Smartproxy
Smartproxy delivers a fast, user-friendly proxy solution with strong value and scalability, ideal for developers and businesses needing quick setup and flexible pricing. It’s less suitable for users requiring exclusive IP access or those prioritizing long-term reliability over cost.
Best for
- Web scraping at scale
- data collection for market research
- automation workflows
- budget-conscious developers
- rapid prototyping and testing
Pros
- Unlimited concurrency and request volume
- intuitive product recommendation tool
- transparent, tiered pricing starting at $2.25/GB
- easy dashboard setup with code samples
- supports multiple payment methods including Bitcoin
- auto-scaling infrastructure for high-volume tasks
Cons
- Shared IP pools may increase ban risk
- limited independent review content with self-promotional tone
- rebranding to Decodo may cause confusion
- no detailed sub-user billing info
- some users report browser integration doesn’t improve performance
Product
Authentication & registration
How do users register, authenticate, and verify?
Smartproxy Authentication & registration begins with a straightforward sign-up process: users can register using an email and password, or opt for Google or GitHub accounts as alternatives. After signing up, email verification is required to fully access the dashboard and make purchases, though limited access is available before verification.
Authentication for smartproxy proxies is supported via credentials and IP whitelisting, with endpoints and login details available directly from the dashboard. While some sources confirm IP whitelisting as a valid authentication method, others note it may also serve as a pricing modifier, and one source mentions its utility when software doesn’t support credential-based auth.
Company
Company overview
What are the company's basic facts (founded, rebrand, size, parent)?
Smartproxy, founded in 2018 under the same name, rebranded to Decodo in April 2025, marking a shift in its corporate identity. The company, which operates as part of the Tesonet group, has maintained a team of 100–150 employees throughout its evolution.
While Smartproxy was originally positioned as a more accessible alternative to premium providers like Oxylabs and Bright Data, it has since evolved into Decodo, continuing to serve over 135,000 clients with its proxy solutions. Note that conflicting reports indicate Smartproxy rebranded to Decodo, though some sources suggest the company was founded as Decodo in response to market gaps left by providers like Luminati and GeoSurf.
Review Signal
Alternative comparison
How does the provider compare to alternatives?
Smartproxy stands out in a Smartproxy Alternative comparison for its fast time-to-value and user-friendly interface, letting users quickly compare proxies, features, and pricing across its suite of tools—including residential, datacenter, and scraping APIs—while supporting automation-friendly workflows. However, while Smartproxy proxies offer affordability and quick onboarding, the shared IP pools can lead to performance fluctuations or higher ban risks if others abuse the same IPs, a trade-off worth considering.
The platform does provide helpful guidance on choosing between residential and datacenter proxies, emphasizing that the best provider depends on speed, geographic coverage, and budget, though it doesn’t claim superiority over alternatives like SOAX or Decodo, which offer similar performance. Ultimately, Smartproxy’s strengths lie in speed and ease of use, but users should weigh these against potential reliability issues from shared infrastructure.
Proxy Infrastructure
Concurrency & limits
What concurrency, thread, request, and port limits exist?
Smartproxy Concurrency & limits are notably generous, with the service offering unlimited threads and ports for concurrent connections, and no restrictions on the number of requests that can be made simultaneously. All plans include unlimited concurrent sessions, and the infrastructure is designed to auto-scale, handling scraping volumes from thousands to millions of pages daily without imposed limits.
While multiple sources confirm that Decodo (a Smartproxy product) imposes no limitations on concurrency, threads, or request volume, the service also supports dynamic scaling up or down without requiring setup changes. This makes smartproxy proxies highly suitable for large-scale, high-volume operations.
Product
Configuration & setup
How is the proxy configured and set up?
Smartproxy Configuration & setup is straightforward, thanks to intuitive dashboard widgets that let you specify core parameters like location, rotation, and protocol (HTTP(S) or SOCKS5) with no extra configuration needed. Once set, the dashboard generates proxy lists and code samples across multiple programming languages, streamlining integration for developers.
You can also configure and manage smartproxy proxies via API or endpoint generator, supported by detailed documentation and quick start guides, with setup reportedly taking just minutes. However, some users found that adding a real browser didn’t improve performance, and one approach involves using a single IP with changing port numbers to access different IPs—though this isn’t universally recommended.
Review Signal
Review content quality
How thorough, current, and useful is the review content itself?
Smartproxy Review content quality is generally strong, offering useful guidance on selecting the right proxy type and providing actionable insights for web data projects, particularly through its blog’s focus on ISP proxies and data mapping. The content consistently emphasizes the professional expertise behind Smartproxy’s solutions, linking it to business growth and improved efficiency, though some claims about Decodo’s performance appear to be self-promotional without independent verification.
While the blog serves as a helpful resource for building knowledge and sparking project ideas, there’s limited evidence of independent testing or balanced comparison—such as the April 2026 test date mentioned by Proxyway, which suggests a lack of recent, transparent evaluation. Overall, the material is informative and current in tone, but its credibility is somewhat undermined by repetitive, promotional language.
Company
Dashboard
How capable and usable is the control dashboard?
The Smartproxy Dashboard delivers strong usability and capability, offering full control over smartproxy proxies with real-time tracking of traffic metrics, usage stats, and top targets. Users can manage plans, set up proxies and scrapers, monitor spending analytics, and collaborate with teams—all from a centralized interface with visual graphs and detailed statistics.
While the dashboard is well-organized by product and includes dedicated sections for proxy types and scraping tools, some users may find the navigation slightly segmented, as most controls are grouped by product rather than unified under a single workflow. Overall, it’s a robust, feature-rich platform that supports both individual and team needs effectively.
Product
Data & extraction
What data collection and extraction capabilities exist?
Smartproxy Data & extraction offers robust capabilities through a combination of smartproxy proxies and integrated tools designed for real-time, large-scale data collection. You can filter data visualizations by sub-user, date, country, domain, and connection protocol, and leverage ISP proxies to maintain trusted IP addresses during extended scraping sessions—ideal for consistent, long-term data gathering.
The platform enables instant conversion of raw HTML into structured JSON or Markdown outputs, with support for automating tasks via Google Apps Script and scraping directly into Google Sheets. While Smartproxy promotes AI-ready data pipelines and structured outputs for LLMs and analytics, it’s worth noting that the same data filtering and collection features are described across multiple sources without contradiction, reinforcing their reliability.
Company
Documentation
How comprehensive and high-quality is the documentation?
Smartproxy Documentation is comprehensive and high-quality, offering detailed guides, code samples in Python, Node.js, cURL, Go, and PHP, and step-by-step tutorials for integrating smartproxy proxies into popular tools. It includes a well-structured start guide, an FAQ organized by topic, integration resources for automation tools and browsers, and a dedicated hub with troubleshooting tips and advanced scraping tutorials.
While the documentation is thorough and practical, some content has become outdated, though it’s generally handled well. Overall, it supports both beginners and experienced users in setting up and managing smartproxy proxies efficiently.
Proxy Infrastructure
Geographic coverage
How many countries/locations does the provider cover, and how precisely can users target by country, city, state, or ASN?
Smartproxy geographic coverage spans 195+ countries, with the ability to target locations down to the city, state, ZIP code, and ASN level, offering highly precise geo-targeting for smartproxy proxies. Users can access a vast network of ethically sourced mobile IPs across 160+ locations worldwide, including strong presence in the US and key regions like Europe (Germany), North America (Canada), and Asia (Singapore).
While some sources confirm broad global reach and accurate geolocation, others note the network includes IPs from just two major ISPs, which may affect diversity in certain regions. Despite this, the combination of extensive country coverage and granular targeting options makes Smartproxy a strong choice for users needing reliable, location-specific proxy access.
Product
Integration
How is the provider integrated (endpoints, gateways, SDKs)?
Smartproxy Integration is straightforward and well-supported across a wide range of tools and languages, with smartproxy proxies easily routeable through Python, Node.js, cURL, Requests, Playwright, and Puppeteer. The service offers drop-in compatibility with popular frameworks and enables seamless workflows via integrations like n8n nodes, LangChain agents, and Decodo’s MCP server, allowing users to automate data pipelines without managing proxy networks or dealing with website protection.
While some setups maintain a consistent gateway for backconnect proxies—enabling IP filtering via username parameters—others leverage dynamic routing through the closest load balancer, depending on the configuration. Overall, the integration experience is smooth, especially when feeding structured data into AI pipelines through Decodo’s Web Scraping API.
Proxy Infrastructure
IP pool
How large is the advertised and measured IP pool?
Smartproxy advertises a mobile proxy pool of 10 million+ IPs across 700+ carriers, with continuous IP rotation and support for city, ASN, and country-level targeting. This claim is backed by multiple sources stating that users gain access to 10M+ real mobile IPs, though one source notes that Smartproxy controls a significantly larger IP pool than Decodo, suggesting potential discrepancies in how pool sizes are measured or reported.
While the advertised figure is consistent across Smartproxy’s site, independent benchmarks do not directly confirm this number for Smartproxy, only for competitors like Decodo, which also claims a 115 million IP pool. The actual availability of unique IPs during use may vary, as seen in Decodo’s case where 30,000 unique US proxies were observed despite a larger advertised pool.
Proxy Infrastructure
IP quality
How authentic, clean, and correctly-typed are the IPs (residential/mobile detection, source, retention)?
Smartproxy IP quality stands out for its authenticity and clean sourcing, with residential and mobile proxies drawn from real devices and legitimate ISP networks. The service delivers IPs from major providers like AT&T, Verizon, Orange, and Tele2, using premium ASNs and real household or smartphone-based 3G/4G/5G connections that mimic genuine user behavior, reducing detection risks.
While most Decodo proxies are confirmed as mobile via IP database verification, and Smartproxy emphasizes ethical opt-in sourcing and consistent IP assignment for session tasks, the presence of static IPs from residential-like networks suggests a blend of residential authenticity and datacenter stability. This mix supports both anonymity and reliability, though the exact balance between residential and mobile types may vary by subnet.
Company
KYC & geo-restrictions
What KYC requirements and geo-restrictions apply?
Smartproxy KYC & geo-restrictions are not uniformly enforced across all users—KYC is not required by default, but may be triggered if a user’s activity appears risky or if they aim to access restricted targets like streaming platforms (Netflix, Twitch), business domains (Uber, Grammarly), or email services (Yahoo, Live). Some sources indicate that completing KYC unlocks access to more websites, while others clarify that identity verification is only necessary for sensitive target groups, not for general proxy use.
However, there are geo-restrictions in place: Decodo, which operates under Smartproxy’s infrastructure, denies access to underage users and customers located in Russia. These policies suggest that while Smartproxy proxies are generally accessible without KYC, access to certain high-risk or sensitive sites may require identity verification, and geographic restrictions apply.
Company
Market position
How is the provider positioned relative to competitors?
Smartproxy holds a strong market position among proxy providers, consistently recognized for top-tier proxy and scraping solutions for five years in a row. Its advertised proxy pool of 115 million IPs places it among the larger networks, contributing to its reputation as a leading player—though some analyses, like those from Proxyway, note that Decodo is now considered one of the largest providers, possibly in the top five, and competes effectively even with cheaper services.
While Smartproxy is praised for ease of use and fast time to value, Decodo has been awarded the Best All-Rounder title in 2026, suggesting a competitive edge in balancing features and affordability. This indicates that Smartproxy maintains a prominent standing in the smartproxy proxies landscape, though it faces stiff competition from rivals like Decodo.
Company
Onboarding & self-service
How easy is onboarding and self-service?
Smartproxy Onboarding & self-service is straightforward and well-supported, making it easy to get started with smartproxy proxies. The platform enables full self-service with a clean interface, helpful tutorials, and ready-to-use code examples that simplify integration across popular languages.
Users benefit from a product recommendation tool and flexible configuration options—like changing just the username or port number—without needing credential-based authentication. While the experience is generally smooth and well-documented, some users may find the reliance on external guides and support could be more comprehensive.
Performance
Performance
What are the measured speed, latency, and throughput benchmarks?
Smartproxy Performance delivers consistently fast and reliable results, with requests completing in under a second on average and latency staying below one second across all tested regions—even the slowest connections finished within two seconds. The smartproxy proxies responded quickly, returning a 6KB page in about 200 ms, and maintained high success rates above 99% globally, including in the US where it dipped slightly but remained strong.
Despite handling high traffic, multiple threads, and frequent refreshes, the performance stayed stable and consistent, with minimal deviation even among the slowest 5% of requests. Notably, the proxies excelled with demanding tasks like scraping Google and Amazon, where they performed flawlessly and even outpaced Google despite larger page sizes.
Company
Usage & access policies
What usage, refund, fair-use, and access policies apply?
Smartproxy Usage & access policies allow reliable access to mobile-only content, SERPs, social media, and eCommerce sites for AI datasets, benchmarking, and competitive intelligence, with traffic routed through alternative IPs to bypass geo-restrictions, CAPTCHAs, and IP blocks. However, access is restricted to certain high-risk targets like banking, government, and telecom sites to prevent misuse, and while Smartproxy does not explicitly block users by location, Decodo (a related service) denies access to underage users and those in Russia.
The platform offers a money-back guarantee, though specific terms are not detailed publicly.
Pricing & Billing
Pricing
What are the prices and plans across the product line?
Smartproxy Pricing starts at $2.25 per GB for its datacenter proxies, with residential proxies available from $4 for 1 GB of data, making it a budget-friendly option for users seeking flexible, scalable access. While some sources note that the price per IP never exceeds $1.7, which is considered affordable for ISP proxies, others highlight that Decodo offers a slightly lower price point, suggesting Smartproxy’s pricing is competitive but not always the cheapest.
The platform supports direct purchases via credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, with no extra cost for adding city or ASN specifications to residential proxy plans. Overall, Smartproxy proxies deliver strong value with transparent, tiered pricing that fits a range of use cases.
Pricing & Billing
Pricing & billing model
How is billing structured (subscription, pay-as-you-go, traffic vs IPs, sub-users)?
Smartproxy’s pricing & billing model combines subscription flexibility with pay-as-you-go options, allowing users to either commit to plans or pay per gigabyte using a wallet system. The platform supports both dedicated proxies—charged per IP—and rotating pool proxies—metered by traffic—offering straightforward pricing depending on use case.
Users can top up their wallet at any time and pay as they go, with the ability to view transaction history, manage active plans, and download invoices directly in the Billing section. Team access is available, and most products support creating sub-users, though specific details on sub-user billing aren’t covered in the provided evidence.
Product
Product offering
What products and features does the provider sell?
Smartproxy offers a range of proxy solutions including rotating and static ISP proxies with global coverage, designed for tasks like web scraping, ad verification, and bypassing geo-restrictions. Their product offering extends to browser-based tools such as proxy management extensions for Chrome and Firefox, enabling users to streamline data collection with just a few clicks—no reconfiguration needed—while also providing access to dedicated IPs for persistent identities.
While Decodo (a brand associated with Smartproxy) has expanded into web scrapers and an antidetect browser, some sources note that Bright Data offers more advanced proxy management tools and additional features. Despite these differences, Smartproxy’s core strength lies in delivering reliable, high-quality proxies with a focus on ease of use and performance.
Proxy Infrastructure
Protocol support
Which protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5, UDP) are supported?
Smartproxy Protocol support includes HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5, which are all fully available and widely compatible with common use cases. While UDP support is mentioned as available upon request, it's not universally enabled by default, so users should confirm availability for their specific needs.
This setup ensures robust functionality for tasks requiring location targeting or high compatibility, especially when using SOCKS5 through smartproxy proxies.
Product
Proxy types
What proxy types and formats does the provider offer?
Smartproxy offers a comprehensive range of proxy types, including residential, mobile (3G/4G/5G), datacenter, and ISP proxies, catering to diverse use cases from web scraping to account management. Their smartproxy proxies include static ISP proxies that maintain a consistent IP across sessions—ideal for login-heavy tasks—while also providing rotating mobile proxies from real carrier networks to bypass geo-restrictions.
The provider combines the authenticity of residential proxies with the speed of datacenter proxies, and ISP proxies leverage ISP-assigned subnet ranges to mimic genuine residential traffic. Username modifiers allow precise targeting of locations and individual IPs, and dedicated proxies offer unlimited access to IP addresses.
Performance
Uptime & reliability
How reliable is the infrastructure and how often do requests succeed?
Smartproxy Uptime & reliability is exceptionally strong, with smartproxy proxies delivering near-perfect success rates—nearly 100% of requests completed successfully, and datacenter proxies maintaining a consistent 99.99% uptime. Independent testing confirmed minimal failures, with only 10 out of every 10,000 connections terminated before reaching the target, and Decodo’s infrastructure performing flawlessly over seven days.
While the provider claims 99.75% success rates and enterprise-grade reliability, the data supports a system built for mission-critical tasks with minimal downtime. Some evidence suggests the network operates with near-constant availability, though real-world performance may vary slightly depending on proxy type and target site.
Proxy Infrastructure
IP rotation
How does IP rotation work and how often do IPs change?
Smartproxy IP rotation works by offering two main options: you can get a fresh IP with every request for maximum anonymity, or opt for sticky sessions that keep the same IP for up to 24 hours—ideal for tasks needing session continuity. Some sources confirm that sessions can also rotate after 60 seconds of inactivity or upon disconnection, while others note that sticky sessions can last from minutes to days, depending on your setup.
However, it's important to note that Smartproxy’s ISP proxies differ, as they hold a fixed IP indefinitely, making them better suited for login-dependent workflows. This flexibility in rotation timing and session control makes smartproxy proxies adaptable for both short bursts and longer, stable sessions.
Product
Scraping APIs
What web scraping APIs and tools does the provider offer?
Smartproxy offers a range of scraping APIs designed to simplify data extraction, including a Scraping API that reliably returns page contents when given a URL—just as Decodo’s API does, according to Proxyway. These APIs support specialized use cases, allowing users to input search queries, ASINs, or hashtags directly without URL construction, and come with a built-in playground for testing and generating integration code.
Additionally, Smartproxy provides programmatic proxy control via an API accessible to all users, enabling management of sub-users, traffic limits, usage reports, and endpoint filtering. While the Smartproxy site highlights Google Sheets integration for no-code scraping, and mobile proxies for accessing mobile-first content, the broader claims about API features like traffic expenditure reporting and rich scraper functionality are sourced from Proxyway’s coverage of Decodo, not Smartproxy directly—so these may not apply to Smartproxy’s own offerings.
Company
Security & trust
How trustworthy, secure, and reputable is the provider?
Smartproxy Security & trust is strong, backed by a reputable track record and robust technical safeguards. The provider earns trust through 256-bit SSL encryption, ethically-sourced residential IPs that mimic real mobile users, and features like automatic IP rotation that help bypass blocks and anti-bot systems—making smartproxy proxies effective for maintaining anonymity and high success rates.
Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) has been recognized by G2 as a top security product and holds over 1,000 Trustpilot reviews with 135K+ clients, reinforcing its credibility. While some claims about being the "best proxy provider of 2025" and top rankings in proxy lists are self-reported, the consistent alignment of IP signals with real device behavior and ASN data supports its reliability in practice.
Proxy Infrastructure
Sticky sessions
Does the provider support sticky/session-based IP persistence, and for how long?
Smartproxy supports sticky sessions with options for custom durations up to 24 hours, allowing users to keep the same IP for as long as needed—some sources confirm the ability to maintain a fixed proxy indefinitely, while others specify a 60-second inactivity timeout triggering a new IP assignment. This means smartproxy proxies can offer consistent IP persistence for extended sessions, especially useful for campaigns requiring sustained verification or monitoring, though the exact duration may depend on session activity.
The feature is available across datacenter and ISP proxies, with static IPs ensuring a fixed address and port that never changes.
Company
Customer support
How responsive, available, and high-quality is customer support?
Smartproxy Customer support is highly responsive, available 24/7 via LiveChat and email, with agents delivering quick, nearly instant responses and a friendly, helpful demeanor—making it one of the provider’s strongest points. The support team is backed by comprehensive resources, including setup guides, a Knowledge Hub, and an active Discord community, ensuring users can find solutions independently or with real-time help.
While most evidence points to excellent, award-winning service, the presence of duplicate or ambiguous references to Decodo (a different provider) in some sources raises minor confusion about attribution. Overall, smartproxy proxies come with reliable, high-quality support that stands out in the industry.
Proxy Infrastructure
Targeting & filtering
How precisely can users filter by country, city, ASN, state, or ZIP?
Smartproxy Targeting & filtering offers highly precise location-based control, allowing users to filter smartproxy proxies by country, city, state, ZIP code (US only), ASN/ISP, and continent. You can target specific cities like New York, London, or Mumbai, and even drill down to ZIP-level accuracy for US-based projects, with additional carrier-level precision for mobile proxies.
The platform supports both city and ASN targeting out of the box, enabling granular control without needing to modify usernames. While some sources confirm ZIP code filtering is limited to the US, others highlight that this level of detail is available for localized campaigns, testing, and data gathering.
Pricing & Billing
Trial & refund
What trial and refund options are offered?
Smartproxy offers a 3-day free trial for new users to test smartproxy proxies, allowing you to evaluate performance, rotation, sticky sessions, and region-specific targeting before committing. Additionally, all paid plans include a 14-day money-back guarantee, with refunds available if the proxies don’t meet your needs—support must be contacted within that window.
While some sources mention a 14-day limited refund, others confirm a full refund is possible under these terms. There’s also 100MB of free data available for testing, and you can start using the API immediately with no lock-in period.
Product
Use cases
What are the intended use cases and target audiences?
Smartproxy proxies are designed for a wide range of use cases, from small-scale scraping and sneakerhead drops to large-scale AI data collection and mobile app testing. The platform caters to users needing high-quality residential and mobile IPs—especially those requiring authentic identities to bypass geo-restrictions, CAPTCHAs, and aggressive blocking—making it suitable for AI training, multi-accounting, and eCommerce monitoring.
While some users find the entry-level datacenter proxies effective for basic scraping, others note that the service’s strength truly shines in demanding scenarios like AI-scale data collection, backed by 10 million+ IPs across 700+ mobile carriers. However, there’s a contrast in perception: some reviewers highlight affordability and versatility for small projects, while others position Decodo (Smartproxy’s brand) as a premium solution for the toughest targets.
Review Signal
Overall verdict
What is the overall recommendation and assessment?
Smartproxy Overall verdict: Smartproxy proxies deliver a well-rounded, highly effective solution that earns a strong recommendation for most users. The platform stands out with its intuitive product recommendation tool, allowing users to input a use case, feature, or target to get tailored suggestions, making it easy to find the right proxy setup.
Multiple sources affirm that Decodo (the parent brand behind Smartproxy) is a top-tier provider, praised for its reliability, balance, and performance—so much so that experts and over 135,000 users alike describe it as something truly great and freely recommendable. There are no conflicting views in the provided evidence, so the consensus is clear: Smartproxy is a dependable, user-focused proxy service that consistently meets expectations.
Sources
- [1] Proxyway — 193 claims
- [2] Smartproxy site — 96 claims
- [3] proxyway — 69 claims
- [4] Smartproxy site — 38 claims
- [5] Smartproxy site — 21 claims
- [6] Smartproxy site — 19 claims
- [7] Smartproxy site — 8 claims
- [8] Smartproxy site — 6 claims