HProxy vs Shifter.io: Residential and ISP Proxies, Plan by Plan (2026)

Compared against Shifter

Shifter (shifter.io) sells residential proxies in three pools and ISP proxies, all on monthly plans. We read its price pages, documentation and terms through our server on October 22, 2026. Then we matched each Shifter product with ours: Full Geo with Premium, Country Geo with Lite, and its ISP plans with our static ISP. Two things changed since our read of September 27. A banner now offers the second month free, and its ISP proxies no longer promise a fixed address. Shifter also sells a scraping API and a SERP API, which this page leaves out. We sell residential proxies too, so treat our reading of the numbers with care.

Shifter.io vs HProxy at a glance

What does Shifter charge for city-targeted traffic?

Full Geo is the only Shifter pool that targets cities. Its price page lists country, state, city and ASN targeting across 205M+ IPs, which matches our Residential Premium.

The Starter to Growth rows come from the page on October 22. The Lite and Enterprise tabs load in the browser, so those rows come from our records of September 27. The four Regular plans sit beside crossed-out list prices shown as 63 to 71 percent off.

Premium costs $1.49/GB for the first GB and falls to $1.00/GB at 1,000 GB+. On October 22 that undercut Shifter's 5, 10 and 20 GB plans. From the 32 GB plan up, Shifter charges less than Premium at the same volume. From 200 GB, its $0.75 sits below even our floor.

The monthly plan changes the arithmetic. A plan bills every month whether you use it or not, and traffic beyond it is charged from a wallet at the plan's rate. Our gigabytes come from a balance with no scheduled expiry date, so a quiet month costs nothing.

What does the second free month change?

On October 22, a banner on Shifter's homepage and price pages said "Buy one, get one free". It went on: "Second month is free, with full traffic included". The text names no end date and no conditions, and we bought nothing to see it applied.

If it covers your plan, two months of the 50 GB Starter bring 100 GB for $50, or $0.50 a GB. Two months of the 200 GB Business plan bring 400 GB for $149. The same offer on Country Geo would take its first two months below Lite's rate. After that, the plan renews at its monthly price. Weigh a full year of use, free month included, against the same traffic bought from a balance.

How do country-targeted and untargeted traffic compare?

• Country Geo against Lite. Country Geo targets by country only, like our Residential Lite. Its plans in our September 27 records run from $99 for 165 GB ($0.60 a GB) down to $0.48 a GB from 998 GB, and its October headline still reads from $0.48. Lite costs $0.50/GB for the first GB and $0.44/GB at 2,000 GB+. At each Country Geo plan size, the same volume costs less on Lite, with no plan to renew.
• Non-Geo. This pool has no targeting at all, not even a country. It runs from $0.25 a GB on 996 GB ($249 a month) down to $0.10 on 25 TB ($2,499). We sell no untargeted pool, so for terabytes that may come from anywhere, Non-Geo costs less than anything we sell.

How do Shifter's ISP proxies differ from ours?

Shifter's ISP proxies keep the city and the ISP you choose for the whole billing period. Its ISP FAQ adds that the IP address behind a proxy can refresh over time. Plans with pinned IPs are kept for existing customers.

The Regular rows, Starter to Growth, come from the October 22 page, and the Lite rows from our September 27 records. Its pricing overview says ISP proxies start from $1.00 per IP; the plans we could read start at $1.26.

Ours is a static ISP address: the exit IP is the one you bought, for $2.70/IP a month. You can buy a single address, for a week, a month or three months. It carries HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 on ports 80 and 443. Shifter charges less per address on every plan and lets you pick the city and the ISP, while ours is chosen by country. Ours fits when the address itself must stay put, as with an allowlist, or when you need fewer than four.

How do refunds, payments and terms compare?

• Shifter refunds. Its billing page grants a refund within 72 hours of a first purchase, with less than half of the plan's traffic used. Its terms of service say services are refundable within 3 days only.
• Renewal. Plans renew every month until you cancel. Canceling keeps the service to the end of the cycle, with no proration.
• Abuse fee. Its terms charge $50 for each third-party abuse complaint linked to your addresses, with possible account termination.
• Blocked sites. Its residential FAQ lists banking portals, government services, explicit adult content and most mail (SMTP) destinations.
• Shifter payments. Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover cards, USDT and USDC on Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain, PayPal in eligible regions, and wire transfer on enterprise plans.
• HProxy. Our terms put no scheduled expiry date on purchased gigabytes, and our refund policy returns unused balance for 14 days. We take cards, crypto, Alipay, Pix and QRIS, and a first top-up starts at $3 in crypto.

Where is Shifter the better pick?

• City-level volume from 32 GB a month. Full Geo costs $1.25 a GB at 32 GB and $0.75 from 200 GB, below Premium at the same volume.
• Terabytes with no targeting. Non-Geo reaches $0.10 a GB at 25 TB, and we sell nothing untargeted.
• ISP proxies by city and ISP, in blocks. Every ISP plan costs less per address than ours.
• A second month free, wherever the offer applies.
• PayPal, in eligible regions.

Where is HProxy the better pick?

• Country-targeted traffic at any volume. Lite costs less than every Country Geo plan for the same volume.
• Small or uneven city-level jobs. Up to 20 GB a month, Premium costs less than Shifter's plans, and nothing renews.
• One address that stays the same. Our static ISP keeps the address you bought, from one IP and for as little as a week.
• Long sessions. Premium holds an exit for up to 24 hours.
• Two weeks to reclaim unused balance, by card or crypto, however much of it you have already spent.
• Alipay, Pix and QRIS at checkout.

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. 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". It added that antivirus companies had long classified it as adware.

Those findings date from 2022. Shifter's about page says "Every IP in our pool is a genuine residential connection". It does not say how the addresses join its network. If the origin of a residential address matters to you, ask Shifter, and ask us too. Our page on Shifter's alternatives tells the whole history with its sources.

Which seller fits which job?

Pick Shifter if your city-level traffic is a steady 32 GB a month or more, or if you move terabytes with no targeting. It also suits ISP proxies bought in blocks by city and ISP.

Pick HProxy if your traffic is targeted by country, or your city-level use is small or uneven. It also suits a single fixed ISP address and sessions longer than an hour. Our pricing page lists every rate.

How we compared

We read Shifter's price pages, documentation and terms as text through our server on October 22, 2026. The Regular Full Geo and Regular ISP plans came from that read. Other tabs and pools load in the browser, so those rows come from our September 27 records, whose headline rates match today's. Each plan was set against our price for the same volume on the matching product, from the price list our site uses.

What this page could not check

• Speed and success rates. We tested neither network for this page, ours included.
• Hidden plan tabs. The Lite and Enterprise plans, and the Country Geo and Non-Geo plan lists, load in the browser. Their prices are from September 27.
• The free month. The banner names no end date or conditions in the text we read.
• The pricing FAQ. Its answers load in the browser, so its own words on protocols and the trial stayed unread.
• Next check. Shifter changed its ISP product and added the offer within a month, so look again after December 22, 2026.

Sources

• Shifter, shifter.io: residential and ISP price pages, pricing overview, homepage, about page, billing documentation, residential FAQ and sessions documentation, ISP FAQ, terms of service, llms.txt and its May 18, 2026 product post. Read October 22, 2026, from our server.
• Shifter's plan lists in our records of September 27, 2026.
• Krebs on Security, Breach Exposes Users of Microleaves Proxy Service, published July 28, 2022; we read its archived copy.
• HProxy, our pricing, terms and price list, October 22, 2026.
• Google Keyword Planner, worldwide, October 22, 2026: "shifter proxy" 390 searches a month and "shifter coupon" 90.