Side by side
| Product | Rayobyte | Webshare |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | Pay as you go (confirm expiry terms) | Monthly plans, reported to reset each cycle |
| Mobile | Plan bandwidth expires after 30 days | No mobile product |
| Static lists | Unmetered under fair use | Bandwidth allowance you choose, up to unlimited |
| High volume | Scale Residential monthly plans | Larger monthly residential plans |
At the time of writing.
Webshare residential resets
Webshare's residential traffic is sold on monthly plans, and reviews report that unused bandwidth resets each billing cycle. That's fine for steady usage and wasteful for irregular usage. Size the plan to a realistic month. See Webshare bandwidth and threads.
Rayobyte pay as you go
Rayobyte's Premium Residential is sold pay as you go. Its pricing page doesn't state an expiry, and earlier reviews described it as non-expiring, so confirm before buying a large block. Its mobile plans do expire after 30 days.
Allowances on proxy lists
Webshare's datacenter and static residential plans include a bandwidth allowance you pick at checkout; going over requires a bigger allowance. Rayobyte's static IPs are unmetered by default, which removes that planning step for heavy workloads.
Residential tip: Both sides of this comparison can be tested at no cost: Rayobyte has a free trial with no card, and Webshare has a permanent free plan with 10 datacenter proxies. See Rayobyte pricing explained.
Avoiding waste
- Irregular residential: prefer pay as you go.
- Steady residential: monthly plans are fine; size to 80 to 90% of a typical month.
- Heavy traffic on static IPs: unmetered plans avoid overage worries.
- Tier thresholds: Rayobyte's price per GB drops at 50, 250 and 1,000 GB.
With Geonode
Geonode's residential bandwidth doesn't expire at all. See bandwidth expiry across all three.
A real-world example
A research team collects heavily for six weeks each quarter (about 150 GB) and barely at all in between. On a Webshare monthly residential plan sized for peak weeks, two of every three months would be largely wasted, so the team would need to change plans constantly. On Rayobyte's pay-as-you-go tiers, it buys 250 GB at $1.50 before each collection wave and draws it down as needed, after confirming with support how long the balance lasts.
Decision checklist
- Is your residential usage steady or seasonal?
- How much of last month's allowance did you actually use?
- Do static lists need an unlimited bandwidth allowance (Webshare) or are they unmetered by default (Rayobyte)?
- Will mobile bandwidth be used within 30 days (Rayobyte)?
Budget tip: If the job only needs a fixed list of IPs, Webshare sells datacenter and static residential proxies by the IP, often for less than a per-GB plan would cost. More in our complete Webshare guide.
Pros and cons on bandwidth terms
Rayobyte
- Pay-as-you-go residential tiers.
- Unmetered static IPs by default.
- Mobile expires after 30 days; confirm residential expiry.
Webshare
- Simple monthly residential plans.
- Unlimited allowance option on lists.
- Residential reported to reset each cycle.
Bottom line
Steady users can be happy on either. Irregular residential users save more on pay as you go.
Not sure this is the right proxy type for the job? The best proxies in 2026 guide compares residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile options, and our cheap proxies guide covers budget picks that still work.
Proxy tip: For a second opinion on hard targets, run the same test through Geonode residential proxies, which support sticky sessions up to 24 hours and ASN targeting. We compare the two in Rayobyte vs Geonode vs Webshare.
Key takeaways
- Webshare residential is monthly and reported to reset; Rayobyte residential is pay as you go.
- Rayobyte's mobile bandwidth expires after 30 days.
- Rayobyte's static IPs are unmetered; Webshare lists have a chosen allowance.
- Match the billing model to how steady your usage is.
FAQ
Does Webshare residential bandwidth roll over?
Reviews report it resets each billing cycle. Check current terms.
Does Rayobyte residential bandwidth expire?
Its pricing page doesn't say; confirm with support before buying a large amount.
Which is better for irregular usage?
Rayobyte's pay-as-you-go model, or Geonode's non-expiring bandwidth.
What happens if I exceed my Webshare bandwidth?
You'll need a larger allowance or plan; check current overage options in the dashboard.
Is unmetered bandwidth truly unlimited?
It's unlimited under a fair usage policy; extreme use may be limited.
Should I buy a yearly Webshare plan?
Only once your usage is stable, since yearly billing locks in the plan size.
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.
- Bandwidth (computing) (Wikipedia): What bandwidth means, the unit most residential proxies are priced by.
- RFC 6585: Additional HTTP Status Codes (429 Too Many Requests) (IETF / RFC Editor): Defines status 429, the code sites send when you make too many requests.
- RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol (IETF / RFC Editor): The official standard for robots.txt, which polite scrapers and crawlers read first.
- CAIDA (Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (UC San Diego)): Academic research on internet topology and measurement.
- Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (Harvard University): Harvard's centre for research on the internet and society.
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.