Comparison

HProxy vs Decodo (formerly Smartproxy): An Honest Comparison (2026)

HProxy vs Decodo on price, billing and tooling: a cheaper Decodo alternative for residential proxies, and where the polished Smartproxy platform still earns its subscription.

HProxy Team · ·Updated July 18, 2026 ·6 min read
HProxy. Comparison

Free proxies won't hold up here.

Shared datacenter IPs get flagged and dropped fast. When it has to hold, gaming, streaming, accounts, you need mobile and residential IPs that read as a real device, from $0.65/GB, pay as you go.

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Decodo is the company that used to be Smartproxy, and it is one of the more polished mid-market proxy products out there: a clean dashboard, granular geo-targeting, a stack of scraping tools, and years of reputation behind it. We run a competing network, so we will say plainly where that polish is worth paying for. The honest question is whether you want a guided, feature-rich platform on a subscription, or clean residential IPs at the lowest pay-as-you-go rate we can offer.

Is HProxy a good Decodo alternative?

For most buyers, yes. HProxy sells residential IPs at $0.65/GB, pay as you go, with no subscription and no KYC for standard use. Decodo starts at $4/GB pay as you go and reserves its lower rates for monthly plans. Decodo still wins for people who want its mature tooling, its city and ZIP-level targeting, and a money-back window to evaluate on. If you mainly need clean residential proxies at the best price, HProxy covers it for a fraction of the cost.

The short version

  • Price: HProxy residential is $0.65/GB, pay as you go. Decodo is $4/GB pay as you go, $3.75 to $2.75/GB on monthly subscriptions, and advertises a $2/GB floor on larger volume. HProxy is cheaper at every one of those.
  • Model: HProxy is pay as you go with no commitment and a balance that never expires. Decodo's best rates are monthly subscriptions.
  • Platform: Decodo sells a broader toolset (site unblocker, scraping APIs, prebuilt scrapers) and very fine geo-targeting. HProxy is leaner and focused on cheap, clean IPs.
  • Independence: Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) is in the Tesonet portfolio alongside Oxylabs, Nord Security, and Surfshark. HProxy is independent.

Decodo pricing vs HProxy: the part that decides it

HProxyDecodo
Residential, entry per GB$0.65$4.00 (pay as you go)
Lowest published per-GB$0.65$2.75 (100 GB/mo subscription)
Advertised floor$0.65from $2.00/GB (larger volume)
Billing modelPay as you goPay as you go or monthly subscription
Monthly commitmentNoneSubscription for the lower rates
Balance expiryNever expiresSubscription bills monthly
OnboardingSelf-serve, no KYCSelf-serve, 3-day / 100 MB trial
ProtocolsHTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, SOCKS5HTTP(S), SOCKS5

Here is Decodo's residential pricing exactly as its own page lists it today, so the per-GB figures are not something you have to take on our word (prices are shown before VAT):

Decodo residentialMonthly pricePer-GB
Pay as you gofrom $4 (min transaction)$4.00
3 GB$11.25$3.75
10 GB$35.00$3.50
25 GB$81.25$3.25
50 GB$150.00$3.00
100 GB$275.00$2.75

The table shows the pattern clearly. The rate falls as you commit to a bigger monthly plan, from $3.75/GB on the smallest subscription to $2.75/GB at 100 GB a month, and only the largest volume reaches the advertised $2/GB floor. The pay-as-you-go rate, the one with no commitment, is $4/GB. HProxy's $0.65 is a single pay-as-you-go rate with nothing to subscribe to, and for buyers in the EU it is worth noting Decodo lists its prices before VAT, which adds to the real number on the invoice.

The commitment is the quiet cost. A monthly subscription you underuse raises what you actually pay per successful request every month you fall short of your plan, and subscription gigabytes bill on a monthly cycle rather than sitting in a balance that waits for you. HProxy's credit does not expire, so a project you pause in July is still there in September at the same $0.65.

Where Decodo genuinely wins

This is the part the marketing comparisons skip, so here it is straight.

A mature, polished platform. Decodo inherited years of product work from Smartproxy, and it shows: a clean dashboard, solid documentation, browser extensions, and a support reputation that predates the rebrand. If you want a guided experience with guardrails rather than a bare endpoint, that is a real advantage.

Deep tooling and targeting. Beyond raw proxies, Decodo sells a site unblocker, scraping APIs, and prebuilt scrapers, and it offers geo-targeting down to country, state, city, and ZIP across a 115M+ IP pool in 195+ locations. If your work needs that precision or you want to offload the anti-bot fight, that toolset is genuine.

A real evaluation window. The 3-day trial plus a 14-day money-back guarantee on eligible subscriptions gives you a low-risk way to test the network on your own targets before committing. That is a fair offer and we will not pretend otherwise.

If a polished platform with fine-grained targeting and a money-back window is what you want, Decodo is a legitimately good mid-market pick.

Where HProxy wins as a Decodo alternative

Price, at every tier. Roughly six times cheaper than Decodo's pay-as-you-go rate, and still about three times cheaper than Decodo's advertised $2/GB volume floor. The headline holds all the way down the table.

Pay as you go with no subscription. You get HProxy's single $0.65/GB rate without committing to a monthly plan to earn it. There is no tier to climb.

A balance that never expires. Top up once and use it whenever, across bursty or seasonal work, without a monthly reset.

Independence. Decodo sits in the Tesonet portfolio next to Oxylabs, Nord Security, and Surfshark. HProxy is independent, and if buying from a vendor that is not part of a larger group matters to you, that is a real difference (we map the common-ownership pattern across this cluster in our Bright Data comparison).

The same jobs, done. For scraping, price monitoring, ad verification, and multi-region account work, HProxy's residential (and ISP, datacenter, and mobile) IPs do the job. Decodo also sells ISP proxies from $0.27/IP, mobile from $2.25/GB, and datacenter from $0.02/IP, and HProxy covers the same four types. If you want the difference between them explained plainly, our datacenter vs residential proxies guide walks through which fits which task.

Who should pick which

Pick Decodo if you want a polished, feature-rich platform with fine geo-targeting, an unblocker and scraping tools, and a money-back window, and you are comfortable on a monthly subscription to get the better rates.

Pick HProxy if you want residential, ISP, datacenter, or mobile proxies that work, at $0.65/GB pay as you go, with no subscription, no commitment, and no tier to climb before the price gets good. That covers the large majority of scraping, monitoring, and multi-region tasks.

Try it before you decide

You do not have to take our word on the network. Test HProxy's free proxy checker and the live free proxy list to see the infrastructure, then start on residential at $0.65/GB pay as you go when you are ready. If you are new to the proxy types and want to know what you are actually buying, what is a residential proxy explains it, and our full pricing lays out every per-GB rate with nothing to subscribe to.

Frequently asked questions

Is Decodo the same as Smartproxy?
Yes. Decodo is the new name for Smartproxy. On its own site the company says it is the same team and the same solutions people have relied on since 2018, rebranded as it moved from proxy infrastructure toward a wider data-access platform. If you used or compared Smartproxy before, Decodo is that company.
Is HProxy cheaper than Decodo?
Yes, at every tier. HProxy residential is $0.65/GB, pay as you go. Decodo's pay-as-you-go rate is $4/GB, its monthly subscriptions run from $3.75/GB (3 GB) down to $2.75/GB (100 GB), and it advertises a floor of $2/GB on larger volume. Even against that advertised $2/GB floor, HProxy's flat $0.65 is roughly three times cheaper, and against the $4 pay-as-you-go rate it is about six times cheaper.
Does Decodo require a subscription?
Not strictly. Decodo offers a pay-as-you-go option at $4/GB, but its lower per-GB rates are monthly subscriptions, so reaching $2.75/GB means committing to a 100 GB plan each month. HProxy gives you its single $0.65/GB rate on pay as you go with no subscription and no commitment.
Does Decodo have a free trial?
Yes. Decodo advertises a 3-day free trial with 100 MB of residential traffic, plus a 14-day money-back window on eligible subscriptions. HProxy does not gate a trial behind a form: you can test the network on the free proxy list and proxy checker first, then pay as you go at $0.65/GB when you are ready.
Who owns Decodo?
Decodo, formerly Smartproxy, appears in the brand portfolio of Tesonet, the Lithuanian technology holding that also lists Oxylabs, Nord Security (NordVPN), and Surfshark. HProxy is independent and not part of that group.
Do HProxy and Decodo support the same protocols?
For the common cases, yes. Decodo residential supports HTTP(S) and SOCKS5. HProxy supports HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, and SOCKS5. For scraping, monitoring, and account work, both give you the protocol you need.

Proxies that don't die mid-job

Residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile, verified by the same engine that runs tens of millions of checks. They read as a real device and hold up under load. Pay as you go, and your balance never expires.

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