The short answer
Rayobyte and Webshare are both self-serve providers popular with developers, but they're built around different strengths:
- Webshare is the per-IP budget leader: datacenter proxy lists from $2.99 for 100 IPs, static residential (ISP) IPs from about $0.30 each, configurable plans and a permanent free plan.
- Rayobyte is the full-range, high-precision provider: pay-as-you-go residential that gets cheaper than Webshare from around 50 GB, rotating ISP, mobile, ZIP, ASN and device OS targeting, SOCKS5 UDP and HTTP/3, plus a Scraping API, Web Unblocker and hosted browsers.
Disclosure: Team of Monkeys is an affiliate of both (and of Geonode). We've written this to be useful whichever you choose.
Side by side
| Rayobyte | Webshare | |
|---|---|---|
| Residential pricing (list, Oct 2026) | $3.50/GB under 50 GB, $2 from 50, $1.50 from 250, $0.70 from 1 TB | $3.50/GB at 1 GB, about $2.25 at 100 GB, $1.40 at 3,000 GB |
| Residential billing | Pay as you go | Monthly plans, reported to reset each cycle |
| Residential pool (provider figures) | 50M+ opted-in devices a month, 190+ countries | 80M+ IPs, 195 countries |
| Targeting | Country, state, city, ZIP, ASN, device OS | Country, state, city, ZIP, ASN |
| Sticky sessions | 1 to 120 minutes | Session suffix on the backbone gateway |
| Datacenter | Static (29 countries), semi-dedicated from $1/IP, rotating from $0.30/GB | Shared lists from $2.99 per 100 IPs; private and dedicated tiers |
| ISP / static residential | Static from $5/IP; rotating ISP per GB | From about $0.30/IP |
| Mobile | US carriers, monthly plans | No |
| Managed tools | Scraping API, Web Unblocker, rayobrowse | None |
| Protocols | HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5, SOCKS5 UDP, HTTP/3 | HTTP, SOCKS5 |
| Free option | No-card free trial; 5,000 API requests | Free plan: 10 datacenter proxies, 1 GB/month, forever |
Prices are list prices at the time of writing and change often. Pool figures are measured differently.
Where Webshare wins
- Cost per IP. For datacenter lists and static residential IPs, Webshare is dramatically cheaper. See datacenter compared and ISP compared.
- A permanent free plan. Ten real proxies with no card and no time limit. See free options compared.
- Configurable plans. Choose proxy count, bandwidth, threads and countries.
- Small residential plans. At 1 to 10 GB, Webshare's plans are similar or slightly cheaper.
Where Rayobyte wins
- Residential at volume. From about 50 GB, Rayobyte's pay-as-you-go tiers are cheaper, and at 1 TB the gap is wide. See Rayobyte vs Webshare pricing.
- No monthly reset on pay-as-you-go residential (confirm expiry terms before large buys). See bandwidth expiry compared.
- Products Webshare doesn't sell: mobile, rotating ISP, a Scraping API, a Web Unblocker and hosted browsers. See scraping tools compared and mobile compared.
- Protocols and targeting: SOCKS5 UDP, HTTP/3 and device OS targeting. See protocols compared.
- Unmetered static IPs by default, and Scale Residential for huge untargeted crawls.
Residential tip: Both sides of this comparison can be tested at no cost: Rayobyte has a free trial with no card, and Webshare has a permanent free plan with 10 datacenter proxies. See our complete Rayobyte guide.
Which to choose, by job
| Job | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Learning for free | Webshare | Permanent free plan |
| Cheap fixed IP lists for lenient sites | Webshare | From $0.03 per IP |
| Account IPs on a budget | Webshare | Static residential from $0.30 |
| Residential scraping at 50 GB+ | Rayobyte | Cheaper tiers, pay as you go |
| Residential at 1 TB+ | Rayobyte | $0.70/GB |
| Mobile-first platforms | Rayobyte | Webshare has no mobile |
| A few impossible sites | Rayobyte | Web Unblocker and Scraping API |
| UDP apps or HTTP/3 | Rayobyte | Protocol support |
More by use case: web scraping, SEO, social media, sneakers and AI training data.
Using both
A common setup: Webshare for cheap datacenter and static residential lists, Rayobyte for residential traffic at volume, mobile and the hardest targets. Both use standard proxy URLs. See using Rayobyte and Webshare together.
How to decide
- Start Webshare's free plan and Rayobyte's free trial.
- Run your three hardest targets through each with identical code.
- Compare cost per 1,000 successful results.
- Choose per target, not per provider.
See speed and reliability compared. To add Geonode, read Rayobyte vs Geonode vs Webshare.
A real-world example
A five-person e-commerce analytics startup tracks 40,000 products across 30 retailers. Twenty-two of those retailers accept datacenter IPs; eight don't. It starts on Webshare's free plan to build the scraper, then buys 1,000 shared datacenter IPs (about $27 a month) for the lenient retailers. For the eight protected retailers it tests both providers' residential traffic: at about 120 GB a month, Rayobyte's $2 tier costs $240, while a Webshare plan of that size costs somewhat more. Two retailers still block both, so it routes them through Rayobyte's Web Unblocker. Total: roughly $300 a month, with each provider doing what it's cheapest at.
For the bigger picture beyond our three partners, read our best proxies buyer's guide, and see cheap proxies for ways to cut cost per successful request.
Budget tip: If the job only needs a fixed list of IPs, Webshare sells datacenter and static residential proxies by the IP, often for less than a per-GB plan would cost. More in our complete Webshare guide.
Every Rayobyte vs Webshare comparison
- Rayobyte Free Trial vs Webshare Free Plan
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Authentication
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Bandwidth Expiry
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Billing
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Browser Extensions and Tool Integrations
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Dashboards and APIs
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Datacenter Proxies
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Ethics and Sourcing
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Geo-Targeting
- Rayobyte vs Webshare IP Pools
- Rayobyte vs Webshare IP Replacement
- Rayobyte vs Webshare IP Rotation
- Rayobyte vs Webshare ISP Proxies
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Pricing
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Protocol Support
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Residential Proxies
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Speed and Reliability
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Sticky Sessions
- Rayobyte vs Webshare Support
- Rayobyte vs Webshare at Enterprise Scale
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for AI Agents
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for AI Training Data
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Ad Verification
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Agencies
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Amazon
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Antidetect Browsers
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Beginners
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Brand Protection
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for E-commerce
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Instagram
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Managed Scraping
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Market Research
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Mobile Proxies
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Node.js
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Playwright
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Price Monitoring
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Puppeteer
- Puppeteer proxies guide
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Python
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Real Estate Data
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for SEO
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Scrapy
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Selenium
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Sneakers
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Social Media
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Travel Fares
- Rayobyte vs Webshare for Web Scraping
- Rayobyte vs Webshare on a Small Budget
- Using Rayobyte and Webshare Together
- Webshare Shared and Private vs Rayobyte Semi-Dedicated Proxies
Proxy tip: For a second opinion on hard targets, run the same test through Geonode residential proxies, which support sticky sessions up to 24 hours and ASN targeting. We compare the two in Rayobyte vs Geonode vs Webshare.
Key takeaways
- Webshare wins on cost per IP, configurability and its permanent free plan.
- Rayobyte wins on residential at volume, product range, protocols and targeting.
- Choose per job; many teams use both.
- Test both for free before committing.
FAQ
Is Rayobyte or Webshare cheaper?
Webshare is cheaper per IP (datacenter and static residential). Rayobyte is cheaper for residential traffic from around 50 GB upward.
Does Webshare have mobile proxies?
No, at the time of writing. Rayobyte sells US mobile proxies.
Can I use both together?
Yes. Route each domain or job to whichever performs better at the lower cost.
Which has better customer support?
Both offer documentation and support; Webshare publishes a status page and samples in seven languages, while Rayobyte stresses engineer-led support and negotiable SLAs. See support compared.
Editorial note: Proxy providers change their pools, features and prices often, so treat any figures here as typical ranges at the time of writing and confirm current terms with the provider before you buy.