Residential Proxy Providers Compared on Published Terms

Node4, Bright Data, Oxylabs, Decodo and IPRoyal residential plans side by side: billing, unused traffic, targeting, sessions, trials and sourcing.

Pick a residential provider by the requirement that rules others out. If unused traffic must carry over, IPRoyal states its traffic never expires. If you need ZIP targeting, Bright Data, Oxylabs and Decodo list it, and Oxylabs lists the most targeting levels. If one exit has to stay put for hours, IPRoyal publishes a maximum of 7 days and Oxylabs one of 24 hours; those are ceilings, not minimums. Node4 fits a buyer who wants a small monthly plan, HTTP and SOCKS5, and the same account for owned datacenter proxies in the US, Italy and Spain.

The five services were compared on how you pay, what happens to traffic you do not use, protocols, targeting, session length, trials and the vendor's sourcing statement. Node4 publishes this article and sells one of the five products. Every competitor figure links to the vendor's own page, read October 5, 2026. Nothing here is a benchmark.

What was left out, and why

• Pool size. Every vendor reports its own count, nobody audits it, and a larger number says little about the exits in the one city you need.
• Speed and success rate. Those depend on your target, and no test was run for this page. Test on your own target before you buy volume.

Public pricing is not a differentiator in this group: all five publish prices and sell at least one plan without a sales call. Where a page did not say something, the table says "not stated", and that gap does not count as a point for Node4.

The five residential offers side by side

Node4's terms are on residential pricing and the residential proxies page. Sourcing statements and coverage counts are the vendors' own words; nobody here audited them. Decodo's two pages give different sticky-session lengths, so both are shown; ask Decodo which applies to your plan.

Where each provider fits, and where it does not

Node4. Residential exits come from a partner network in 170+ countries, over HTTP and SOCKS5, with country, state, city and ASN targeting carried in the username (targeting syntax). A sticky session is best effort for up to 30 minutes and can end sooner if the device goes offline, so a multi-step flow has to tolerate the address changing. It loses on carry-over: the allowance resets each billing period and a top-up expires with it, so a buyer with irregular usage pays for gigabytes they may not use. It also has no residential trial and no ZIP targeting. The free plan is shared datacenter only, 3 free shared proxies, 1 GB a month, no card required, and it cannot reach the residential gateway. The reason to pick it is a small monthly plan alongside owned datacenter proxies in the US, Italy and Spain under one credential.

Bright Data. ZIP and ASN targeting at no extra charge and a trial without a card. Large programs move to sales: a custom per-GB price through sales above 1 TB. Pick it when compliance reviewers want a published sourcing statement and you need ZIP or ASN targeting without a sales call.

Oxylabs. The most targeting levels in this group, including coordinates, and sessions up to 24 hours. Read the plan cards closely: the page shows a dedicated account manager active only on the Corporate plan, and the trial goes through sales. Pick it for fine-grained targeting on a plan you will use every month.

Decodo. Formerly Smartproxy. Continent-to-ASN targeting is included in every residential plan, and its trial states an allowance; the chosen plan starts automatically when the trial ends unless you cancel. Its pay-as-you-go traffic lasts a year, which makes it the other option here for uneven usage. Pick it when the job turns on postcode or network-level targeting.

IPRoyal. It sells by the gigabyte from 1 GB, pay as you go or by subscription, states that traffic never expires, and allows sessions up to 7 days. Its page lists country, state and city targeting and does not mention ZIP or ASN. Pick it when usage is irregular and unused traffic must carry over. If you already use IPRoyal and are weighing a move, IPRoyal alternatives covers that decision.

Cost of a 25 GB monthly job

Suppose a job needs 25 GB of residential traffic every month. The published prices for that volume, before VAT and with current promotions as the vendors show them:

• Node4: the 25 GB plan, $42.25 a month ($1.69/GB).
• Decodo: $81.25 a month for 25 GB, $3.25/GB.
• Bright Data: $4.00/GB pay as you go, shown as 50% off $8 (a promotional coupon price, code RESIGB50), times 25. Its smallest monthly plan is $499 a month for 141 GB, $3.50/GB, far more than this job needs.
• Oxylabs: $100 a month for 20 GB, $5/GB, plus a 5 GB top-up, or the next plan, $500 a month for 125 GB, $4/GB.
• IPRoyal: the largest fixed tier shown is $5.51/GB for 10 GB pay as you go; the page publishes no 25 GB price, so check it in their checkout.

Then adjust for what the price leaves out. A Node4 or Decodo monthly plan that is half used still costs the full plan, while a half-used IPRoyal purchase carries the rest into next month. If ZIP targeting is a requirement, Node4 and IPRoyal drop out before price matters. The proxy calculator turns page counts and page weight into gigabytes, which is the number to bring to each rate card.

Which one to choose

Check first whether the job needs residential at all. Most residential plans in this table bill per gigabyte; if your target accepts datacenter addresses, Rotating Unmetered rotates exits with no byte meter, from $29.00 a month, and block replay tells you which kind of address your target refuses before you buy either.

Then eliminate. ZIP targeting rules out Node4 and IPRoyal; ASN targeting rules out IPRoyal, whose page does not list it. Carry-over of unused traffic points to IPRoyal, or Decodo pay as you go. A trial before any payment points to Bright Data or Decodo. A sticky window longer than an hour points to Oxylabs or IPRoyal, whose published maximums allow one, though a residential exit can still drop sooner. If none of those decides it and you also need static or rotating datacenter IPs in the US, Italy or Spain, Node4 puts both under one account. For the type question that comes before any vendor, see rotating residential or datacenter, and for one competitor in detail, see Node4 vs IPRoyal.

Questions this table does not answer

Do residential providers own their IPs? None of the five claims to. Each describes a supply of consumer devices: opt-in apps, compensated users or household connections in the vendors' words, a partner network in Node4's. Node4's datacenter, shared and rotating datacenter products are the ones on owned blocks.

Will a longer published sticky window hold that long? A residential exit is someone's device. A published maximum tells you the longest the vendor will try to hold it, not that the device stays online. Build flows that detect a changed exit; sticky sessions explained shows the session-id pattern.