Shifter vs NodeMaven
Looking for a NodeMaven alternative? We counted the residential IPs each network had live and answering in five markets. Shifter led every one, by more than three times in the largest and by nearly four times in the smallest, at 66% less per GB.
Trusted by 50,000+ clients worldwide
A wider pool everywhere, at a third of the rate
Lowest published rate per GB from each provider. NodeMaven charges $4.50 per GB without a monthly plan.
| Monthly volume | Shifter | NodeMaven | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | Not offered | $4.50/GB no monthly plan | |
| 100 GB | $100 $1.00/GB | ~$220 ~$2.20/GB | 55% |
| Best rate | $0.75/GB from 200 GB | $2.20/GB monthly plans | 66% |
Live IPs online during the test
Distinct IPs each network had live and reachable at test time, not the size of its total network. Residential IPs rotate all day, so both providers serve far more addresses across 24 hours.
Every metric, country by country
Pick a country to see the complete measurement, including the numbers that did not go our way.
| Metric | Shifter | NodeMaven |
|---|---|---|
| Requests sent | 250,000 | 250,000 |
| Live IPs during the test | 212,212 | 62,053 |
| Unique networks (ASNs) | 1,828 | 1,002 |
| Unique cities | 5,805 | 4,662 |
| Average latency | 427 ms | 3,290 ms |
| Success rate | 100% | 67.7% |
Shifter served 3.4 times the live US IPs, 212,212 against 62,053, across 1,828 networks against 1,002, and answered in 427 ms against 3,290 ms. NodeMaven filters its pool for quality, which is a reasonable trade to offer, but the filtered pool measured under a third of the size while a 100 GB month costs $220 against Shifter's $100.
How we measured this
Each request opened its own connection through the provider's rotating residential gateway and read the exit address back from an IP echo service. One connection per request means one fresh exit per request, so distinct addresses map directly to the reachable pool.
Both providers received identical volumes in each market, 250,000 requests in the United States, 100,000 in the United Kingdom, 80,000 in France, 70,000 in Canada and 60,000 in Germany, at the same concurrency of 1,000, the same 10 second timeout and the same target, tested from a single server one provider at a time. Shifter was re-measured on 7 October 2026 with the identical method and settings; NodeMaven's figures come from its run on 12 August 2026.
NodeMaven returned between 53% and 68% of requests inside the timeout. Those timeouts are reported as measured. We did not run the isolation tests that would be needed to attribute a cause, so we do not offer one.
What these numbers mean
Every count on this page is the number of IPs that were live and reachable at the time of the test, not the size of either provider's network. Residential IPs rotate constantly as real devices come online and drop off, so across a full day both networks serve far more addresses than a single window can capture. What limits a crawl is how many respond at the same moment, which is what this measures.
Why use Shifter residential proxies?
A larger live pool in all five markets
From 152% more in the United Kingdom to 497% more in France, measured with the same method against the same target.
Wider network spread everywhere
1,828 US networks against 1,002, 147 French against 34, 272 German against 135. Anti-bot systems key on the network an address sits on, so spread does more than raw count.
Several times faster to respond
427 ms against 3,290 ms in the United States and 447 ms against 3,383 ms in the United Kingdom, on the same target from the same machine.
66% less per GB
$0.75 against $2.20, and NodeMaven charges $4.50 without a monthly plan.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about how we benchmarked NodeMaven.
Partly, and that is the trade they market: fewer addresses, screened for quality. Whether it is worth a sixth of the French pool or a quarter of the German one at three times the price is a judgement for your own targets, which is why we publish the method so you can test it.
Shifter answered in 377 ms to 463 ms on the same targets from the same machine, against NodeMaven's average of 1,867 ms in Canada to 3,383 ms in the United Kingdom. Between 32% and 47% of its requests also failed to return inside the ten second timeout.
It counts IPs live at test time rather than a lifetime total. Residential IPs rotate all day, so both providers serve far more addresses across 24 hours than any single window shows.
Five: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany, run on the same machine with identical request volumes for both providers in each market, with Shifter re-measured on 7 October 2026. Shifter led the live pool in all five.
Rotate through a deeper pool
Between two and a half and six times the live addresses across every market we measured, over a wider spread of networks, at a third of the cost per GB.