Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) alternatives for AI research
Decodo is a credible mid-tier proxy provider post-Smartproxy rebrand. For AI-native workloads, narrower alternatives — including this one — often fit better.
Updated 23 April 2026
Smartproxy rebranded as Decodo in 2025. The product is largely unchanged: mid-tier residential, straightforward pricing, reasonable support. For AI research specifically, the question is whether Decodo's generic framing fits your workload shape or whether a narrower vendor would do better.
What Decodo does well
- Transparent pricing — $2-4/GB entry residential, lower than premium tier
- Straightforward product — residential, datacenter, ISP, mobile. No overwhelming product surface
- Single-gateway class routing supported
- Broad country coverage — 195+ countries claimed
- Mid-tier support quality — reasonable response times
Where an alternative fits
- AI-native workload framing. Decodo's product is general-purpose scraping. Vendors built AI-first have different header semantics, session defaults, and plan structures that fit AI workloads better.
- Research-grade provenance documentation. Decodo's sourcing documentation is less detailed than some competitors. For publication-grade research, cleaner provenance often matters.
- Premium-tier needs. Teams needing enterprise procurement, higher success rates on hostile targets, or bundled scraping tools fit a premium vendor better.
The shortlist
SquadProxy (this site)
AI-native, 10-country focused, single-gateway header-based class routing, opt-in SDK residential sourcing with published policy.
Fits when: AI workload, documented provenance matters, sub- 10 TB residential per month.
Doesn't fit when: need 195-country coverage, budget-first, workload is general-purpose scraping.
SOAX
Mid-tier peer of Decodo with stronger ethical-sourcing documentation. See SOAX alternatives page for the comparison framing.
Fits when: mid-tier pricing, sourcing provenance matters, broad country coverage needed.
Bright Data
Higher-scale peer. See Bright Data alternatives page.
Fits when: enterprise procurement, need product suite beyond proxy (Archive API, Unblocker, dataset marketplace).
IPRoyal
Budget-tier alternative to Decodo, similar pricing envelope.
Fits when: budget-first, workload tolerates lower success rates on hostile targets.
Comparison table
| Decodo | SquadProxy | SOAX | Bright Data | IPRoyal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential pool (claim) | 115M+ | 4M+ (10-country focus) | 155M+ | 150M+ | 32M+ |
| Countries | 195+ | 10 focused | 195+ | 195+ | 195+ |
| AI-workload framing | Generic | Primary | Generic | Subset | Generic |
| Single-gateway class routing | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Entry residential pricing | ~$2-4/GB | Metered in plan | ~$6-7/GB | ~$8.40/GB | ~$1.75/GB |
| Documented sourcing | Yes | Yes, opt-in SDK | Yes, strong | Yes, broad | Limited |
| Enterprise contracting | Mid | Emerging | Mid | Mature | Emerging |
Use-case fit
- Training corpus collection at sub-10 TB/month: SquadProxy, SOAX, or Decodo. The choice is AI-framing (SquadProxy), sourcing rigor (SOAX), or price (Decodo / IPRoyal).
- RAG ingestion with per-source routing: SquadProxy. Decodo supports it but the AI-specific framing wins on config.
- Premium / enterprise: Bright Data or Oxylabs.
- Budget-first: IPRoyal or Decodo.
Frequently asked questions
Was there any change with the Smartproxy → Decodo rebrand? Branding only as far as we've observed. Products, APIs, and network behavior continued through the transition.
Is migration from Decodo to SquadProxy straightforward? Yes — gateway shape is standard HTTP Basic; per-class routing works via headers on both.
Bottom line
Decodo is a fine mid-tier choice for general-purpose scraping. For AI-native workloads specifically, narrower alternatives often fit better. SquadProxy is one; SOAX is another with stronger sourcing emphasis; Bright Data and Oxylabs cover the premium tier.
For the AI-workload framing see RAG data collection, LLM evaluation, and the residential vs datacenter routing guide.
Pricing
Pricing — transparent, metered, AI-shaped
Residential metered, datacenter unlimited. The plan shape matches how AI pipelines actually route.
Solo
For individual researchers running evaluation scripts and prototype RAG pipelines.
$149/ month
or $1,430/year (save 20%)
50 GB residential · unlimited datacenter · 200 concurrent sessions
- ✓Access to all 5 exit classes · 10 focus countries
- ✓50 GB residential · unlimited datacenter
- ✓5 static ISP IPs · 5 GB 4G mobile
- ✓1 seat · 200 concurrent sessions
- ✓Python + Node SDK + REST API
- ✓Per-request metering (not time-based)
- ✓Email support (24h response, business days)
- ✓Overage: $3/GB residential · $6/GB mobile
Best for
- Solo researchers
- Evaluation scripts
- Prototype RAG
Team
Most popularFor AI startups and mid-size labs splitting capacity between training and evaluation.
$699/ month
or $6,710/year (save 20%)
500 GB residential · unlimited datacenter · 1,000 concurrent sessions
- ✓Access to all 5 exit classes · 10 focus countries
- ✓500 GB residential · unlimited datacenter
- ✓25 static ISP IPs · 25 GB 4G mobile
- ✓10 seats ($29/mo per extra seat) · 1,000 concurrent sessions
- ✓City-level geo-routing + ASN targeting
- ✓99.9% uptime SLA
- ✓Priority Slack support (4h response, business hours)
- ✓Python + Node SDK + REST API + webhooks
- ✓Overage: $3/GB residential · $6/GB mobile
Best for
- AI startups
- Mid-size labs
- Model eval teams
Lab
For academic labs, eval consortia, and frontier model companies running sustained workloads.
$2,999/ month
or $28,790/year (save 20%)
2 TB residential · unlimited DC · 50 GB 4G + 20 GB 5G · 3,000 concurrent sessions
- ✓Access to all 5 exit classes · 10 countries on 4 continents
- ✓2 TB residential · unlimited datacenter
- ✓100 static ISP IPs · 50 GB 4G + 20 GB 5G mobile
- ✓50 seats ($19/mo per extra seat) · 3,000 concurrent sessions
- ✓Dedicated gateway lane (bypasses shared-pool queues on us-east-1 + eu-west-1)
- ✓99.95% uptime SLA
- ✓Dedicated Slack channel (1h response, business hours)
- ✓Custom BGP prefix on request (additional fees apply)
- ✓Overage: $2.50/GB residential · $5/GB mobile
Best for
- Academic labs
- Large eval consortia
- Frontier model companies
Enterprise
Custom contracts with dedicated infrastructure, volume pricing, and research-grade SLAs.
Custom pricing
Custom (from 5 TB/mo residential) · unlimited concurrent sessions
- ✓Volume pricing from 5 TB/mo residential
- ✓Dedicated BGP prefix + ASN announcement
- ✓Unlimited concurrent sessions · unlimited seats
- ✓99.99% uptime SLA with financial credits
- ✓Named Technical Account Manager + 24/7 on-call paging
- ✓Custom AUP, DPA, on-site deployment option
- ✓Research / academic discount (30–50% off Team or Lab)
- ✓Annual contract · wire, ACH, USDC/USDT/BTC settlement
Best for
- Frontier labs
- Eval consortia
- Enterprise AI
All plans include 14-day refund, single endpoint with regional failover, HTTP(S) + SOCKS5 on every exit class, access to all 5 exit classes and all 10 focus countries, and Python + Node SDKs. Concurrent sessions = simultaneous TCP sessions through the gateway. Overage warnings fire at 80% and 100%; traffic continues only if overage billing is enabled on your account.
Other comparisons
Also evaluating SquadProxy against another vendor?
vs Bright Data
Bright Data alternatives for AI training data: an honest shortlist
Bright Data runs the largest commercial proxy network in the market and it is the right tool for many workloads. For AI training data specifically, narrower alternatives often fit better — including this one.
vs Firecrawl
Firecrawl alternatives for AI-native data collection
Firecrawl is a strong AI-focused scraping API. For AI infrastructure needs beyond "scraped markdown as a service" — training corpus, RAG ingestion with per-source control, regional evaluation — alternatives fit the workload better.
vs Oxylabs
Oxylabs alternatives for AI research: a working shortlist
Oxylabs is a full-service alternative to Bright Data, priced at the premium tier. For AI research where the workload is RAG, evaluation, or training-corpus focused, narrower alternatives often match the use case better.
vs ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI alternatives for AI data collection
ScraperAPI bundles proxy routing with a scraping API and auto-unblock. For AI workloads that want the proxy layer without the wrapper, narrower alternatives fit better.
vs SOAX
SOAX alternatives for AI workloads: a working shortlist
SOAX is a credible mid-tier residential provider with ethical- sourcing claims. For AI research specifically, a handful of alternatives — including this one — often fit the workload shape better.
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