Home › Pricing Transparency Audit
✓ every finding below was observed on the provider’s own pricing page on 2026-08-07 · how we verify
How hard does each provider make it to find out what you will actually pay? That is the only question this page scores. “From” pricing is legal and completely standard in this market — this is not an accusation of dishonesty against anyone. It is a measure of buyer friction, built from the same verified records as the rest of the site, with the evidence and date attached to every line.
The reason it matters is on the price index: 50% of verified residential providers lead with a rate that carries unpublished conditions, and the lowest advertised number in the market ($0.75/GB) sits well below the cheapest rate anyone can actually buy without qualifying for something ($1.00/GB).
What we scored
- Full tier table published — Can a buyer see every rate, or only a “from” figure?
- Pricing machine-readable — Are rates in the page, or gated behind scripts or bot-blocking?
- Internally consistent — Does the pricing page contradict itself?
- Honest discount framing — Is a shown discount time-limited, or permanent decoration?
- Headline conditions stated — Does a “from” rate say what volume or term earns it?
Each criterion is pass, fail, or not assessed. Providers whose pricing we could not read at all are scored only on that fact, and their remaining criteria are left blank rather than guessed — a blank is not a failing mark.
The scorecard
| Provider | Grade | Full tiers | Readable | Consistent | Framing | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| DataImpulse | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rayobyte | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scrape.do | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ScrapingBee | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SOAX | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webshare | A 5/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bright Data | B 4/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Decodo (ex-Smartproxy) | B 4/5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| IPRoyal | B 4/5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Oxylabs | C 3/5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Proxy-Seller | C 3/5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| ProxyEmpire | C 3/5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| NodeMaven | D 2/5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Proxy-Cheap | D 2/5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| ScraperAPI | not scored | — | ✗ | — | — | — |
| Storm Proxies | not scored | — | ✗ | — | — | — |
| Zyte | not scored | — | ✗ | — | — | — |
✓ pass · ✗ fail · — not assessed. Grade is the share of assessed criteria passed; providers with fewer than three assessable criteria are not graded at all.
The evidence, provider by provider
Apify — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
Plan ladder published with included usage; the annual discount is a normal, stated term. Full verified pricing and sources: Apify.
DataImpulse — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
Flat $1.00/GB with the 1TB tier ($0.80) also stated; no discount framing, no unstated conditions. Full verified pricing and sources: DataImpulse.
Rayobyte — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
Volume bands published as explicit ranges (1–49GB, 50–249GB, 250–999GB, 1–5TB, 5TB+). Full verified pricing and sources: Rayobyte.
Scrape.do — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
Every plan published with both credit counts and effective cost per 1,000 credits. Full verified pricing and sources: Scrape.do.
ScrapingBee — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
All four plans with credit allowances published; VAT treatment stated. Full verified pricing and sources: ScrapingBee.
SOAX — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
Full geo-tier matrix published across every plan, and VAT is disclosed. Complex, but complete. Full verified pricing and sources: SOAX.
Webshare — grade A (5/5 criteria passed)
Four tiers published from $3.50/GB to $1.50/GB with the 3TB rate noted; each tier’s volume is explicit. Full verified pricing and sources: Webshare.
Bright Data — grade B (4/5 criteria passed)
Complete tier ladder with plan minimums stated, but every rate is presented as “50% off” a list price. That framing was present on every check, which makes it list pricing with decoration rather than a sale. Full verified pricing and sources: Bright Data.
Decodo (ex-Smartproxy) — grade B (4/5 criteria passed)
Six tiers published and VAT disclosed — but the pricing table shows pay-as-you-go at $4.00/GB while the FAQ on the same page quotes $8.50/GB for wallet top-ups. Both figures were live on the same page. Full verified pricing and sources: Decodo (ex-Smartproxy).
IPRoyal — grade B (4/5 criteria passed)
Publishes tiers at 1GB, 2GB, 10GB and 10TB+ but nothing between, so mid-range buyers cannot see their rate. Full verified pricing and sources: IPRoyal.
Oxylabs — grade C (3/5 criteria passed)
Publishes entry rates only (residential from $6.00/GB, ISP from $16/IP); the tier table is not on the page and real pricing is negotiated. Full verified pricing and sources: Oxylabs.
Proxy-Seller — grade C (3/5 criteria passed)
Advertises “from” rates across every product ($1.30/GB residential, $0.49/IP IPv4) with no tier detail or qualifying volumes. Full verified pricing and sources: Proxy-Seller.
ProxyEmpire — grade C (3/5 criteria passed)
Every product is a “from” rate — rotating residential from $0.75/GB, the lowest number advertised anywhere in this market — with no published volume requirement to reach it. Full verified pricing and sources: ProxyEmpire.
NodeMaven — grade D (2/5 criteria passed)
Monthly rate advertised “from $2.20/GB” and pay-as-you-go as “20% off” $5.63, without tier detail or an end date for the discount. Full verified pricing and sources: NodeMaven.
Proxy-Cheap — grade D (2/5 criteria passed)
Rotating residential shown at $0.78/GB struck through from $2.60/GB, with neither the promotion’s duration nor the qualifying volume stated. Full verified pricing and sources: Proxy-Cheap.
ScraperAPI — not scored: too little could be assessed
Pricing is JavaScript-rendered and did not yield rates to our checks. Full verified pricing and sources: ScraperAPI.
Storm Proxies — not scored: too little could be assessed
The site returned HTTP 403 to our checks, so no pricing could be read at all. Not evidence of bad practice — but a buyer using automated comparison tools sees nothing. Full verified pricing and sources: Storm Proxies.
Zyte — not scored: too little could be assessed
Pricing page did not yield readable rates to our checks. Full verified pricing and sources: Zyte.
What this is not
It is not a quality ranking, and it is not an allegation. A provider can publish a complete, beautifully transparent rate card and still deliver a poor pool — and one that publishes only a “from” rate may quote you something excellent on a call. Transparency and quality are different axes, and we currently measure only the first. Success-rate benchmarking is on the methodology roadmap.
It is also a snapshot. Pricing pages change, and several of these findings would flip with a single edit by the provider. Every re-verification pass re-runs this audit, and any change lands in the changelog with the date. If you are a provider and something here is out of date, that is exactly the sort of thing the changelog exists to record.
Frequently asked questions
Which proxy providers publish complete pricing?
On the 2026-08-07 audit, seven scored a full pass: DataImpulse, Webshare, Rayobyte, SOAX, ScrapingBee, Scrape.do and Apify. Each publishes every tier with the volume that earns it, without promotional framing obscuring the real rate.
What does “from $0.75/GB” actually mean?
That it is the cheapest rate the provider will ever charge, usually at volumes they do not disclose on the page. It is a legitimate marketing convention, not a lie — but it is not a price you can plan a budget around. Our index tracks the flat floor separately for exactly this reason.
Is a permanent discount misleading?
It is a judgement call, which is why the criterion is named honest framing rather than anything stronger. A rate shown as “50% off” on every check for months is functionally the list price. Buyers who assume they must act before a deal expires are responding to a signal that is not there.
Why are some providers left mostly blank?
Because their pricing could not be read at all — one returns HTTP 403 to automated checks, two render prices with JavaScript. We score them on that single fact and leave the rest blank. Guessing the missing marks would be the same failure the page is about.
Do you accept payment to change these grades?
No. The grades are computed from published criteria against dated evidence, providers with no affiliate programme are scored identically to those with one, and the whole basis is on this page so you can disagree with it specifically.
Related
Proxy Price Index · cost calculator · full verified pricing matrix · how we verify