According to a 2023 survey by Proxyway, residential proxies are the most popular service offered by proxy providers, with new companies continually entering the market. The abundance of options makes it challenging to choose a provider, prompting a comparison of two leading companies: Bright Data and Smartproxy. Bright Data is noted for its extensive residential IP pool, ethical sourcing, and advanced proxy management features, making it ideal for large enterprises and complex data extraction tasks. In contrast, Smartproxy is praised for its affordability and user-friendliness, catering to small businesses and individual users with simpler needs. While Bright Data offers a higher level of customization and control, it comes at a higher cost, whereas Smartproxy provides a more economical solution with straightforward setup. Both companies uphold ethical standards and offer robust customer support, yet they serve different market segments with Bright Data appealing to enterprise clients and Smartproxy being favored by smaller-scale operations.