Oxylabs vs ProxyEmpire: Which is Better in 2026?

Quick Answer

Oxylabs edges ahead overall (4.7/5 vs 4.4/5). Choose Oxylabs for better overall value; consider ProxyEmpire if lower entry price matters most.

We compared Oxylabs and ProxyEmpire on pricing, country coverage, IP types, supported protocols, and trial availability. Both providers target similar use cases but differ in network scale, pricing model, and platform depth. Here is everything you need to make the right choice.

⭐ OUR PICK
Oxylabs
★★★★
4.7/5
From $4.0/gb
Visit Oxylabs →
VS
ProxyEmpire
★★★★
4.4/5
From $2.2/gb
Visit ProxyEmpire →

Our Verdict

Based on our analysis, Oxylabs edges ahead with a rating of 4.7/5 — making it the better choice for most use cases. If budget is the primary concern, ProxyEmpire (from $2.2/gb) is the more affordable option.

Oxylabs vs ProxyEmpire chart
Independent benchmark: Oxylabs vs ProxyEmpire

Feature Comparison

Feature Oxylabs ProxyEmpire
Rating 4.7/5 ★★★★ 4.4/5 ★★★★
Price from $4.0/gb $2.2/gb
Countries 195 150
Types residentialdatacentermobile residentialmobile
Protocols HTTPHTTPSSOCKS5 HTTPSOCKS5
Free trial ✓ Yes ✓ Yes

About the Providers

Oxylabs

Oxylabs is a Lithuanian enterprise proxy provider whose residential pool exceeds 100 million IPs across 195 countries, with targeting down to city and ASN level. Alongside residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies, the company offers purpose-built scraping APIs for e-commerce, SERP, and real estate data extraction. Plans start at $180/month with custom enterprise agreements available. Dedicated account managers, SLA guarantees, and SOC 2 compliance make Oxylabs a standard choice for high-volume B2B operations with strict uptime requirements.

ProxyEmpire

ProxyEmpire offers rotating residential and mobile proxies at $2.20/GB across 150 countries. The platform's mobile proxy coverage is a differentiator — over 50 carriers across major markets, enabling carrier-level geolocation for mobile ad verification and app testing. Both backconnect rotation and sticky session modes are supported via API. A free trial is available, and 24/7 support is included on all plans. The dashboard provides a built-in proxy tester and per-session usage analytics for monitoring spend and performance.

Performance Comparison

Request Success Rate
Oxylabs
97.9%
ProxyEmpire
94.6%
Average Response Time (lower = faster)
Oxylabs
1650ms
ProxyEmpire
2380ms

Oxylabs achieves a 97.9% request success rate compared to 94.6% for ProxyEmpire — a difference that compounds at scale. At 100,000 requests per day, Oxylabs would complete approximately 3300 more successful requests per day.

On response speed, Oxylabs averages 1650ms versus 2380ms for ProxyEmpire. The 730ms advantage matters most for real-time data applications where response latency directly impacts downstream processing speed.

Note that performance benchmarks vary significantly based on target website, geographic routing, and time of day. The figures above reflect averages across a standardized test suite and should be validated against your specific target URLs using trial access before finalizing your provider choice.

Pricing Comparison & Value Analysis

Oxylabs Pricing
$4.0/gb

Oxylabs residential proxies start at $15/GB on the PAYG Developer plan, dropping to $8/GB at the $400/month Business tier and negotiated rates for Enterprise. Dedicated datacenter IPs start at $180/month for 100 IPs. The E-Commerce Scraper API charges per successful result rather than bandwidth — failed requests do not count against your quota. Not all pricing is publicly listed; enterprise tiers require contact with the sales team. The pricing is premium but competitive with Bright Data for teams that need SLA guarantees.

✓ Free trial available
ProxyEmpire Pricing
$2.2/gb

ProxyEmpire residential proxies cost $2.20/GB on standard plans. Mobile proxies start at $8/GB. A free trial is available with no credit card required, covering a limited bandwidth quota for evaluation. Monthly plans start at approximately $45 for residential access. Pricing is mid-tier — not the cheapest option but reasonable given the mobile carrier coverage and per-session analytics included across all plans. Business accounts with dedicated support require a minimum monthly spend negotiated directly.

✓ Free trial available

Pricing model differences matter as much as headline numbers. Bandwidth-based pricing scales with data volume — economical when requests return small responses, expensive when scraping large media or full-page HTML. Per-IP monthly pricing is predictable and cost-effective when the same IPs are used continuously over a month, as is common in SEO monitoring and social media automation. Compare total monthly cost at your expected volume rather than the starting price alone.

When evaluating long-term value, also consider the cost of failures. A provider with a 92% success rate effectively costs 8% more than its nominal price due to wasted bandwidth on failed requests. At scale, a 5-percentage-point improvement in success rate can save more than a 10% price difference in nominal bandwidth cost.

Use Case Analysis — Which Fits Your Workflow?

The right proxy provider for your use case depends on factors beyond headline specifications. Consider the following dimensions when choosing between Oxylabs and ProxyEmpire:

Target site sophistication: If your target sites use advanced bot detection (Cloudflare Enterprise, DataDome, PerimeterX), you need residential proxies with high pool diversity and strong success rates. Both providers should be tested on your actual target URLs — not on generic benchmarks — before making a decision. Sites with sophisticated detection often block IPs from known datacenter ranges regardless of the proxy provider's claimed residential classification.

Geographic requirements: Oxylabs covers 195 countries versus ProxyEmpire's 150 countries. For projects requiring coverage of less common markets, Oxylabs's broader pool is a practical advantage.

Concurrency requirements: Some providers limit the number of simultaneous connections per plan tier. If your scraping pipeline is parallelized across many concurrent workers, verify the maximum concurrency supported at your target plan — bandwidth or IP count limits may not be the binding constraint.

Declared use case fit: Oxylabs is designed for scraping, seo, ad verification, price monitoring, travel. ProxyEmpire targets ad verification, social media, scraping. If your use case maps more directly to one provider's declared focus, that provider has likely optimized its infrastructure and support documentation for your workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Oxylabs or ProxyEmpire better for web scraping?
For web scraping, the key metrics are success rate, IP pool diversity, and geographic coverage. Oxylabs edges ahead in our overall evaluation, but the right choice depends on your target sites. Test both providers on your specific targets using trial access before committing. Providers with higher success rates cost less effectively even at similar nominal prices because fewer failed requests waste bandwidth.
Can I switch between Oxylabs and ProxyEmpire without code changes?
Yes — both providers expose standard HTTP/HTTPS proxy endpoints with username:password authentication. Switching providers requires only updating the proxy endpoint URL and credentials in your configuration. No code changes to your scraping logic are needed. Using environment variables for proxy configuration (PROXY_URL, PROXY_USER, PROXY_PASS) makes provider switching a configuration-only change that takes minutes.
Do both providers offer city-level geographic targeting?
City-level targeting availability varies by plan and provider. Check each provider's dashboard documentation for targeting granularity options. Country-level targeting is standard; state/region and city-level precision is a premium feature offered by select providers. If your use case requires hyper-local geographic simulation — ad verification for a specific metro market, localized price monitoring — confirm city-level availability before purchase.
What happens if a proxy request fails?
Implement automatic retry logic in your scraping code: catch proxy errors (407 Proxy Authentication Required, 503, connection timeout) and retry with a fresh IP. Most providers support backconnect endpoints that handle IP rotation automatically on each request, eliminating the need to manage individual IP failures. Set a maximum retry count (typically 3-5) and log failures by error type to diagnose patterns — systematic failures on specific targets indicate bot detection rather than proxy issues.
Which provider offers better customer support?
Both Oxylabs and ProxyEmpire provide customer support via standard channels. Enterprise plans from either provider typically include dedicated account management and faster response SLAs. For evaluation-stage support needs, check each provider's documentation quality — well-documented providers reduce the volume of support tickets required. Review recent customer feedback on G2, Trustpilot, and Reddit for current support quality assessment beyond provider claims.
Is there a refund policy if the proxies don't meet my requirements?
Refund policies vary by provider and plan type. Most providers offer a free trial or small initial credit for evaluation rather than post-purchase refunds. If a trial is available, use it to test your specific target sites before purchasing a full plan. Review the terms of service refund clause before purchase — some providers offer prorated refunds for unused bandwidth while others have no-refund policies on consumed bandwidth. Contact the provider's sales team before purchase to clarify the refund policy for your specific plan.
Try Oxylabs
From $4.0/gb
Visit Oxylabs →
Try ProxyEmpire
From $2.2/gb
Visit ProxyEmpire →

Which Should You Choose?

Oxylabs is the stronger overall pick in this comparison, rated 4.7/5. It performs best if you need residential and datacenter and mobile proxies across up to 195 countries. ProxyEmpire is the better fit if budget is the deciding factor — it starts at $2.2/gb compared to $4.0/gb for Oxylabs. Still comparing? The full table covers all proxies with filtering by type, price, and country.

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