When someone starts looking for a professional proxy provider, two names come up almost every single time: Bright Data and Decodo. Both carry strong reputations, both serve thousands of businesses, and both have earned their place at the top of the market. But they are not built for the same buyer, and treating them as interchangeable leads to overspending or underperformance, depending on which direction you go wrong.
This comparison covers network size, proxy types, real-world performance, pricing, ease of use, scraping tools, compliance, and support. The goal is to give you a complete and honest picture so you can pick the right tool for your actual situation, not for someone else's.
A Brief Introduction to Both Providers
Bright Data has been in the proxy business for over ten years and is widely regarded as one of the largest players in the space. The platform serves more than 20,000 businesses globally, including Fortune 500 companies, and has grown well beyond a proxy provider into a full data collection ecosystem. It offers scraping browsers, a browser-based Web IDE, a dataset marketplace where you can purchase pre-collected data, and managed data services where their team handles collection on your behalf.
Decodo rebranded from Smartproxy in 2025, and the transition was substantive rather than just a name change. The new identity came with expanded AI-powered features, a refreshed product lineup, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification covering both its proxy network and scraping APIs. With over 135,000 clients and consistent recognition across industry award programs, Decodo has built a clear identity as a high-performance provider that does not price out smaller teams to serve enterprise ones.
Both platforms offer residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile proxies alongside scraping APIs. The differences show up in depth, price, and what each platform is actually optimized for.
Network Size and Global Coverage
Bright Data runs the largest residential proxy network in the world, with over 400 million IPs. Beyond residential, the catalog includes more than 1.3 million datacenter IPs, over 1.3 million ISP IPs, and more than 7 million mobile IPs spread across 195 countries. Geo-targeting reaches down to city, ZIP code, carrier, and ASN level, giving enterprise users extremely precise control over where their traffic appears to originate.
For operations that run at massive scale and require a pool so large it is functionally impossible to exhaust, Bright Data's network is difficult to match in terms of sheer size.
Decodo offers 115 million residential IPs across 195 plus locations, more than 500,000 datacenter IPs, and over 10 million mobile IPs. Geo-targeting covers continent, country, region, city, ZIP, and ASN level, matching Bright Data in the depth of targeting categories, even if the raw IP count is smaller.
Here is where things get interesting. When tested head-to-head under real-world conditions, Decodo achieved a request success rate of 99.86% compared to Bright Data's 98.96%. Decodo also delivered an average response time of 0.63 seconds versus Bright Data's 1.12 seconds. A pool four times smaller produced faster, more reliable results in both key performance metrics. That reflects how well-maintained the network is and how efficiently traffic is routed rather than how large the IP pool happens to be.
For the majority of use cases, 115 million residential IPs is more than enough. The performance numbers suggest that more IPs does not automatically mean better outcomes.
Proxy Types and What Each Platform Covers
Both providers cover the four core proxy categories that most buyers need, with some differences in how each type is positioned and priced.
Bright Data offers rotating residential proxies, static ISP proxies, datacenter proxies, and mobile proxies. Enterprise users get zone-level configuration options and granular control over session management, which is genuinely useful for complex, multi-target operations.
Decodo covers rotating residential proxies, static ISP proxies, datacenter proxies, mobile proxies, and a Site Unblocker product designed specifically for websites with aggressive anti-bot defenses. The Site Unblocker handles automatic IP rotation and CAPTCHA solving in the background, which removes a significant engineering burden for teams that regularly hit difficult targets. It is priced at $0.95 per 1,000 requests, a transparent model that makes cost forecasting straightforward.
Decodo's ISP proxies start at $0.27 per IP. Datacenter proxies begin at $0.02 per IP. Both types are available without locking you into large minimum commitments, which matters for teams scaling gradually rather than purchasing enterprise blocks upfront.
Both platforms support HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols with rotating and sticky session options across residential and ISP proxy types.
Pricing: The Sharpest Difference Between the Two
If there is one category that shapes the Bright Data vs Decodo decision more than any other, it is pricing. The gap is substantial.
Bright Data's residential proxies start at $8 per GB on a pay-as-you-go basis. Their structured monthly plans begin at $499 per month for 141 GB, move to $999 per month for 332 GB, and reach $1,999 per month at the 798 GB enterprise tier. ISP proxies start at $1.80 per IP with a minimum of ten IPs billed monthly. Datacenter proxies begin at $1.40 per IP. Bright Data does run frequent promotions that reduce these numbers, but the baseline cost is clearly calibrated for enterprise buyers with matching budgets.
Decodo's residential proxies start at $2 per GB pay-as-you-go, with promotional rates dropping to around $1.50 per GB on larger volume commitments. ISP proxies are available from $0.27 per IP. Datacenter proxies start at $0.02 per IP. The scraping API falls between $0.08 and $0.09 per 1,000 requests, which sits at the lower end of what you will find anywhere in the market for this category.
The pricing difference is not marginal. On residential bandwidth alone, Decodo is roughly four times cheaper at the entry level. For a startup, a freelance developer, or a mid-market team building a data pipeline for the first time, that gap is enough to determine whether a project is financially viable at all. Industry benchmarks consistently recognize Decodo for delivering performance that competes with enterprise-tier infrastructure while keeping costs accessible to teams of all sizes.
Getting Started: Onboarding and Dashboard Experience
Decodo is built for self-service from the first click. You can sign up, choose a plan, and have working proxy credentials ready within a few minutes. The dashboard surfaces the controls most users actually need, including session type, geo-targeting, and rotation settings, without requiring navigation through multiple sub-menus. Code snippets for popular languages are available directly inside the documentation, so dropping a working proxy configuration into an existing project is fast.
Bright Data's dashboard is more powerful and, as a result, more involved. The platform has a longer configuration path for setting up proxy zones, managing sessions, and toggling between IP types. For an enterprise data engineer who wants that level of control and uses it daily, the depth is valuable. For someone running a focused use case who needs a proxy endpoint and a bandwidth plan, the extra steps create friction that Decodo avoids entirely.
Both platforms have solid documentation, but Decodo's onboarding materials are specifically structured around getting a working integration live as quickly as possible, which reflects the type of buyer they are building for.
Scraping Tools and APIs
This is the category where Bright Data holds its clearest advantage, particularly for buyers who need more than raw proxy access.
Bright Data's scraping ecosystem includes a Scraping Browser that operates on a real browser fingerprint to reduce detection, a Web Scraper IDE with pre-built templates for hundreds of popular websites, dedicated APIs for SERP data, e-commerce, and social media, and a pre-collected dataset marketplace where you can purchase structured data without running a scraper at all. The managed service option lets Bright Data's team handle collection and delivery on your behalf. For organizations that need data on a schedule rather than in-house pipelines, this is a meaningful differentiator.
Decodo's scraping toolkit is focused but well-executed. The Web Scraping API handles JavaScript rendering and dynamic content reliably. The Site Unblocker manages anti-bot systems automatically and is particularly effective against targets protected by Cloudflare, Akamai, or similar layers. The SERP API covers search engine data for SEO and market research workflows. What Decodo does not offer is a pre-collected dataset marketplace or a managed data delivery service.
For teams building and running their own pipelines, Decodo's tools handle everything well. For organizations that want to outsource data collection or purchase ready-made datasets, Bright Data is the only option between the two.
Compliance and Security
Decodo holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, an internationally recognized information security management standard awarded formally following the 2025 rebrand. This certification covers both the proxy infrastructure and scraping APIs. For buyers who need to demonstrate to their own clients, legal teams, or compliance departments that their vendor meets a verified and audited security standard, this credential carries practical weight in procurement conversations.
Bright Data operates under a transparent acceptable use policy and provides comprehensive legal documentation, including data processing agreements, which are well-suited to enterprise procurement requirements built up over its decade of operation.
Both providers take ethical sourcing seriously, but Decodo's formal ISO certification gives it a specific and verifiable security credential that adds confidence for compliance-sensitive buyers.
Customer Support
Bright Data offers 24/7 live chat and email support, with dedicated account managers available at the enterprise tier. The support quality at that level is well-regarded. Smaller accounts can sometimes find the experience less tailored to their needs.
Decodo provides 24/7 live chat support across all plan levels without requiring an enterprise commitment to access responsive help. The support team handles technical questions directly rather than routing them through tiered escalation. For solo developers and smaller teams who need real answers quickly without sitting on an enterprise contract, this accessibility is a genuine practical advantage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Decodo the same as Smartproxy?
Yes. Decodo is the rebranded identity of Smartproxy, updated in 2025. The rebrand introduced new product features, AI integrations, and the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 security certification. The infrastructure and team that built Smartproxy continue under the Decodo name.
Which provider is better for beginners or small teams?
Decodo is more accessible for beginners and smaller teams. The signup process is faster, the dashboard is more intuitive, and the documentation is built around getting a working integration live in the shortest time possible. Bright Data's platform suits experienced data engineers who need additional configuration depth.
Does Decodo offer a free trial?
Decodo offers a three-day free trial on residential proxy plans, giving buyers a chance to test the network against their actual targets before committing to a subscription. Bright Data provides limited trial credits for new accounts.
Which platform is cheaper for residential proxies?
Decodo is significantly cheaper. Residential proxies on Decodo start at $2 per GB pay-as-you-go, compared to Bright Data's $8 per GB starting price. On larger commitments, Decodo's promotional rates can reduce the per-GB cost further still.
When does it make sense to choose Bright Data over Decodo?
Bright Data makes sense when you need its extended toolset beyond proxy access: specifically, the pre-collected dataset marketplace, the managed data delivery service, or the Web IDE for building and maintaining complex scrapers at enterprise scale. If your organization wants structured data delivered on a schedule without operating an in-house collection infrastructure, Bright Data offers capabilities that Decodo does not currently match.
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Bright Data vs Decodo: The Verdict
Bright Data is a legitimate leader in this space. The IP pool is the largest available, the scraping ecosystem is the most complete, and for enterprise teams that need managed data delivery, pre-collected datasets, or a Web IDE for building custom pipelines at scale, there is no direct substitute in what Decodo offers.
But for most proxy buyers in 2026, Decodo is the stronger, smarter choice. It outperformed Bright Data in both request success rate and response speed in real-world testing. Its pricing is meaningfully lower across every proxy type. Onboarding is faster, support is accessible from day one regardless of spend level, and the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification adds formal credibility that matters when compliance is part of the conversation. The scraping tools cover the vast majority of real use cases without the overhead of features most teams will never use.
Bright Data is the right answer when your organization genuinely needs everything it offers. For most buyers, Decodo delivers more value where it counts most: performance, price, and day-to-day usability.
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