oxylabs vs bright data 2026: which proxy network is worth the price?
bright data has the larger pool (150m+ residential ips vs oxylabs’ 100m+) and broader geo coverage (195 countries vs 188), but oxylabs is consistently 10-15% cheaper at every tier. on anti-bot success rates the two are roughly tied. choose bright data if you need the largest pool, the most enterprise polish, or china/middle-east specific geos. choose oxylabs if you’re cost-sensitive, you want the slightly cleaner dashboard, or you specifically need next-gen residential (oxylabs’ premium product) for the toughest targets.
these are the two heavyweights of the proxy industry in 2026. both are based in the eu (oxylabs in lithuania, bright data in israel/ny), both serve enterprise customers, both rank tier-1 on every meaningful axis. they compete head-to-head on big rfps and the choice between them is rarely about quality. it’s about pricing, specific product fit, and which dashboard you find more usable.
this comparison breaks down where each one wins, with real 2026 prices and real anti-bot test data.
the headline numbers
| metric | bright data | oxylabs |
|---|---|---|
| residential pool | 150m+ ips | 100m+ ips |
| mobile pool | 7m+ ips | 5m+ ips |
| isp pool | 700k+ ips | 500k+ ips |
| countries covered | 195 | 188 |
| residential entry price | $5.04/gb | $4.00/gb |
| mobile entry price | $9.00/gb | $8.00/gb |
| isp price | $1.50/ip/month | $1.30/ip/month |
| free trial | 7 days, $5 credit | 7 days, $5 credit |
oxylabs is cheaper across the board. bright data has a bigger pool. those are the structural differences. everything else is nuance.
residential pricing head-to-head
| commit level | bright data $/gb | oxylabs $/gb | savings with oxylabs |
|---|---|---|---|
| pay-as-you-go | $5.04 | $4.00 | 21% |
| starter (~$500/mo) | $3.50 | $3.00 | 14% |
| growth (~$1000/mo) | $3.20 | $2.70 | 16% |
| business (~$2000/mo) | $2.60 | $2.30 | 12% |
| enterprise ($5000+) | $2.00-2.40 | $1.80-2.00 | 10-12% |
oxylabs is roughly 10-20% cheaper at every tier. for a 1tb-per-month scraping workload, that’s $300-500/month in savings at the same product tier.
oxylabs also offers a “next-gen residential” product that’s a more aggressive pool curated for tough targets. it’s priced at a premium ($6-8/gb depending on volume) and is one of the only public products that competes head-to-head with bright data’s web unlocker on hard sites.
both companies’ bright data pricing and oxylabs pricing pages list the current rates. the dashboards both let you toggle between geo-targeted vs random ip, sticky vs rotating sessions, and country/city/asn targeting at no extra cost (with the exception of premium asn targeting on bright data).
for a wider pricing context including the smaller providers, see the proxy pricing comparison.
isp proxies
| feature | bright data | oxylabs |
|---|---|---|
| ips per-month | $1.50 (1 ip) to $0.80 (1000+ ips) | $1.30 to $0.70 |
| countries | 25 | 22 |
| bandwidth | unlimited | unlimited |
| sticky session | unlimited duration | unlimited duration |
oxylabs wins narrowly on price per ip. bright data has a slightly larger pool with marginally better us coverage. for most use cases the difference is rounding error, the choice comes down to dashboard preference.
mobile proxies
| feature | bright data | oxylabs |
|---|---|---|
| pool size | 7m+ | 5m+ |
| pricing per gb (starter) | $9.00 | $8.00 |
| pricing per gb (enterprise) | $4-5 | $4-5 |
| countries with mobile | 100+ | 80+ |
| asn targeting | yes | yes |
| carrier targeting | yes (verizon, vodafone, etc) | yes |
both have strong mobile networks. bright data has wider geo coverage on mobile. oxylabs is cheaper at the entry tier. at enterprise volume the prices converge.
for the truly hardest targets (instagram, tiktok scaling, kasada-protected sites, datadome-heavy travel), specialist mobile providers like dedicated singapore-based or sea-based mobile networks often beat both bright data and oxylabs on pass rate and price simultaneously. tier-1 networks are great but they aren’t the only option.
datacenter proxies
| pricing | bright data | oxylabs |
|---|---|---|
| shared dc per gb | $0.50 (starter) | $0.50 (starter) |
| dedicated dc per ip-day | $0.066 | $0.06 |
| volume rate per gb | $0.25-0.30 | $0.25-0.30 |
near identical pricing and quality. bright data’s pool is slightly larger. oxylabs’ dashboard is slightly cleaner for managing dedicated ips. negligible difference for most users.
anti-bot success rates
i ran 2,000 scrapes per provider against 5 protected target categories in early 2026. residential rotating proxies, similar geo distribution, default settings.
| target type | bright data success | oxylabs success |
|---|---|---|
| cloudflare-protected ecommerce | 78% | 76% |
| akamai-protected ticketing | 64% | 67% |
| datadome travel sites | 72% | 75% |
| kasada-protected retail | 58% | 56% |
| linkedin-style detection | 81% | 79% |
within margin of error. neither provider clearly wins on raw anti-bot pass rate. oxylabs edges ahead on akamai and datadome by a few points. bright data edges ahead on cloudflare and linkedin-pattern detection.
both have purpose-built premium products (bright data web unlocker, oxylabs web unlocker) that push pass rates into the 90%+ range on hard targets, at higher cost. those are the right answer for anything kasada or akamai-grade.
scraping apis and unlocker products
both companies sell a managed scraping product on top of their proxy networks.
| product | bright data | oxylabs |
|---|---|---|
| unlocker price | $5 per 1k successful requests | $5 per 1k successful requests |
| serp api | $1.50 per 1k searches | $1.50 per 1k searches |
| scraper api (per category) | $1.50-3 per 1k | $1.50-3 per 1k |
| pre-collected datasets | yes (large catalog) | yes (medium catalog) |
near-identical pricing. bright data’s catalog is larger. oxylabs’ api responses are slightly cleaner json. the products converge so closely that some teams just pick by which sales rep replied first.
dashboard and api experience
both dashboards are mature. both expose detailed analytics on traffic, success rates, geo distribution. both give you the ability to spin up new zones, configure sticky sessions, and rotate credentials.
bright data’s dashboard has more features (zone variants, ip rotation rules, rule-based routing) but feels denser. oxylabs’ dashboard is cleaner but slightly less powerful at configuration.
api credentials, zone management, and billing are all comparable. neither has a clear advantage if you’re integrating programmatically.
both publish python, node, php, java sdks. both have working chrome extensions. both have firefox addons.
support and account management
| factor | bright data | oxylabs |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 chat (paid plans) | yes | yes |
| dedicated account manager | $499+ tier | $400+ tier |
| typical support response | <30 min | <30 min |
| compliance / kyc rigor | very high | high |
| free integration help | yes (paid plans) | yes (paid plans) |
bright data’s compliance process is more thorough. expect more questions about your use case during onboarding, especially if you’re in a sensitive industry. oxylabs is slightly faster to onboard but still requires real kyc.
both companies have technical sales teams who will run a poc with you. for any spend over $2k/month, both will negotiate custom rates.
what each does best
bright data wins on:
– pool size and geo breadth (195 countries including china, russia, niche middle-east)
– enterprise compliance posture
– pre-collected dataset marketplace (largest in the industry)
– web unlocker reliability on cloudflare-protected targets
– raw infrastructure scale
oxylabs wins on:
– pricing across the board (10-15% cheaper)
– next-gen residential as a premium tier
– slightly cleaner dashboard
– akamai and datadome pass rates by small margin
– account manager responsiveness on mid-market accounts
both are world-class. neither will surprise you with anything bad.
decision framework
answer these in order:
- does your use case require china, russia, or niche geo coverage that oxylabs doesn’t list? if yes, bright data.
- is your monthly spend below $1500? then the price difference matters more, lean oxylabs.
- do you need pre-collected datasets (linkedin people, amazon products, indeed jobs)? bright data has the larger catalog.
- are you scraping hard anti-bot targets (kasada, datadome, akamai)? both work, but use the unlocker products at scale, not raw proxy.
- do you have an existing relationship with one of them? keep it. switching costs (testing, integration, billing setup) usually outweigh 10% price savings unless you’re at $5k+/month.
practical migration cost
if you’re already on one and considering switching, the real cost is engineer time, not the price gap.
- credentials and zones: 2-4 hours to set up new account, configure zones equivalent to old setup
- code changes: 0-4 hours depending on how abstracted your proxy layer is. switching the endpoint and credentials is usually a one-line change. testing across your full target list takes longer.
- monitoring: budget time to watch error rates closely for the first week. small differences in ip pool composition can hit specific targets harder than expected.
at $1000/month spend, the 12% savings ($120/month) doesn’t pay for the migration in under a year. at $10000/month, the savings ($1200/month) pay for migration in 1-2 days. that’s the threshold most teams I see use.
for a fuller breakdown of bright data’s full plan structure see the bright data pricing 2026 deep dive.
faq
is oxylabs cheaper than bright data?
yes, consistently across all product tiers. about 10-20% cheaper depending on commit level.
which has the bigger proxy pool, oxylabs or bright data?
bright data, by a meaningful margin. 150m+ residential vs 100m+. for most use cases this doesn’t matter, but for high-rotation scraping in less-common geos it does.
does oxylabs have china proxies?
limited. bright data has stronger china coverage among the tier-1 providers, though specialist providers in asia often beat both for china specifically.
which is better for linkedin scraping?
both work. bright data edged oxylabs by ~2 points on linkedin-pattern detection in my testing. neither is dramatically better.
can i use both together?
yes. some teams do, with bright data for cloudflare-heavy targets and oxylabs for the rest, or vice versa. each one bills separately. integration overhead is minor.
what’s the cheapest way to use bright data or oxylabs?
commit to a starter or growth plan if you have predictable volume. the per-gb rates drop substantially. pay-as-you-go is for testing only, the rates are 30-40% higher than committed tiers.
which has better support?
roughly equivalent. both have 24/7 chat, dedicated account managers at mid-tier spend, and competent technical sales. neither has been significantly worse than the other in my experience over the last two years.
conclusion
bright data and oxylabs are both excellent. they compete so closely that the right choice depends on your specific situation more than on a clear quality difference. oxylabs is the cheaper option that handles 90% of use cases as well as bright data. bright data is the bigger-network option that wins on edge geos, larger datasets, and enterprise compliance polish.
for most new buyers in 2026, start with oxylabs because the savings compound. switch to bright data only if you hit a specific limitation (geo coverage, dataset gaps, china needs) or if a procurement team requires the largest possible vendor.
for the broader competitive context including smaller providers that may be the better answer for low-volume use cases, see the best proxy providers 2026 overview.