The Best Shared Proxy Providers of 2023
Sometimes, there’s no need to get expensive dedicated or residential IPs. If you’re accessing unprotected websites, shared datacenter proxies can perform just as well for a fraction of the cost. Some providers further simplify things by automatically rotating the addresses for you. If you’re looking to buy cheap shared proxies, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve picked out a number of great providers to ensure you’ll get the best experience for the price. Here are our top picks.
The Best Shared Proxy Providers – Quick Summary
- Webshare – performant proxies with flexible subscription options.
- Smartproxy – 100,000 rotating proxies with unlimited threads.
- Bright Data – rotating and static shared IPs with the most customization options.
- Oxylabs – shared rotating proxy pools in 15 countries.
- Rayobyte – shared proxies that come in three formats.
- NetNut – rotating proxies with a large proxy pool but limited filtering options.
Key Points about Shared Proxies
- Shared proxies are middlemen IPs that multiple people use at the same time.
- Though any proxy type can be shared, the name mostly refers to datacenter IPs.
- They’re the cheapest option available: an IP costs 2-3 times less compared to dedicated proxies. When priced by traffic, you’ll pay 5-20 times less compared to residential addresses.
- Shared proxy servers are simple to block if a website tries. Still, they’re a fine choice for hiding your IP, unblocking geo-restricted content, and scraping unprotected websites.
- Shared proxies also provide an affordable testing ground for beginners who want to try out proxies for their use case.
You can learn more in our guide on shared proxies.
The Best Cheap Shared Proxies in 2023
Webshare has a robust infrastructure of shared datacenter proxies. The service comes with all the necessary features, highly flexible pricing, and reliable infrastructure performance. The IPs come in the form of a list, and you can customize them to a great extent. For example, you can choose how much traffic you need, select IPs from multiple countries, and even enable network priority. There are no hidden fees for targeting specific countries, and Webshare has an in-built tool to rotate your IPs. Additionally, you can refresh your proxies anywhere between 5 minutes and a month, which enables interesting configurations (for example, buying 20 IPs and refreshing them every 5 minutes).
There’s one downside – with each new feature, Webshare becomes more expensive, and it’s easy to spend more than you initially intended.
Features:
- Format: IP list, gateway server
- Protocols: HTTP(S) & SOCKS5 protocols
- Locations: over 40
- Extras: API, basic documentation
- Price: from $1/1IP. A free plan with 10 shared addresses.
Performance:
- Infrastructure success rate: 99.95%
- Avg. response time: 1.31 s
- Avg. download speed: 124.48 Mbps
Smartproxy is known for its residential proxies, but it sells shared datacenter IPs as well. The provider gives its customers two choices: you can either buy a plan and pay for a certain number of IPs and bandwidth, or only for traffic. You can get 100,000 traffic-based IPs in the US and Europe, or IP-based proxies from eight countries in four continents. All plans give access to the full IP pool, and these proxies automatically rotate, so they’re great for web scraping. Smartproxy is a user-friendly provider, with plenty of integration instructions and amazing customer support, so you won’t be left on your own.
For the drawbacks, the 30 minute sticky sessions might not be long enough for everyone.
Features:
- Format: Rotating proxy pool (every request or 30 mins)
- Protocols: HTTP(S)
- Locations: 5 in US and Europe (traffic-based), 8 in four continents (IP-based)
- Extras: 24/7 live support
- Price: From $30/50 GB ($0.7/GB) or $10/100 IPs ($0.1/IP). 3-day refund available.
Performance:
- Infrastructure success rate: 99.93%
- Avg response time: 0.80 s
- Avg. download speed: 102.96 Mbps
Bright Data gives you two options for shared proxies: a list of IPs or access to a pool of 20,000 addresses. The second option randomly picks IPs from Bright Data’s supported 80 locations. You can set up rotation, filter the proxies, and otherwise control them with Bright Data’s powerful proxy manager. The pricing plans are monthly, but you can also pay as you go. In short, Bright Data offers an elaborate and technically demanding service for professionals. If you’re one, you’ll find it very powerful; otherwise, you might find Bright Data too complex.
Features:
- Format: shared IP list or rotating proxy pool (customizable rotation)
- Protocols: HTTP(S) & SOCKS5 protocols
- Locations: over 100
- Extras: 24/7 live support, proxy manager,
- Price: Very flexible and depends on the add-ons. You can pay as you go starting from $0.110/GB+$0.80/IP, or subscribe from $500 ($0.094/GB + $0.68/IP). 7-day trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals.
Performance:
- Success rate: 99.95%
- Avg. response time: 0.80
- Avg. download speed: 131.60 Mbps
Oxylabs offers shared proxies in 15 locations including the US, some European and Asian countries. The proxies come in a pool of 29,00 addresses; they can rotate with every connection request or establish sticky sessions. There’s no time limit for keeping the same IP address, as long as you use the same session ID. You can start using the service quickly, and the dashboard has convenient graphs to track traffic expenditure.
Overall, it’s a powerful option for web scraping – good targeting options, though a steep starting price.
Features:
- Format: Rotating proxy pool (every request, sticky sessions)
- Protocols: HTTP
- Locations: 15
- Extras: 24/7 live support
- Price: From $50/77GB ($0.65/GB). 7-day trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals.
Performance:
- Infrastructure success rate: 99.98%
- Avg. response time: 0.63 s
- Avg. download speed: 98.96 Mbps
Rayobyte sells shared proxies in three formats. The first one is a list, where you can buy from as few as five IPs in 11 countries and share them with two people. With the second option, you buy a certain number of ports with 20 rotating IPs assigned to each port And the third option includes a pool of 60,000 rotating proxies only in the US. These IPs are traffic-based, and they rotate with every connection request. All the three types perform well.
The pool-based option is still in beta, so it lacks some targeting options, custom rotation, or SOCKS5 support.
Features:
- Format: IP list, rotating proxy pool (10-120 minutes), or rotating proxy pool (every connection request)
- Protocols: HTTP(S) & SOCKS5 (except traffic-based plan)
- Locations: 11 (shared) or 4 (rotating, IP-based) countries, or only US (rotating, traffic-based)
- Extras: 24/7 email support, unlimited traffic
- Price: from $4/5 IPs ($0.8/IP) or $0.65/1GB. 2-day free trial available.
Performance (rotating traffic-based):
- Infrastructure success rate: 99.89%
- Avg. response time: 0.93 s
- Avg. download speed: 52.08 Mbps
NetNut comes with over 100,000 monthly IPs, giving you full access to the proxy network. The IPs rotate automatically; there’s no custom duration, but you can choose indefinite sessions.
However, the performance wasn’t ideal – the provider was twice as slow compared to the competition, and every second request failed. But once NetNut sorts it infrastructure out, it should be a decent option for enterprise customers
Features:
- Format: gateway address
- Protocols: HTTP(S), SOCKS5
- Locations: US
- Extras: 24/7 email support, unlimited traffic, dedicated account manager, API
- Price: From $100/100 GBs ($1/GB). 7-day free trial available.
Performance:
- Infrastructure success rate: 49.30%
- Avg. response time: 2.66 s
- Avg. download speed: 6.16 Mbps
Very helpful blog.