The Vertagear PL4800 is a high-end gaming chair for those who spend a lot of time working from home or gaming. Thanks to the ContourMax Lumbar, the backrest adapts itself to your body to support a healthy posture with exceptional comfort.
However, it’s important to note that the Vertagear PL4800 lands at the higher end of gaming chairs, with prices falling around the $600 / £500 / €600 / AUS$900 mark. If you can afford to spend this sort of money, then a Vertagear PL4800 is a good investment; with a sturdy and high-quality build, this gaming chair easily makes it into our best gaming chairs and most comfortable gaming chairs categories.
Vertagear PL4800 Gaming Chair: Price and Availability
While the price tag for the Vertagear PL4800 is relatively steep at $580 / £484 / €580 / AUS$895, you can currently find it on sale at Vertagears official website. However, with these sales comes less product availability. It’s also available through online retailers such as Dell and Amazon. Availability currently seems the strongest in the US and Australia with the UK lacking at the time of writing.
Many third-party retailers and even Vertagear’s official store have dwindling stock, with some designs and colors unavailable. While this is hardly ideal, it doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to get your hands on one of these chairs; you may just need to wait a little longer to get the one you desire.
Vertagear PL4800 Gaming Chair: Assembly
(Image credit: Future)
Setting up the Vertagear PL4800 was straightforward and enjoyable. I haven’t built many gaming chairs, so I was slightly apprehensive when I first saw an intimidatingly large and heavy box. However, my worries quickly dissipated after I opened the package and found the clearly labelled parts and informative instruction manual.
Overall it took me 30 minutes to assemble the Vertagear PL4800, but you could quickly build this faster if you were in a rush. The instructions were clear and easy to follow without sounding condescending, and every part slotted easily into where it needed to be.
The hardest part was finally placing the back of the chair onto the braces, but as long as you push the chair down slightly while screwing in the side bolts, you shouldn’t have any problem lining up the bolt holes.
Vertagear PL4800 Gaming Chair: Design and features
(Image credit: Future)
While there isn’t a massive range of designs and colors for the Vertagear PL4800, the ones on offer are understated and sleek. I have a colorful and bright set-up, so I chose the black-and-white design.
This monotone design looks cool without trying too hard, and it also means I can change the color scheme of my set-up without worrying about the chair sticking out like a sore thumb.
The 4D armrests have also been a surprisingly welcome addition. This feature means you can move the armrest in four dimensions: height, sideways, front, and back. Before, I was just worried about my spine and lumbar support, but having these incredibly adjustable armrests has helped my posture and wrist support immensely, especially as I spend a lot of time at my desk for work and gaming.
Vertagear PL4800 Gaming Chair: Performance
(Image credit: Vertagear / Future)
The Vertagear PL4800 has set a pretty high bar for gaming chairs. Before getting this chair, I had switched through some mediocre options. My last chair didn’t even have a functioning backrest, so finally sitting on this high-quality seat was a welcome change.
The ContourMax Lumbar support steals the show. Having great lower back support has improved my posture, and as someone who has had acute back pain and sits at a desk for many hours of the day, this feature is a great help. The headrest also helps support your entire spine, as I find myself sitting dead straight most of the time without any effort.
The seat itself is also surprisingly comfortable. As I said before, I spend a lot of my time sitting at a desk (possibly too much), so having a comfortable chair to sit on all day is a great asset. However, I will say it has made every other chair I sit in now seem far more uncomfortable by comparison.
Finally, I have to mention the fabric. While it’s great that this chair looks stylish, it’s even better that it’s functional. Vertagear uses a coffee-ground breathable cloth that neutralizes bacteria growth, is quick-drying, and is incredibly comfortable to sit on. All of these features make the Vertagear PL4800 function like a brilliant gaming chair that is the whole package.
Should I buy the Vertagear PL4800
Buy if…
Good lumbar support You spend a lot of your time working or gaming at your desk and require high-quality lumbar support.
You want something that looks nice and functions well
Thanks to the muted colour scheme, the Vertagear PL4800 is an understated and stylish chair that can fit into any gaming set-up and even a home office. It also has substance with quick-drying and comfortable material that’ll immediately win you over.
Don’t buy if…
You don’t want to spend the big bucks While the Vertagear PL4800 is a brilliant gaming chair, it hits the higher price range. You get what you pay for in the brilliant features; however, check out our best cheap gaming chairs for other chairs that tick your boxes at a lower price.
Samsung Display introduced the M12 material set for OLED displays last year – it was used in the Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold 4 phones first, later it was featured on the LTPO displays of the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. Korean publication The Elec now reports that the company is cooking up M13 and M14 material sets.
M13 might be used in the mythical Google Pixel Fold – well, we say “mythical” jokingly, the phone has been delayed so many times it’s hard to believe it’s real anymore. But it has been spotted in the wild, it is very much real (and possibly coming in June).
And it might have...
Last year Lava introduced the Blaze – a sub-₹10,000 phone that didn’t feel cheap, largely thanks to its glass back. Now the company is ready to launch the sequel with the help of Amazon India. The new model still has a glass black (in Blue, Black and Orange) and is a fairly big upgrade over the original.
Lava Blaze 2 in Glass Orange, Glass Blue and Glass Black
The price will be ₹9,000 during a special launch offer – sales start on April 18th (Tuesday next week). The regular price of the phone is ₹11,000.
The Lava Blaze 2 brings a much more powerful chipset, a Unisoc T616....
The launch of the next generation Asus ROG Phone series is almost upon us, it is scheduled for April 13 (this Thursday). The design of the phone was already seen in photos by the Taiwanese wireless authority, but now Evan Blass has found official looking renders of the two upcoming models.
Yes, two models: Asus ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Pro. Both will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, there is no word on a Dimensity version yet. The new Pro model does borrow a feature from the 6D Ultimate from last year, the AeroAtive Portal.
Leaked images: Asus ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7...
Sometimes it takes a disruptive entry into a segment to create some competition, offering both a better feature set at a better price. This newer entry into the proxy segment, Rampage Retail is a smaller company that has only been around since summer of 2020, based out of Miami, Florida. Its goal is to be fully transparent on its providers, and also the pricing, with proxies available at wholesale cost, in whatever quantity is needed. For those worried about the quality of a lower cost offering, Rampage Retail indicates that it has proxies that it resells for leading services, such as Oxylabs, Geosurf and Smartproxy.
Also of note, this company also offers servers for use on a subscription basis.
Sounds too good to be true? Let’s delve in deeper.
Rampage Retail: Features
Rampage Retail essentially buys the proxies from a number of leading proxy services, and then resells them. They can acquire the proxies at a lower rate, as they are able to buy a higher end plan for the lower rate, and then pass the savings along to its customers. The companies it buys from includes:
- Oxylabs
- Smartproxy
- SubnetWorks
- Packetstream
- Netnut
- Private Residential
- Geosurf
- Brightdata
With such a large pool or providers, Rampage Retail is able to provide worldwide coverage. They actually claim to have proxy coverage of every single country in the world. This gives them a pool of 170+ million proxies, which is more than just about everyone, but they are really leveraging the power of all the other proxies so that they can have more, without the constraints of hosting them on their own.
A concern is that with such a hodgepodge of providers, that the experience will suffer. Thankfully, Rampage Retail also indicates that it passes along to its subscribers the info from each of its proxy providers, Furthermore, it has instituted practices to bypass anti-bot measures that some websites put into place, and work against these proxies.
Rampage Retail: Pricing
Most proxy providers have a confusing array of different plans, based on the type of proxy (rotating, static, mobile, etc), the bandwidth for the month, and the number of proxies. This results in a choice of multiple plans, with payment based on paying monthly or with annual discounts for prepaying.
Not so much with Rampage Retail, that takes more of a generic approach. This kind of goes back to Henry Ford’s famous quote “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black.” Here, with Rampage Retail, there seriously is just a single choice of plan. The single choice of plan has a cost of £20.00 (about $25) each month. A Discord account is required for purchase.
We did not find any info for a free trial, or a free tier.
While the monthly price seems really good, realize that is just to join the club. Once you are a member of Rampage Retail via this monthly subscription cost, then there is a cost to use the proxy, by the GB. For example, Oxylabs goes for £6.90/GB, Smartproxy costs £6.9/GB, SubnetWorks comes in at £6.70/GB, and Geosurf a cost effective £3.25/GB. If we look at this pricing, it is a good deal, as we checked, and Smartproxy Pay as You Go plan comes in a $12.50 per gigabyte, and even the lowest volume of enterprise plan from this provider which forces you to purchase 100 GB for the month works out to a cost of $7/GB, so it is quite plausible that Rampage Retail is really passing along the cost savings to its subscribers.
Our annoyance comes that the way that this works could be explained better on the side. Truth be told, we really only started to understand this after joining the Discord server for Rampage Retail that had more detail, as the website just was not particularly clear. We prefer to not have to jump through so many hoops for just some basic pricing of any service.
Rampage Retail: Support
We looked, and found a lack of support options, as might be expected with a start up proxy option. For those that will need more hand holding, they will be better off with a fuller featured provider.
The self help support side is pretty simple to discuss, as there are literally no options. Therefore, there is not a blog, a webinar, an ebook, a forum, or any articles that we could find. Therefore, more novice users are likely to be disappointed with Rampage Retail.
Alternatively, the direct support is only marginally better. There is no phone number, nor fax. Clicking on the “Contact us,” button only opens up your email client to send an email. Reportedly, Rampage Retail can also be reached on its Discord server, or via Twitter. There is also no chat box option, nor is there a support portal for those that prefer that option.
In summary, a few direct support options are there, but they are probably not the ones that you would expect, making this feel a little ‘No frills.’
Rampage Retail: Final verdict
Rampage Retail offers a intriguing approach to accessing a proxy service. Users will like the extremely large database of proxies, the very cost effective approach, and the latest anti-bot measures. Alternatively, our concerns include the total lack of self help content, the limited direct support contact methods, and the lack of a free trial. Still, for users that want a cost effective solution to their proxy needs, while accessing the largest pool of proxies, Rampage Retail offers a service more than worth considering.
The vivo X Fold2 and X Flip have been featured in numerous leaks over the past two months and we now have a rumored launch date to look forward to. Based on info provided by a trustworthy leakster from China, vivo will introduce its latest foldables and vivo Pad 2 tablet on April 20.
Leaked vivo April 20 event teasers
In addition to the launch date reveal, we also got more specs confirmation for all three devices alongside some new official looking images of the foldables. The vivo X Fold2 is once again said to launch with an 8.03-inch AMOLED display with 1916x2160px resolution. The...
The Google Pixel 7a is expected to arrive during this year's Google I/O developer conference, but as it's usually the case with Google Pixel phones, we already have a good idea of what to expect. This leak, in particular, confirms the already leaked design and gives away the planned color options.
Google Pixel 7a in all three colors
We can see from the renders that Google has three variants in store for us - light Blue, White and Black or Gray-ish paint job. The blue one replaces the Sage from last year. Also, judging by the renders, the Black (Charcoal) is a bit lighter than...
When it comes to cheap gaming headsets for console, it’s hard to do much better than the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X. Despite its naming convention and Xbox Series X branding, this multi-platform model can also work on PS5 and Nintendo Switch as the microphone comes through the 3.5mm jack.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X deserves to be considered one of the best Xbox Series X headsets, but it also makes a strong case for the PS5 and Nintendo Switch as well. With its strong audio drivers, lightweight feel, and decent sounding microphone at a very competitive price point.
This is the budget gaming headset to consider if you primarily play console over the standard SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 which is aimed at PC gamers with a dedicated 3.5mm jack for the microphone to use.
Price and Availability
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X is widely available in the US, UK and Australia from online storefronts such as Amazon and local big-box retailers for $57.82 / £59.99 / AU$139 respectively. It’s often available a little cheaper than this as discounts are quite common. While the cheapest in the Nova lineup, it’s around $10 / £10 / AU$20 more than the Arctis 1 from mid-2019.
Design and Features
(Image credit: Future)
In terms of the design of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X, there’s nothing that separates it from the standard Nova 1 model barring the black color scheme and the green branding on the ski band strap. There’s no included 3.5mm jack splitter here either as everything goes through the headphone jack either on your Xbox Wireless Controller or DualSense Wireless Controller.
That means that you’re getting the same 40mm neodymium drivers as found in some of the best gaming headsets made by SteelSeries, and the retractable microphone as is featured in every Nova model. Donned in black, it’s an attractive unit and includes plush earcups and a head strap that’s easily adjustable. It comes in at 236g/0.52lbs and makes for a headset that can be worn for hours on end without getting uncomfortable.
Performance
(Image credit: Future)
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X works incredibly well when plugged into a console. For full transparency, I mostly used this gaming headset with my PS5 and Nintendo Switch, and my gaming laptop, and found the experience on both systems to be above average for the price point.
When I was playing through some of the best PS5 games and the best Nintendo Switch games respectively. A particular standout was Hotline Miami which I played across both systems to monitor how the 40mm drivers feel through both machines. The pulsing soundtrack came through incredibly well, with the melee weapons and firearms handling with satisfying crunch.
Those games which take advantage of the PS5’s 3D Audio sung particularly highly through the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Through the headset, I was able to hear Cal Kestis’ lightsaber as it pierced through the bodies of man and beast alike through the storming rain. Background ambience was also picked up, and while not quite as impressive as my SteelSeries Arctis 7P+, the overall experience is definitely comparable quality wise.
The microphone on the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X sounds great when being run through a controller. It was especially good when paired up with my PS5, and had a strong clarity which cut through the noise of hectic gameplay. Considering it’s all coming through a 3.5mm jack, it’s impressive, and I liked being able to kick back in a gaming chair or lay in bed knowing the headset was always close to the controller. While I made a case that the more general Nova 1 model should have been USB, this console specific variant running into a gamepad with full functionality excels here.
Regardless of which platform I used the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X on, listening to music was enjoyable. This was most apparent when binging the back catalog of Scar Symmetry’s technical melodic death metal, and with tamer tracks from cloud rappers like Whiterosemoxie’s Flavors and Yung Fazo’s Wish You Well just to name a few. It’s no rival for some of the best headphones on the market, but there’s little I can fault given the budget nature of the product.
(Image credit: Future)
Should I buy the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X?
Buy it if…
You want a good and affordable headset
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1X comes in at under the $60 / £60 / $140 price range making it one of the cheaper quality models from an established brand.
You play on a console
Whether you’re an Xbox Series X, PS5, or Nintendo Switch gamer, all bases have been covered by this wired budget performer.
Don't buy it if...
You mostly play on PC
You’re probably going to be better served by a dedicated USB gaming headset such as the SteelSeries Arctis 3.
HTC is no longer making smartphones, but it's licensing its brand to interested makers and the Wildfire E3 Lite is the latest entry-level phone to be born out of this arrangement. E3 Lite brings a 6.5-inch LCD with HD+ resolution and a waterdrop notch housing its 5MP front-facing camera.
The back holds a 13MP main camera next to a 2MP macro module and an LED flash. The phone is equipped with a Unisoc SC9863 chipset alongside 3/4GB RAM and 32/64GB storage which is expandable via the microSD slot.
The software side is covered by Android 12 while the battery comes in at 5,000mAh...
Webshare came into existence in 2018 to meet the fast-growing need for proxies. To achieve this, it provides proxy servers for individual users and organizations, fulfilling over 650 billion proxy requests per month. Its service includes access to 80 million+ static residential proxies, rotating residential proxies, and proxy servers in every country in the world (yes, that’s 195).
In 2024, Webshare officially came under the auspices of Oxylabs, another notable proxy server provider. However, this doesn’t seem to have brought any major changes, as it has continued to operate independently as it did before. It also hasn’t received some of Oxylabs’ advanced features, like web scraping APIs.
Webshare: Plans and Pricing
Webshare charges its service by the type (proxy server, static residential, and rotating residential), number of IPs purchased (for proxy server and static residential), amount of traffic per month (for rotating residential), as well as the duration of the subscription (monthly or yearly).
Proxy server pricing starts at free for up to 10 proxies, which can be used as a free trial, just go get a taste of the service before committing to one of its paid plans with more IPs - but only this particular tier of the service.
The monthly-based proxy server plan with 100 proxies is charged $2.99 each month (that’s $0.0299 per proxy), and the more IPs you choose, the higher the discount, so 60,000 proxies come at a price tag of $0.0179 per IP. Going with the yearly option entails more discounts, so 100 proxies are charged $1.99 per month ($0.0239 per proxy), or $0.0144/proxy if you take 60,000 of them.
Moving onto the static residential proxies ranges from $4 per month for 20 proxies under the yearly plan to $20.01/month for 100 proxies, to $95.05/month for 500 proxies, to $180.09/month for 1,000 IPs, to $1,500.75/month for 10,000 IPs ($0.18 per proxy). There are other options based on the specific number of proxies required. The month-by-month plans are somewhat more expensive.
Finally, rotating residential proxies are cheaper than their static counterparts and are charged per GB. So, a 1 GB plan under the yearly commitment will cost you $2.8/GB/month, 10 GB goes for $2.20/GB or $20.20 per month, 25 GB can be yours at $2.08/GB or $52/month, 100 GB is charged $1.80/GB or $180/month, and 3,000 GB is priced at $1.12/GB or $3,360/month.
That said, Webshare doesn’t offer a free trial for its residential IPs. There’s no money-back guarantee either, but the company does provide a possibility of a refund under certain conditions. These include not having breached 1 GB of bandwidth, having fewer than 1,000 proxies used in the subscription, and making the request not later than 48 hours after the purchase.
Webshare: Features
A user’s adventure with Webshare starts at registration, which can be done via your email address or through an existing Google account. Considering that the platform already caters to more than 60,000 businesses, you know you’re going to be in good hands here. Once the registration is out of the way, you’ll be redirected to a dashboard with access to all of Webshare’s features.
Residential IPs
Webshare’s rotating residential IP addresses are ethically sourced, which means they come from consenting users, something that means a lot in a proxy industry overwhelmed by illegally obtained IP addresses. In other words, Webshare gets its IP addresses from device owners agreeing to join its proxy network in exchange for certain benefits.
Residential IPs are useful in many cases. For example, a hotel comparison site needs to scrape price lists from many hotel websites. However, hotel websites often discourage scraping by placing geo-restrictions and IP restrictions. Suppose a U.S.-based hotel blocks foreign IPs from accessing its website. Webshare lets you bypass it by choosing a proxy U.S. IP address to view the website and scrape pricing information.
Residential proxies are also helpful in e-commerce, wherein price comparison sites scrape data en masse to help people find the best deals. If you run a price comparison site, you can use residential IPs to access localized versions of a retailer’s website and scrape relevant information.
Webshare offers IP addresses in 195 countries around the globe (which means every country in the world as recognized by the United Nations), with the most popular locations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Australia, France, and Canada. It has over 80 million IP addresses spread across all of these countries.
Still, Oxylabs has 102 million+ IPs, and Decodo has 125 million, but Webshare is getting there, as it has grown the number of its own proxies from 30 million in 50 countries in December 2024 to the current figure that now includes all the recognized countries in the world.
(Image credit: Webshare )
Static Residential IPs
Static IPs are a faster alternative to Webshare's residential IPs. They are technically still residential IPs, albeit sourced directly from internet service providers (ISPs). They’re faster and more reliable because the IP doesn’t change with each session, relying on the unstable Wi-Fi connections of the device owners. Static IPs are issued for long-term use and are harder to detect, helping you stay anonymous while browsing.
Webshare’s static IPs have unlimited bandwidth. That’s why it charges per IP instead of by bandwidth like the standard residential IPs. Webshare sources its static IPs from ISPs like AT&T, Sprint, and Cox Communications. These ISPs have massive networks and offer speeds of up to 1 GB per second. Once you pay for a static IP, it's assigned only to you, and your IP address is fixed as long as your subscription remains valid.
Webshare has over 100,000 static IPs in its pool covering various countries. You can manage your proxies in an intuitive dashboard, utilizing them to bypass geo-restrictions and browse the web without revealing your actual IP address to third parties.
Proxy servers
Webshare offers its proxy servers with 400,000 IPs according to your specific needs. This means you can choose between shared proxy servers (shared with more than two users), private proxy servers (shared with one to two users), or dedicated servers (fully owned by you), with the pricing to match.
A dedicated proxy server offers much faster speed, as you aren't sharing resources with other users. It's similar to running your proxy network but with the features and flexibility that Webshare provides. With a dedicated proxy server, all your activities are only known to Webshare and are not shared with third parties.
You can connect to dedicated proxy servers using the HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols. Webshare’s dedicated servers offer up to 100 Gbps and unlimited bandwidth, which is ideal for massive data scraping. With nearly 100% uptime, which we verified during our test, you shouldn’t worry about reliability when using Webshare’s proxy servers.
Webshare’s dedicated proxy servers start from $26.60 monthly for 20 proxies with 250 GB bandwidth. If you surpass your bandwidth allocation, you can pay extra fees to get as much bandwidth as you need. You can also pay additional fees for unlimited IP authorizations, high concurrency, and a high-priority network (recommended when using proxy servers for time-sensitive data scraping).
Meanwhile, choosing a proxy server that you share with multiple users (more than two) is a budget option that provides the reliability of a standalone, but comes at a more affordable price. You can connect to shared servers with the HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols and choose IPs from over 50 countries.
You have unlimited bandwidth and speeds of up to 100 Gbps, the same as a dedicated server. However, your speed will vary depending on the workload of other users sharing the same server.
A shared proxy server costs $24 monthly for 25 proxies and 250 GB bandwidth, which can be upgraded to as much bandwidth as needed. You can also choose add-ons like unlimited IP authorization, high concurrency, and high-priority network.
The middle road is the private proxy option, where you only share your server with one to two other users, but nonetheless, you have access to all the perks offered by the above services - reliable uptime, HTTP/SOCKS5 support, IPs in 50+ countries, and a lower price.
(Image credit: Webshare )
Chrome Extension
Webshare offers a browser extension for Google Chrome that lets users rotate proxies at the click of a button. This extension is ideal for individual users whose primary use case for Webshare is bypassing geo-restrictions. Whenever you encounter a geo-restriction, just choose a proxy IP from the relevant country and refresh the website to view the previously restricted content.
Webshare gives 10 free proxies, which you can access from the browser extension instead of visiting the website whenever you need a new proxy.
Webshare: Ease of Use
Webshare offers an intuitive dashboard that makes all features easy to understand. From your dashboard, you can set up any proxy type that you've paid for. Whether it's a static or rotating residential IP or a dedicated proxy server IP, you can spin one up at the click of a button. You'll see the complete list of all available IPs, which you can change anytime.
(Image credit: Webshare )
The dashboard shows detailed analytics about your proxies, including the error ratio and bandwidth consumption. This analytics lets you monitor your real-time proxy usage and make any needed adjustments. You can switch between dark and light mode depending on what suits you.
Webshare: Customer Support
Webshare offers reasonable support to users, both directly and indirectly. The Help Center contains detailed user guides and manuals for all its features, teaching users how to deploy and manage proxies effectively. Webshare provides extensive technical documentation for its APIs, making it easy to integrate its proxies into external applications. The API documentation guides users in configuring Webshare’s proxies to perform their required tasks.
You have access to a FAQ section with solutions to common problems. The Webshare blog provides numerous tutorials on integrating your proxies with other applications. We found this section very helpful when testing the app and its integrations.
If you need direct help, you can email Webshare’s support team and expect a response within 48 hours. However, there is no live chat or telephone support option, which we consider a drawback. You might need urgent support requiring real-time chat, but Webshare doesn’t provide this option.
Webshare: The Competition
There’s no shortage of competition in the proxy software market. We’d like to single out Decodo (formerly Smartproxy), Bright Data, and PacketStream as the most noteworthy Webshare rivals.
Decodo has a more expansive proxy network than Webshare. It offers 125 million+ IPs, compared to Webshare's 80 million+. Decodo offers search engine, social media, and e-commerce scraping APIs, but Webshare lacks this feature. The tradeoff is that Webshare has more affordable proxies.
PacketStream is a peer-to-peer proxy service, unlike Webshare, which is a centralized service. It is far more affordable and reimburses users who contribute their bandwidth to its network. The drawback is that PacketStream offers only residential proxies: there are no ISP proxies or dedicated proxy servers like Webshare. PacketStream’s peer-to-peer, decentralized nature also makes its IPs less reliable: the platform has no control over the internet speed of the device whose IP you share.
Bright Data offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies like WebShare. It also provides web scraping APIs, a Web Unblocker, and ready-made datasets to use instead of scraping from scratch. It has a significantly larger IP pool than Webshare and is overall a better tool. However, expect to pay for Bright Data’s proxies more than you will for Webshare.
Webshare: Final Verdict
Webshare is a reliable proxy provider that does a great job in its field. It’s easy to use, making the management and monitoring of your proxy usage a walk in the proverbial park. That said, it has its drawbacks, like limited customer support and the missing web scraping API feature offered by many proxy providers to let users automatically scrape public data from websites - a common use case for proxy servers.
