Cheapest Proxy That Actually Works: Webshare vs Decodo

The cheapest proxy is the one that returns the page often enough to finish the job. Free public lists leak time through dead endpoints, reused addresses, and unknown operators. Webshare and Decodo sell two cleaner entry paths.

Cheapest proxy for learning and tiny crawls

Webshare is the first pick when the requirement is modest and self-service matters. It is suitable for testing proxy-aware code, small public crawls, and proving that an IP block is the actual failure.

Decodo, formerly Smartproxy, is the step up when geo-targeting, broader products, and a more developed proxy platform matter. The extra capability earns its keep once the target or workload stops being a toy.

Need	Pick
Learn proxy configuration	Webshare
Small controlled crawl	Webshare
Wider residential operation	Decodo
Irregular pay-as-you-go job	IPRoyal

The cheap-proxy test that matters

Run one authorized target through each provider with identical concurrency. Validate a page-specific selector, because status codes lie. Log connection errors separately from target blocks. Then calculate successful pages per unit of spend; headline bandwidth price without success rate is decoration.

If the target is hardened, stop comparing raw proxies and use the ScrapingBee and ZenRows API comparison. If the crawl grows, revisit the full residential proxy ranking. Webshare wins the cheapest useful starting point; Decodo wins the workload that has already outgrown it.