# Proxy and web data providers for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "proxy network" and as "residential proxy provider for web scraping", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/proxy-networks/smb

**Standing:** Decodo leads with 49% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 53 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Decodo](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/decodo/index.md) | 49% | 0% | 53 |
| 2 | [Webshare](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/webshare/index.md) | 11% | 6% | 31 |
| 3 | [IPRoyal](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/iproyal/index.md) | 9% | 11% | 47 |
| 4 | [SOAX](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/soax/index.md) | 8% | 7% | 28 |
| 5 | [Smartproxy](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/smartproxy/index.md) | 8% | 0% | 14 |
| 6 | [Bright Data](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bright-data/index.md) | 6% | 43% | 47 |
| 7 | [Proxy-Cheap](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/proxy-cheap/index.md) | 4% | 18% | 17 |
| 91 | [Oxylabs](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/oxylabs/index.md) | 0% | 47% | 57 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 96 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Decodo; alternatives Oxylabs, Webshare
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Smartproxy; alternatives Bright Data, IPRoyal, Oxylabs, Webshare
- Perplexity Sonar: Decodo; alternatives IPRoyal, Oxylabs, SOAX, Webshare
- Grok 4.20: Proxidize, Proxy-Cheap; alternatives Bright Data, DataImpulse, Decodo, SOAX
- Mistral Small: Bright Data; alternatives IPRoyal, Proxidize
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Decodo; alternatives Bright Data, SOAX
- Llama 4 Maverick: Decodo; alternatives Bright Data, IPRoyal, Oxylabs, SOAX
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Decodo; alternatives Bright Data, Oxylabs
- Kimi K2: Decodo; alternatives IPRoyal, SOAX
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: IPRoyal, SOAX; alternatives Bright Data, Decodo, Oxylabs
- MiniMax M2.5: Decodo; alternatives IPRoyal, SOAX
- GPT-6 Luna: Decodo; alternatives Oxylabs
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Decodo; alternatives IPRoyal, Proxidize, Proxy-Cheap, SOAX

## Sources the answers cite

72 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- docs.google.com: 33 answers, 52 citations
- proxy-cheap.com: 22 answers, 31 citations
- brightdata.com: 22 answers, 29 citations
- g2.com: 19 answers, 22 citations
- decodo.com: 18 answers, 36 citations
- proxidize.com: 18 answers, 22 citations
- me.pcmag.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- pcmag.com: 17 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gp7l4B_kyiketulofPTPJ80uWtLKqLqPBlG7tpkw618/mobilebasic (26 answers)
- https://me.pcmag.com/en/proxy/22143/the-best-proxies-for-2024 (18 answers)
- https://pcmag.com/picks/the-best-proxies (16 answers)
- https://agilityportal.io/blog/best-proxy-providers (10 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/proxy-providers (9 answers)
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V_LNmu_MKZMCxIiUJIDrLaVRkuIytT6YOm5D0-FsgSo/mobilebasic (9 answers)
- https://brightdata.com/blog/proxy-101/best-proxy-providers (8 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/proxy-networks/smb (8 answers)
- https://proxidize.com/blog/best-proxies-for-b2b-data-collection (7 answers)
- https://scrapingrobot.com/blog/proxy-provider (7 answers)

## Warned against

- Bright Data: 20 of 47 labels negative. "Bright Data is also considered an enterprise-only provider and may not be suitable for small businesses with limited budgets." (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Oxylabs: 27 of 57 labels negative. "40% 17 of 42 labels negative · 11 of 14 models · 4 hard negative > "Avoid premium business-first providers like Oxylabs"" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- IPRoyal: 5 of 47 labels negative. "Account cancellations after payment; blocking customers from live chat; selling datacenter/hosting IPs as residential" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Proxy-Cheap: 3 of 17 labels negative. "Unhelpful customer service; denied refunds; slow speeds; faulty connections; incorrect geolocations; blacklisted IPs" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Decodo at 49%.

- Decodo: 40% to 49%, +9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 1 of 96, unchanged.
- Webshare: 20% to 11%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 2 of 96, unchanged.
- SOAX: 0% to 8%, +8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 11 → 4 of 96.
- Smartproxy: 12% to 8%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 → 5 of 96.
- Proxy-Cheap: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 91 → 7 of 96.
- Oxylabs: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 6 → 91 of 96.
- IPRoyal: 6% to 9%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 5 → 3 of 96.
- Bright Data: 8% to 6%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 6 of 96.
- DataImpulse: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 9 of 96.
- NetNut: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 17 → 82 of 96.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.