Price scraping is the automated collection of publicly displayed product prices and related context from websites. A reliable price scraper does not store a number alone: it records the product, seller, currency, availability, promotion state, location or store context, source URL, and observation time. Price monitoring then compares valid observations over time and reports meaningful changes.
A proxy connection is the live network path between a client and a proxy. A proxy session is a provider-defined routing association that can retain or rotate an Internet Protocol (IP) address across connections. Closing a connection does not always end the related session, while sticky routing does not preserve cookies or browser state.
IPRoyal is a credible option for buyers who want a one-gigabyte residential purchase, traffic that remains available until used, and a requested sticky session lasting as long as seven days. Those strengths make the switching question more specific than “Which proxy provider is cheaper?”
A proxy endpoint is the address and port an application uses to reach a proxy service. An exit Internet Protocol (IP) address is the public source address a destination observes. Traffic sent through one endpoint can use a fixed exit or changing exits, with sticky sessions providing temporary continuity.
Proxy concurrency is the number of proxy operations active at the same time. Depending on the provider, one operation may mean an open connection, in-flight request, protocol stream, or browser session. The practical limit is the highest tested level that preserves results without unacceptable latency, failures, cost, or excessive destination load.
Bright Data combines raw proxy networks, browser infrastructure, unlocker APIs, scraper APIs, and datasets in one broad platform. That breadth can be valuable, but it is not the only sensible purchasing model for a small scraping team. A team that already owns its Python collector or Playwright workers may care more about the first payment, unused traffic, standard proxy access, and a predictable residential rate. Another team may want a smaller managed scraping plan that removes more engineering work.
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.
Decodo, formerly Smartproxy, does not have one universal price. It sells rotating proxy traffic, shared and dedicated IP allocations, managed access, and scraping APIs. The number on the homepage only makes sense after you identify the product, billing unit, allowance, and commitment behind it.
Slow proxy traffic usually comes from routing, connection setup, destination responses, content transfer, or client load. Measure Domain Name System (DNS), connection, first-byte, and transfer timings while changing one variable at a time. Reuse suitable connections, remove unnecessary assets, and test lower concurrency before replacing the proxy.
Residential proxies with Puppeteer let you run browser automation through residential IP addresses instead of your own IP or a data center address. You can configure them in Puppeteer using the --proxy-server argument and page.authenticate(), then verify the connection with an IP-checking endpoint. Proxidize lets you connect residential proxies to Puppeteer and use features such as IP rotation, sticky sessions, and location targeting.
A proxy pool is a collection of proxy routes from which an application or managed gateway selects a route. Good management assigns suitable exits, preserves sticky sessions, monitors valid results, quarantines weak routes, and limits retries. Use a managed gateway for simpler operations, or maintain endpoints directly when route-level control matters.
Yazan Sharawi on Oct 1, 2026
