Are you dying for a super-thorough, honest Oxylabs review? Well, search no more; it’s here!
Be sure to read the whole thing as I dive deep into the heart of the matter to tell you the real truth about this proxy giant.
Is it worth the price? Is there a good alternative?
Keep reading to find out!
Oxylabs Review Summary
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| A legitimate company | The prices are sky-high |
| Giant proxy pool | Basic, overpriced features |
| Good uptime | They ask for HUGE monthly commitments. |
| Their plans go for thousands of dollars. | |
| Catered towards large corporations | |
| Too expensive for individuals and small companies |
Top Oxylabs Alternatives:
| Provider | Our Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Proxyland | 4.7 | Check Price |
| Luminati | 4.0 | Check Price |
| Smartproxy | 3.7 | Check Price |
What Is Oxylabs And How Does It Help You?
Oxylabs is one of the largest proxy providers with over 100 million IPs in their residential IPs networks. The fact that their pricing plans cost thousands of dollars and that they offer an insurance policy with all the products speaks to the company’s attempt to lure in white-collar businesses.
What does this mean for small businesses and individuals who hope to try Oxylabs’ service?
Sadly for them, these proxies and gigantic networks are out of reach. If that’s you, don’t despair – there are excellent Oxylabs alternatives that don’t cost nearly as much (scroll down to find out more!).
So, how does Oxylabs help its clients?
Oxylabs provides two types of proxies: residential and datacenter.
They divide residential proxies into a few sub-categories:
- “Regular” residential proxies (rotating or sticky)
These are the classic residential proxies that you can use for numerous use case scenarios, including large-scale scraping. You can choose between rotating (your address changes with every request) or sticky (you keep the same address for up to 30 minutes).
- Next-gen residential proxies
Oxylabs calls these an “AI-powered scraping proxy solution. ” The proxies feature AI-powered block and site change handling, and ML-based adaptive parser. The parser is currently in beta, and it’s able to adapt to any HTML code provided from any e-commerce product page. The next-gen proxies also ensure zero CAPTCHAs and zero IP bans.
- Static residential proxies
Besides rotating, Oxylabs offers static proxies too. Their static proxy pool contains around 100,000 IPs provided by ISPs. These support HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols. They’re stable, reliable, and perfect for tasks that require you to keep the same IP address for a while, like at checkout on various shopping sites or with sneaker bots.
- SOCKS5 proxies
Oxylabs has a network of 2 million IPs from 82 countries that support the SOCKS5 protocol. These are amazing for traffic-intense tasks when HTTP/HTTPS is simply not enough, and you need a UDP connection (for video streaming, live calls, etc.).
With 100+ million IPs, Oxylabs’ residential IPs network is probably the largest out there. These IPs come from almost every country globally, including all major cities, so Oxylabs’ coverage is pretty admirable.
Oxylabs’ datacenter IPs network is large, too. It consists of 2 million IPs from 82 locations worldwide. These proxies are fast and much cheaper than residential, but they’re also easily detected and blocked by spam filters (cause they’re not made of real IPs).
If you opt for Oxylabs, you can utilize their proxies for a myriad of use cases, for instance:
- Market research
- Brand protection
- Sales intelligence
- Travel fare aggregation
- Ad verification
- SEO monitoring
- Cybersecurity, etc.
How Oxylabs Works
There are basically two ways to get started with Oxylabs.
The first one is the classic:
- Go to their website.
- Fill in the registration form.
- Confirm your email.
- Buy one of the two cheapest plans.
If you sign up this way, you can get only the two cheapest packages as they’re the only self-service ones.
The others require you to contact sales and speak to a dedicated account manager with whom you will discuss your options.
It’s quite evident that the second approach is aimed at businesses. This process requires a lot more data, such as business email, full name, phone number, and industry. You might also go through a KYC check.
Once you sign up, you’ll have access to the Oxylabs dashboard. Here, you can:
- Track your proxy usage
- Create sub-users
- Whitelist IPs
- See your billing information
- Access the API documentation
Overall, Oxylabs’ proxies aren’t the easiest to work with since you can’t set them up directly in the dashboard. However, the company offers extensive user docs, so you shouldn’t have issues figuring it all out.
The set up depends on the type of proxy:
- Datacenter IPs
This one is the easiest – to set them up, you need to authenticate your proxies in the dashboard with your credentials and download the proxy list.
- Residential IPs
You can integrate residential proxies with third-party software or directly into Chrome. Oxylabs offers guides on how to integrate with some software, including SwitchyOmega, Shadowrocket, FoxyProxy, and a few more.
They also have a step by step guide for Chrome integration.
As I mentioned before, Oxylabs has extensive documentation on their website that tells you all you need to know, so check it out if you’re interested to know the specific details.
Key Oxylabs Features
Oxylabs has some other interesting features. They include:
- Massive proxy pool
- Worldwide coverage
- Unlimited concurrent sessions
- Zero IP blocking
- 99.9% uptime
- Unlimited bandwidth & unlimited number of targets for datacenter proxies
Oxylabs Costs And Pricing Plans
Oxylabs is not at all budget-friendly; their monthly plans go as high as 6,000 USD. They sell 1GB for a starting price of $15, and you have to purchase at least 20GB.
For comparison’s sake, Proxyland, a trustworthy proxy provider, sells 1GB for only $2.9, which means you can get similar features for five times less money.
Is Oxylabs Legit?
There’s no doubt that Oxylabs is a legit deal. Their service is safe to use, they won’t steal your data, and their site and payment gateways are 100% secure.
Top Oxylabs Alternatives
You don’t have to spend a fortune on proxies cause they’re basically IPs, so it doesn’t matter where you buy them, as long as they’re reliable.
Oxylabs is one of the biggest names in the industry, so there’s a good chance you’re paying for the premium brand and not the proxies themselves.
That’s why you won’t regret going with a cheaper Oxylabs alternative: Proxyland.
With Proxyland, you get:
- Large proxy pool (10+ million IPs)
- Reliable residential proxies
- Easy setup
- 99.99% uptime
- Unlimited concurrent sessions
- Sticky sessions for up to 15 minutes
- Proxies from almost all countries
- No big monthly commitments
- Pay as you go plans
| Provider | Our Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Proxyland | 4.7 | Check Price |
| Luminati | 4.0 | Check Price |
| Smartproxy | 3.7 | Check Price |
Oxylabs Pros And Cons
Time to weigh out Oxylabs’ pros and cons:
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Legit proxy provider | They ask for HUGE monthly commitments. |
| Gigantic proxy pool | Plans cost up to $6,000/month. |
| Proxies from all over the world | Not accessible to small companies |
| Inflated prices for basic features | |
| A bit complicated to set up |
Oxylabs: Final Verdict
Although Oxylabs is a trustable proxy provider, their service is tailored to large corporations’ needs (and budget).
If you’re a small business owner or a solopreneur in need of proxies, you might want to check out Oxylabs alternatives in the table below.
There, you’ll find proxy providers that offer similar features at the same quality level, only five times cheaper, such as Proxyland.
