smartproxy.com

One-line introduction

Smartproxy (now rebranded as Decodo) is a US-based proxy IP provider focused on residential proxies, datacenter proxies, and mobile proxies. Its main selling point is a large proxy IP pool, making it suitable for large-scale data collection, market research, ad verification, and similar use cases. Thanks to relatively approachable pricing and a sizable IP pool, it has built up a user base among small and mid-sized teams as well as individual developers in the global proxy market.

Business overview

Smartproxy was founded in 2018. It started with residential proxies and gradually expanded into datacenter proxies, mobile proxies, SERP scraping APIs, and other services. In 2024, the brand was officially renamed Decodo, though the original domain and services remain in use. In terms of market positioning, it is a mid-tier proxy provider, sitting between premium, high-priced providers such as Luminati (Bright Data) and low-cost proxy vendors. Its customers include individual developers and small businesses working in e-commerce price comparison, brand protection, SEO monitoring, social media management, and related areas. Its proxy IP pool is said to cover 195 countries worldwide, with more than 55 million residential proxy IPs and tens of thousands of datacenter proxy IPs. The company is headquartered in the United States. Its operational transparency is average, with no public disclosure of specific datacenter locations or network topology.

Who it is best for

Smartproxy is best suited to the following types of users: first, developers or data engineers who need to perform large-scale web data collection, especially in scenarios that require frequent IP rotation to avoid being blocked by target websites; second, cross-border e-commerce and ad verification teams that need to simulate visits from users in different regions to check ad delivery results; and third, individual webmasters doing SEO monitoring and competitor analysis. It is not ideal for users who are extremely sensitive to network latency, such as real-time online gaming or low-latency video conferencing, because residential proxies inherently involve forwarding traffic through intermediary nodes. For users in mainland China, Smartproxy is generally usable for overseas data collection, but you will need to handle network connectivity issues yourself.

Key features and highlights

• Very large residential proxy IP pool: The official claim is more than 55 million residential IPs across 195 countries worldwide, with flexible IP rotation that supports per-request rotation, time-based rotation, and sticky sessions.
• Supports HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 protocols: Compatible with mainstream data collection tools such as Scrapy, Puppeteer, and Selenium, making integration relatively easy.
• City-level and ISP-level targeting: IP targeting can be narrowed down to the city level, and some IPs also support ISP-level filtering, which is useful when you need to simulate local users.
• Bandwidth-unlimited plans: Some plans do not impose bandwidth limits and charge only by traffic usage, making them suitable for long-running, continuous scraping tasks.
• SERP scraping API: A dedicated scraping interface for search engine results pages, supporting major search engines such as Google and Bing, and returning structured data.
• Clean and easy-to-use user dashboard: The control panel is neatly designed, with clear access to features such as IP whitelist management and plan usage monitoring.

Pricing analysis

Smartproxy’s pricing is on the medium-to-low side among comparable residential proxy providers. Taking residential proxies as an example, entry-level plans start at around $2 per month, but the actually usable traffic is very limited, usually only a few hundred MB. Plans that are truly suitable for large-scale scraping range from tens to hundreds of dollars per month, depending on traffic volume and the number of IPs. Compared with Bright Data, where monthly fees can easily reach thousands of dollars, Smartproxy is much friendlier to small and mid-sized teams. However, it is worth noting that it does not have a clearly defined refund policy, so you should read the terms carefully before purchasing. In addition, some plans have minimum spending requirements; for example, certain traffic-based plans require a minimum monthly spend. Overall, the value for money is decent, but it is not the absolute cheapest option, as some other proxy providers, such as Proxy-Seller, are cheaper.

How users in China can use it

For users in China, the Smartproxy experience comes with some compromises. First, its official website and dashboard can be accessed directly from mainland China, but speeds are slow and pages may occasionally be difficult to load. Second, the proxy connection itself does not require an additional “VPN,” since the proxy IPs are already overseas. However, the domestic network environment can make response times to overseas proxies unstable, especially during evening peak hours. For payment, Smartproxy supports credit cards and PayPal, but not Alipay or WeChat Pay, so users in China need a foreign-currency credit card or a PayPal account. As for invoicing, it mainly provides English invoices and does not support Chinese VAT special invoices, which may create reimbursement difficulties for business users. If you need a domestic alternative in China, services such as “品易HTTP” or “芝麻代理” may be worth considering. They are more convenient for payment and invoicing, but their IP cleanliness is not as good as Smartproxy’s.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• ✅ Large IP pool, with more than 55 million residential IPs and broad geographic coverage
• ✅ Supports multiple protocols and tools, with a low integration barrier
• ✅ More affordable than premium providers such as Bright Data
• ✅ Bandwidth-unlimited plans are suitable for long-running scraping tasks
• ✅ Good user dashboard experience with intuitive operation

Cons:

• ❌ No clear refund policy, increasing purchase risk
• ❌ Unstable network connectivity from mainland China, requiring self-optimization
• ❌ Does not support Alipay/WeChat Pay, making payment inconvenient for users in China
• ❌ Cannot issue Chinese VAT invoices, making corporate reimbursement difficult
• ❌ Some plans have minimum spending requirements, reducing flexibility

Comparison with similar products

Smartproxy’s main direct competitors among residential proxy providers are two companies: Bright Data (formerly Luminati), which has a larger IP pool of more than 72 million IPs but costs several times more and is better suited to large enterprises with sufficient budgets; and Oxylabs, which is also positioned at the high end, with strong IP quality but expensive pricing. By comparison, Smartproxy wins on value for money, though its IP cleanliness and stability are slightly weaker. There is also Proxy-Seller, a provider with lower prices, but its IP pool and country coverage are much smaller. If your budget is limited and you do not need a very large number of IPs, Proxy-Seller may be worth considering. If you want maximum stability and IP quality, Bright Data or Oxylabs is a better fit. Smartproxy sits right in the middle, making it suitable for teams with a moderate budget that still need a large IP pool.

Final recommendation

Smartproxy (Decodo) is best suited for scenarios where you need a residential proxy with a medium budget and a large IP pool to run data collection tasks, and you do not mind handling minor issues around network connectivity and payment yourself. If your team is based in mainland China and needs to frequently use proxies for overseas data scraping, it is recommended to first buy the lowest-traffic plan to test latency and stability from your domestic network, then upgrade only after confirming that it works. It is not suitable for scenarios such as bank-grade verification with extremely high IP cleanliness requirements, real-time applications that require low latency, or corporate projects that require domestic invoices for reimbursement. Overall, it is a “good enough but not perfect” product that balances cost-effectiveness and ease of use, but users in China will need to overcome some additional localization barriers.