What scraping needs
A good scraping setup puts each target on the cheapest proxy type that works, handles sessions for multi-page flows, and has a fallback for the hardest sites. Both providers support that, with different strengths. See web scraping proxies.
Side by side for scraping
| Rayobyte | Geonode | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest tier | Rotating datacenter from $0.30/GB | Rotating datacenter about $0.53/GB at 10 GB |
| Middle tier | Rotating ISP | None (ISP IPs are static) |
| Residential | $3.50 to $0.70/GB, ZIP and OS targeting | About $0.88/GB at 10 GB, no expiry, 24-hour sessions |
| Huge untargeted crawls | Scale Residential, about 1 cent/GB | Unlimited residential by port speed |
| Managed fallback | Web Unblocker, Scraping API, rayobrowse | Scraper, Map, Crawl and Search APIs |
List prices at the time of writing.
Rayobyte's case
Rayobyte gives you a full ladder in one account: datacenter, rotating ISP, residential and a Web Unblocker you can drop into existing code. That lets you route domains precisely and cut cost on easy targets. See Rayobyte for web scraping.
Geonode's case
Geonode is the cheaper residential choice at small and medium volumes, never wastes unused GB, and its Crawl and Map APIs reduce the work of discovering URLs. Its Scraper API returns Markdown for LLM pipelines. See Geonode for web scraping.
Residential tip: Many teams end up using more than one provider: Rayobyte for ZIP and ASN targeted residential traffic or its Scraping API, Geonode for non-expiring per-GB bandwidth and long sticky sessions. Start with Rayobyte for web scraping.
Example: 150 GB a month
Suppose 70% of traffic is to easy sites and 30% to protected ones.
- All Rayobyte: 105 GB datacenter (about $29) plus 45 GB residential (about $100 if you buy 50 GB): around $130.
- All Geonode: 105 GB datacenter plus 45 GB residential at Geonode's per-GB rates; residential is cheaper per GB, datacenter more expensive.
- Mixed: Rayobyte datacenter for easy sites plus Geonode residential for protected ones usually comes out cheapest at this size.
Price your exact volumes on both sites. See pricing compared.
Which to choose
| Situation | Better fit |
|---|---|
| Mostly easy targets | Rayobyte |
| Mostly protected targets, modest volume | Geonode |
| Need ZIP-level data | Rayobyte |
| Irregular schedules | Geonode |
| Existing scraper, a few impossible sites | Rayobyte Web Unblocker |
| Feeding pages to an LLM | Geonode Scraper API |
For tools, see Python, Scrapy, Puppeteer and Playwright. With Webshare too: web scraping across all three. Our Puppeteer proxies guide covers the full setup.
A real-world example
A team scraping 150 job boards classifies them in a week of testing: 110 work on datacenter, 30 need residential and 10 need managed handling. The 110 run on Rayobyte rotating datacenter. The 30 residential sites use Geonode, at around 50 GB a month. The 10 hardest go to Rayobyte's Web Unblocker, which needed only a proxy URL change. Monthly reviews move a few sites between tiers each time.
Proxy tip: To test the Geonode side of this comparison, a small residential balance from Geonode is enough, and it doesn't expire if you pause. See our complete Geonode guide for its full product range.
Pros and cons for scraping
Rayobyte
- Full ladder: datacenter, rotating ISP, residential, unblocker.
- Cheapest datacenter per GB.
- Residential costs more at small volumes.
Geonode
- Cheapest residential at small and medium volumes, no expiry.
- Crawl and Map APIs for discovery.
- No middle ISP tier or drop-in unblocker.
If you're still shortlisting, compare these options with the wider market in our best proxies guide, and use our cheap proxies guide to estimate a sensible budget. To understand the IP type behind this, read our residential proxies guide.
Budget tip: If you want a cheap proxy to try this with, Webshare has a free plan with 10 datacenter proxies and 1 GB of bandwidth a month, no card required. Paid lists let you pick proxy count, bandwidth and location. See Webshare for web scraping.
Key takeaways
- Rayobyte offers the fuller ladder of products and cheaper datacenter traffic.
- Geonode offers cheaper, non-expiring residential and content-friendly APIs.
- A mixed setup is often cheapest.
- Route by domain and measure cost per success.
FAQ
Which is better for scraping, Rayobyte or Geonode?
It depends on your mix of targets. Rayobyte for easy and ZIP-level work and drop-in unblocking; Geonode for modest residential volumes and irregular schedules.
Can I scrape JavaScript sites with both?
Yes, with your own headless browser and either provider's proxies, or with their managed tools.
Do both support sticky sessions for pagination?
Yes: up to 120 minutes on Rayobyte and up to 24 hours on Geonode.
Sources and further reading
Independent references that back up the points above, from standards bodies, governments, universities and non-profits. They open in a new tab.
- Common Crawl (Common Crawl Foundation): The open web crawl that many AI training datasets are built from.
- Downloader Middleware (Scrapy documentation): Scrapy's documentation for the middleware where proxy rotation lives.
- urllib.request documentation (Python Software Foundation): Python's standard library documentation, including ProxyHandler.
- Autonomous system (Internet) (Wikipedia): What an autonomous system (ASN) is, the network label sites use to tell datacenter IPs from home ones.
- RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics (IETF / RFC Editor): The HTTP standard that defines how proxies, tunnels and the CONNECT method behave.
Editorial note: Proxy providers change their pools, features and prices often, so treat any figures here as typical ranges at the time of writing and confirm current terms with the provider before you buy.