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Bright Data is the industry leader in the proxy market, which it has been proving by the level of service it provides, the number of big clients on its client list, and the frequency of introducing new innovations and cutting-edge capabilities to its customers. However, it doesn’t imply that everyone using a proxy should use their proxies.
While Brightdata might seem perfect, just like every other service provider on the market, Bright Data has strengths and shortcomings. The best course of action for the proxy users who can’t look past these flaws is to choose a Bright Data alternative, and there are quite some good proxy users available in the market that can work as good alternatives.
We have made a list of proxy providers that can work as great alternatives to Bright Data. We will talk about those alternative options in this article. We will talk about Bright Data a bit and see why one might want to use an alternative to Bright Data.
Bright Data Overview
Bright Data was previously known as Luminati Networks, and it is currently the largest proxy supplier on the market. It’s primarily well-known for its residential proxy service, which sources more than 72 million residential IP addresses from all nations and the majority of cities worldwide. It supports geo-targeting at the national, state, and local levels.
With the users’ permission, the service employs a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to obtain the IPs it needs for Hola VPN customers. Both rotating proxies and session proxies are provided by this service, which is good for up to 30 minutes. Their proxies are among the swiftest and safest and work with the majority of websites.
Why You Might Want to Use an Alternative Option to Bright Data
Let’s have a look at the common reasons why people might want to use Bright Data alternatives-
Costly Pricing
Bright Data was not designed for inexperienced marketers with tight budgets. Their pricing is based on the bandwidth. The smallest plan costs $500, which is quite out of reach for small advertisers on a tight budget. However, they have been offering an experimental package since June 2021 that costs $300 and includes 20GB. Although this might appear less expensive, most small proxy users still can’t afford it.
KYC Requirement
There is a particular aspect of Bright Data that is disliked by so many, which is a requirement for the customers to go through their Know Your Customer (KYC) protocol, which would require providing their contact information and an appropriate form of identity. While this is done to prevent fraud and other criminal activity, many users find it inconvenient, as they dislike giving their identities out online. If you fall within this category, choosing an alternative would be preferable.
Difficult to Use
Bright Data provides various advanced features and tools like the developer API, Luminati Manager, generator tool, etc. Their inclusion has made the usage of Bright Data more complicated, which you will understand once you try visiting their dashboard. In fact, novice users find it challenging to operate and must study guidelines and tutorials to do simple tasks. On the other hand, other providers are fairly straightforward and simple to use, so it’s better for inexperienced users to choose them.
Best Alternatives to Bright Data in the Market of Residential Proxy Servers
Here are some of the best Bright Data alternatives that you can go for-
ScrapingDog
ScrapingDog can be another great alternative to Bright Data, as it is a great proxy server that will help you handle browsers, proxies, and CAPTCHAs much simpler.
Features
- IP Pool Size: 7M Residential proxy
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Availability:Worldwide
- Price: starts from $20
- Bandwidth Allowed: Unlimited
Smartproxy
Smartproxy is one of the best proxy providers, as well as the best alternatives to Bright Data. So, you should not disregard it at all while looking for alternatives because it provides a large variety of IPs and great global coverage for a very competitive price. Smartproxy comes with one of the biggest proxy pools, as it has over 40 million IP addresses that are sourced from about 195 locations across the world. Their proxies are just as quick as those of Bright Data and work with all well-known web services.
Features
- IP Pool Size: Over 40 million
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Availability: 195 countries across the globe
- Price: Starting at 75$/month for 5 GB
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starting at 5GB
Soax
Soax is a formidable proxy server when it comes to having a clean proxy pool, price, and ease of usage. Although it’s comparatively new and has only recently entered the market, it has already distinguished itself as one of the top providers of residential proxy services.
The proxy pool is among the cleanest because it is consistently updated. It currently holds more than 5 million home IP addresses that come from various sources. Soax is cost-effective despite sharing the same bandwidth-based pricing mechanism as Bright Data and Smartproxy.
Features
- IP Pool Size: Over 5 million
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Availability: Over 100 countries across the globe
- Price: Starting at 75$/month for 5GB
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starting at 5GB
Hydraproxy
One of the more readily available and cost-effective alternatives is Hydraproxy. You can get 1GB of bandwidth from Hydraproxy as the minimum amount for this service. It’s interesting that this only costs $5, making it among the least expensive.
It doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t good enough since it is inexpensive. In actuality, it has residential proxies that support more than 100 nations. The proxy pool is estimated to have more than 5 million IP addresses, and both rotational proxies and session proxies are supported by Hydraproxy. You can use as much bandwidth as you like; setup takes just a moment.
Features
- IP Pool Size: Over 7 million
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Availability: Over 100 countries
- Price: Starting at 5$/month for 1GB
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starting at 1GB
Netnut
Netnut is quite an expensive proxy on this list, but it provides great services that are comparable to the other proxies on the list. This proxy server comes with unlimited coverage all over the world. The thing that sets them apart from the other proxies on this list is that they obtain their IP addresses directly from the ISPs.
Features
- IP Pool Size: Over 20 million
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Availability: Worldwide
- Price: Starting at 300$/month for 20GB
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starting at 20GB
Oxylabs
Oxylabs is the most aggressive competitor of Bright Data, and they even had a case in the past that needed to be settled in court. It is also one of the strongest alternatives, as it offers services such as data center and residential proxies and a huge IP pool with global coverage. It is the largest proxy network, and it provides class-leading performance. It also comes with a dedicated account manager. Sadly, it has been the target of some complaints and accusations involving unethical behavior in the past, although it appears to have improved recently.
Features
- IP Pool Size: Over 100 million
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Availability: Worldwide
- Price: Starting at 300$/month for 20GB
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starting at 20GB
Final Words
If you don’t want to go for Bright Data due to its cost and other inconveniences, you can easily go for any of the proxy server alternatives mentioned above. Each of the mentioned proxy servers has convenient features of its own, as some of them provide more convenience regarding the operation of the server, while others provide a more cost-effective option. You can choose one based on your specific needs.