Smartproxy Review 2026: Decodo Features, Pricing & Pros

Quick Takeaways

• Smartproxy rebranded to Decodo in April 2025 — same infrastructure, same team, new branding
• Decodo offers residential, ISP/static residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies plus scraping APIs
• Widely praised for usability, dashboard quality, and customer support
• Residential proxies start at $2.00–$3.75/GB depending on plan size
• Pricing can feel steep for budget-sensitive or high-volume projects
• Nstdata is the strongest alternative for users who want more flexible proxy types, lower entry pricing (from $0.40/GB), and scalable scraping infrastructure

If you searched "Smartproxy review" recently and ended up on pages talking about something called Decodo, you're not alone. Smartproxy officially rebranded to Decodo in April 2025 — same team, same infrastructure, new name. This creates an obvious question before you even evaluate the product: is this still the same service, and is it still worth buying in 2026?

This review answers that directly. We cover what changed with the rebrand, what Decodo actually offers today, how it performs and prices, what real users say, and — critically — when a leaner alternative like Nstdata is the smarter choice for your workflow.

What Is Smartproxy? Is It Now Decodo?

Smartproxy rebranded to Decodo in April 2025. The transition was a brand and marketing change — the underlying infrastructure, IP pools, and team remained the same. Smartproxy rebranded to Decodo in April 2025 — same team, same infrastructure, built since 2018.

The practical implication: if you see "Smartproxy" or "Decodo" in reviews, comparison pages, or dashboards, they refer to the same service. Both domain names still resolve and redirect correctly.

What Decodo Offers Today?

The network spans 115M+ residential IPs, 10M+ mobile IPs, and 500K+ datacenter proxies, supporting HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 with targeting down to continent, country, state, city, ZIP (US only), and ASN. Decodo also offers scraping APIs for SERP, eCommerce, and social media, priced per request.

The full product lineup:

• Residential proxies — rotating and sticky, real ISP-assigned IPs
• Static residential / ISP proxies — stable long-session IPs
• Mobile proxies — carrier-grade IPs for mobile-first workflows
• Datacenter proxies — fast, high-volume, lower-trust targets
• Site Unblocker — managed anti-bot evasion layer
• Scraping APIs — SERP, eCommerce, social media data endpoints

Who Is Decodo Built For?

Decodo targets a broad mid-market: web scraping teams, SEO monitoring analysts, market research firms, e-commerce price monitoring teams, developers testing geo-specific content, and agencies managing proxy-based workflows at scale.

Decodo has served over 130K users, including Fortune 500 companies, solopreneurs, data scientists, developers, performance marketers, and other specialists.

Smartproxy 2026 Latest Review

Main Features

1. Residential Proxies

Residential proxies are Decodo's flagship product. Real ISP-assigned IPs with rotating and sticky session support, geo-targeting down to city and ZIP level (US), and solid success rates on most public-facing websites. With global coverage spanning 195+ locations, Smartproxy offers a pool of more than 125 million residential, datacenter, mobile, and static residential proxy IPs.

2. ISP / Static Residential Proxies

Static residential proxies combine datacenter speed with residential IP trust. They assign a fixed IP for the duration of your session — essential for login-based workflows, account management, and any use case where consistent IP identity matters more than rotation.

For me, some websites were blocking datacenter IPs from AWS EC2 instances, and Decodo solved this with their ISP IPs.

3. Mobile Proxies

Mobile proxies route traffic through real 4G/5G carrier IPs — the highest-trust proxy type available. Useful for mobile-first platform testing, social media research, and workflows where carrier IP reputation matters. Decodo's network includes 10M+ mobile IPs.

4. Datacenter Proxies

Decodo's datacenter proxies are a solid option for use cases like bulk account creation, scraping, and SEO audits. They're shared by default, unless you pay extra for dedicated ones. Success rates drop significantly on stricter targets — use datacenter proxies for lower-risk, high-volume tasks only.

5. Scraping API and Site Unblocker

For teams that don't want to manage proxies manually, Decodo's scraping APIs handle request routing, rotation, and some anti-bot logic automatically. Priced per request rather than per GB, making cost predictable for structured data workflows.

Smartproxy Pricing Review

Residential proxy pricing runs from $3.75/GB at the 3GB entry tier down to $2.00/GB at the 1,000GB tier. Full breakdown:

Note: pricing changes frequently. Always verify current rates on the official Decodo site before committing.

Is Smartproxy Cheap or Expensive?

Decodo sits in the sweet spot of "not too expensive but not suspiciously cheap." For SMBs and mid-market teams, the value is reasonable. It's the best residential proxy provider for SMBs spending under $500/month — the performance-to-price ratio is unmatched at low tiers. At 1TB+, run a bake-off with Oxylabs and Bright Data before committing.

When the Price Makes Sense

Decodo pricing is justified when you need reliable residential proxies with a polished dashboard, multi-proxy-type access under one account, and strong support. Some reviewers point out that the pricing can be a bit high, especially for smaller scale needs.

For users running very large traffic volumes or working with tight cost-per-GB constraints, alternatives like Nstdata — which starts at $0.10/GB for proxies — may deliver significantly better economics.

Start Nstdata From $0.1 →

Smartproxy Pros and Cons

Real User Feedback: What Customers Say

Positive Feedback

Users highlight affordable and flexible plans with a very good quality-price ratio, an intuitive interface easy to handle even for users with little previous experience, and quick, simple integration.

Common positives across Trustpilot, G2, and Proxyway:

• Reliable residential proxy performance
• Clean, beginner-friendly interface
• Responsive 24/7 support
• Good geo-targeting accuracy
• Fast onboarding

Common Complaints

• Pricing is high for small-scale users
• Some IPs require testing before stable deployment
• Occasional IP inconsistency under heavy rotation
• PAYG pricing has some reported discrepancies — the pricing grid shows $4/GB while the Wallet FAQ on the same page says 1GB costs $8.50.

Practical User Concerns

Questions that appear consistently in forums and review threads:

• "Is the Smartproxy → Decodo rebrand trustworthy, or is something changing?"
• "Are the IPs still the same quality after the rebrand?"
• "Is it worth paying $3–$4/GB when cheaper options exist?"
• "How much IP testing is needed before scaling up?"

The Best Smartproxy Alternative in 2026-Nstdata

If you're evaluating Smartproxy/Decodo and want a direct comparison with the most-cited Smartproxy alternative, here's an honest, detailed look at Nstdata — what it offers, how it performs, and who it's actually built for.

What Is Nstdata?

Nstdata is a high-performance global proxy network designed to facilitate seamless data scraping, account management, and large-scale automation tasks. Built to provide a scalable infrastructure, it offers a massive pool of over 110 million unique IP addresses spanning across 190 countries and regions.

Nstdata is a comprehensive proxy service provider offering a wide range of proxy solutions — including residential, IPv6, datacenter, and ISP (static) proxies — designed to support web scraping, automation, SEO data collection, social media management, price monitoring, ad verification, and cybersecurity tasks.

Beyond raw proxy access, Nstdata also operates Nstbrowser (an anti-detection browser) and Scrapeless (a web scraping platform) — making it a broader data infrastructure play than a pure proxy provider.

Try Nstdata for Free →

Nstdata Proxy Types

Nstdata covers the full proxy stack under one platform:

Nstdata utilizes a flexible pay-per-use pricing model, with rates starting as low as $0.1 per GB. They also offer a free trial for new users to test the stability and performance of their global proxy network.

Nstdata Performance

Nstdata consistently achieves a success rate above 99.9%. Independent third-party testing tells a slightly more nuanced story: performance in nightly tests landed at 97.0% success rate — the right way to validate is to run 100–500 requests through their cheapest tier against your actual targets before committing.

Testing was conducted against Google SERP (US/UK/IN), Amazon (US/UK/DE), Walmart, eBay, and Cloudflare-fronted retailers at 200 concurrent requests — a rigorous benchmark covering the most common real-world scraping targets.

The platform solves the common problem of IP bans and low success rates by providing diverse proxy types, including residential, ISP, datacenter, IPv6, and mobile proxies. It is particularly well-suited for developers, data scientists, and businesses that require reliable geo-targeted access for market research or AI training. The core capabilities include smart routing, automatic IP rotation, and enterprise-grade APIs that ensure 99.99% uptime.

Nstdata Features

Nstdata emphasizes speed, reliability, and scalability, combining genuine home IPs, carrier-backed static connections, and ultra-fast datacenter nodes to balance authenticity and low latency while simplifying proxy management through a modern dashboard.

Key features:

• 110M+ IPs across 195 countries with city-level geo-targeting
• Sticky and rotating sessions with customizable duration (up to 24 hours)
• HTTPS and SOCKS5 protocol support
• REST API and SDK for programmatic proxy management
• Real-time workflow automation and fine-grained visibility via an API for near-instant usage statistics
• Free trial available for new users
• Compatible with Scrapy, Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, and all major scraping frameworks
• 24/7 tech support

Nstdata Pricing vs Decodo

This is where Nstdata makes the clearest case for itself:

At 100GB/month, Nstdata costs roughly $70 vs Decodo's $275 — a 4–6x difference for equivalent residential proxy access. For teams scaling to 500GB+ per month, the savings become significant enough to fund other parts of the data pipeline.

Nstdata Pros and Cons

Real User Feedback on Nstdata

Nstdata is a reliable proxy provider that offers high-quality proxies at affordable prices with pay-as-you-go pricing. User reviews highlight easy setup, good quality, and a large IP pool as consistent positives.

The aggressive pricing, broad product matrix, and solid developer tooling make it worth trialing — but validate performance and IP quality on your own targets before committing budget.

The honest summary: Nstdata is the stronger choice on price and proxy type breadth. Decodo has the edge on brand maturity and third-party review depth. For most scraping, monitoring, and automation workflows, Nstdata's performance is more than adequate — and the cost savings are real. 👉 Try Nstdata free — Nstdata.io

Smartproxy vs Nstdata: Which One Should You Choose?

This is where the decision gets practical. Both are solid proxy providers — the right choice depends on your workflow, budget, and scale.

Choose Smartproxy / Decodo If

• You want a mature, well-reviewed mid-market provider
• You value a polished, beginner-friendly dashboard
• You need residential and mobile proxy options with scraping APIs
• You prefer extensive third-party reviews and community documentation
• Your monthly spend is under $500 and you want strong SMB value

Choose Nstdata If

Nstdata is the stronger choice for users who prioritize flexible proxy types, competitive pricing, and scalable infrastructure — particularly teams that find Decodo too expensive at volume or need more granular proxy control.

Key Nstdata advantages:

• Residential proxies from $0.70/GB — roughly 5–9x cheaper than Decodo's equivalent tiers
• 5 proxy types in one platform: Residential, Static ISP, Mobile, Datacenter, and IPv6
• 110M+ IPs across 195 countries with city-level geo-targeting
• Sticky and rotating sessions with customizable duration
• 99.99% uptime with enterprise-grade infrastructure
• HTTPS and SOCKS5 support — compatible with all major scraping frameworks
• Pay-as-you-go flexibility — no forced commitment at entry level

Best Nstdata Product by Scenario

For teams running thousands of GB per month, the pricing difference between Decodo and Nstdata becomes significant. At 100GB/month, Nstdata's $0.40/GB residential pricing delivers the same core capability at a fraction of Decodo's $2.75/GB rate.

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Best Smartproxy Alternatives in 2026

1. Nstdata ⭐ Top Pick for Value & Flexibility

Best for users who want flexible proxy types, competitive pricing starting at $0.1/GB, stable ISP sessions, and scalable scraping or automation workflows. Covers residential, ISP, mobile, datacenter, and IPv6 under one platform. Nstdata.io

2. Bright Data

Best for enterprise teams that need advanced compliance features, large-scale managed data collection, and the broadest product ecosystem available. Pricing starts significantly higher than both Decodo and Nstdata.

3. Oxylabs

Best for enterprise scraping, SERP data pipelines, and managed data collection at scale. Strong on structured data APIs; premium pricing reflects that positioning.

4. IPRoyal

Best for smaller teams looking for lower-cost residential proxies and simple proxy access without enterprise overhead.

5. NetNut

Best for teams focused specifically on ISP-style proxy stability and business-scale residential access with direct ISP partnerships.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Smartproxy now Decodo? Yes. Smartproxy officially rebranded to Decodo in April 2025. The infrastructure, team, and IP pools remained unchanged — only the brand name changed. Both names appear in current reviews and comparison pages.

Q: Is Smartproxy legit? Yes. Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) has operated since 2018 and serves over 130,000 customers including enterprise clients. It is a legitimate, well-reviewed proxy provider.

Q: How much does Smartproxy cost? Residential proxies range from $2.00–$3.75/GB depending on volume. Entry plans start around $11.25/month for 3GB. Pricing varies by proxy type — check decodo.com for current rates.

Q: What is Smartproxy best for? Web scraping, SEO monitoring, e-commerce price research, ad verification, and geo-targeted content testing. It performs best with residential and mobile proxies on mid-complexity targets.

Q: Is Smartproxy good for web scraping? Yes, particularly for residential proxy-based scraping. Its scraping APIs also provide a managed alternative for teams that prefer structured data endpoints over raw proxy management.

Q: What are the best Smartproxy alternatives? Nstdata is the strongest alternative on price-to-performance, starting at $0.40/GB with 5 proxy types. Bright Data and Oxylabs are enterprise alternatives. IPRoyal suits smaller budgets.

Q: Is Nstdata better than Smartproxy? For cost-sensitive and high-volume use cases, yes. Nstdata's residential proxies start at $0.70/GB versus Decodo's $2.00–$3.75/GB, and it offers comparable geo-targeting, session control, and proxy type coverage. For users who prioritize dashboard polish and third-party review depth, Decodo has the edge.

Q: Should I use residential, ISP, mobile, or datacenter proxies? Residential for most scraping and monitoring tasks. ISP/static for long sessions and login-based workflows. Mobile for high-trust mobile-first platforms. Datacenter for high-volume, lower-risk bulk tasks where speed matters more than trust level.

Conclusion

Smartproxy, now Decodo, is a proven mid-market proxy provider with strong residential proxy performance, one of the best dashboards in the industry, and a product range that covers most use cases. For SMBs and teams spending under $500/month on proxies, it remains one of the better choices available.

But the best proxy provider is the one that fits your actual workflow and budget — and for a significant portion of buyers, that means Nstdata. With proxies starting at $0.1/GB, five proxy types under one platform, 110M+ IPs, and city-level targeting across 195 countries, Nstdata offers everything Decodo does at a fraction of the cost — making it the most practical alternative for scraping teams, developers, and e-commerce data operations that are scaling fast.

Try Nstdata for Free →