Proxy Market Research 2025

About This Report

Proxy Market Research 2025 is a comprehensive report on the proxy server industry, published annually since 2019. It covers the latest market trends and thoroughly compares major proxy server providers.

You’ll find this report useful whether you’re shopping around for proxies, investigating the market, or evaluating where your service stands compared to household names.

What This Year’s Report Covers:

• 11+ Companies covering all segments of the market
• Four proxy types: residential, mobile, shared datacenter, and dedicated ISP proxies
• Questionnaire-based insights from all participants
• Large-scale performance benchmarks with historical data
• Market trend analysis for 2025

Data collected in February and March 2025, with performance benchmarks extending into April.

Market Participants

Webshare

Country: US | Founded: 2018 | Employees: 25-50 | Segment: Entry/mid-market

Based in the US, Webshare has been a popular destination for small-time customers in need of proxies. Its killer duo is the customizable and developer-friendly platform, paired with highly affordable shared proxies. The company was acquired by Oxylabs in 2022, which likely supplies it with residential IPs.

Proxy Networks: datacenter, residential, ISP

Other Major Participants

• Oxylabs - Enterprise residential proxy leader
• Bright Data (formerly Luminati) - Global proxy infrastructure
• Smartproxy - European proxy provider
• Proxy6 - Budget-friendly residential proxies
• IPRoyal - Growing residential proxy service
• NetNut - ISP proxy specialist
• Rayobyte - Mobile proxy provider
• StormProxies - Datacenter proxy specialist
• HighProxies - Budget proxy solutions
• MyPrivateProxy - Dedicated proxy service

Research Methodology

Our research methodology combines multiple approaches to provide comprehensive insights:

Primary Data Collection

• Provider Questionnaire: Sent to all participants covering business metrics, market positioning, and future plans
• Performance Benchmarks: Large-scale testing across different proxy types
• Historical Data Analysis: Year-over-year trend comparison

Benchmark Categories

UDP Protocol Support (All Proxy Types)

Tests if proxy networks can route UDP traffic using third-party tools.

Download Speed (Datacenter & ISP Proxies)

IP Quality Score (Residential Proxies)

Infrastructure Performance (Residential Proxies)

• Target: Global CDN endpoint (2MB package)
• Locations: DE (15,000 requests), US (5,000 requests)

Session Persistence (Residential Proxies)

• Method: Sticky sessions tested every 20 seconds for 30 minutes
• Target: http://icanhazip.com
• Location: US (250 sessions)

Operating System Detection (Residential Proxies)

• Method: Passive fingerprinting using zardaxt’s tool
• Sample Size: 500,000 proxies globally

2025 Market Trends

2024: A Year of Growth Fueled by AI

Providers described 2024 as a strong year, with multiple reports of double-digit growth. Their results were strongly impacted by AI, which received record venture capital funding. The emphasis in 2025 is on continuity – if the global environment will allow it.

Competitive Environment: Cut-Throat and Reseller Friendly

The market holds over 250 proxy server providers, many established in 2024. The major players have warmed up toward reselling, even launching their own affordable brands. Tough competition in lower market segments is pushing providers toward enterprise solutions.

Proxies as a Product: Cheaper & More Commoditized

Proxy networks are converging in key metrics, such as infrastructure performance, features, and cost. Residential proxies experienced another round of price cuts and are up to 70% cheaper than two years ago. Providers still find ways to differentiate, though some have started turning to higher value-add services (such as scrapers) for growth.

Proxy Types: Residential IPs Dominate

All but one participant chose residential proxies as their primary proxy type. The respondents split over whether datacenter proxies are going away. ISP proxy servers have found success in high-volume scraping tasks, such as downloading video content for AI.

Use Cases: E-Commerce Still on Top, AI Is the Protagonist

E-commerce remains the most popular use case and continues to grow in demand. AI has entrenched itself in the minds and wallets of most providers. The demand from AI companies is shifting to real-time data, whether for RAG or AI agents.

Proxy APIs (Unblockers): Struggling to Find Market Footing

The last few years saw multiple providers launch unblockers – web scrapers that integrate as proxy servers. Unblockers are often functionally inferior to web scraping APIs, and the latter can have proxies as one of the integration methods. As such, some have discontinued their unblocker products or pivoted them to be more like APIs.

Provider Comparison

Residential Proxies

Residential proxies are home devices connected to consumer internet service providers like Comcast and Sky. These devices can be computers, phones, TVs, and even smart fridges. Residential proxies are the prevalent proxy server type for accessing popular websites like Google or Shopee.

Enterprise Providers Performance

Success Rate: 4.2-5.0
Speed: 3.8-4.6
Reliability: 4.5-4.9
IP Quality: 4.1-4.8

Mid-Market Providers Performance

Success Rate: 3.8-4.8
Speed: 3.2-4.4
Reliability: 4.0-4.7
IP Quality: 3.5-4.5

Entry/Mid-Market Providers Performance

Success Rate: 3.0-4.5
Speed: 2.5-4.0
Reliability: 3.5-4.3
IP Quality: 2.8-4.2

Mobile Proxies

Mobile proxies are home devices connected to mobile carriers like Verizon. They can be crowdsourced from people or set up as mobile dongle farms. Mobile IPs are considered to be the most effective due to factors like carrier-grade subnetting, but their high cost makes them a situational choice.

Performance Range: 2.11-5.0 across 7 providers

• Best for: High-success-rate scraping, social media automation
• Challenges: Higher cost, limited provider availability

Datacenter Proxies

Datacenter proxies are servers owned by cloud hosting providers like Amazon Web Services or IPXO. They’re fast, stable, and efficient. At the same time, their distinctive usage habits and public IP ranges make datacenter proxies simple to block.

Performance Range: 1.0-5.0 across 8 providers

• Best for: High-speed tasks, SEO monitoring, price comparison
• Focus: Shared datacenter proxies and hybrid rotation systems

ISP Proxies

ISP proxy servers are hosted at data centers but use the networks of consumer internet service providers. In theory, this lets them combine the best qualities of datacenter and residential proxies. In practice, there’s much more nuance involved.

Performance Range: 0-5.0 across 9 providers

• Best for: High-volume scraping, video content downloading for AI
• Testing: Dedicated IP lists (100 US IPs sample)

User Experience Analysis

Budgeting & Access Management

• Wallet Functionality: Still lacking for most providers, but improving
• Flexible Commitments: More rollover and non-expiring traffic options
• Dashboard Roles: 5 providers now include sub-user management
• API Endpoints: Most offer programmatic access, from reporting to full replication

Network Monitoring

• Status Pages: Nearly universal availability
• Metrics: Traffic and requests (sometimes only traffic)
• Real-time Monitoring: Limited but growing

Customer Vetting

• IP Source Disclosure: Most providers transparent about sources
• Usage Restrictions: Clearly documented limitations
• ISO Certifications: More participants receiving certifications
• Support Evolution: AI chatbots supplementing human agents

Key Findings

Market Growth

• 2024 Growth: Double-digit for most providers
• AI Impact: Record VC funding driving proxy demand
• 2025 Outlook: Continuity-focused if global conditions allow

Technology Trends

• Residential Dominance: Still the preferred proxy type
• Price Compression: Up to 70% cheaper than 2 years ago
• Service Convergence: Similar performance across providers
• AI Integration: Real-time data becoming critical

Competitive Landscape

• 250+ Providers: Many new entrants in 2024
• Reseller Programs: Major players launching affordable brands
• Enterprise Shift: Competition pushing toward higher-end solutions

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the 2025 Proxy Market Research report! This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into the evolving proxy server industry, helping you make informed decisions about proxy services.

Whether you’re a business looking to scale your data collection efforts, a developer building automation tools, or simply researching the market, we hope this report serves as a valuable resource.

Report data collected February-March 2025. Performance benchmarks conducted through April 2025.