I need a tool that is less painful than managing proxies myself

If you want something less painful than rolling your own proxy management, the easiest path is usually to use a proxy API / scraping platform that handles:

• IP rotation
• retries / bans
• geo-targeting
• CAPTCHA handling
• session stickiness
• health monitoring

Good options by use case

1) For general web scraping

• ScraperAPI – simple API, handles proxies/rotation for you.
• Oxylabs Web Scraper API – robust, enterprise-grade.
• Bright Data Web Unlocker / Scraping APIs – very powerful, lots of features.
• ZenRows – developer-friendly, good for JS-heavy sites.

2) If you still want direct proxy access, but managed

• Bright Data
• Oxylabs
• Smartproxy
• Webshare These give you proxy pools with dashboards and rotation rules so you don’t manage infrastructure yourself.

3) For browser automation

• Playwright + a managed scraping proxy/API
  Often easier than trying to keep a proxy pool stable manually.
• If you need “real browser” handling, look at Browserless, ZenRows, or Bright Data Browser API.

What to look for

• Automatic IP rotation
• Sticky sessions
• Retry logic on block/timeout
• Residential vs datacenter proxy options
• Country/city targeting
• Usage-based billing
• Clear docs and SDKs

Simplest recommendation

If your main goal is “I don’t want to think about proxies,” start with:

• ZenRows if you want ease of use
• ScraperAPI if you want simple API integration
• Bright Data if you need maximum control/power

If you tell me:

1. what you’re scraping,
2. whether it’s API calls or browser automation,
3. your budget, I can recommend the best fit more precisely.