Smartproxy

What Smartproxy is

Smartproxy — recently rebranded to Decodo — is widely regarded as the best balance of value and usability in the proxy market. Founded in 2018, it built its reputation on a clean, beginner-friendly dashboard wrapped around a capable mid-to-large network. It is the provider people most often recommend to someone buying proxies for the first time.

The network offers 55M+ residential IPs and a 500K+ datacenter pool across 195 countries, with quoted 99.9% uptime and a brisk ~0.55s average response. Residential pricing starts around $3.50/GB and datacenter near $0.50 per IP, slotting it neatly between the budget and premium tiers.

Who it's for

Smartproxy is ideal for small and mid-sized teams, growth marketers, and developers who want enterprise-grade results without enterprise-grade complexity. The dashboard, sub-user management, and clear documentation make it approachable, while the pool is large enough for serious scraping, ad verification, and multi-account work.

It is less of a fit for the very largest enterprises that demand the absolute biggest pools and the deepest compliance paperwork — though for the vast majority of buyers it covers everything they need.

Proxy types & network

• Residential (55M+ IPs) — the flagship pool with country, city, and ASN targeting and flexible rotation.
• Datacenter (500K+ IPs) — fast, affordable IPs for high-throughput, lower-sensitivity tasks.

Smartproxy also offers ready-made scraping APIs and a no-code scraper, plus sticky sessions and a genuinely usable self-serve control panel that lowers the barrier to entry.

Performance & reliability

Performance is excellent for the tier. The sub-second response times are among the best on this list, success rates are strong on typical targets, and the network feels responsive in day-to-day use. It will not always match the very top providers on the most hostile sites, but the gap is small and the experience is smoother.

Pricing & plans

This is where Smartproxy shines: residential from around $3.50/GB with sensible plan tiers, plus affordable datacenter options. It manages to feel like good value without being bare-bones. A free trial lets you test before paying. As always, pricing changes often, so check the provider for current details.

Pros and cons in practice

Strengths: the best dashboard and onboarding experience in the category, strong performance, fair pricing, and a free trial. Trade-offs: the recent Decodo rebrand can cause some naming confusion, the pool is mid-sized rather than the largest, and the very deepest enterprise features sit with pricier rivals.

Support & documentation

Documentation is clear and example-rich, and support is responsive via live chat with helpful onboarding resources. It is a notably friendly experience for newcomers, which is a big part of the appeal.

Bottom line

Smartproxy (Decodo) is the easy recommendation for most buyers: capable, fast, fairly priced, and the most approachable platform here. Choose it unless you specifically need the absolute largest pool or the heaviest enterprise compliance.