Introduction
Web scraping at scale depends on proxy infrastructure that can rotate IPs, avoid blocking and target specific geographies. SmartProxy and Bright Data are two of the most popular proxy providers, and they serve different needs: SmartProxy offers straightforward, competitive proxy access, while Bright Data provides a full scraping infrastructure platform with the largest IP pool and most advanced targeting.
SmartProxy is the approachable proxy provider focused on broad coverage and competitive pricing. Bright Data is the comprehensive scraping platform with the largest residential IP pool and a rich suite of scraping tools.
Background
SmartProxy launched in 2018 and grew quickly by offering affordable residential and datacenter proxies with broad geo coverage. It focuses on simplicity, competitive pricing and a straightforward API.
Bright Data (formerly Luminati) launched in 2014 and is one of the oldest and largest proxy networks. It built a reputation on massive IP pools, advanced targeting and a full scraping infrastructure including Scraping Browser, Web Unlocker and ready-made datasets.
Proxy network and IP pool
Bright Data has the larger residential IP pool at around 72 million IPs, compared to SmartProxy’s approximately 55 million. The larger pool helps distribute requests and reduce blocking for large-scale scraping.
Both providers offer residential, datacenter, ISP and SOCKS5 proxies. Bright Data adds mobile proxies, which are valuable for scraping mobile-specific content.
Geolocation and targeting
Both providers cover approximately 195 countries. Bright Data offers more granular targeting, including city-level, ASN, carrier, ZIP and carrier-level precision. SmartProxy offers city-level and ASN targeting, which covers most use cases.
For campaigns requiring precise location targeting, Bright Data’s granular options give it an edge.
Pricing
SmartProxy is typically cheaper per GB for residential proxies, starting around $3.50/GB. Bright Data’s pay-as-you-go residential pricing starts around $8.4/GB, reflecting its larger pool and richer infrastructure.
Bright Data’s pricing can be complex, with different costs for residential, datacenter, mobile and specialized proxies. SmartProxy’s pricing is more straightforward and predictable.
Scraping infrastructure
Bright Data is the stronger platform for scraping. It offers Scraping Browser, Web Unlocker, ready-made datasets and an advanced API, which handle anti-bot protection, CAPTCHAs and fingerprinting.
SmartProxy offers a simple API and browser extension, which is sufficient for most straightforward scraping tasks but lacks Bright Data’s advanced unblocking capabilities.
Performance and concurrency
Bright Data supports higher concurrency, up to 20,000+ connections on enterprise plans, making it suitable for very large scraping operations. SmartProxy supports up to 10,000 connections, which is adequate for most projects but lower than Bright Data at scale.
Verdict
Choose SmartProxy if you want competitive pricing, straightforward setup and sufficient IP coverage for standard scraping tasks. It is ideal for small to medium projects with basic proxy needs.
Choose Bright Data if you need the largest IP pool, granular targeting, advanced unblocking and a full scraping infrastructure. It is ideal for large-scale or anti-bot-protected scraping.
Our recommendation: for a small project, start with SmartProxy for its value and simplicity. Move to Bright Data when you scale into complex targets that require enterprise-grade scraping infrastructure.