Head to head
Bright Data vs Decodo
This is the enterprise heavyweight against the value champion. Bright Data has the biggest pool and the deepest toolbox in the market. Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) has near-identical measured performance for a lot less money and none of the friction.
Both are good. The choice is about how much coverage and tooling you actually need, and how much you will pay for it.
| Bright Data | Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | from $4.00/GB | from $4.00/GB |
| Pricing model | per-GB | per-GB |
| Pool size | 400M+ | 115M+ |
| Free trial | 7-day trial for businesses | 3-day free trial, 14-day money-back |
| Best for | web-scraping, ad-verification, enterprise | mid-market, social, web-scraping |
| Try it | Visit Bright Data | Visit Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) |
Price
Decodo starts at $4/GB pay-as-you-go and falls to around $2.75/GB at 100 GB. Bright Data lists higher but runs a standing 50% promo (RESIGB50) that matches Decodo near $4/GB at entry for three months, then reverts to roughly $8/GB.
On durable pricing Decodo is cheaper. On the promo they are close at the entry, and Bright Data gets relatively dearer once the promo lapses.
Performance
Decodo posted 99.92% success at 0.53s in Proxyway's 2026 testing, the fastest residential network they measured. Bright Data skipped 2026 testing, so it has no current independent number; its last clean test was March 2024 at 98.96% on an easy endpoint.
On the evidence that exists, Decodo is at least as reliable and faster to respond. Do not let anyone sell you a 2026 Bright Data success figure, because there isn't one.
Pool and tooling
Here is Bright Data's case. It claims 400M+ monthly IPs against Decodo's 115M+, and its managed toolbox is far deeper: Web Unlocker, a Scraping Browser, SERP and Scraper APIs, prebuilt datasets.
If your problem is unblocking hard targets at scale and you would rather buy that as a service than build it, Bright Data has tools Decodo does not.
Getting in the door
Decodo is self-serve, 3-day trial, no business KYC. Bright Data needs business verification for Full Access, though its no-KYC Immediate Access tier lets you start with limits.
For an individual or small team, Decodo is the lower-friction start.
The call
For the majority of buyers, Decodo wins on the thing that matters most here: it performs as well or better in the only current independent test, costs less on durable pricing, and lets you start without KYC.
Bright Data justifies its price when you need the biggest pool, the widest managed tooling, or coverage Decodo cannot match. That is a real set of needs, but it is a minority of jobs. Start on Decodo unless you know you need what Bright Data adds.
Visit Bright Data Visit Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Bright Data or Decodo?
Decodo on durable pricing, starting at $4/GB pay-as-you-go versus Bright Data's roughly $8/GB list. Bright Data's RESIGB50 promo matches Decodo near $4/GB at entry for three months, then reverts.
Does Bright Data have a current success-rate benchmark?
No. Bright Data declined Proxyway's 2026 testing, so the latest independent number is from March 2024. Decodo was measured at 99.92% in 2026.
Which has more proxies?
Bright Data, by its own count: 400M+ monthly IPs versus Decodo's 115M+. Both are unaudited self-reports counting monthly rather than concurrent IPs.