Bright Data: World's #1 Web Data Platform Review 2024

Overview

Most users are fond of a significant number of residential IPs. Bright Data also makes it easy to use their API due to clear instructions and highly professional technical support. 

Overall, Bright Data is an excellent proxy service in case you need a high-quality solution. In parallel, it costs more than its competitors and has various drawbacks, so you get what you get.

Feature-Set and Guidance

• Efficient Proxy Manager with robust proxy controls
• Fully compliant, patented, and legal service with solid residential p2p network
• Full of compelling tools for professionals and programmers
• The largest proxy network of more than 35 million addresses across 200 destinations 
• 99% network uptime with a low fail rate‎
• Massive proxy server infrastructure with extensive geo-distribution
• Real-time and transparent service health dashboard 
• Mobile IPs are available for advanced users
• A reasonable trial period with and money-back guarantee
• The fastest residential IP proxies globally with an option to specify IPs by country or city
• 24/7 professional technical support with dedicated account managers in multiple channels
• Flexible pricing policies
• Limitless rotation
• Anti-blocking protection guaranteed 
• Unlimited bandwidth and concurrent sessions
• Exclusive promo deal – deposit of $250 with extra $250 added to your account after registration
• Extensive collection of educational webinars and supplementary user documentation

Weaknesses

• Requires manual account activation with strict KYC procedure
• A tricky dashboard to use for beginner users
• Expensive to use for small and medium-sized companies
• It lacks user instructions to search for the desired location
• Poor email support due to a slow response time

What makes regular companies leaders in the 21st century? The answer is access to information… 

Using such a service can help you capitalize on your target market with the world’s #1 web platform, as they say. 

It will help you retrieve the public web information you need, from establishing data collection infrastructure to using ready-made datasets. It can certainly work for you – you just need to know its primary features to take advantage of them.

Web Unlocker

This is software for automatic unblocking that you can use without any experience in order to reach your target sites. Regardless of how correct and reliable information you need, with Luminati data unblocker, you will be able to do it by submitting just one request. 

This advanced tool is an updated proxy that enables you to send your requests as if they are regular ones from the browser. What’s great is that, with this feature, you pay only for successful requests, even though Luminati guarantees a 100% response rate. 

If you deal with web scraping, you are already aware that many websites now use savvy anti-data scraping technologies. That is why, if you want to thrive, you will need a solution that is one step ahead of it. And the Web Unlocker is what can help you with that, for certain. With it, you will be able to handle all aspects of fingerprinting, including disguising the fingerprint of the original device.

Data Collector

Be it a small or a large-scale website, Data Collector enables you to correctly gather data and have it delivered to you in any format you would like to choose. This tool is normally used by governments, marketers, and corporations to acquire information about particular competitors’ projects or targeted websites.

Websites can be set and you will be able to choose from pre-made templates for collecting data. Both report formats and templates can be customized according to your needs.

This service is very much user-friendly and intuitive, therefore even beginners without coding skills will be able to use it. Another reason why collection tasks with Data Collector Browser Extension are extremely easy is that it was designed by Bright Data itself. All that is required from you is to press the Click and Collect button, the rest will be done by it. 

Browser Extension

The browser extension for Google Chrome from Bright Data integrates its proxies in the browser. Via websites extensions, you will be able to switch IPs from different locations across the globe.

This feature is somehow associated with Incognito Mode because it also enables you to skip all of the cookies. Moreover, it can be used along with the Proxy Manager that we are going to tell you about below.

Proxy Manager

BrightData proxy manager is a specific tool for managing proxy networks. With it, you can activate rotation for datacenter and residential proxies as well as choose protocols and other configuration settings.

BrightData proxy manager also entails some features within it:   

Waterfall Routing: Whenever you create a request, it will address you to the cheapest proxy server and, in case the request fails, it will notify others about it. This particular feature is exceptionally cost-efficient due to the combination of the residential, data center, and mobile IP proxies. 

Request Viewer: This tool enables you to view through the requests that were sent to a specific proxy and track its logs. 

Reduce Bandwidth: This service is aimed at decreasing traffic and, thus, reducing bandwidth use.

Types of Proxies

Datacenter Proxies

Bright Data suggests one of the newest data center networks supplying multiple IP forms around the world for you to use in a shared IP pool or for personal transactions. Currently, the company caters to over 770000+ IPs across 95 countries. 

Feel free to choose from either a pool of shared IPs or dedicated ones. In this case, targeting is available according to the country and city. And, as it is with most other Bright Data proxies, you get a 100% guarantee of uptime.

Residential Proxies

Bright Data suggests genuine static residential IP addresses for obtaining in multiple countries. Once purchased, you get lifespan IPs and can use them for an unlimited term depending on the requirements.

These IPs are either transmitted or leased entirely by various ISPs to Bright Data. It, thus, means that, by no means, might they be tracked or blocked. The Luminati network will be open to you with a 99% uptime guarantee, therefore no service interruptions are possible. Currently, the company caters to over 110000 IPs deliberately spread across 35 countries. 

A BrightData proxy of the rotating residential type is available, too. All of them belong to the largest real-peer IP network that ensures the most advanced proxy services. The rotating residential proxies will provide you with a strong P2P network of real, globally accessible IP addresses. By using IPs that belong to real devices of genuine users, you get the opportunity to submit unlimited amounts of simultaneous requests.

And when we say unlimited, we mean it, given over 72 million IP addresses spread over 195 countries. 

ISP Proxies

These Luminati proxies are registered with an internet service provider. This helps trick targeted websites into considering the IPs are legit. For the moment of writing this BrightData review, the company claims to dispose of 110,000 ISP proxies. They might be of help to you in case you run out of personalized proxies or if you do not want to resort to shared residential ones.

Mobile Proxies

BrightData network of mobile residential proxies is known as one of the world’s largest, quickest, and most progressive real-peer 3G/4G IP networks. With it, you obtain global access to the proxy network, where you will be able to target carriers and unique ASNs.

The network includes 4G and 3G IPs for your usage with a 99.99% average uptime. Bright Data claims that all IPs were allocated by mobile operators, meaning they are genuine and refer to individual users. 

If you still are curious about the methods of obtaining these IP addresses, feel free to check the FAQ page of their website, where those methods are listed, however, Bright Data assures they are 100% compliant. 7 million open IPs from 195 countries is one of the greatest offers on the market and it is from Luminati.

Usability

Using Luminati is not as easy as it may seem from the very start. Compared to the rival companies, Bright Data makes it complicated for beginner users. For example, using the Chrome extension is relatively straightforward. 

On the contrary, both the proxy manager and dashboard require more time and skills to clearly understand how to use them effectively. In other words, you need more time to get accustomed to the layout of the given service and its customization. 

Efficient Proxy Manager with a solid residential p2p network is an excellent framework for the Luminati’s service. 99% network uptime with a low failure rate‎ is an incredible advantage over other competing companies. 

The fastest residential IP proxies also guarantee a stable use of IPs all over the place. Limitless rotation, unlimited bandwidth, and concurrent sessions comprise an overall vision of reliable service. 

Customer Support

Many testimonials and customer reviews are shared on TrustPilot, Reddit, and Sitejabber. 

The current situation in the company around customer support is uncommon in the target marketplace. Such services require companies to react almost instantly to ensure they keep existing clients and attract new ones. 

Unfortunately, the process of delivering technical support services is not as appropriate as it should be considering the opinions of its target users. Overall, it takes time to get feedback or a solution to the problem from the support team. The same applies irrespective of client issues. Even though the FAQ section is great, the users still need a personal approach to maintain the service.

BrightData is a win-win solution for many target users. It is apparent that it has several drawbacks, but each customer should decide whether to use the service or not. In particular, the pricing options, difficulties using the proxy manager, and the dashboard are challenging for some. At the same time, many users consider Bright Data proxies a reasonable investment.

In addition, the opportunity to benefit from 72+ million residential IP addresses across 200+ countries and 20000+ cities is a vital competitive advantage. 

Performance Testing

Ping Test & Proxy Speed Test

There is an opinion that a scraper is as quick as a proxy that it uses. If it has big latency or slow speed, it will affect productivity drastically. The faster the speed of a proxy, the more data it will pass. Whereas its ping defines the time it takes for the information to make a round trip. 

Therefore, we made the testing of their residential IP services using their Chrome extension. We performed 16 tests on speedtest.net for 10 US proxies, 3 UK ones, and 3 others from Canada. All of them were residential IPs from BrightData. 

Given that ping and speed depend on the type of proxy, we were very much surprised as the results of those tested residential proxies were almost as high as the speed and ping of data center ones. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that BrightData residential proxies are one of the fastest solutions on the market! 

Geolocation / ISP Test

The company states that it has IP addresses in more than 200 countries and regions. We conducted a location test with the same proxies that we used for the ping and speed test. The results were as we expected them to be: All tested services appeared of the residential type as had been declared in the first place. 

IP address compatibility Test

In case you are to deal with verifying ads or scraping information from sites, you should be aware of how important a good proxy is in that regard. Some of the most popular websites now impose particular geo-restrictions and are already very good at proxy-detecting. Therefore, this certain test is highly important. 

Its results appeared not as great as those of the former two tests, though. While we tested the residential IPs, some websites (like Nike or Ticketmaster) still blocked them. As for Nike in particular, among all 16 proxies, only one managed to pass its website’s guard. However, with Craigslist and Instagram, all was great with all IPs.

Pricing Policies

Bright Data offers three different packages such as 1) pay as you go, 2) monthly, and 3) yearly subscription. The payment plans vary drastically depending on the user benefits. See the details on the screens below:

1) Pay as You Go

2) Monthly Subscription

3) Yearly Subscription

So, check them all and take advantage of the best option that perfectly suits your needs.

It is hard to say that the pricing options are the most vital feature of BrightData. The prices are not the lowest ones that you can find online. However, if you consider the value you get for a reasonable cost, it could be worth your investment. A test drive to try the given service for seven days at no charge is an excellent opportunity to see if it is an ideal fit for your needs. 

Frequently Asked Questions

You should answer the most vital questions whenever you need to use a new software or hardware solution. The same applies to knowing what you need to get the most benefit from the given proxy service. Here are the top 6 questions: