Bright Data (Luminati) has proven to be one of the best in the market but still does have its own setback. If these setbacks are very important to you, then you will need to use proxies from an alternative provider. These would be discussed below.
Overview of Bright Data (Luminati)
- Smartproxy: 40+ million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $80 per 8GB | $10 Per GB> – Best Bright Data alternative
- Soax: 8.5+ million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $99 for 9GB | $11 Per GB > – Clean Proxy Pool for many use cases
- Shifter: 31+ million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $99.98 for 5 ports | $25 per port> – Offers unlimited bandwidth not offered by Bright Data
- Stormproxies: 40K IPs in Pool – <Starts from $50 for 5 ports | $10 per port> – Cheap unlimited bandwidth provider with simple features
- Nimbleway: Undisclosed – <Starts from $600 for 75GB | $8 per GB> – The best Bright Data alternative for large marketers
- Proxy-Cheap: 6 million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $5 for 1GB | $5 PER GB> – No Minimum Monetary Requirements
- Hydraproxy: 40+ million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $75 per 5GB | $15 Per GB> – Cheapest Proxies on the list
- Oxylabs: 100+ million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $300 per 20GB | $15 Per GB> – Most aggressive Bright Data competitor
In the proxy market, Bright Data is the market leader and has proven such by the quality of service it offers, the number of big clients on its customers' list, and the rate of innovations and advanced features it offers to clients. Being that as it may, this does not mean all proxy users should make use of proxies from them.
While it might look all rosy, it is not, and just like every other provider in the market, it has both its strengths and weakness and for users that cannot overlook its weaknesses, going for a Bright Data alternative is the best thing to do.
There are a good number of proxy providers in the market that you can use, but can all of them be seen as an alternative to Bright Data?
The answer is NO.
We have compiled a list of proxy providers that can be termed as an alternative to Bright Data and would be discussing these in the article. Before doing that, we would be taking a look at an overview of Bright Data and why you will need to use an alternative.
Overview of Bright Data
Bright Data, formerly known as the Luminati Networks, is the largest proxy provider in the market, popularly known for their residential proxy service with over 72 million residential IP addresses sourced from all countries and most cities around the world. It has support for country-level, state-level, and city-level geo-targeting.
The service is an ethical one that gets the IPs it uses via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network for Hola VPN users – with the consent of the users. This service offers both rotating proxies and session proxies – up to 30 minutes. Their proxies are some of the fastest and are reliable, secure, and compatible with most websites.
Why Use a Bright Data Alternative?
I presume you are on this page because you need an alternative to Bright Data and already have our reason(s). As a blog, we have written this because of the complaints we have got, and we believe the below are some of the reasons why you will need an alternative to Bright Data.
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Expensive Pricing
The truth is, Bright Data was not made for small marketers and those without a good budget. Their pricing is based on bandwidth, and until June 2021, their smallest plan is sold at $500 – this makes it practically out of the league of small marketers with a tight budget.
However, starting from June 2021, they have got an experimental plan that is sold for $300 and comes with 20GB.
While this can be seen as less expensive, it is still not affordable to most small proxy users.
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KYC Requirement
One feature many proxy users dislike about the Bright Data proxy service is the need for their customers to undergo their Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure which would mean providing your contact details and an acceptable means of identification.
While this is done to refuse fraud and other illegal activities, it is inconvenient for many users who do not like submitting their identities online. If you are one of such people, then an alternative would be better.
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Not Easy to Use
Bright Data comes with many advanced features and added tools such as the Luminati Manager, developer API, generator tool, etc. This has made it complicated to use, and if you try visiting the dashboard, you will discover how complex it is.
In fact, inexperienced users find it difficult to use and would have to read guides and tutorials to get simple things done. On the contrary, some providers are quite simple and easy to use, and as such, inexperienced users are better off using them.
Best Bright Data (Luminati) Alternatives in Residential Proxy Market
Now to the recommendation proper, we would be providing you some of the top Bright Data alternative currently available in the market. While Bright Data offers residential proxies, datacenter proxies, and mobile proxies, our focus here is on their residential proxies, which is their most popular service and what they are best known for.
Smartproxy
- IP Pool Size: Over 40 million
- Locations: 195 locations across the globe
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 5GB
- Cost: Starts from $75 monthly for 5GB
Smartproxy is the best Bright Data alternative in the market. It is also a premium provider of high-quality residential proxy service that you can use for tasks that you require Bright Data proxies for. In fact, some marketers find Smartproxy to be more effective in some use cases.
Smartproxy has one of the largest proxy pools, with 40 million IP addresses sourced from about 195 locations across the globe. Their proxies are as fast as that of Bright Data and are compatible with all popular web services. One thing you will come to like about Smartproxy is that it is affordable, and you can get started with its proxies for only $75.
Soax
- IP Pool Size: Over 5 million
- Locations: over 100 countries across the globe
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 5GB
- Cost: Starts from $75 monthly for 5GB
When it comes to the combination of ease of use, affordability, and having a clean proxy pool, Soax is a force to reckon with. This provider is a new provider that only came into the market recently but has proven itself to be one of the best residential proxy service providers.
The proxy pool is one of the cleanest as it is regularly being updated. Currently, it has over 5 million residential IP addresses sourced from many locations. As stated earlier, Soax is affordable even though its pricing model is the same with both Smartproxy and Bright Data – bandwidth-based. Just like Smartproxy, all you need to use the Soax service is a minimum of $75.
Shifter
- IP Pool Size: Over 31 million
- Locations: 130 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Cost: Starts at $249.99 monthly for 10 ports
Bright Data and most other residential proxies are priced based on bandwidth. If you are looking for an alternative that offers unlimited bandwidth usage, then Shifter is the best option available to you right now, and this is not without reason. This service has also been around for a while now as Microleaves before rebranding to Shifter.io.
Shifter has over 31 million IP addresses in its pool, making it one of the largest proxy providers in the market. In terms of location support, Shifter provides IP addresses from over 100 countries and many cities. Their proxies are also rotating proxies just like the ones described above, but their own rotation is time-based – after every 5 minutes.
Stormproxies
- IP Pool Size: 40,000
- Locations: US and EU
- Cost: Starts at $50 for 5 ports
Stormproxies is also one of the alternatives to Bright Data. It is also one of the few providers that offer unlimited bandwidth usage and, as such perfect for tasks that consume a lot of bandwidth. However, from the above, it was stated that Shifter is our favorite unlimited bandwidth provider – you can see Stormproxies as a cheaper alternative as it is quite cheaper, and with only $50, you can enjoy unlimited bandwidth with 5 ports.
Unfortunately, being a cheap alternative, you will need to make a compromise. Unlike the other providers, this provider only has about 40K IPs and only supports the US and EU locations. Also, only IP authentication is supported.
Nimbleway
- IP Pool Size: Undisclosed
- Locations: 50 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Cost: Starts from $600 monthly for 75GB
Nimbleway can stand in place of Bright Data and to some extent, can even be said to be a better provider compared to Bright Data. However, this is not in the aspect of pricing. If you need an alternative to Bright Data because of pricing, then you are better off choosing Proxy-cheap or Hydraproxy. But when it comes to being an effective provider with premium proxies that work, Nimbleway is a good alternative.
First, both Nimbleway and Bright Data offer high-rotating residential proxies. However, what Nimbleway does better is that the IP selection process for each of the requests is not random — it is AI-powered, and the artificial intelligence agent chooses the best IP address that will enable your requests to go through.
Bright Data might have a bigger proxy pool size, but so far, the Nimbleway proxy service has not shown it can’t handle the number of requests Bright Data handles. It also has good location support and is quite a great contender when it comes to performance since it is built on high-performing infrastructure.
Proxy-Cheap
- IP Pool Size: Over 6 million
- Locations: 127 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Cost: Starts at $5 monthly for 1GB
From the name of this provider, you can tell that it has a focus on pricing. The price per GB for Bright Data is between $15 to $8.5, depending on the plan you buy.
In the case of Proxy-Cheap, you can get a GB between the prices of $5 to $3. This does not mean it proxies are of low quality. in fact, Proxy-Cheap proxies are some of the best in the market. the provider has over 7 million IP addresses in its pool and has support for about 127 countries. They have got support for both rotating proxies and static proxies.
Hydraproxy
- IP Pool Size: Over 7 million
- Locations: over 100 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 1GB
- Cost: Starts from $5 monthly for 1GB
Hydraproxy is one of the affordable and cheap Luminati Networks alternatives in the market. This service has a pocket-friendly minimum bandwidth order allowed – you can order 1GB from Hydraproxy. Interestingly, this comes at $5, which makes it one of the cheapest.
That it is cheap does not mean it does not work. In fact, its proxies are residential proxies with support for over 100 countries. In terms of the proxy pool, the size is put at over 5 million IPs. Hydraproxy has support for both rotating proxies as well as session proxies. You are allowed to enjoy unlimited bandwidth usage, and setup is instant.
Oxylabs
- IP Pool Size: Over 100 million
- Locations: Worldwide locations
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 20GB
- Cost: Starts from $300 monthly for 20GB
Oxylabs remains the number aggressive competitor of Bright Data – they have even had a case to settle in the court in the past. If you wouldn’t want to use Bright Data proxies, then you might as well avoid Oxylabsas it is everything you hate in Bright Data and even worse. Aside from the pricing aspect, Oxylabs have been found to engage in some unethical practices and scam behavior.
This service claims to have over 100 million IPs in its pool which even puts it ahead of Bright Data in terms of proxy size. It also has a good location coverage, IP rotation system, and excellent uptime – but a good number of users complain of detection and IP ban.
NetNut
- IP Pool Size: Over 52M+ IPs
- Locations: All locations across the globe
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 20GB
- Cost: Starts from $300 monthly for 20GB
NetNut is one of the best Bright Data alternatives based in Israel and has rapidly emerged as one of the leading providers in the industry. With its outstanding offering of static residential proxies, rotating proxies, data center proxies, and mobile proxies coupled with flexible pricing plans, NetNut is tailor-made for B2B, enterprises, and businesses in the technology, information, internet, IT services, and consulting industries. NetNut offers a top-notch proxy service that guarantees unmatched speed, reliability, and anonymity.
Like Bright Data, NetNut has global coverage. Having over 52 million undetectable IPs at your disposal will ensure uninterrupted website sessions and 24/7 availability. No matter where you operate your business, NetNut's extensive network IPs ensure optimal performance.
The one-hop ISP connectivity eliminates traffic flow delays, delivering lightning-fast data collection. Whether you're conducting SEO monitoring, SERPs tracking, ad verification, price comparison, brand protection, marketing research, or any other use case, NetNut has proven it can handle them with ease.
NetNut's customer support has been heralded as top-tier. The company is committed to providing you with the finest support to ensure your success on their platform. To integrate their APIs into your processes, they typically assign dedicated account managers to assist in meeting your specific data goals. NetNut operates multi-channel support that promotes quick response times and personalized assistance to ensure their customers get the best experience possible.
GeoSurf
- IP Pool Size: Over 2.5 million
- Locations: 130+ countries
- Concurrency Allowed: Unlimited
- Bandwidth Allowed: Starts at 38GB
- Cost: Starts from $450 monthly for 38GB
GeoSurf is one of the alternatives you will not want to make use of. This is not because it is a bad provider but because it is guilty of most of the reasons why you want to ditch Bright Data. It is not an affordable provider, and you would require a minimum of $450 which is even considered more expensive than Bright Data.
Even with this, they only have 2.5 million IPs in a pool. These IPs, just like in the case of most providers, are sourced via P2P networks. Their proxies are rotating proxies – they offer static IPs too. They have got support for all countries around the world and even provide you city targeting for selected locations.
Proxyrack
- IP Pool Size: over 2 million
- Locations: 140 countries
- Concurrency Allowed: unlimited
- Cost: Starts from $80 for 100 threads
Proxyrack is also one of the best alternatives to Bright Data. It has an unmetered residential proxy service that does not only allow you to enjoy unlimited bandwidth but also allows you to use as many IP addresses as you want – this makes it unique – and its pricing is based on the number of threads allowed.
This proxy has proxies that you can use for a good number of use cases. From this provider, you can get rotating ports that will change your IP after every request. It also has support for sticky ports that will provide you session IPs that maintain IP for a period of time.
Conclusion
Looking at the above, you can see that there are a good number of alternatives – some are great and some not so great. We do not recommend Netnut, GeoSurf, and Oxylabs as they are expensive and have their issues.
Smartproxy is our number one recommended alternative to Bright Data/ Luminati Networks. If you want to enjoy unlimited bandwidth, then Shifter is our best pick as Smartproxy still comes with limited bandwidth.
