffic peaks.
Conclusion
We covered and explained what are datacenter proxies, and what is the difference between shared and dedicated IPs, and we’ve done our best to bring you the ultimate list of datacenter proxy services. Now with that knowledge, you can easily decide what is the perfect provider for you and of course, whether datacenter proxies are the right direction for your project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Datacenter proxies are IPs that are stored on servers that are located in datacenters. Those datacenters can be located in different countries, resulting in a pool of IPs from those countries.
Yes. Those proxies often provide an HTTP/S or SOCKS5 connection, both masking your true identity and IP.
The main 2 benefits are the speed and cost of these IPs. Datacenter IPs are the cheapest and offer the best speed among all proxy types.
Mobile proxy services are great for very specific use cases, but datacenter proxies can handle most of the simpler tasks for a small portion of the mobile proxies’ price.
No, but they do work with most of the websites. Some websites that use anti-bot systems and CDNs can block datacenter IPs.
As most of the premium datacenter proxy services offer the same speed, we would suggest focusing on cost and quality of customer support. Of course, if you need a high number of IPs, take the IP pool into consideration too.
Daniel is an SEM Specialist with many years of experience and he has a lot of experience with proxies and web data collection.
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Best providers
- Bright Data
- Oxylabs
- Smartproxy
- SOAX
- Nimble
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