An In-Depth Review of Webshare

Residential proxies are comparatively newer products in their offerings. It consists of a proxy pool of more than 30 million IPs from real devices. The pricing of residential proxies is based on the bandwidth offering. They mention that they source these proxies ethically and they have also established a grading system for all non-ISP residential proxy acquisitions.

They have a tier-based list, where the top tier is Tier A, and the last tier is Tier Unknown. According to their website, they source based on the Tier A specifications, and only another company, Oxylabs acquires proxies using this same strategy. This makes sense because the company has already been acquired by Oxylabs, and it comes as no surprise that both the company will use the same strategy.

Webshare proxies are also available in 195 countries. However, when it comes to targeting your proxies, you can only use country-based targeting, as there is no city/state or ASN-based targeting available.

Because these proxies are sourced from real devices, the proxies are expected to rotate. But you can hold a proxy from 15 seconds to 7 days. The idle timeout for each proxy ranges from 15 seconds to 2 hours, which is the same as their datacenter proxies. The proxies also have SOCKS5 and HTTP support. The SOCKS5 protocol is crucial because it helps make your online activities more private and protects your IP address. It also allows you to get around internet restrictions easily. Since it can go through firewalls without much trouble, it is a preferred choice for many use cases.

The feature list is very basic, and it might be a suitable solution for you if you are not dependent on features like city or state-based targeting.

Webshare charges you by bandwidth limit, and you get the complete 30 million plus proxy pool. The initial pricing of residential proxies starts at $7 per month for 1GB of bandwidth, and it can go up to 3000GB per month for their Enterprise plan. They have also mentioned that the pay-as-you-go plan is coming soon to their platform. You also get discounts depending on the amount of bandwidth you are choosing.

You can also add additional features to your proxy. For example, you can opt for high concurrency, a high-priority network, or unlimited IP authorizations. For each of the additional features, additional pricing is added.

With its initial pricing starting at $7 per month, it has become a much cheaper option competing with companies like IPRoyal and Smartproxy.

So, if your use case requires a large bandwidth or you don’t want to use a higher-priced service, Webshare can be a good enough option for you.

In terms of performance, Webshare is decent enough and competes well with the mid-range and some of the premium providers. The average success rate is around ~99%. The response time is okayish, and it is decent enough at the price they offer. For the response time, it is ~1.2 seconds.

The average success rate while trying to visit popular websites like Amazon or Walmart is more than 95%. For Google, the rate is on the lower side. However, they offer separate IPs that are curated explicitly for scraping Google – and these IPs have a higher success rate.

The average response time is around ~2.5 seconds, which isn’t quite fast.

Webshare offers datacenter proxies of four types: shared, semi-dedicated, fixed pool size, and dedicated IPs. They say they operate with only tier 1 data centers to provide you with premium proxies. All of their offerings support HTTP and SOCKS5 proxy endpoints.

They have a proxy network of more than 100,000 and mention an uptime of 99.97%. They also say that they provide an aggregate network speed of 100Gbps and are available in 40+ locations around the globe.

However, most of the addresses are located in the US and UK, but there are options for other countries like India, Lithuania, Panama, etc. Also, another downside of Webshare, even after having a 100k+ proxy pool is that they do not allow you city-based targeting.

Static datacenter proxies are typically fixed and do not change automatically. However, through Webshare’s dashboard, you have the option to purchase as many IPs as required and create an endpoint. This process provides a single backconnect address, which will cycle through your purchased IP list for each connection attempt.

This functionality is provided at no additional cost and eliminates the need for any coding on your part. Webshare applies charges based on traffic, and these proxies are provided in a backconnect format.

You can set a session timeout setting for both types of proxies. This can be done easily from the dashboard. You can set a session from 15 seconds to a maximum of 7 days. You can also set an idle timeout, which will close a connection if it’s idle for more than 2 hours.

Webshare also enforces limits on concurrent connections. Initially, your plan includes 500 concurrent threads, but you have the option to extend this cap to over 3,000 for an extra fee.

One of the USPs of Webshare is that it provides verified proxies. These proxies are collected for accessing Google Search and are available in all their locations (40+ countries). These proxies also offer unlimited bandwidth and a response time of less than one second, which is exceptional.

With the kind of offering they provide, the pricing is justified. Webshare offers a subscription-based model, which is fully customizable. You can choose the number of proxies, the bandwidth limit you want, rotations, high-priority proxies, etc. And depending on all these factors, the subscription changes. Their paid-tier bandwidth starts at 250GB per month, and you can choose up to an unlimited amount of bandwidth per month. Also, when you choose to buy a yearly plan, you get a discount of 30% or more compared to the monthly plan. You also get discounts when you choose a higher bandwidth or larger number of proxies. In other words, Webshare proxies have affordable entry-level plans. Moreover, you can get ten proxies with a 1GB bandwidth limit for free when you sign up.

The datacenter proxies are decent compared to their pricing. The rotating proxies provide more than a 99% success rate when pinging a server. The average response time is ~1.5 seconds.

In most cases, the connection stays stable providing you with a decent enough download speed. However, when targeting popular websites like Amazon, Webshare struggles a lot. The success rate is below 50%, which can be a dealbreaker depending on your use case. But other sites like Walmart and Homedepot give you somewhat decent results. The success rates increase if you choose the dedicated proxies over their shared proxies. The response time in both cases is good enough. The average stays at nearly 2.5 seconds.

The ISP proxy offerings are very similar to their datacenter proxy offerings. The subscription type is also similar. They have mentioned a proxy pool of 100k plus proxies with an average uptime of 99.97%. Identical to the datacenter proxies, the aggregate network speed is 100Gbps. As most of the features are similar to the datacenter offerings, there’s not much to talk about.

The ISP proxy subscription packages also come with additional features like high concurrency, high priority network, unlimited IP authorizations, and verified proxies (available only for Google Search) at extra cost.

Most of the ISP proxies are located in the US. Even though these proxies are static by default, you can choose to rotate them by selecting the rotating proxy option when buying their subscription. The sticky session is also similar to the other offerings, and you can select a session to be sticky for 15 seconds to 7 days. The idle timeout is also the same, i.e., between 15 seconds to 2 hours.

The individual proxy refreshment is limited to 10 with the list-based plans. You also get the option to allocate proxies to different locations. But you can only allocate to Germany, France, Italy, and the United States now.

It shares the same pricing structure with its datacenter counterpart. You can choose the pricing based on the number of IPs you want or by the number of proxies. The number of proxies starts at 20, with a minimum of 250GB per month. You can choose as many as 10000 proxies and infinite GB of bandwidth per month.

The initial plan starts at $6 per month. But as mentioned earlier, you can choose additional features for your list, which will increase the price. Like the other plans, you get additional discounts when you go for a higher number of proxies or bandwidth.

The performance of the proxies is quite good, especially in terms of download speed. Streaming high-definition content with these ISP proxies could be a good option depending on your use case. Targeting websites like Amazon, Walmart, and Homedepot gave an average success rate of ~93%and the average response time was slightly less than 2 seconds, which is a decent performance.

The Setup Process

Webshare provides a great experience for managing and buying subscriptions from the dashboard. You can sign up for free from the signup button available on their homepage. They also provide ten proxies for free with a limit of 1GB of data when you sign up. The signup process doesn’t require any credit cards. You can get started either by filling out the form or by using Google OAuth.

How to Manage Subscription and Usage

The Webshare dashboard works perfectly and gives you everything that you need in one place. From browsing their plans to checking out the statistics, everything can be accessed from the dashboard, similar to other top companies in this space. You can view your plan type, manage your subscription, configure proxy settings, monitor usage statistics, and access API documentation.

Webshare permits only one active plan per account, restricting the purchase of varied proxy types. This can be a limitation if diverse proxies are needed. As a workaround, you can always create a new account with a different email however, that’s not an ideal solution.

The service enables full self-service for proxies, with subscription management categorized into My Plan, Browse Plan, and Invoices. The Browse Plans section allows subscription customization, including proxy type, quantity, and bandwidth, with the benefit of viewing available IPs by country. You can also choose the add-on features from the browse plan menu.

Once your plan is configured, all the details are available under My Plan, showcasing the fee, wallet balance, and additional plan specifics. You have the flexibility to modify your selections even after making a purchase.

Configuring proxies on Webshare is straightforward. Head to the Proxy section and select from three options: list, rotating proxy, or settings.

In the List section, you can choose your authentication method (IP or credentials), proxy type (HTTP or SOCKS5), and how you connect (direct or backconnect).

For rotating your IPs, visit the Rotating Proxy area. It automatically changes your IP with each request, saving you the effort of manual shuffling. Just set up an endpoint with the necessary details, and you’re set. This section also offers setup examples in eight common programming languages.

The Settings area allows you to manage replaced IPs, authorize IPs, and adjust session and idle times.

In the dashboard, Webshare provides graphs displaying proxy and bandwidth usage, along with the error ratio. These graphs are handy for tracking your total requests and the proxies utilized. You also have the option to sort these graphs by date.

For assistance, you can start with Webshare’s Help Center, covering billing, setup, and proxy issues through various articles. Alternatively, use the Help button on your dashboard to search for quick answers, like “refresh my proxy list,” and receive relevant suggestions.

Webshare offers email support from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PT, Monday to Friday, promising responses within 24 hours, which may be slow for immediate service issues. They also offer chat support from the dashboard, which mentions that they usually reply within two hours.

Webshare could be a strong choice for proxy services. Even after being bought by Oxylabs, Webshare has continued to grow, with over 100,000 users and handling many monthly proxy requests. They offer a wide range of proxy types, including special verified proxies for better access to sites like Google, making them stand out.

Webshare’s prices are reasonable and flexible, allowing you to customize your plan to fit your needs. They have a help center on their website where you can find most of the answers you need and chat and email support.

The service performs well, with a high success rate for connections and fast responses. There are some downsides, like not being able to target specific cities, and some difficulties with dynamic websites like Amazon, where the success rate falls significantly due to strict blocking mechanisms employed. But overall, Webshare does a good job. They also offer various proxy options, including ISP proxies that can be rotated or kept static.

For anyone looking for a good proxy service, Webshare offers good value, strong performance, and a wide range of options. They use proxies responsibly and ethically, which is great. All things considered, Webshare can definitely be a solid option.