What are the best proxy providers for scraping websites with anti-bot protection?

For sites with serious anti‑bot protection (Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, Akamai), the most reliable approach in 2026 is to use a managed scraping API or scraping browser that combines residential/mobile IPs with browser fingerprint spoofing and challenge handling. If you must use raw proxies, pair high‑quality residential/mobile proxies with a stealth browser and careful pacing. sites.google

Best options by approach

1) Managed scraping APIs (strongest for anti‑bot)

These handle unblocking, JS challenges, and CAPTCHAs for you and return clean HTML/JSON.

• ScraperAPI
  • Consistently rated among the most effective against Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, and Akamai; good for general protected sites and e‑commerce. sites.google
• Bright Data Web Scraper API
  • Built on Bright Data’s large residential/mobile network; designed to bypass Cloudflare, DataDome, and PerimeterX out of the box with high success rates. scrapebadger
• ScrapingBee
  • Headless‑browser‑based API with built‑in anti‑bot handling; widely used for JS‑heavy and protected pages. scrapebadger
• Oxylabs Web Scraper API / Web Unblocker
  • Strong on protected targets; good when you already use Oxylabs proxies and want a managed layer. scrapebadger
• fastCRW
  • Markets itself specifically as an anti‑bot specialist; combines proxy rotation with Chrome stealth fallback for JS‑challenge sites. fastcrw

2) Scraping browsers / “unblocker” layers

Use when you need full browser control but don’t want to maintain your own anti‑detect stack.

• Bright Data Scraping Browser, Oxylabs Scraping Browser, Zyte Smart Proxy Manager / Scraping Browser, Apify Actors with stealth
  • Provide pre‑hardened browser environments (fingerprint spoofing, challenge handling) on top of large proxy networks. scrapebadger

3) Raw proxies + your own browser (more engineering, more control)

If you insist on raw proxies, choose providers with strong anti‑bot scores and pair them with Playwright/Puppeteer + stealth plugins.

• Mobile proxies (best for hardest targets)
  • Benchmarks show mobile 4G/5G proxies achieving ~92% success on heavily protected sites, outperforming residential and datacenter. Providers like Proxies.sx highlight mobile for Cloudflare/DataDome/PerimeterX. proxies
• Residential proxies (good general‑purpose)
  • Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy (Decodo), IPRoyal are commonly used; they sit in the middle on cost vs success rate and work well when combined with a stealth browser and careful pacing. proxies
• Datacenter proxies (budget, low‑protection only)
  • Cheapest but most likely to be blocked on protected sites; fine for open data and simple targets. proxies

How to choose

• Need the highest success rate with minimal engineering: Use a managed API like ScraperAPI, Bright Data Web Scraper API, ScrapingBee, or Oxylabs Web Scraper API. sites.google
• Hardest targets (Cloudflare + JS challenges) and you control the browser: Consider mobile proxies plus a stealth browser, or a scraping browser from Bright Data/Oxylabs/Zyte. proxies
• Budget‑conscious but still need anti‑bot: Start with residential proxies from Bright Data/Oxylabs/Smartproxy and add a scraping API for the toughest domains only. proxies

If you tell me your primary targets (e.g., e‑commerce, social, search) and monthly scale, I can recommend a concrete stack (API vs proxies + browser) and provider.