Shifter (shifter.io) sells residential proxies in three pools and static ISP proxies, all on monthly plans. On 27 September 2026 we compared every plan on its two proxy price pages with our own price for the same monthly volume, like for like. Shifter also sells a scraping API and a SERP API, which this page does not compare.
The answer depends on what you buy. We are cheaper for residential traffic targeted by country, at any volume, and for small amounts of city-targeted traffic. Shifter is cheaper for city-targeted traffic from about 32 GB a month, for traffic with no targeting at all, and for static ISP addresses.
The short version
- Targeted by country: our Residential Lite costs $0.50/GB for the first gigabyte and $0.44/GB at 2,000 GB+. Shifter's Country Geo starts at $0.60 a GB on a 165 GB plan ($99 a month) and reaches $0.48 from 998 GB. At each of its eight plan sizes, Lite is cheaper for the same volume.
- City and ASN targeting: our Residential Premium costs $1.49/GB for the first gigabyte and $1.00/GB at 1,000 GB+. Shifter's Full Geo costs $2.00 a GB on its 5 and 10 GB plans, $1.50 at 20 GB, $1.25 at 32 GB, $1.00 at 50 and 100 GB, and $0.75 from 200 GB. Premium is cheaper up to Shifter's 20 GB plan. From 32 GB a month, Shifter is cheaper.
- No targeting at all: Shifter's Non-Geo pool costs $0.25 a GB at 996 GB, down to $0.10 at 25 TB. We have no pool without targeting.
- Static ISP: ours is $2.70/IP for a month, from one address. Shifter costs less per address on every plan, from $2.50 for 4 addresses to $0.70 for 5,000.
- Billing: Shifter's plans bill monthly and renew until you cancel. We sell from a balance with no subscription, and purchased gigabytes have no scheduled expiry date.
Shifter pricing vs HProxy: the part that decides it
Every price on Shifter's residential and ISP pages sits next to a higher crossed-out list price, shown as 25 to 72 percent off. The prices on this page are the ones you pay, as Shifter showed them on 27 September 2026.
Residential with city targeting
Only Shifter's Full Geo pool targets cities. In its own words, "Every Full Geo plan includes country, city, and ASN-level geo-targeting across 195+ countries". It comes in three families of monthly plans:
| Full Geo plan | A month | Traffic | Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite Spark | $10 | 5 GB | $2.00 |
| Lite Launch | $20 | 10 GB | $2.00 |
| Lite Boost | $30 | 20 GB | $1.50 |
| Lite Surge | $40 | 32 GB | $1.25 |
| Regular Starter | $50 | 50 GB | $1.00 |
| Regular Basic | $100 | 100 GB | $1.00 |
| Regular Business | $149 | 200 GB | $0.75 |
| Regular Growth | $299 | 400 GB | $0.75 |
| Enterprise, 4 plans | $599 to $7,499 | 800 GB to 10 TB | $0.75 |
Our Residential Premium also targets state, city and ASN. It costs $1.49/GB for the first gigabyte and gets cheaper with volume, down to $1.00/GB at 1,000 GB+. That is less than Shifter charges on its 5, 10 and 20 GB plans. From the 32 GB plan up, Shifter's rate is below ours for the same volume, and from 200 GB its $0.75 is below even our rate at 1,000 GB+.
The monthly plan matters as much as the rate. Shifter's billing documentation says plans "bill monthly" and renew "automatically until you cancel". The 50 GB Starter costs $50 every month, whether you use 5 GB of it or all 50. Our gigabytes come from a balance and have no scheduled expiry date, so a month you do not use costs nothing. If your use goes up and down, compare what you would spend in a year, not the rate on one plan.
Residential targeted by country only
Shifter's Country Geo pool "targets by country only", and so does our Residential Lite. Country Geo costs $0.60 a GB on its smallest plan (165 GB for $99 a month), then $0.56 and $0.52, and $0.48 from 998 GB ($479 a month) up to 15.6 TB ($7,499). Lite costs $0.50/GB for one gigabyte and $0.44/GB at 2,000 GB+. At each of the eight Country Geo plan sizes, the same volume costs less on Lite, and Lite is not a monthly plan.
Residential with no targeting
Non-Geo is the cheapest thing Shifter sells: $0.25 a GB at 996 GB ($249 a month), $0.20 at 2.5 TB, $0.15 at 6.7 TB and $0.10 at 25 TB ($2,499 a month). It has no targeting at all, not even a country. We have no pool like it, because every residential product of ours lets you choose at least the country. If a job needs terabytes and does not care where the traffic comes from, Non-Geo costs less than anything we sell.
Static ISP
Shifter sells static ISP addresses in twelve monthly plans:
| ISP plans | A month | Addresses | Per IP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite, 4 plans | $10 to $30 | 4 to 15 | $2.50 to $2.00 |
| Regular, 4 plans | $42 to $252 | 25 to 200 | $1.68 to $1.26 |
| Enterprise, 4 plans | $560 to $3,500 | 500 to 5,000 | $1.12 to $0.70 |
The price page also shows $1.00 an IP. That is the crossed-out list price of the 5,000-address Max plan, which costs $0.70 an IP. Our static ISP is $2.70/IP for a month, per address. You can buy a single address, and buy it for a week, a month or three months. Shifter is cheaper per address on every plan. We are the choice when you need one to three addresses, since Shifter's smallest plan has four, or an address for less than a month.
Where Shifter wins
- City-targeted traffic from about 32 GB a month. Its plans cost $1.25 a GB at 32 GB, $1.00 at 50 and 100 GB, and $0.75 from 200 GB, below our Premium rate for the same volume.
- Bulk traffic with no targeting. Non-Geo reaches $0.10 a GB at 25 TB, and we sell nothing untargeted.
- Static ISP by the block. Each of its twelve ISP plans costs less per address than ours.
- Protocols. Its pricing FAQ says "All plans support HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, and SOCKS5". Our Premium gives HTTP and SOCKS5 ports.
Where HProxy wins
- Traffic targeted by country, at any volume. Residential Lite costs less than every Country Geo plan for the same volume.
- Small or uneven city-targeted jobs. Up to 20 GB a month, Premium costs less than Shifter's Lite plans, and you pay for the gigabytes you use, not for a plan.
- No subscription. Purchased gigabytes have no scheduled expiry date. A Shifter plan bills every month until you cancel.
- Long sessions. Premium keeps one address for up to 24 hours. Shifter's pricing FAQ and homepage give 30 or 60 minutes, and its session documentation names no maximum.
- One address at a time. Static ISP from a single address, for a week, a month or three months.
Shifter was Microleaves
Shifter is the renamed Microleaves. In July 2022 Krebs on Security reported the service as "in the process of being rebranded" to Shifter.io, and a Shifter manager told Krebs that the new owner had made the rebrand. The same report said exposed data showed Microleaves being supplied with new proxies by affiliates who spread its software "any which way they can", and that antivirus companies had long classified it as adware.
That is history, not a finding about today. Shifter's about page says "Every IP in our pool is a genuine residential connection", and it does not say how the addresses join its network. If where a residential address comes from matters to you, ask Shifter, and ask us too. Our page on Shifter's alternatives tells the whole history with its sources.
Who should pick which
Pick Shifter if your city-targeted traffic is a steady 32 GB a month or more, if you move terabytes with no targeting, or if you need static ISP addresses in blocks of four or more.
Pick HProxy if your traffic is targeted by country, if your city-targeted use is small or uneven, if you want to pay only for what you use with no plan, or if you need a single ISP address or a session longer than an hour.
How we compared
On 27 September 2026 we read the plan lists inside Shifter's residential and ISP price pages from our own server, as text. A script then compared every plan with our price for the same monthly volume, like for like: Full Geo against Residential Premium, Country Geo against Residential Lite, and ISP against our ISP proxies for a month. Our prices come from the same price list our site uses. We bought nothing and sent no traffic through either network, so this page compares prices and terms, not speed or success rates.
Sources
- Shifter, shifter.io: the plan lists of its residential and ISP price pages, its billing documentation, its residential documentation FAQ, its homepage and its about page. Read 27 September 2026 from our server.
- Krebs on Security, Breach Exposes Users of Microleaves Proxy Service, 28 July 2022, read in its archived copy.
- HProxy, our pricing, terms and price list. Read 27 September 2026.
- Measured by HProxy: every Shifter plan against our price for the same volume, 27 September 2026. The script and its output are kept with the research for this page.
