Zyte is a genuinely good company, and for a lot of buyers it is the right pick - we say so below, plainly. This page is for the other buyer: 1-3 hard anti-bot targets, a flat price that does not jump when the site fights back, first data in days, and a principal engineer you talk to directly - on real dedicated 4G/5G carrier IPs.
SOC2. A 15-year track record. The Scrapy ecosystem. 195-country coverage. Zyte is one of the most established names in web data, and its compliance posture and open-source pedigree are real assets a small shop like ours cannot match. Coverage is the one gap that has narrowed: alongside the 500+ modems we own in 6 core countries, our SDK peer network of real devices now reaches 100+ countries and growing - so the honest gaps left are compliance, ecosystem and track record, not geography.
And on easy-tier sites Zyte is unbeatable on price - roughly $0.13 per 1k HTTP requests (as of mid-2026 - verify current rates). If your workload is high-volume, low-defense sites, no flat retainer of ours will ever beat that math, and we will not pretend otherwise.
If you need compliance sign-off and a name legal recognizes, pick Zyte. That is not a backhanded compliment - it is the correct call for that buyer.
Competitor pricing and coverage as of mid-2026 - verify current rates on Zyte's site. Verified July 2026.
The narrow lane we actually win: hard targets, flat price, fast start, engineer-direct.
Zyte prices per site by difficulty tier - and a site's tier can be reassigned to a harder, pricier bracket silently. A Tier-5 (browser + anti-bot) site multiplies your bill. Our retainer is flat regardless of how hard the target fights.
No enterprise scope, quote and statement-of-work cycle. We quote a flat monthly retainer in about 24 hours and prove it with a paid pilot on your hardest target before you commit.
On exactly the Tier-5 targets where Zyte's datacenter / residential / browser stack gets expensive, we run dedicated real 4G/5G carrier modems - the one class of IP anti-bot vendors cannot blocklist wholesale.
Not an account-manager layer. You talk to the engineer who builds, runs and repairs your pipeline - and when the site changes, fixing it is our problem, not yours.
We concede the big columns loudly and win the narrow ones. Competitor figures as of mid-2026 - verify current rates. Verified July 2026.
| Zyte | PROXIES.SX Data Works | |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance & track record | SOC2, 15-year track record - they win, clearly | No SOC2. Verifiable IP sourcing instead |
| Country coverage | 195 countries - still the longer list | 6 owned-modem countries + SDK peers across 100+ countries and growing |
| Easy-tier sites at volume | Unbeatable: ~$0.13/1k HTTP requests (mid-2026, verify) - they win | Not our lane - use Zyte for these |
| Ecosystem | Scrapy - the open-source standard. They win | No framework ecosystem |
| Pricing model on hard sites | Difficulty tiers; a site can be reassigned to a pricier bracket silently; Tier-5 multiplies the bill | Flat retainer, regardless of how hard the target fights |
| Time to first data | Enterprise scope, quote, SOW cycle | Quoted in ~24h, first data in days |
| Exit IPs on Tier-5 targets | Datacenter / residential / browser stack - gets expensive | Dedicated real 4G/5G carrier modems |
| Who you talk to | Account-manager layer | The principal engineer building it |
Genuinely: if this is you, go to Zyte. We will tell you the same on a scoping call.
Our lane is narrow and we stay in it: 1-3 hard targets at a time, on real carrier IPs - dedicated modems in 6 core countries, SDK reach across 100+ countries and growing.
Every Data Works retainer is custom-quoted per project on target difficulty, number of sources and volume - one flat monthly number, quoted in about 24 hours, and proven with a paid pilot on your hardest target before you commit. No difficulty tiers, no silent bracket reassignment.
Just want the raw proxies? The same dedicated 4G/5G carrier IPs are self-serve from $4/GB (down to $2.40 at volume) - start here.
Pricing verified July 2026. Zyte figures as of mid-2026 - verify current rates on their site.
No, and we will not pretend it is. Zyte has SOC2, a 15-year track record, the Scrapy ecosystem and 195-country coverage. We are the alternative for a narrower job: 1-3 hard anti-bot targets, delivered as data at a flat price, with the engineer on the call. On coverage the gap has narrowed - 500+ owned 4G/5G modems in 6 core countries plus an SDK peer network across 100+ countries and growing - but if you need Zyte's compliance paperwork or the Scrapy ecosystem, pick Zyte.
You would not, for easy sites. At roughly $0.13 per 1k HTTP requests on easy-tier sites (as of mid-2026 - verify current rates), Zyte is unbeatable there and we say so on this page. The problem is the difficulty-tier system: a site's tier can be reassigned to a harder, pricier bracket silently, and a Tier-5 (browser + anti-bot) site multiplies your bill. Our retainer stays flat regardless of how hard the target fights.
Data Works retainers are custom-quoted per project on target difficulty, number of sources and volume - one flat monthly number, quoted in about 24 hours. The same dedicated 4G/5G carrier IPs are also self-serve from $4/GB (down to $2.40 at volume). Proxy pricing verified July 2026; retainers are custom-quoted per project.
We quote in about 24 hours and the pilot on your hardest target typically returns real rows within days - versus an enterprise scope, quote and statement-of-work cycle. Before you commit to a retainer, we prove it with a paid pilot on your specific target.
No. If your procurement or legal team requires compliance certificates and a name they recognize, Zyte is the right call and we will tell you that on the scoping call. Our trade is different: verifiable IP sourcing (we physically own our modems), a flat price and direct access to the engineer.
The hardest tiers are hard because anti-bot systems ban on IP reputation before any challenge. Real carrier CGNAT IPs are shared with millions of legitimate phone users, so they cannot be blocklisted wholesale - which is exactly why they pass on the browser-plus-anti-bot targets where a datacenter/residential/browser stack gets expensive.
Two tiers. For the highest control: 500+ physical 4G/5G modems we own and operate on real mobile carriers in 6 core countries - single-tenant and dedicated. For breadth: an SDK peer network of real devices across 100+ countries and growing, over 1M IPs in total. Zyte still lists 195 countries; if your project needs a market neither tier reaches, we will say so on the scoping call.
Yes. The same real 4G/5G carrier IPs are self-serve from $4/GB - no retainer required.
From running it yourself on our proxies to a fully managed pipeline - honestly compared.
Best when: You have engineers and 1-2 easy targets
Best when: Light, unprotected pages at low volume
Best when: 1-3 hard, defended targets like a hard target
Point us at the target. We quote a flat retainer in about 24 hours and prove it with a paid pilot - real rows before you commit. If Zyte is the better fit, we will say so.