# Alternatives to Oxylabs

> Source: https://theagentsindex.com/oxylabs/alternatives/ (re-verified)
> Updated: 29 October 2026

## At a glance

| Name | Best for | Starts at | Better than Oxylabs at | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Oxylabs](https://theagentsindex.com/oxylabs.md) | AI teams grounding agents on live web data and firms scraping search at scale | From $30 a month | — | 28 October 2026 |
| [Exa](https://theagentsindex.com/exa.md) | Developers grounding AI agents and assistants in live web, company and people data | Free, then $4 per 1000 requests | Multi-agent, Tracing and evals | 26 October 2026 |
| [Apify](https://theagentsindex.com/apify.md) | Developers and data teams that need maintained web scrapers instead of building their own | Free, then $19 a month | Agent permissions, Tracing and evals | 26 October 2026 |
| [Bright Data](https://theagentsindex.com/bright-data.md) | Data and AI teams that need blocked public web pages returned reliably at scale | Free, then $1.50 per 1000 requests | Tracing and evals, Admin controls | 28 October 2026 |

The ones people open most here come first, then the closest matches.

## Shortlist

### 1. ProofFetch

Paid web extraction API returning cited paragraphs, SHA-256 receipts and prompt-injection indicators.

**Where it improves on Oxylabs:**

**Trade-offs against Oxylabs:**
- [Self-hosted: no — Both the REST API and the MCP transport point only at the vendor's own hosted endpoint; no self-hosted, on-premise or bring-your-own-infrastructure option is offered on any tier.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json)
- [Pooled budget: partial — A card-pack key carries one shared balance of 500 extractions that anything holding the key can spend, and the vendor documents no per-user or per-agent sub-allocation of that balance.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/policies/terms)

[View ProofFetch](https://theagentsindex.com/prooffetch)

### 2. Exa

Web search, contents and agentic research APIs built for AI agents, billed per request.

**Where it improves on Oxylabs:**
- [Multi-agent: yes — A single Exa Agent run fans out many searches and splits list building into subtasks that run in parallel, so coordination happens inside Exa rather than needing the buyer to orchestrate separate agents.](https://exa.ai/docs/agent/quickstart.md)
- [Tracing and evals: yes — Completed Agent runs return field-level grounding citations and a cost breakdown, stored run events can be listed or replayed as server-sent events, and per-key usage analytics are retrievable through the Team Management API.](https://exa.ai/docs/agent/quickstart.md)

**Trade-offs against Oxylabs:**
- None found.

[View Exa](https://theagentsindex.com/exa)

### 3. Apify

Marketplace and cloud platform of ready-to-run web scraping and automation tools, callable over API or MCP.

**Where it improves on Oxylabs:**
- [Agent permissions: yes — Actors declare one of two permission levels and the platform enforces them at runtime; limited-permission Actors see only their own storages, and a full-permission Actor needs the owner's one-time approval in Console before any run.](https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/permissions.md)
- [Tracing and evals: yes — Console monitoring charts run statuses and metrics for the last 200 runs and sends email, Slack or in-app alerts on thresholds; it is free on every plan and consumes no extra usage.](https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/monitoring.md)
- [Admin controls: yes — Organization owners assign per-member roles from a documented permission list covering Actors, storages, tokens and billing, and account settings control whether full-permission Actors need approval.](https://docs.apify.com/account/collaboration/organization.md)

**Trade-offs against Oxylabs:**
- None found.

[View Apify](https://theagentsindex.com/apify)

### 4. Bright Data

Web unlocking, SERP and 1,200+ pre-built scrapers on a 400M-IP proxy network, billed per successful record.

**Where it improves on Oxylabs:**
- [Tracing and evals: yes — Job management APIs, snapshot-based async jobs and a live credit view in the control panel let you follow each collection run; no separate evaluation layer is documented.](https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp)
- [Admin controls: yes — API keys carry one of five permission levels, so an admin can issue an agent a key that may call products but cannot touch billing or configuration.](https://docs.brightdata.com/api-reference/authentication)

**Trade-offs against Oxylabs:**
- None found.

[View Bright Data](https://theagentsindex.com/bright-data)