IPRoyal is the competitor we agree with most. It sells residential proxies pay as you go, its traffic does not expire, and it is independent rather than part of a larger proxy group, which are three of the exact things we built HProxy around. We run a competing network, so this comparison is not going to pretend IPRoyal is doing it wrong. It is doing a lot right. The honest difference comes down to two numbers: the per-GB price, and whether you have to pass a KYC check to buy.
Is HProxy a good IPRoyal alternative?
For most buyers, yes, and for a simple reason: HProxy sells the same kind of pay-as-you-go, non-expiring residential proxies IPRoyal does, at a lower per-GB rate and with no KYC for standard use. IPRoyal still earns its place for its product breadth and its established brand, especially in the sneaker and reselling scene. If your priority is clean residential IPs at the lowest pay-as-you-go price, HProxy covers it.
The short version
- Price: HProxy residential is $0.65/GB flat. IPRoyal residential is $7.35/GB at 1 GB, about $5.15/GB at 50 GB, and reaches its advertised $1.75/GB floor only in bulk. HProxy is cheaper at every tier.
- Model: Both are pay as you go with traffic or balance that never expires. This is common ground, and IPRoyal deserves credit for it.
- KYC: HProxy is self-serve with no KYC for standard use. IPRoyal maintains a KYC policy, so verification can be required.
- Independence: Both are independent. Neither is part of the Tesonet group that owns Oxylabs, Decodo, and Webshare.
IPRoyal pricing vs HProxy: the part that decides it
| HProxy | IPRoyal | |
|---|---|---|
| Residential, entry per GB | $0.65 | $7.35 (1 GB) |
| Residential at 50 GB | $0.65 | $5.15 pay as you go / $4.90 subscription |
| Advertised bulk floor | $0.65 | from $1.75/GB (large volume) |
| Billing model | Pay as you go | Pay as you go or subscription |
| Traffic / balance expiry | Never expires | Never expires |
| Onboarding | Self-serve, no KYC | KYC policy, verification can apply |
| Protocols | HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, SOCKS5 | HTTP(S), SOCKS5 |
Here is IPRoyal'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:
| IPRoyal Royal Residential | Pay as you go, per GB | Subscription, per GB (5% off) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | $7.35 | $7.00 |
| 2 GB | $6.25 | $5.95 |
| 10 GB | $5.51 | $5.25 |
| 50 GB | $5.15 | $4.90 |
| Bulk (large volume) | as low as $1.75 | as low as $1.75 |
The headline you will see on IPRoyal's site is "from $1.75/GB," and that number is real, but it is the bulk floor, not the rate a normal buyer pays. Start with 1 GB and you are at $7.35/GB. Buy 50 GB and you are still near $5/GB. You only reach $1.75 by purchasing in large volume. HProxy's $0.65 is the price at 1 GB and the price at 500 GB, because it is a single flat rate. Even measured against IPRoyal's best bulk floor, the $1.75 that needs serious volume, HProxy is cheaper, and against the entry rate it is roughly eleven times cheaper.
Because both companies bill pay as you go with non-expiring credit, the comparison is unusually clean: same model, same "pay for what you pull," so the per-GB number is doing almost all the work. On a 50 GB project that is roughly $33 at HProxy versus about $258 at IPRoyal's 50 GB pay-as-you-go rate.
Where IPRoyal genuinely wins
This is the part we mean sincerely, because IPRoyal is a good company.
The model is the right one. Pay as you go, traffic that never expires, no forced monthly commitment. That is the model we chose too, and IPRoyal has run it well for years. If you already like how IPRoyal bills, you like how HProxy bills.
Product breadth and brand. IPRoyal sells residential, ISP proxies (from $1.80/IP, 500K+ addresses), datacenter (from $1.39/proxy), mobile (from $117/month, 4.5M+ IPs), a web unblocker, and sneaker proxies, backed by an established brand and a large 64M+ residential pool. If you want one well-known vendor across many proxy types, that range is real, and its standing in the sneaker and reselling community is earned.
Documentation and integrations. IPRoyal is widely supported across scraping tools and anti-detect browsers, with solid docs. If you value being able to find a tutorial for your exact stack, that maturity helps.
If those things matter more to you than shaving the per-GB rate, IPRoyal is a legitimately good choice, and we are not going to tell you otherwise.
Where HProxy wins as an IPRoyal alternative
Price, at every tier. Same pay-as-you-go, non-expiring model, lower number. About eleven times cheaper at the entry rate and still cheaper than IPRoyal's deepest bulk floor. If price is the deciding factor and you like the IPRoyal way of buying, HProxy is that model for less.
No KYC for standard use. HProxy does not put an identity check between you and a working proxy for standard use. IPRoyal maintains a KYC policy, so some buyers hit verification. If a self-serve start with no interview matters to you, that is a real difference.
A single flat rate. You do not have to buy in bulk to reach a good price. HProxy's $0.65/GB is the same at 1 GB as it is at 500 GB, so a small buyer is not paying a small-buyer penalty.
The same jobs, done, plus the same types. HProxy also sells ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies, so you can cover the same range of tasks, from scraping and price monitoring to sneaker releases and account work, without changing vendors. If you are weighing rotating residential against static ISP for a given job, our rotating vs static residential proxies guide lays out the tradeoff.
Who should pick which
Pick IPRoyal if you want its product breadth, its brand and community standing, or its specific ISP, mobile, or sneaker tiers, and the higher residential per-GB rate is worth it to you for that.
Pick HProxy if you want the same pay-as-you-go, non-expiring residential model at a lower flat rate, with no KYC gate and no bulk requirement to reach the good price. For most residential scraping, monitoring, and multi-region work, that is the better deal.
The honest summary: IPRoyal and HProxy agree on how proxies should be sold. We just sell them cheaper, and without the verification step.
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 choosing proxies for a scraping project specifically, our complete guide to proxies for web scraping walks through which type fits which target, and our full pricing shows every per-GB rate on the same pay-as-you-go, non-expiring terms.