Bright Data Review

General Information

Bright Data is an Israeli provider of data collection infrastructure established in 2014. It’s currently owned by a UK-based equity firm called EMK Capital. The company offers access to every kind of proxy server, multiple data collection APIs, a cloud-based tool for developing scrapers on Bright Data’s infrastructure, and even pre-collected data sets.

Most old-timers remember Bright Data by a different name, Luminati. The company rebranded in early 2021, citing negative connotations associated with the name. (To be fair, Luminati does sound awfully familiar to a famous organization.)

Being a general-purpose provider, Bright Data tries to serve every use case it deems acceptable. The list includes many forms of web scraping for price comparison, SEO, and other purposes – even sneaker copping is on the table. But as far as proxy providers go, Bright Data is considered very strict, and it won’t hesitate to deny questionable uses. 

Bright Data was one of the first services to introduce residential proxies – IPs borrowed from computers and phones of real people. At the time when most competitors still sold datacenter IPs, this gave the company a big advantage and allowed it to grow into a leading proxy provider. Despite tightening competition, Bright Data remains one to this day, boasting top universities and Fortune 500 companies among its clients.

Bright Data also cares deeply about the ethical aspect of sourcing and using proxies. It was among the first to openly talk about how it acquires residential IPs. What’s more, it has strict procedures for vetting customers and preventing abuse (you can watch our video interview on ethics with Bright Data’s CEO here). The company even went as far as to reduce its proxy pool by 10% to cut off unethical partners. Despite this, Bright Data has had its share of controversy over the years, such as with Hola VPN or piracy app Mobdro.

For the last few years, Bright Data has been expanding its scope of services. While proxies remain important, they now have to share focus with other tools. Bright Data’s end goal is to become the go-to source for web data, whether you’re a developer or a company with no web scraping experience.

Bright Data Datacenter Proxies

Bright Data offers several configurations of datacenter proxies.

1. A service where you can buy a fixed number of addresses, either shared or dedicated.
2. A rotating proxy pool for entry-level tasks that the provider calls Bright Lite (mind the pun).
3. A rotating proxy pool with premium IPs that can more effectively access protected e-commerce, social media, and travel websites. Some examples would be Amazon, TikTok, and AirBnb.

Features

Bright Data has a unified system, so many of the features overlap among the three types. In general, you get wide location coverage, unlimited threads, and SOCKS5 support.

Furthermore, all three products have the ability to rotate, or you can choose to send multiple requests with a particular address. In any case, you connect through Bright Data’s load balancing gateway rather than the proxy server directly.

The main difference is that the Pay per IP service lets you specify how many proxies you need in particular locations. So instead of getting a randomly distributed proxy pool, you can simply buy 20,000 IPs in the US.

In addition, it’s possible to make Pay per IP proxies dedicated for all or some domains, and select them from different cities. And finally, there’s a free toggle called 100% uptime – if a proxy goes down, Bright Data automatically replaces it with a different one with the same parameters.

Note that Bright Data assigns datacenter proxies automatically, which may lead to some bad seeds (as we’ll see in the performance benchmarks). You may have to refresh some IPs once or twice (this is paid) until you find the perfect configuration.

Pricing Plans

You can pay for all three products as you go or commit to a fixed plan. The first option is pretty unusual for datacenter addresses. But as always, it costs more per unit than a subscription.

Unlike many competitors, Bright Data prices its IP-based service based not only proxy count but also traffic use. It’s possible to select unlimited traffic, but this significantly increases the price. So does making a proxy dedicated.

In a broader context, Bright Data’s traffic-based datacenter proxies are priced competitively. With the IP-based product, it depends: the barebones version is cheap, but the maxed out unlimited traffic and domains configuration costs more than most.

Performance Benchmarks

We last tested Bright Data’s 50,000 shared and 100 dedicated US proxies in March 2023.

The shared proxies worked effectively without fail, and the vast majority of our requests reached the target. They also had relatively low latency, with a response time below one second. Competing services from Smartproxy and Rayobyte achieved similar results.

Both proxy types were very fast, nearly reaching our download speed without proxy servers. They should have enough bandwidth for streaming and other traffic-intensive tasks.

Bright Data struggled with Amazon – 35% requests with the dedicated and 44% with the shared proxies faced blocks. This indicates that someone had placed these IPs on Amazon’s blacklist. The provider’s shared proxies also had some issues with Homedepot. Otherwise, they performed okay.

Bright Data Residential Proxies

Bright Data controls a network of 72 million monthly residential IPs. For a long while, it used to be the largest proxy pool on the market, and it still remains among the biggest options.

The provider sources these IPs – as well as its mobile proxies – through Bright VPN, the bandwidth-sharing application EarnApp, and developers that add the provider’s Bright SDK to their software.

Features

Bright Data’s residential proxies are stacked with features. You can filter them up to ASN and ZIP code level for very granular location targeting. The rotation options, while basic using only the dashboard, become highly customizable once you fire up the provider’s proxy manager. There are no concurrency limits, as long as you have enough balance in your account.

The residential proxies also support the SOCKS5 protocol. But there are two big conditions: 1) you have to use the proxy manager; 2) most of the ports are closed by default, and you have to contact Bright Data’s team to open more.

In addition, Bright Data offers some unique features. For example, you can opt to receive cached pages if someone had opened those URLs within several hours. This can potentially return results faster and reduce your expenditure by 5%. Or, you can get a group of IPs with identical parameters for your exclusive use with certain domains.

Note that Bright Data blocks some targets by default, including Google.

Pricing Plans

You can use the residential proxies without commitment or get a plan. If you do, the rate can become up to 35% cheaper. You can further reduce it by opting for a yearly contract.

Like most similar services, Bright Data only considers traffic use. A gigabyte starts from $10.50 for the basic configuration. Enabling features like city or ZIP code targeting doubles the price.

Without this functionality, Bright Data starts off relatively affordable, though it doesn’t scale as well as other premium competitors. However, if you enable all the toggles, it becomes the most expensive option until enterprise levels of scale. The difference is significant enough to seriously consider the service.

Performance Benchmarks

We last tested Bright Data’s residential proxies in March 2023.

Bright Data had a large and balanced proxy pool. It should ensure enough proxies in any location, even with precise filtering enabled. There were especially many American IPs – only NetNut had more, but it uses datacenter-based and not peer-to-peer proxy servers in the US.

Bright Data’s infrastructure performed very well throughout the testing period. All but one location ensured over 99% success rate, and our average response time was between 0.5 and 1.6 seconds. Few providers beat those numbers, and the majority trailed behind.

On the other hand, Bright Data’s results changed little in a year, while its major competitors Oxylabs, SOAX, and Smartproxy made significant improvements.

The residential proxies had strong results with all tested websites. Unfortunately, we couldn’t use them with Google, as the provider blocks this target, prompting customers to use SERP API instead.

Bright Data Mobile Proxies

Bright Data controls a network of 7 million monthly mobile IPs. These are peer-to-peer proxies borrowed from the mobile phones of real users, and not USB dongle farms.

Features

The mobile functionality mirrors that of Bright Data’s residential product. You can filter the IPs up to a very precise level, rotate the servers on every request or establish customizable sticky sessions. Bright Data doesn’t cap the number of parallel requests, supports SOCKS5, and includes its unique features like request caching and dedicated addresses.

On a negative note, the service also blocks Google by default.

Pricing Plans

You can use Bright Data’s mobile proxies without subscription or commit to pay a set amount every billing period. The second option makes the rate up to 35% cheaper (or 45% if paying annually).

The provider charges for traffic only unless you want to enable the features it consider premium. These are mostly filtering options, and they double the price. Dedicated addresses also charge more compared to the base service.

After a price revision in the summer of 2023, Bright Data’s mobile proxies have become very competitive in the premium segment if you’re content with country-level targeting. Otherwise, they’re still the most expensive option.

Performance Benchmarks

We last tested Bright Data’s mobile proxies in March 2023.

To our surprise, Bright Data’s mobile proxy pool wasn’t all that large. Sure, 42,000 IPs in India are a lot; but we only found around 8,000 American proxies, and fewer than 1,000 Australian addresses. Even SOAX, which advertises a twice smaller proxy network, returned significantly more unique IPs.

Bright Data’s infrastructure performance was a mixed bag. On the one hand, it did very well in the unfiltered pool test. On the other hand, the mobile proxies completely broke down when filtered for American IPs. The main culprit was the 502 error, which meant that the provider had no IPs available at the time.

That aside, Bright Data’s performance was good but not the best.

The issue with Bright Data’s US proxies (too few available IPs) carried on to our target test. Between a half and two thirds of our requests failed, which isn’t good at all. To be fair, we may have benchmarked the service at the worst possible time for Bright Data, and we don’t expect this to be its usual performance. But to confirm our hypothesis, we’d need to test the proxies again.

How to Use Bright Data

A complex but rich ecosystem of proxy management tools. 

Registration

You can register with Bright Data by entering your first and last name, work email, and company size. If you have particularly large or custom needs, you can schedule a call. The login options include the credentials you’ve created, as well as Google and Okta SSO.

Bright Data is known to be strict about compliance, especially if you use its peer-to-peer proxy networks. That said, the provider recently simplified the process: it now allows you to reach over 200 websites via residential proxies without undergoing the full KYC. Otherwise, you’ll be asked to present your personal details, add some money to the account, and wait up to three days for verification.

Dashboard

Bright Data’s dashboard used to be full of options and pretty overbearing. After several revamps, the provider simplified it to two main sections for managing the products, another for billing, and one more for account controls. The complexity is still there, but most of it is tucked away behind several levels of navigation. 

The dashboard’s main page.

All in all, Bright Data’s dashboard is comprehensive: you’ll be able to do everything from adding money to your account, setting up & authorizing proxies to viewing usage statistics and contacting support. 

Security is another priority. Bright Data lets you give different access levels to your team, set up 2FA, see the event log, and receive automated notifications related to subscription and proxy use.

One more useful feature is network status. It shows the uptime of each service in real time and can notify you via email if something goes down. 

The dashboard is available in six languages, including Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese.

Subscription Management

Unlike most proxy providers, Bright Data uses a custom system for proxies called Zones. A zone works like a plan. It’s possible create multiple zones for each proxy type and even have separate zones with identical configurations. You can assign spending limits (based on traffic or money) for each zone, as well as track your expenditure throughout the month. 

Unlike most providers, Bright Data has no separate plans for each product. Instead, a plan applies to all services depending on how much money you commit. You can change the plan in the Billing section.

But that’s not all. The Billing section provides detailed information about your subscription and money use. You can find your current balance, active plan, invoices, and configure payment methods. The provider also includes a visual cost explorer and, in a nice gesture for accountants, allows you to specify invoice recipients.

The Billing section’s main tab.

Our generated invoices.

Proxy Management

To do anything with proxies on Bright Data’s platform, you first have to create a zone.

This involves selecting a proxy type and adding additional permissions, if any. The configuration wizard will show you an estimated cost based on your choices. The final step is to name the zone and confirm its creation. 

For example, suppose I wanted rotating residential proxies for a small project. I’d choose the Residential zone. Under Permissions, country targeting would be enough for me; otherwise, I could enable states, cities, ASNs, and ZIP codes as extras. Then, I’d choose shared IPs, as I don’t need them for my exclusive use. At last, I’d press Add Zone. 

Creating a zone.

After creating a zone, you’ll need to integrate the proxies. Bright Data offers three integration methods: through gateway servers (which the provider calls Super Proxies), Proxy Manager, or a Chrome extension. 

Method #1: API (Super Proxies)

The Super Proxy method works similarly to other proxy providers. You get an interactive widget that generates gateway addresses in the hostname:port format. It’s possible to select a zone and filter the proxies by location, which automatically reflects in the username.

Bright Data’s widget also provides dynamic code samples for major programming languages like Python, PHP, and Node.JS. You can select from several pre-sets, such as using proxies with a sticky session or quickly rotating between IPs. 

Bright Data uses one system for all proxy products. So even its Pay per IP datacenter proxies have to connect through gateway servers. This increases complexity, but it’s still possible to create a static session or even pinpoint a particular IP address. 

Setting up Bright Data’s proxies.

Method #2: Proxy Manager

The second method lets you control proxies with a piece of software called Proxy Manager. It’s an open source tool available on all operating systems and in the cloud.

In a nutshell, Proxy Manager makes every aspect of your work with the proxies better. It replaces the (still somewhat limited) usage statistics with detailed live logs; it allows better management of rotation settings (the dashboard is pretty meh in this regard); and it enables SOCKS5 for those who need it. These are just the basics.

One interesting feature is the Proxy Waterfall. Basically, whenever you make a request to a website, it first goes via the least effective (and cheapest) proxy network. If that fails, the system tries again with another proxy type, until you succeed. While that does sound nice in theory, I can see a few caveats: first, you’ll need to subscribe to multiple IP networks at once; second, this approach can be slower, so it could make sense to use the waterfall for gauging the tolerance level of a domain. 

The breadth of features Proxy Manager offers is truly huge. They might help you, or simply confuse you, but they’re there. I’m just not sure how I feel about the fact that you need this tool for such simple things as adjusting the rotation time.

Method #3: Browser extension

The third way is using a browser extension for Google Chrome. It’s pretty customizable and lets you change your IP address based on a Zone or a location. You can set up sticky sessions and even modify the request headers. Bright Data advertises the extension as a tool for manual scraping, but I think it’s better suited for viewing content rather than extracting it.

Usage Tracking 

Bright Data has put a lot of effort into statistics, with several ways to reach them. 

1. A quick toggle in the Zones page. It gives you a visual overview of your bandwidth and request use.
2. A tab with usage statistics per proxy network and a customizable graph.
3. Usage statistics and graphs for each zone in its settings.

Each way provides flexible filtering options. You can a time period ranging anywhere between one hour to two years. The metrics include not only bandwidth expenditure but also number of requests, and in some cases error rate. 

If you use Proxy Manager, it’s possible to display its statistics on the dashboard, as well. Bright Data even provides a way to separate API and Proxy Manager traffic in some of the graphs.

Quick stats on the Zones page.

General statistics by proxy type.

A zone’s usage statistics.

Public API

Bright Data offers an API for managing the proxy servers programmatically. It’s the most comprehensive and granular API I’ve seen in this industry, and you might have to get a new degree to make full use of it. 

Bright Data’s powerful – and complex – API.

Documentation

With such a complex service, Bright Data needs to have appropriate documentation to make sense of it. And it does. You’ll find answers and instructions both in text and video formats.

Perhaps your first resource should be Bright Data’s FAQ page. It answers all the basic questions about using the service, and then some. Then, there are webinars – they cover narrower concerns, such as reCAPTCHA avoidance and browser automation. There’s also a video-based learning hub, though it looks pretty much outdated and abandoned in comparison. 

Hands-On Support

If, by any chance, you won’t find your answer – or simply get lost looking for one – there’s the hands-on support. 

Bright Data offers a ticket system on the dashboard. Customers that commit to a plan also get an account manager. Else, you can contact the provider using WhatsApp, Telegram, and even a phone. 

We found the answering time to be fast: we sent multiple email messages throughout the day, and a reply came in 14 minutes on average. Communication with account managers is even faster, but they don’t work round the clock.

Conclusion

Bright Data calls itself world’s #1 web data platform, and testing it gave me compelling reasons to believe the claim.

The proxy networks Chris and I have tried were excellent: fast, stable, and large. They come full of features, and Bright Data makes sure to provide the tools to make best use of them. Pound for pound, there are few providers that can compare.

However, the privilege comes at a cost. Some may be put off by how technically complex Bright Data is; others may find its compliance process too invasive; but most likely, the main showstopper – if any – will be the price. It’s hard to find a provider that’s more expensive, especially if you require the features Bright Data considers premium (such as unlimited bandwidth for the dedicated proxies).

But if you don’t find price an issue, Bright Data really is one of the best options you can get.

Bright Data Alternatives

9.3

Bright Data’s closest competitor in the premium segment. It offers all the main proxy types and multiple APIs for web scraping, coupled with personalized customer service.

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9.2

Smartproxy is a great choice if you want to save some money on rotating proxies. It offers multiple IP types, better prices, and is easier to use in exchange for fewer features.

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9.0

SOAX can be a good option if you need precise locations but don’t want to pay Bright Data’s premium. It supports region, city, and ASN targeting out of the box.

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