IPRoyal vs Bright Data: Choosing the Best Residential Proxy Provider

ByPaul Christiano Last Update on

When it comes to web scraping and data collection, using the right residential proxy service can make a world of difference. Residential proxies allow you to send requests from real user devices, making it easier to avoid IP blocking and CAPTCHAs. But with so many proxy providers on the market, how do you choose the best one for your needs?

Two popular options for residential proxies are IPRoyal and Bright Data. In this post, we‘ll compare these providers head-to-head in key areas like proxy pool size, performance, features, pricing, and more. By the end, you‘ll have a clear idea of which one is the better choice for your specific use case.

IP Pool Size and Location Coverage

One of the most important factors in a residential proxy network is the size and diversity of its IP pool. The more unique IP addresses a provider has, the less likely you are to get blocked or encounter CAPTCHAs due to overused IPs.

IPRoyal advertises an IP pool of around 2 million residential proxies and 1 million mobile proxies spanning 195 countries. In comparison, Bright Data blows this away with a massive pool of over 72 million residential IPs and 7 million mobile IPs across 195+ countries.

However, advertised numbers can be misleading. Independent testing from Proxyway found that when actually connecting through the networks, Bright Data returned 5 times more unique IP addresses than IPRoyal for the same number of requests. Bright Data‘s IPs were well distributed globally while IPRoyal struggled to provide quality IPs for certain locations.

So when it comes to sheer size and IP diversity, Bright Data is the runaway winner. This gives you the best chance of getting an unblocked, unthrottled connection no matter where you‘re trying to connect. The huge pool also provides more granular location targeting options down to the city and ASN level.

Performance and Reliability

What good is a large proxy pool if the IPs are slow or unreliable? Fortunately, both Bright Data and IPRoyal performed decently in real-world throughput and success rate tests.

However, Bright Data consistently outperformed IPRoyal by a significant margin. In Proxyway‘s benchmarks, Bright Data delivered a 99.17% success rate with an average response time of 1.02 seconds. IPRoyal only managed an 89.05% success rate and an average response time of 3.73 seconds.

Bright Data‘s stellar performance is thanks to its robust network infrastructure and high standards for accepting proxies into its pool. Only fast, stable connections make the cut. Bright Data also intelligently routes your requests to the best available proxy for the job.

So while IPRoyal‘s speeds are serviceable for lightweight scraping tasks, Bright Data is much more reliable for heavy-duty, time-sensitive jobs. You can feel confident that your requests will go through quickly on the first try.

Features and Customization

Both Bright Data and IPRoyal cover the essential features you‘d expect from a residential proxy service. You can target by country and city, authenticate with user:pass, whitelist IPs, and more.

However, Bright Data goes above and beyond with advanced features for power users and enterprises:

  • Bright Data‘s Proxy Manager is a game-changer for streamlining proxy infrastructure. This tool lets you import and manage proxies from multiple providers in one dashboard, with fine-grained control over routing logic and rules. You can deploy it on-premises or access a hosted version.

  • Bright Data offers hyper-precise targeting by ASN, carrier, and even ZIP code. So if you need to emulate real users from a specific ISP or neighborhood, you can do that. IPRoyal‘s targeting is limited to country/city.

  • With Bright Data, you can purchase dedicated residential IPs that persist for as long as you need, perfect for long-running jobs. IPRoyal only offers shared, rotating proxies that refresh every 1-30 minutes.

  • Bright Data‘s dashboard exposes dozens of filtering criteria to build detailed proxy configurations. For example, you can exclude slow IPs, limit simultaneous threads, set daily traffic limits, and more. IPRoyal‘s setup is much more basic.

Another key differentiator is Bright Data‘s willingness to customize plans and build bespoke solutions. They can put together a package of features tailored to your exact requirements and technical needs. IPRoyal really only lets you pick a standard plan size.

Ease of Use and Developer Resources

Bright Data and IPRoyal both provide user-friendly proxy dashboards for managing your plan and viewing usage stats. Even non-technical users can get a proxy URL up and running in minutes.

However, Bright Data goes the extra mile to support developers and complex setups. Their extensive knowledge base covers everything from code snippets in various languages to in-depth tutorials for configuring proxies with popular scraping tools.

Bright Data‘s developer docs are best-in-class, with detailed API references, sample integrations, and an active engineering blog. They also host frequent webinars and online courses to help users make the most of the platform.

In contrast, IPRoyal‘s documentation is fairly sparse beyond basic setup guides. Developers won‘t find much sample code or integration help.

The disparity makes sense given the target audiences. IPRoyal is geared towards casual and semi-technical users, while Bright Data has the resources to support Fortune 500 companies with complex requirements. Bright Data will get you up and crawling faster.

Ethics and Compliance

Residential proxies have a shady reputation because some providers obtain IPs unethically without user consent. Bright Data has been a leader in changing that with strict sourcing standards and usage policies.

Bright Data pioneered the ethical collection of residential proxies at scale. It only adds IPs to its pool if users explicitly opt in to share their connection in return for compensation or device upgrades. Bright Data regularly audits its supply partners to ensure proper consent and has cut off those caught bending the rules.

Bright Data also takes a hard line against the use of its proxies for illegal or abusive activities. Its acceptable use policy prohibits scraping copyrighted content, DDoS attacks, spamming, and more. Bright Data cooperates with law enforcement when necessary.

On the compliance side, Bright Data maintains GDPR compliance and has built-in features for protecting personal data. It acts as more of a partner to make sure your web scraping is above board.

IPRoyal, on the other hand, provides little public information about how it sources proxies or screens supply partners. And its acceptable use policy is less detailed about restricted activities. You‘re more on your own to implement compliant scraping practices.

Pricing

Comparing prices between proxy providers can be tricky because plans are structured differently. IPRoyal takes a straightforward approach, selling blocks of proxy traffic that you can use whenever with no expiration. The cheapest plan starts at $7/GB, going down to $2.50/GB if you commit to 5000 GB.

Bright Data plans tend to cost more per GB, starting around $10/GB for pay-as-you-go access. Costs come down as you scale up. But this doesn‘t tell the whole story. Baked into Bright Data‘s pricing are access to premium features, higher performing IPs, and dedicated support.

Bright Data takes a consultative approach to pricing, working with you to build a custom package that makes sense for your budget and goals. You may actually save money with a Bright Data plan tailored to your needs versus IPRoyal‘s one-size-fits-all pricing.

Bright Data also offers a 7-day free trial to test the waters, while IPRoyal requires at least a small deposit to get started. But realistically, you‘d want to run a larger proof of concept to properly evaluate either provider.

Customer Support

For most users, responsive customer support can be as important as the proxies themselves. Problems inevitably come up, and you want an expert in your corner to quickly resolve issues.

IPRoyal and Bright Data both claim to offer 24/7 support over multiple channels – email, live chat, Skype, etc. However, Bright Data has a clear edge when it comes to supporting global clients at scale.

With large enterprise customers, Bright Data provides dedicated account managers who really understand your technical setup and data collection workflow. These AMs proactively monitor the health of your proxy pools and help optimize performance over time. You can even get an SLA guaranteeing uptime and response times.

Bright Data‘s support is also truly global, with native speakers of over a dozen languages. So wherever you‘re operating, you can get help from someone in your time zone who understands your needs.

IPRoyal‘s support is more geared towards the average user. It can help with basic setup and troubleshooting, but isn‘t equipped to handle complex use cases. And support is only available in English and Chinese.

Conclusion

So which residential proxy provider should you choose – IPRoyal or Bright Data? As with most technology decisions, it depends on your particular use case and constraints.

IPRoyal is a decent choice for small-scale, budget-conscious scrapers who only need the basics. Its cheap plans can be a good way to dip your toes into residential proxies without breaking the bank.

However, if you‘re scraping at any real volume or have sophisticated requirements, Bright Data is absolutely worth the premium. Its industry-leading proxy pool, advanced feature set, ethical backbone, and white-glove support provide immense value to justify the cost. There‘s a reason Bright Data is trusted by Fortune 500s and major tech companies.

Bright Data is hands-down the best choice for mission-critical web scraping and enterprise-grade data collection. Put simply, you won‘t find this combination of quality, customization, compliance, and support from other residential proxy providers on the market.

Still not sure which one to pick? The good news is you can try Bright Data risk-free with a 7-day trial to see the difference for yourself. Reach out today to get started and join the hundreds of companies using Bright Data to power their web data initiatives.

I am Paul Christiano, a fervent explorer at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and their broader implications for society. Renowned as a leading figure in AI safety research, my passion lies in ensuring that the exponential powers of AI are harnessed for the greater good. Throughout my career, I've grappled with the challenges of aligning machine learning systems with human ethics and values. My work is driven by a belief that as AI becomes an even more integral part of our world, it's imperative to build systems that are transparent, trustworthy, and beneficial. I'm honored to be a part of the global effort to guide AI towards a future that prioritizes safety and the betterment of humanity.

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