This page is on proxynade.net
This comparison lives on the vendor's own site. Bright Data figures below come from their pricing and FAQ pages as of May 2026. Check their pages directly before buying — rates change. The comparison is useful for a buyer who has not yet proved the target and wants to know whether the first bill should be small or formal.
The real comparison is not brand against brand. It is route behavior against the page that pays the bill: status codes, billed bytes versus kept rows, and session duration against the flow the target requires.
Bright Data's published pricing
As listed on their pricing page, pay-as-you-go residential is $8/GB, or $4/GB during their first-three-month promotional period. Monthly committed plans run 141 GB at $499, 332 GB at $999, and 798 GB at $1,999 — promo rates of $3.50, $3.00, and $2.50 per GB respectively. Country, state, city, ZIP, and ASN targeting are included. SOCKS5 is available through Proxy Manager.
Those rates make sense for a run that already justifies that volume. For a first-route check, the minimum commitment matters more than the per-GB rate.
KYC and commitment terms
Two items from Bright Data's own FAQ sit next to the price number. Residential and mobile plans can require KYC — a video call plus company or personal verification before the account activates. Unused monthly GB do not roll over while the account is active. Both are standard enterprise terms. Both are a bad fit for a target that might be dead after one route check.
Proxynade does not require KYC and has no monthly minimum. Volume Residential is $0.89/GB and Premium Residential is $5.00/GB, billed per transferred byte. Datacenter is $0.65/GB. Static ISP proxies are pay-per-IP with unlimited bandwidth. The dashboard shows host, outcome, latency, and byte totals in network logs; usage logs export as CSV.
Policy scope differs at the edges
Bright Data's acceptable use page, as of May 2026, prohibits fake accounts, ticket bots, SEO manipulation, spam, streaming domains, and gaming item or currency trading. Their error docs describe policy messages for blocked targets, targets requiring permission, and domains blocked across their networks. That scope is worth reading before buying, not after a rejected request.
Proxynade's AUP at /acceptable-use prohibits unauthorized account creation and ban evasion. Work that sits near those lines belongs on the table before the first purchase, not after a blocked run.
Bandwidth accounting matches on both sides
Both vendors count request headers, request body, response headers, and response body. Redirects, retries, and blocked responses all count. Your scraper's row counter will always read lower than the provider's byte meter — it skips retries, redirect chains, images, CSS, and anything your parser drops. Trust provider bytes before app bytes, even when the app is yours.
On a Proxynade pool, the dashboard network logs show host, outcome, latency, and byte totals so the gap is visible. The username carries routing options: base user plus plan token (volume, premium, or datacenter), optional country-<cc>, and optional lifetime-<minutes> rotation window. Datacenter lines skip the lifetime token.
Which buyer fits which vendor
| Factor | Proxynade | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum spend | None — pay per byte | Monthly committed tiers or PAYG at higher per-GB rate |
| KYC | Not required | Required for some residential and mobile plans (per their FAQ) |
| Rollover | No commitment to expire | Unused GB do not roll over (per their FAQ) |
| Volume Residential rate | $0.89/GB | $4–$8/GB depending on tier and promo (per their pricing page) |
| Session control | lifetime-<minutes> token in username | Proxy Manager with sticky and rotating sessions |
| Dashboard logs | Host, outcome, latency, byte totals; CSV export | Full reporting suite per their product page |
For a Bright Data-scale buyer, the compliance tooling and volume tiers are often the actual requirement. For a first scrape against an unproven target, four things settle the decision before any brand comparison: did the route return a usable response, did 403 or 429 appear early, did provider bytes outrun app bytes by a factor that changes the economics, and did the session hold long enough to complete the flow.
Comparison FAQ
Does Bright Data require KYC? As described on their FAQ page, residential and mobile plans can require a verification video call plus company or personal ID. Proxynade does not require KYC to purchase.
Do unused Bright Data GB roll over? Per their FAQ, unused monthly commitment does not roll over while the account is active. Proxynade bills per byte with no monthly minimum.
What is Proxynade's residential price per GB? Volume Residential is $0.89/GB and Premium Residential is $5.00/GB, billed per transferred byte with no minimum commitment.
How does bandwidth accounting work? Both vendors count headers, request body, response body, redirects, and retries. Your scraper's row count will always read lower than the provider's byte meter.
Which vendor fits a small first run? Proxynade has no minimum commitment and no KYC. Bright Data fits buyers who already know their monthly volume and want enterprise tooling and target coverage.
What does Bright Data's AUP prohibit? As listed on their acceptable use page: fake accounts, ticket bots, SEO manipulation, spam, streaming domains, and gaming item or currency trading. Check their page directly for the current list.