Comparison
Bright Data vs Decodo: the bills split after month three
Bright Data's $4/GB is a 3-month coupon; Decodo's is list. Six-month costs at 50, 330 and 800 GB, plus KYC, mobile, unblockers and dated benchmarks.
Decodo is cheaper than Bright Data over six months at every volume I priced: 50, 330 and 800 GB of residential a month. Both start at $4/GB pay-as-you-go today, but Bright Data’s $4 is a RESIGB50 coupon that lasts three months, after which its list price is $8. Bright Data, Decodo, verified 2026-11-12.
Bright Data still wins some jobs: a short project at around 330 GB, datacenter or ISP IPs in more countries, or a supplier outside Decodo’s company group. Below are six-month totals, per-request scraping costs, the access rules, dated benchmarks and a pick per job.
Short on time?
Here's my take
- Steady residential up to about 250 GB a month
- Decodo
- At 50 GB, $900 over six months on Decodo's card against $1,800 on Bright Data pay-as-you-go ($4 coupon, then $8).
- No registered company
- Decodo
- Bright Data residential is for verified companies only, and personal email accounts aren't eligible.
- About 330 GB a month, ongoing
- Decodo pay-as-you-go
- $7,920 over six months vs $8,994 on Bright Data, which is cheaper only in months 1–3. Assumes Decodo PAYG has no cap; none is stated.
- A three-month project at about 330 GB, verified company
- Bright Data with RESIGB50
- $999 a month for 332 GB on the coupon, against $1,320 on Decodo pay-as-you-go. Cancel before the list price starts.
- About 800 GB a month
- Decodo's 1 TB card
- $2,000 a month. Bright Data ties for three months, then every published route costs more; ask it for a quote.
- Mobile proxies or long sticky sessions
- Decodo
- Mobile cards from 2 GB (on a 50%-off sale) and sessions up to 1,440 minutes. Bright Data's mobile status is unclear.
- Hard JavaScript pages, billed per request
- Decodo Web Data API
- 200K pages a month: $249 vs $300 on Bright Data's Web Unlocker. Both bill only successful requests.
- Datasets, more datacenter countries, or a supplier outside Source
- Bright Data
- Bright Data says its dedicated datacenter IPs cover 195 countries; Decodo's datacenter pool covers 18.
Prices verified . Sponsors cannot buy a verdict or a position.
This sits in the proxies hub. For each vendor’s full price list, see Bright Data pricing and Decodo pricing; this page uses different volumes so the three answer different questions.
How do they compare side by side? #
Prices verified 2026-11-12, USD. Decodo adds VAT; I didn’t check Bright Data’s tax treatment.
| Bright Data | Decodo | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can buy residential | Verified companies, human-reviewed KYC | Self-serve; ticketing and government targets blocked |
| Residential pay-as-you-go | $8/GB list; $4 with RESIGB50 for 3 months | $4/GB via Wallet top-ups |
| Smallest monthly plan | $499 (141 GB with coupon; about 71 GB at list, my arithmetic) | 3 GB for $11.25 |
| Largest published card | $1,999 (798 GB with coupon); custom above 1 TB | 1,000 GB for $2,000 |
| Residential pool claim | 400M+ | 115M+ (pricing) or 125M+ (About) |
| Scraping per 1,000 pages | Web Unlocker $1.50 PAYG | Web Data API $0.15–$1.50 by plan and pool |
| 1,000 shared datacenter IPs | $900 | $29.70 |
| 100 shared ISP IPs | $145 | $35 |
| Mobile | No plans shown; status unclear | Sale cards from 2 GB |
| Sticky sessions | IP released after 5 minutes idle | 1 to 1,440 minutes |
| Trial | Trial traffic not billed; 5K free API requests a month | 100 MB for 3 days, then the plan starts |
| Refunds | Fees “non-cancelable and non-refundable” | 14 days, with usage limits |
| Support | Business days; 24/7 from 8% of spend, min $500/month | 24/7 chat and email (per Proxyway) |
| Company group | Not in Source | Source group, sister of Oxylabs and Webshare |
Pool sizes are vendor claims. Detailed sources for each row are in the sections below.
Who can actually buy each one? #
Bright Data residential needs a verified company. Its docs say residential is “available only to verified companies” and that “Accounts on a personal email (for example Gmail or Outlook) are not eligible”. The rule covers zones created after July 7, 2026, KYC starts only after you add real funds, and hobby or side projects “are not approved”. Network access.
Its ISP, datacenter and Web Unlocker products work without residential KYC. Bright Data’s October 24, 2026 release notes also ended Immediate-access residential and mobile proxies, deleted on November 9, and pointed those users to ISP proxies or Web Unlocker. Network access, release notes.
Two more recent notes: non-KYC residential proxies unused for three months are deleted (October 19), and requests to policy-forbidden regions now return a policy_20231 error (November 8). Release notes.
Decodo is self-serve, with its own limits. You can sign up and buy without a company check, but ticketing and government targets are blocked by default. ID verification alone doesn’t unlock them; access goes through a support request that Decodo’s compliance team reviews. Restricted targets.
On Trustpilot, Bright Data has 4.3 from 1,043 reviews and Decodo 4.2 from 2,113. Recent Bright Data complaints centre on sign-up and KYC, and recent Decodo complaints on expiring balances and blocked accounts; Trustpilot doesn’t verify reviews. Bright Data, Decodo.
What does six months of residential cost? #
I priced three steady monthly volumes over six months. Bright Data months 1–3 use the RESIGB50 coupon shown on every card, and months 4–6 use its struck-through list rates. Totals are my arithmetic on prices verified 2026-11-12; Decodo’s are before VAT.
| Volume a month | Decodo route | Decodo months 1–3 | Decodo months 4–6 | Decodo 6 months | Bright Data route | BD months 1–3 | BD months 4–6 | BD 6 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 GB | 50 GB card, $150 | $450 | $450 | $900 | PAYG, $4 then $8 | $600 | $1,200 | $1,800 |
| 330 GB | PAYG, 330 × $4 = $1,320 | $3,960 | $3,960 | $7,920 | $999 plan (332 GB on coupon), then $1,999 plan (about 399 GB at list) | $2,997 | $5,997 | $8,994 |
| 800 GB | 1,000 GB card, $2,000 | $6,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 | $1,999 plan (798 GB on coupon), then list | $5,997 plus 2 GB at an unpublished rate | $12,000 if $5/GB covered all 800 GB, up to $19,200 at $8 PAYG | $17,997–$25,197, or a quote |
Inputs: Bright Data residential, Decodo residential.
What the coupon really covers. Every Bright Data card carries “Use this coupon code: RESIGB50”, and the banner says 50% off “for 3 months”. Price divided by included GB matches the coupon rates: $499/141 GB is $3.54, $999/332 GB is $3.01, $1,999/798 GB is $2.50. Bright Data.
At the list rates of $7, $6 and $5/GB, the same plans would cover about 71, 166 and 399 GB. Those are my arithmetic, not published figures; Bright Data doesn’t say what a plan includes after the coupon, or what overage costs. That’s why the 330 GB row moves to the $1,999 plan in month four.
At 330 GB, Decodo’s cheapest route is pay-as-you-go. Its cards jump from 250 GB ($625) to 1,000 GB ($2,000), and there’s no published price for extra GB on top of the 250 GB card. Pay-as-you-go is bought through the Wallet, and Decodo says you can’t hold a monthly plan and pay-as-you-go at the same time. Decodo.
That route assumes Decodo PAYG has no monthly cap. None is stated, but I’d confirm it with Decodo before planning 330 GB a month on it. With it, Bright Data is $963 cheaper over months 1–3 and $2,037 dearer over months 4–6, so Decodo comes out $1,074 lower over six months.
At 800 GB, months 1–3 are a near-tie ($1,999 vs $2,000). After that, Bright Data has no published plan big enough, so I’d get its quote before assuming it can match Decodo’s $2,000 card.
At 50 GB, it isn’t close. Bright Data’s $499 plan costs more than its own pay-as-you-go at both coupon and list rates, and Decodo’s card is $150 a month.
Two unknowns could move the Bright Data side: whether RESIGB50 is for first purchases only, and whether it stacks with the “up to $500” first-deposit match. I left the deposit match out. Bright Data.
What about scraping per request? #
If you’re paying for proxies just to fetch hard pages, an unblocker or scraping API billed per successful request can be cheaper. Both vendors sell one, and both bill only success.
Bright Data Web Unlocker: $1.50 per 1,000 pay-as-you-go, “Pay only for success”, or Scale at $499 a month for 383K with extra requests at $1.30 per 1,000. No JavaScript surcharge is stated. Web Unlocker.
Decodo Web Data API: plans from free to $1,499 a month, with rates per 1,000 that depend on the plan and the proxy pool. “You only pay for successful requests”, and “failures on our side (500, 524 and 613) are never charged”. Web Data API pricing, billing docs.
Watch Decodo’s default: “If you don’t set proxy_pool, requests use the premium proxy pool and are charged at the premium rate.” Billing docs.
Each Decodo plan appears to buy its own price in requests at that plan’s rate; the $99 plan’s “141K crawls or 330K pages” is $99 at $0.70 and at $0.30. That’s my reading, and overage beyond a plan isn’t documented. Prices verified 2026-11-12.
| Pages a month | Bright Data Web Unlocker | Decodo premium + JS | Decodo premium | Decodo standard + JS | Decodo standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200K | $300 PAYG | $249 plan ($1.00 per 1K) | $249 plan ($0.65) | $249 plan ($0.55) | $99 plan ($0.30) |
| 2M | $2,601.10 (Scale $499 + 1,617K at $1.30) | $1,499 plan covers about 1.76M; the rest isn’t priced (about $1,700 total if billed at $0.85) | $1,499 plan ($0.50) | $999 plan ($0.45) | $499 plan ($0.18) |
Inputs: Bright Data, Decodo billing. Bright Data’s 5,000 free monthly requests, shared across its APIs, would trim about $7.50 off pay-as-you-go. Release notes.
Decodo is cheaper at both volumes on published rates, and much cheaper if your pages don’t need its premium pool. Decodo also sells a Site Unblocker billed per GB, $10 for 1 GB down to $5.50/GB at 500 GB, which only makes sense for light pages. Site Unblocker.
Sparkproxy, a competing seller, estimates the break-even against per-request billing at about 176 KB per response. Sparkproxy. For more options, see the best web unblockers.
Datacenter, ISP and mobile #
Decodo is far cheaper per IP. Bright Data covers more countries, and both also sell ISP by the GB. Prices verified 2026-11-12, monthly.
| Bright Data | Decodo | |
|---|---|---|
| Datacenter per GB | $0.60 PAYG down to $0.42 at 5 TB ($1,999) | $0.60 at 10 GB down to $0.39 at 5 TB ($1,950) and $0.38 at 10 TB |
| Shared datacenter per IP | $1.40 at 10 IPs down to $0.90 at 1,000 | $0.035 at 100 IPs down to $0.02 at 15,000 |
| 1,000 shared datacenter IPs | $900 | $29.70 |
| Dedicated datacenter per IP | $2.20 down to $1.30 | $1.85 at 3 IPs down to $1.35 at 200 |
| Shared ISP per IP | $1.80 at 10 down to $1.30 at 1,000 | $0.47 at 10 down to $0.30 at 2,000 |
| 100 shared ISP IPs | $145 | $35 |
| Dedicated ISP per IP | $3.50 down to $2.50 | $3.33 at 3 IPs down to $2.50 at 200; $2.10 at 1,000 and $2.00 at 2,000 via sales |
| ISP per GB | $8 PAYG down to $5 ($1,999 for 399 GB) | Separate per-GB tab, from $1.30/GB |
| Datacenter and ISP countries | Dedicated datacenter “available in 195 countries” | Datacenter 18 (dedicated: US, UK, Germany, Japan); ISP 17 shared, 19 dedicated |
| Mobile | No plans on the pricing page | 2 GB for $7.50 up to 500 GB for $1,125, on a 50%-off sale |
Sources: Bright Data datacenter, Bright Data ISP, Decodo datacenter, Decodo ISP, Decodo mobile. Decodo’s datacenter and ISP pages say city, state and ASN targeting is now live. Proxyway counts Bright Data at 100 datacenter and 50 ISP locations, fewer than its “195” line. Proxyway.
Decodo’s mobile prices are sale prices. Every card shows “SAVE 50%” with the list price struck through, so the list is double: 2 GB is $15 and 500 GB is $2,250.
No end date is shown, and the FAQ still says mobile pay-as-you-go is $8 while the card shows $4. Decodo claims 10M+ mobile IPs. Decodo mobile.
Bright Data’s mobile status is unclear. Its mobile pricing page (last modified May 4, 2026) shows no plans but still claims “7M+ Mobile IPs”.
Its release notes retired Immediate-access mobile proxies, deleted on November 9, 2026, and Proxyway says Bright Data “discontinued this type in 2026”. I found no Bright Data announcement either way. Mobile page, release notes, Proxyway. For other mobile providers, see the best mobile proxies.
Targeting and sessions #
Both target down to ZIP code, and both document ASN targeting. The bigger difference is how long a sticky IP stays yours.
| Bright Data | Decodo | |
|---|---|---|
| Geo targeting | “Country, state, city and zip code geo-targeting free” | Continent, country, state, city, ZIP |
| ASN and carrier | ASN and carrier via zone settings | ASN |
| Sticky sessions | “After 5 minutes with no requests, the IP is released back to the pool”; keep-alive every 30 s suggested | Any value “between 1 and 1440” minutes (docs); the pricing FAQ says “up to 30 minutes” |
Sources: Bright Data pricing, Bright Data FAQs, Decodo pricing, Decodo session docs.
Decodo’s two pages disagree on session length. I’d trust the docs, which are written for setting the value, but test a long session before relying on it.
Which is faster, and how old is that answer? #
There’s no current head-to-head. The only test that measured both vendors in the same year is Proxyway’s 2024 round. Bright Data didn’t take part in Proxyway’s 2026 research, and I haven’t measured either. Proxyway says it uses affiliate links.
| Who ran it | Test year | Vendor | Residential success / response | Datacenter success / response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proxyway | 2024 | Bright Data | 98.96% / 1.12 s | 99.96% / 0.26 s |
| Proxyway | 2024 | Decodo | 99.68% / 0.54 s | 99.76% / 0.38 s |
| Proxyway | 2026 (March–April) | Decodo | 99.92% / 0.53 s | 99.94% / 0.35 s |
| Proxyway | 2026 | Bright Data | “isn’t participating this year” | |
| Decodo’s comparison page | Credited to Proxyway’s “2026” list | Both | Decodo 99.92% / 0.63 s vs Bright Data 98.96% / 1.12 s |
Sources: Proxyway comparison, Proxyway market research 2026, Decodo’s page.
On the 2024 data, Decodo led on success rate and speed, while Bright Data led on unique IPs (73.79% vs 69.41% of 1.2M requests) and on the share of IPs that were really residential (98.59% vs 95.99%). Proxyway.
The tables most often quoted put Decodo’s 2026 numbers next to Bright Data’s 2024 ones, which compares two different years. One reason fresh head-to-heads are rare: Decodo’s licence bars licensees from publicly sharing “benchmarks”. Decodo licence. I’d treat both as capable and test on your own targets.
Trials, refunds and fine print #
Decodo’s trial turns into a plan. It’s 100 MB for 3 days, and the chosen plan activates automatically unless you cancel. Decodo pricing.
Decodo’s refund rules come in two versions. The pricing page allows a refund within 14 days on a first purchase if you’ve used no more than 20% of traffic (10% on Enterprise). The FAQ says 20% “or 1 GB, whichever is reached first”, excludes Enterprise and crypto, and rules out anyone who used the trial. Pricing, refund FAQ.
Decodo’s unused traffic doesn’t carry over. Unused plan GB “will not be transferred to the new billing cycle” at renewal (they move only on upgrade). Extra GB bought mid-month expire in the same billing month, and if you run out without topping up, the account is suspended until the next auto-payment. Unused GB, running out.
Wallet credits “shall expire if unused for twelve (12) months”, which matters if you buy pay-as-you-go ahead of need. Licence.
Bright Data doesn’t refund. Its licence says “The Subscription Fees are non-cancelable and non-refundable.” The monthly commitment doesn’t roll over and usage resets on the 1st.
Trial traffic “will not be counted towards your bill”, and new accounts can get a first-deposit match “up to $500”. Licence, residential pricing.
Bright Data charges for round-the-clock support. Standard support covers business days; Premium is “8% of monthly invoice up to $5K/month” with a $500 monthly minimum, and Enterprise is $10K a month. Support services.
Who owns Decodo? #
Decodo is the former Smartproxy; it says Smartproxy “officially rebranded to Decodo in April 2025”. Decodo’s page, About.
Since 13 October 2026 it’s one of five companies in Source, a Vilnius group with Oxylabs, Webshare, ScrapingBee and Honeygain. Source calls Decodo its “mid-market driver” and says the companies run independently. No primary page I found says who legally owns Decodo, so I don’t say Oxylabs owns it. Source, launch release.
Bright Data isn’t in Source. If you’re choosing Decodo as a hedge against Oxylabs or Webshare, you’re staying in the same group. For the outside options, see Decodo alternatives and Bright Data alternatives.
What other comparisons still say #
Claims I checked on November 12, 2026
- Decodo residential “from $1.5/GB” (Decodo’s comparison page). Its own pricing page bottoms out at $2/GB on the 1,000 GB card; above that it’s a sales quote.
- Decodo 99.92% / 0.63 s vs Bright Data 98.96% / 1.12 s, credited to Proxyway’s “Best Residential Proxies of 2026” (same page). Bright Data’s figures are Proxyway’s 2024 ones, and 0.63 s matches no Proxyway figure I found.
- Bright Data’s “7-day free trial for businesses only” (same page). I didn’t find it on Bright Data’s pages, which say trial traffic isn’t billed.
- Bright Data at “$3.50/GB” and “$2.5/GB on 798 GB” (Proxyway). Those are RESIGB50 coupon rates for three months; the list rates are $7 and $5. Its Bright Data ISP and datacenter pool rows are also identical.
- 100 GB of Bright Data for “at least $700” at list rates (Roundproxies), built from the $499 plan “topped up”. Bright Data publishes no top-up rate; the published list routes are $800 pay-as-you-go or the $999 plan.
- Bright Data datacenter “from $0.077/GB” and ISP “$13.13/GB” (Bright Data’s own page descriptions). Neither matches a card on its datacenter or ISP pricing.
So which one would I pick? #
Steady residential up to about 250 GB a month: Decodo. Its cards run $3.75 down to $2.50/GB at list, against Bright Data’s $8 pay-as-you-go once the coupon ends. At 50 GB, that’s $900 vs $1,800 over six months.
About 330 GB a month, ongoing: Decodo pay-as-you-go. $7,920 over six months against $8,994 on Bright Data, as long as Decodo confirms PAYG has no cap. For a three-month project at that volume, Bright Data with RESIGB50 saves $963, if your company passes KYC and you stop before list pricing starts.
About 800 GB a month: Decodo’s 1 TB card, unless Bright Data quotes below $2,000 a month for months four onward.
No registered company, mobile proxies or long sticky sessions: Decodo. Bright Data residential isn’t open to you without a company, and its mobile status is unclear.
Hard pages billed per request: Decodo’s Web Data API, set to the standard pool where your targets allow it. Datasets, datacenter IPs in more countries, or a supplier outside the Source group: Bright Data.
Using both is reasonable. Decodo for residential and mobile traffic, plus Bright Data’s Web Unlocker as a fallback for targets where Decodo fails. Web Unlocker needs no residential KYC and bills only success, so a fallback costs nothing until it works. For the other two-way comparisons, see Bright Data vs Oxylabs and IPRoyal vs Bright Data.
FAQ #
Is Decodo cheaper than Bright Data? #
Over six months, yes, at every volume I priced. At 50 GB a month Decodo costs $900 against $1,800 on Bright Data pay-as-you-go.
Bright Data’s RESIGB50 coupon makes it cheaper at about 330 GB for the first three months only. Prices verified 2026-11-12. Six-month table.
Is Decodo the same as Smartproxy? #
Yes. Decodo says Smartproxy officially rebranded to Decodo in April 2025, and its About page describes Decodo as formerly known as Smartproxy. Decodo.
Is Decodo owned by Oxylabs? #
Not as far as any primary page says. Decodo and Oxylabs are sister companies in the Source group, launched on 13 October 2026, and Source says each company runs independently. Bright Data is not in Source. Source.
Can individuals buy Bright Data residential proxies? #
No. Bright Data says residential access is available only to verified companies that pass a human-reviewed KYC, for zones created after July 7, 2026, and personal email accounts are not eligible. Its ISP, datacenter and Web Unlocker products can be used without it. Network access.
Does Bright Data still sell mobile proxies? #
It’s unclear. Its mobile pricing page shows no plans but still claims 7M+ mobile IPs, its release notes retired Immediate-access mobile proxies on November 9, 2026, and Proxyway says Bright Data discontinued mobile in 2026. Release notes, Proxyway.
Which is faster, Bright Data or Decodo? #
The only same-year comparison is Proxyway’s 2024 round, where Decodo had 99.68% success at 0.54 s and Bright Data 98.96% at 1.12 s. Bright Data wasn’t in Proxyway’s 2026 research, so there’s no current head-to-head. Proxyway.
Does Bright Data or Decodo have a free trial? #
Decodo offers 100 MB for 3 days, and the paid plan starts automatically unless you cancel. Bright Data says trial traffic isn’t billed and gives 5,000 free API requests a month, but residential access still needs company KYC after you add funds. Decodo, Bright Data.
Sources
33 sources, accessed .
Official pricing, docs, changelogs and status pages 26
- Bright Data residential pricing
- Bright Data residential access rules
- Bright Data release notes
- Bright Data residential FAQs
- Bright Data Web Unlocker pricing
- Bright Data datacenter pricing
- Bright Data ISP pricing
- Bright Data mobile pricing page
- Bright Data support plans
- Bright Data licence
- Decodo residential pricing
- Decodo datacenter pricing
- Decodo ISP pricing
- Decodo mobile pricing
- Decodo Site Unblocker pricing
- Decodo Web Data API pricing
- Decodo Web Data API billing
- Decodo session docs
- Decodo restricted targets
- Decodo refund FAQ
- Decodo unused GB FAQ
- Decodo running-out-of-traffic FAQ
- Decodo licence agreement
- Decodo about page
- Decodo's Bright Data comparison page
- Introducing Source
