A fair, workload-oriented comparison of the four proxy providers most teams shortlist in 2026. Where Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Smartproxy each win — and the specific niches (dedicated mobile, port-based billing, multi-account operations) where xProxy is the better choice. Includes a features matrix, pricing-model breakdown, and a use-case decision tree.
If you're shortlisting a proxy provider in 2026, four names show up on virtually every list: Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy, and xProxy. They compete for the same buyer — but they are not the same product. Picking the wrong one for your workload will either burn your budget (paying enterprise prices for a mid-market job) or cost you accounts (using a shared pool for something that needs dedicated IPs).
This guide compares the four fairly, workload by workload, based on their public product positioning in 2026. We'll be honest about where the others win — because in some scenarios they clearly do — and where xProxy is the right pick.
TL;DR:
Before comparing them, it helps to understand that these four providers aren't in the same category of proxy:
| Provider | Primary category | Secondary products | |---|---|---| | Bright Data | Multi-network residential + datacenter + mobile P2P pool + scraping infrastructure | Web Scraper API, Web Unblocker, SERP API, Datasets marketplace, Scraping Browser | | Oxylabs | Enterprise residential + datacenter + mobile P2P pool | Web Unblocker, SERP Scraper API, E-commerce Scraper API | | Smartproxy (Decodo) | Mid-market residential + datacenter | Site Unblocker, SERP APIs, mobile P2P (smaller) | | xProxy | Dedicated 4G/5G mobile SIMs with port-based pricing | Free IP checker, xProxy Router (phone-farm hardware) |
Bright Data and Oxylabs are essentially scraping platforms — proxies are one product line among many. Smartproxy is a residential-proxy specialist with some adjacent tools. xProxy is a mobile-proxy specialist built around dedicated SIMs and predictable pricing.
That framing matters. Comparing "Bright Data mobile proxies" to "xProxy mobile proxies" is not apples-to-apples: Bright Data's mobile pool is a peer-to-peer shared pool (very large but shared across all customers at the same second), while xProxy's mobile pool is dedicated physical SIMs (one customer per IP at a time). Both are called "mobile proxies." They behave very differently. See our IP pool explainer for why this distinction is the single most important variable in a proxy purchase.
Public marketing pages emphasize pool size ("millions of IPs!") because it sounds impressive. In practice, only a handful of dimensions actually influence whether a provider will work for your workload. Here they are:
| Dimension | Bright Data | Oxylabs | Smartproxy | xProxy | |---|---|---|---|---| | Residential pool size (~2026) | 100M+ | 100M+ | 55M+ | Not primary product | | Mobile pool model | Peer-to-peer (SDK) | Peer-to-peer (SDK) | Peer-to-peer (smaller) | Dedicated SIMs on physical devices | | Datacenter proxies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not primary | | Bandwidth pricing model | $/GB | $/GB | $/GB | Port-based (unlimited BW/port) | | Session control | Sticky + rotating | Sticky + rotating | Sticky + rotating | Per-SIM control + rotation API | | Country targeting | 195+ | 195+ | 195+ | 30+ (curated tier-1) | | City-level targeting | Yes (major countries) | Yes (major countries) | Yes (major countries) | Yes (in stocked cities) | | Carrier-level targeting on mobile | Limited | Limited | Limited | Yes — per-carrier plans | | Web Unblocker / SERP API | ✓ (mature) | ✓ (mature) | Partial | Not offered | | Scraping Browser / dataset marketplace | ✓ | Partial | No | No | | Enterprise SLA + invoicing | ✓ | ✓ | Self-serve | Self-serve | | Free trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free IP checker + small trial plans |
The star column changes based on what you're doing. Let's walk through it.
Bright Data is the biggest and most product-rich player. If you need any of the following, it's usually the right call: