Introduction
Web scraping at scale depends on proxy infrastructure that can rotate IPs, avoid blocking and target specific geographies. Oxylabs and Webshare are two proxy providers that serve different needs: Oxylabs is the enterprise-grade network with the largest IP pool, while Webshare is the budget-friendly option with good coverage.
Oxylabs is the premium proxy provider known for its massive IP pool and enterprise infrastructure. Webshare is the budget-friendly option that offers good coverage at competitive pricing.
Background
Oxylabs launched in 2009 and built a reputation on enterprise-grade proxy networks with massive IP pools. It offers a full suite of proxy types and scraping infrastructure for large-scale operations.
Webshare launched in 2019 as a budget-friendly proxy provider, offering competitive pricing and good coverage for small to medium projects. It has grown quickly by offering a simple API and a generous free tier.
Proxy network and IP pool
Oxylabs has the larger residential IP pool at approximately 100 million IPs, compared to Webshare’s roughly 50 million. The larger pool helps distribute requests and reduce blocking for large-scale scraping.
Oxylabs also offers a broader range of proxy types, including residential, datacenter, ISP, SOCKS5 and mobile. Webshare offers residential, datacenter and SOCKS5, but lacks ISP and mobile proxies.
Geolocation and targeting
Both providers cover approximately 195 countries. Oxylabs offers more granular targeting, including city-level, ASN, carrier and ZIP-level precision. Webshare offers city-level and ASN targeting, which covers most use cases.
For campaigns requiring precise location targeting, Oxylabs’s granular options give it an edge.
Pricing
Webshare is typically cheaper per GB for residential proxies, starting around $2/GB, while Oxylabs starts around $5.50/GB. Oxylabs’s higher price reflects its larger pool, broader proxy types and enterprise-grade infrastructure.
Webshare’s pricing is more straightforward, making it easier to predict costs for small projects. Oxylabs’s pricing is more complex but offers volume discounts for enterprise customers.
Scraping infrastructure
Oxylabs is the stronger platform for scraping. It offers a Scraping API, proxy manager and advanced rotating options, which handle anti-bot protection and request distribution. Webshare offers a simple API and proxy manager, which is sufficient for most straightforward scraping tasks.
Performance and concurrency
Oxylabs supports higher concurrency, up to 30,000+ connections, making it suitable for very large scraping operations. Webshare supports up to 10,000 connections, which is adequate for most projects but lower than Oxylabs at scale.
Verdict
Choose Oxylabs if you need the largest IP pool, broadest proxy types and enterprise-grade scraping infrastructure. It is ideal for large-scale or anti-bot-protected scraping.
Choose Webshare if you want competitive pricing and sufficient coverage for standard scraping tasks. It is ideal for small to medium projects.
Our recommendation: for a small project, start with Webshare for its value and simplicity. Move to Oxylabs when you scale into enterprise-grade scraping.