Some proxy providers are really vocal with their marketing efforts and proxy infrastructure. As a rule, most of them are focused on web scraping as the biggest business is with these customers. Bright Data is no exception, as it's a proxy network with one of the largest selections of web scraping tools.
Whether these tools are good for web scraping and proxies for other tasks you might need is up for debate. There are quite a few bad reviews online on bright data, which led to me writing this one. It's based on personal experience with this provider and research on what other users had to say.
How Bright Data Runs a Proxy Service?
Bright Data, previously known as Luminati Networks, is one of the major proxy providers in the current market. It was established back in 2014 in Israel as a part of a still-functioning Hola VPN. This VPN service is crucial for understanding how Bright Data works.
Many proxy providers are part of larger corporate conglomerates that operate multiple proxy and VPN brands. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it shows how IP addresses are likely sourced. Of course, no provider fully discloses such information, so we are left to speculate.
The mentioned Hola VPN, as well as a Bright VPN, are peer-to-peer-based free VPNs that allow you to change your IP address and encrypt data by acting as a VPN for others. Basically, you pay with your bandwidth and data instead of money.
Since Luminati Networks was created as a division of such a free VPN, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to speculate that their IPs are sourced similarly. Nowadays, it's also known that they use their own bandwidth-sharing app, called Earnapp, and a rewards app called Bright Rewards to collect IPs for proxies.
Judging from the download counts of these apps, it's doubtful they are the only sources. Bright Data claims to have over 72 million residential IP addresses available worldwide. Meanwhile, the downloads of their bandwidth-sharing apps are in the hundreds of thousands at best.
Peer-to-peer VPNs, code inserted into unrelated apps, or some other methods must play a sourcing role. While it isn't necessarily a critique of Bright Data, we must understand that it's one of the largest Proxy providers in the market. Some IPs are likely to be soured rather unethically when IP counts are that high.
Advantages of Bright Data
Nevertheless, Bright Data has achieved some clear advantages over the competition when we look into it from the point of view of a common user. Below are three of the most outstanding ones.
A well-known Brand
Bright Data has definitely build up a reputation as one of the go-to places for proxies and everything web scraping related. If your main worry is that you’ll get scammed by purchasing proxies, then Bright data is definitely a safe choice in that regad.
Tools for Web Scraping
Bright Data has everything you might need for scraping - custom and pre-made APIs, scraping browser, web unblocker, and even data packets on sale. Only a few other providers can match the range of tools they are offering.
Large Residential IP Count
It was already mentioned but cannot be overstated as a benefit. Bright Data has well over 70 million residential IP addresses on sale. That’s an impressive amount, and if audited well, it could claim the title of most residential IPs on the market.
Drawbacks of Bright Data
Prices
Pricing is the biggest issue with Bright Data. There are only a few competitors that have more expensive proxies. At the time of writing, their cheapest residential proxy plan is $10 per month, while competitors can give you twice the bandwidth for $5.
IP Legitimacy Issues
Since Bright Data is one of the most popular providers, their IPs are known to figure in many lawsuits and reported DDoS attacks. These facts, along with somewhat shady IP sourcing from peer-to-peer networks, don’t create a lot of trust in IP address legitimacy.
Mobile and Datacenter Proxy Pool
While it’s impossible to argue that Birght Data lacks residential proxies, the IP count for mobile and Datacenter proxies is much more modest. Both aren't more than a million IPs, and there is a noticeable IP address disparity, with most IP addresses concentrated in the United States and India.
Bright Data Alternatives
Even if the drawbacks aren’t a deal breaker for you, you should look into some Brightada alternatives. Even if you won’t make the switch, knowing what the competitors have on offer wil put you in a better bargaining position.
IPRoyal
IPRoyal is a premium proxy provider that aims to have unbeatable prices in every category. Residential, Datacenter, ISP, mobile and all other proxy types are simply cheaper than you will get on Birght data. The IP pools are of similar sizes and the IP s are fresh since IPRoyal is a newer entry to the market.
The only drawback of IPRoyal is that they do not have scraping APIs and other tools for data collection. However, they compensate with the prices and quality of their proxies. You can easily pair their proxies with tools such as Octoparse to get the same web scraping results.
Oxylabs
Oxylabs is the closest competitor to Bright Data. In fact, it sometimes seems they are often copying one another. Both have similar sets of additional tools for scraping and selling data packages, have aggressive marketing, and, unfortunately, overpriced proxies.
If you are looking for someone who is Bright Data in everything but the name and sometimes a bigger price tag, go with Oxylabs. They both may lower prices if the competitor is cheaper.
Conclusion
While Bright Data is a legitimate provider with much to offer, I don't think it deserves its popularity. Yes, it's a major provider with a big IP pool, but not all IPs are legitimate, and some critical IP pools are lacking. Perhaps, if they would get less popular, they would at least lower their prices.
