Webshare Review
The deepest competitor pool we have measured, cheaply sold, with the slowest responses in the series.
The short version
- Webshare returned 306,410 live IPs across five countries, the largest total of any competitor we have tested.
- Shifter led it in four of the five countries. Germany was the exception, our 22,428 live addresses against its 25,202.
- Average responses ran 906 ms to 975 ms, roughly twice the mid-table and the slowest set of timings in the series.
- Pricing is genuinely mid-market: $2.25 per GB at 100 GB, falling to $1.40 at 3 TB.
At a glance
What we measured
Live IPs each network had answering during the same test window, five countries, identical request volumes and concurrency for both sides.
| Country | Webshare | Shifter | Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 150,512 | 212,212 | 1,518 |
| United Kingdom | 51,564 | 60,487 | 209 |
| France | 43,179 | 49,449 | 96 |
| Canada | 35,953 | 45,517 | 245 |
| Germany | 25,202 | 22,428 | 188 |
The largest rival pool in the series
Webshare returned more live addresses than any competitor we have tested: 306,410 across five countries, with 150,512 in the United States alone. Against our own network it led one market, Germany, where our 22,428 trailed its 25,202 by 11%, still the widest single-country margin any competitor recorded against us.
That is worth stating plainly because it runs against our commercial interest. If raw address count in Germany is your buying criterion, Webshare won our test there.
Spread favors us as well. We recorded 2,721 distinct operators against its 2,256, and in France 147 networks against its 96. Anti-bot systems key on the operator behind an address, so a bigger pool on fewer networks is not automatically harder to block.
Fast to buy, slow to answer
Nothing was dropped, nothing needed retrying.
Speed is the trade. Average responses ran 906 ms in France to 975 ms in the United States, the slowest averages we recorded from any network that completed its run. Against a mid-table provider that is roughly double, and against the fastest closer to triple.
For overnight batch work that is a non-issue. For anything where a user or a queue is waiting, it compounds quickly: at a million requests, an extra 500 ms per request is roughly 139 hours of additional wall-clock time spread across your workers.
Pricing
| Plan | Traffic | Per GB | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 1 GB | $3.50 | $3.50 |
| Small | 10 GB | $2.75 | $27.50 |
| Medium | 100 GB | $2.25 | $225 |
| Scale | 3 TB | $1.40 | $4,200 |
Pros and cons
- Largest competitor pool we have measured, 306,410 addresses across five countries
- Self-serve from $3.50, no sales call and no KYC
- Self-serve from $3.50, no sales call and no KYC
- Mid-market pricing for a top-tier pool, $2.25 per GB at 100 GB
- Slowest average response times in our entire series, 906 ms to 975 ms
- Fewer distinct networks than pool size implies, our 147 in France against its 96
- No residential trial, only free datacenter proxies
- The $1.40 rate needs a $4,200 monthly commitment
Who Webshare is for
- Raw pool depth is what you are buying, and throughput matters more than latency.
- You want to start immediately with no sales call and no KYC.
- You run batch or overnight jobs where an extra half second per request is irrelevant.
- Latency is part of your product, since this was the slowest network we measured.
- You need network diversity in Europe more than address count.
- You want a residential trial, which is not offered.
How we scored it
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live pool measured | 25% | 7.7 | 306,410 IPs live across five countries, against the tested field. |
| Network spread measured | 20% | 7.9 | 2,256 distinct networks across five countries. |
| Price per GB measured | 25% | 8.5 | $1.40 per GB, which requires 3 TB a month at $4,200. A 100 GB buyer pays $2.25 and the entry tier is $3.50. |
| Response time measured | 10% | 7.9 | 924 ms average across the countries tested. |
| Country coverage | 10% | 10 | 195+ countries advertised, scaled against full global coverage. |
| Features | 5% | 7.5 | Unlimited concurrency, city targeting, HTTP(S) and SOCKS5, straightforward dashboard. No HTTP3, and session control is less flexible than the premium tier of the market. |
| Transparency | 5% | 8.5 | Whole ladder published, instant self-serve signup, no KYC gate. Marked down only because there is no residential trial. |