Best Decodo (Smartproxy) Alternatives for Residential Proxies in 2026

Decodo is the current name of Smartproxy, so those names do not represent two providers. The company completed the rebrand in April 2025, while existing accounts, subscriptions, and proxy configurations continued under the new brand. This guide compares eight current alternatives to Decodo's rotating residential product.

The right alternative depends on why a buyer is considering a switch. A self-managed scraping team may want more residential traffic for a $25 starting payment, while an occasional user may need a smaller first purchase. A multi-page workflow may prioritize requested session duration, and an enterprise may value managed scraping products or procurement support more than raw traffic price. The comparison therefore ranks providers by residential-proxy purchasing fit—not by an unsupported universal performance score.

Quick Answer

The best Decodo alternative depends on the requirement Decodo does not meet. Proxidize is a strong fit for teams running their own collection stack when its $25 monthly minimum is acceptable: the plan includes 25GB at $1/GB, and unused bandwidth rolls over. DataImpulse offers a $5 new-user package for 5GB, while IPRoyal provides a one-gigabyte PAYG purchase and requested sticky sessions of up to seven days. Bright Data and Oxylabs suit buyers prioritizing broader managed-data platforms; SOAX uses location-tiered credits; ProxyEmpire combines several rotation modes with eligible rollover; and Webshare offers small monthly plans. Stay with Decodo when its $4/GB Wallet-based PAYG, detailed targeting, or managed scraping products better fit the job.

Key Takeaways

• Smartproxy is now Decodo. A buyer looking for a Smartproxy alternative in 2026 is comparing against Decodo's current plans and terms.
• Proxidize is a strong alternative when a $25 monthly starting payment is acceptable. Its plan includes 25GB at $1/GB; a buyer needing 10GB could still pay $25 and keep the remaining bandwidth, compared with Decodo's $35 monthly 10GB plan.
• A low unit rate and a low first payment are different. DataImpulse starts new users at $5 for 5GB; IPRoyal offers 1GB PAYG for $7.35; Proxidize starts at $25 per month for 25GB.
• Unused traffic can decide the real cost. Decodo's residential PAYG traffic has a 12-month window after deactivation, while several alternatives document rollover or traffic that remains available until used.
• Requested sticky duration is not guaranteed IP continuity. Residential exits can leave a peer network before the requested session ends, so long workflows still need checkpoints and recovery logic.
• Raw proxies and scraping APIs are different purchases. Compare bandwidth-priced endpoints with other raw endpoints, then evaluate managed rendering or extraction separately.

Quick Comparison: Decodo and the Best Alternatives

The starting-price column distinguishes a verified package from a per-unit rate. Promotions are marked because they may not be available at renewal.

Best Decodo Alternatives by Switching Reason

If the reason for leaving Decodo is clear, start with the corresponding shortlist rather than evaluating every provider from scratch.

This is a buying shortlist, not a forecast of target performance. A candidate still needs to pass a controlled test using the actual target, geography, request pattern, validation rules, and expected traffic.

What Does Decodo Offer Today?

Decodo's current residential product is the baseline for this comparison. Its public residential pricing page lists:

The raw residential service supports HTTP(S) and SOCKS5, rotating and sticky sessions, and continent, country, state, city, ZIP, and ASN targeting. Decodo's pricing FAQ states that a sticky session can be requested for up to 30 minutes.

PAYG needs more explanation than the $4 card alone provides. Under Decodo's PAYG documentation, the account must use Wallet funds, traffic is purchased in 1GB increments, and the next gigabyte is bought after 90% of the current allowance is consumed when sufficient credit remains. PAYG and a regular residential subscription cannot be active at the same time. After PAYG is turned off, unused PAYG traffic remains available for 12 months or until the buyer purchases a regular residential subscription.

Decodo also sells a Web Scraping API and Site Unblocker. Those products can reduce the retrieval work a customer operates, but they use different meters and should not be treated as equivalent to raw residential gigabytes. See the full Decodo pricing breakdown for the broader catalog and billing rules.

How We Compared the Alternatives

Proxidize publishes this article and is one of the alternatives reviewed. We used the same questions for every residential product:

1. What is the verified starting path? A package total, monthly commitment, PAYG unit, Wallet model, and promotional rate are labeled separately.
2. Which location controls are documented? Country, city, region or state, ZIP, ISP, and ASN access can vary by plan or add cost.
3. How do sessions work? We checked rotating and sticky behavior and noted requested durations where the provider documents them.
4. What happens to unused traffic? Monthly reset, rollover, and fixed validity periods change the cost of irregular jobs.
5. Which protocols and controls are available? HTTP(S), SOCKS5, authentication, dashboard, and API support affect integration fit.
6. What does the provider operate? A raw proxy route does not automatically include rendering, retries, extraction, or structured records.
7. What must be verified? Plan-specific restrictions, account checks, target access, and real workload performance remain part of the buying process.

Prices and material product terms were checked on first-party pages on September 15, 2026. No equal credentialed benchmark was run across all providers. The recommendations therefore describe documented fit, not measured speed, usable-result rate, IP quality, or access to a particular target. Public promotions can change, and taxes may apply.

1. Proxidize — Best for Teams Running Their Own Collection Stack

Shortlist Proxidize when your team already operates the HTTP client, scraper, browser workers, extraction, and validation, and can accept a $25 monthly starting payment for residential network infrastructure.Proxidize Residential Proxy pricing advertises a $25 monthly plan containing 25GB at $1/GB. The public page says unused bandwidth rolls over and remains in the account after cancellation.

The residential product supports country, city, and ISP targeting; rotating and sticky sessions; HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5; and dashboard and API control across 195+ countries. KYC is required before use. Proxidize supplies the route and network controls, while the customer remains responsible for the collector, rendering, retries, parsing, and content validation.

Proxidize vs Decodo at 10GB and 25GB

Proxidize's threshold is a $25 monthly purchase—not a requirement to consume 25GB immediately. A team expecting to use 10GB could buy the 25GB plan, use 10GB, and retain the unused bandwidth under the published rollover terms.

This is a bandwidth-price calculation, not a performance benchmark or a total-cost result. It excludes compute, browser operation, engineering, extraction, validation, and any traffic beyond the stated amount. Decodo may still produce a lower total cost if its selectors, managed products, or existing integration replace work the team would otherwise build.

Choose another provider when you need an initial payment below $25, a managed scraping API from the same vendor, a selector Proxidize does not document, or an enterprise data platform that goes beyond the proxy layer.

Best for: self-managed scraping, browser automation, AI web data collection, SEO monitoring, price monitoring, and market research using a standard residential endpoint.

2. DataImpulse — Best for a Low-Cost 5GB Starter

Shortlist DataImpulse when the immediate requirement is a small, plainly priced residential proof of concept. Its residential product page lists a $5 new-user package containing 5GB at $1/GB. It describes the service as PAYG without a subscription and says paid traffic remains available until used.

The base product includes country targeting, HTTP(S), SOCKS5, rotating and sticky sessions, IP authorization, and API access. DataImpulse also advertises state, city, ZIP, and ASN selection, but buyers should confirm the specific route and price because detailed selection can sit under different product or surcharge terms.

Compared with Decodo, DataImpulse offers a lower visible starter cost per gigabyte and a longer traffic lifetime. Decodo can be a better fit when its included detailed selectors, add-ons, or managed scraping products matter more than the raw rate. We did not locate a first-party DataImpulse managed scraping API during this review, so DataImpulse is evaluated here as a network provider rather than a managed extraction service.

Choose another provider when you need a first-party managed fallback, a clearly bundled advanced location selector, or enterprise service terms that are documented for the exact workload.

Best for: small or irregular self-managed projects that need a 5GB residential starting package.

3. IPRoyal — Best for a One-Gigabyte Purchase and Long Requested Sessions

Shortlist IPRoyal when you want a one-gigabyte residential test or need a longer configurable sticky window than Decodo's documented 30 minutes.IPRoyal residential pricing lists 1GB at $7.35 through PAYG or $7 through the subscription path. It says purchased residential traffic remains available until used.

The service supports HTTP(S), SOCKS5, rotating behavior, and country, state, and city selection. IPRoyal's residential quick-start guide documents requested sticky durations from one second to seven days. It also explains the important limitation: because residential exits can join and leave the network, the same IP cannot be guaranteed for the entire requested period.

IPRoyal also offers a separately billed Web Unblocker. That may help teams wanting managed access support, but its request price is not comparable to a raw residential gigabyte. Test both paths against the same required content if that service boundary affects the decision.

Choose another provider when a $25 starting plan and lower raw rate matter more than the one-gigabyte purchase or long requested session, or when the required managed product and browser behavior are not documented for your client.

Best for: one-off residential tests, traffic that may sit unused, and checkpointed multi-page workflows that benefit from a long requested session.

4. Webshare — Best for Small Monthly Plans and Integration Testing

Shortlist Webshare when you want a small monthly residential plan or first need to verify that your application can authenticate to a proxy. Its residential page displayed 1GB at $3.50 per month during this review, against a $7 list price. The promotional price must be checked again at purchase and renewal.

Webshare supports HTTP and SOCKS5, rotating and sticky residential sessions, and country, state, city, ZIP, and ASN selection subject to product and filter rules. Its permanent free offer supplies ten datacenter proxies and up to 1GB per month—not free residential traffic. That route can test environment variables, outbound networking, and basic authentication, but it cannot establish residential performance or location availability.

The Webshare bandwidth documentation says monthly limits reset and do not roll over. This differs from Decodo PAYG's fixed validity window and from alternatives that preserve paid traffic until used. It may be perfectly acceptable for a predictable monthly collector, but irregular workloads should model unused allowance.

Choose another provider when you need mobile proxies, persistent paid residential traffic, or a managed scraping product from the same supplier.

Best for: developers who want a small monthly residential package and a separate free datacenter path for testing proxy plumbing.

5. Bright Data — Best Full-Stack Data-Collection Alternative

Shortlist Bright Data when residential proxies are only one part of the purchasing requirement. Its residential pricing page lists PAYG at $8/GB and displayed a 50%-off $4/GB offer during this review. Promotions should be modeled separately from list and renewal rates.

Bright Data documents country, state, city, ZIP, and ASN controls and sells a broad set of separate products, including Browser API, Web Unlocker, Scraper APIs, and datasets. That makes it a different alternative from a provider focused on raw routes. A team may accept a higher residential list rate if consolidating browser infrastructure or managed retrieval reduces engineering and procurement work.

Compared with Decodo, Bright Data is a broader enterprise platform, while Decodo offers a lower visible residential subscription entry and its own smaller managed-API path. Neither catalog proves which option is cheaper for a specific target. Model the exact product, billing unit, requested geography, and accepted output.

Choose another provider when the team already owns its collection layer and primarily wants a lower raw-residential payment, persistent bandwidth, or a narrower dashboard decision.

Best for: organizations that want raw networks, managed access products, browser infrastructure, and datasets under one commercial platform.

6. Oxylabs — Best for Enterprise Residential and Managed Retrieval

Shortlist Oxylabs when enterprise support and a mature managed-retrieval catalog matter more than the smallest starting payment. Its residential pricing page lists a $30 monthly Starter plan for 5GB at $6/GB, a $100 Basic plan for 20GB at $5/GB, and larger monthly tiers.

The reviewed product supports HTTP(S), SOCKS5, rotating and sticky sessions, and continent, country, state, city, and ZIP selection. Oxylabs also sells Web Scraper API and Web Unblocker, giving buyers a separate path when they do not want to operate all access and retrieval logic themselves.

Decodo has the lower public residential starting payment and a broader visible set of raw selectors that includes ASN. Oxylabs may fit better when enterprise service, account organization, or managed scraping is central to the purchase. These are procurement and architecture differences, not proof of higher target success.

Choose another provider when a small PAYG test, traffic rollover, or a $1/GB raw route is the main requirement.

Best for: enterprise teams comparing residential access and managed retrieval under the same vendor relationship.

7. SOAX — Best for Location-Tiered Pricing and Shared Credits

Shortlist SOAX when the same account needs residential and mobile network access with pricing that changes by destination tier. The SOAX pricing page lists a free Sandbox with no included credits and a $200-per-month Builder plan containing 200 credits. One credit equals $1, and the page says one network rate applies across residential and mobile traffic within each location tier.

Sandbox residential usage is listed at $5/GB for Tier 1 countries, $3.75/GB for Tier 2, and $2/GB for Tier 3. Builder lowers those usage rates but introduces the monthly plan payment. For example, the page's own 100GB US model totals $300 on Builder: a $200 plan plus $100 in additional credits. Buyers should compare the full monthly total, not quote only the lower per-GB line.

SOAX documents country, region, city, and ISP selection on the lower plans; ASN and ZIP appear on higher plans. It supports HTTP(S), SOCKS5, rotating and sticky sessions, and separate managed data services. The pricing grid shows 60-day credit rollover across the standard plans. Its Enterprise column shows a 60/365-day term depending on commitment, so buyers should not assume the 365-day option applies to an annual version of every lower plan.

Compared with Decodo, SOAX requires more attention to location tiers, plan credits, and minimum monthly spend. It can still be the better operational fit when residential and mobile use need one credit system or its targeting model matches the markets being monitored.

Choose another provider when the team wants a simple fixed residential package, a very small included test balance, or a single public rate across all countries.

Best for: teams that value a location-tiered model, shared residential/mobile credits, and detailed selection controls.

8. ProxyEmpire — Best for Rollover and Multiple Rotation Modes

Shortlist ProxyEmpire when uneven traffic and explicit rotation choices are the main requirements. Its rotating residential page lists 1GB at $7 under standard pricing and displayed a 50%-off $3.50 rate during this review. It also displayed a $1.97 paid trial. Buyers should verify the trial allowance, promotion end date, and renewal price at checkout.

ProxyEmpire documents country, region, city, ISP, and ASN targeting; HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, and SOCKS5; and new-IP-per-request, sticky, and timed rotation. It states that bandwidth rolls over on eligible plans, so the exact package must be checked rather than treating rollover as a universal account rule.

This is primarily a raw-proxy alternative in the current comparison. We did not locate a broad first-party managed scraping or structured-extraction platform during this review. Decodo may fit better when the buyer wants a managed scraping path from the same provider or prefers its 3GB subscription and detailed documentation.

Choose another provider when the list promotion is the main reason for switching, the eligible rollover terms are unclear for the intended plan, or managed retrieval is required.

Best for: self-managed workloads that need per-request, sticky, and timed rotation with rollover on an eligible package.

Which Decodo Alternative Is Cheapest?

There is no accurate answer without a volume and a purchasing model. The current public starting paths show why:

• Decodo lists $4 for each PAYG gigabyte through Wallet and $11.25 plus VAT for a 3GB subscription.
• DataImpulse lists a $5 new-user package for 5GB.
• IPRoyal lists 1GB PAYG at $7.35.
• Webshare displayed a promotional 1GB monthly price of $3.50 against a $7 list rate.
• Proxidize starts at $25 per month for 25GB, or $1/GB, with rollover.

Webshare's displayed promotion is the smallest listed payment in that snapshot, but it is a monthly promotional plan—not a permanent cross-provider price conclusion. Decodo's $4 is a unit purchased through Wallet, and the public Wallet funding minimum was not established in this review. DataImpulse has the clearest verified $5-for-5GB new-user package. Proxidize has a verified monthly package at exactly 25GB, priced at $25 or $1/GB.

The better measure is cost per validated result:

Operating cost can include extraction, validation, engineering, and maintenance. Count retry-related bandwidth, compute, request charges, and labor once in the category where each cost is incurred; do not add a second generic retry charge. A low traffic price can lose its advantage if the required location is unavailable or retries consume more resources than planned. Conversely, a broad platform can cost more than necessary when a team already operates a reliable collector.

For a wider market view, compare the Residential Proxy Pricing Index and the best residential proxy providers.

Decodo vs Proxidize: Which Should You Choose?

Choose Decodo for an initial payment below $25, its continent/state/ZIP/ASN selectors, or its separately billed scraping and unlocking products. Choose Proxidize when a $25 monthly starting payment is acceptable, the team owns the collection layer, and $1/GB residential traffic with rollover fits the workload. That can include a 10GB requirement: the Proxidize plan costs $25, and its unused 10GB remains available under the published terms, while Decodo's monthly 10GB plan costs $35 plus VAT.

Those figures compare plan payments, not valid-result performance. Verify geography, session behavior, target access, support, compute, and engineering. The dedicated Proxidize vs Decodo comparison covers their broader product differences.

When Should You Stay With Decodo?

Decodo remains sensible when:

• the buyer needs an initial payment below $25 and does not want to prepay additional traffic;
• Decodo's continent, state, city, ZIP, or ASN selector is required;
• the existing integration, account, and endpoint already work for the authorized workload;
• the Web Scraping API or Site Unblocker removes enough internal work to justify its separate meter;
• a 30-minute requested sticky session is sufficient;
• changing providers would add testing and migration work without solving a measured problem.

Switch only when the replacement solves a measured cost, geography, session, compliance, or service-boundary problem.

How to Choose a Decodo Alternative

1. Define the gap. State it measurably: a sub-$25 test, a particular selector, persistent paid traffic, or managed JavaScript retrieval.
2. Choose the delivery layer. Use raw proxies when the team owns retrieval and parsing; use a managed API when outsourcing that work justifies its request or credit price. See the raw proxies versus scraping APIs guide for the full cost model.
3. Model the first payment. Separate the unit rate, required package or Wallet deposit, commitment, promotion, and renewal price.
4. Verify location controls. Confirm the exact country, city, ZIP, ISP, or ASN required and whether it changes the rate.
5. Map session state. A sticky proxy session does not preserve browser cookies, and a residential exit may disconnect. Keep application state and recovery logic separate.
6. Measure real traffic. Use representative HTTP or browser jobs, including assets and retry consumption once, to forecast normal and peak usage.
7. Check traffic-lifetime rules. Record what happens at renewal, cancellation, downgrade, PAYG deactivation, and product changes.
8. Run an equal test. Use the same permitted URLs, geography, concurrency, timeout, retry budget, and content checks. Compare valid results, errors, median and p95 completion time, billed traffic, session breaks, setup effort, and cost per 1,000 valid results.

An HTTP 200 response is not enough; validate the required content and geography. Follow applicable law and site terms, rate-limit responsibly, and avoid collecting private or restricted data without authorization.

Final Verdict

Use the switching-reason table to shortlist two or three providers, then verify checkout terms and run the same controlled workload. Proxidize is a strong raw-network option when a $25 monthly starting payment is acceptable; Decodo remains competitive for a lower initial payment, detailed selectors, and buyers evaluating raw and managed collection under one vendor.

If your team already owns the scraper, browser, or AI application layer, explore Proxidize Residential Proxies or view current residential pricing. KYC is required, and customers remain responsible for using the service lawfully and in accordance with applicable third-party terms.