Decodo Review
The mid-market all-rounder: deep, reliable and self-serve, priced above the value end.
The short version
- Decodo returned 281,121 live IPs across five countries, the second deepest result in our series and within 1% of the largest.
- It led four of the five countries on raw pool count, including 138,914 live US addresses.
- Network spread is where it gives ground: 2,284 distinct networks against the 2,441 we recorded, and 93 fewer operators in France.
- The $2.00 headline rate needs 1,000 GB a month. Realistic buyers pay $2.75 to $3.75 per GB.
At a glance
What we measured
Live IPs each network had answering during the same test window, five countries, identical request volumes and concurrency for both sides.
| Country | Decodo | Shifter | Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 138,914 | 136,667 | 1,578 |
| United Kingdom | 46,389 | 53,506 | 193 |
| France | 36,678 | 33,581 | 89 |
| Canada | 35,560 | 33,485 | 245 |
| Germany | 23,580 | 22,005 | 179 |
Pool size and where it leads
Decodo advertises 115M+ residential IPs. That is a lifetime total across every country, so we measured the figure that decides whether a crawl finishes: how many distinct addresses answer in one country during a single test window.
It came back with 281,121 live IPs across five countries, and led four of them. The United States returned 138,914 from 250,000 requests, France 36,678 and Germany 23,580. Only the United Kingdom went the other way, where it returned 46,144.
Across the whole five-country total the difference against our own network is under 1%, so this is a genuinely close pairing rather than a gap in either direction.
Reliability, speed and spread
Whatever else you weigh, Decodo answers.
Median responses ran 536 ms to 636 ms, mid-table for the series: slower than the fastest networks we have measured, comfortably faster than the slowest.
Network spread is the one place the numbers work against it. Its addresses came from 2,284 distinct operators across the five countries against the 2,441 we recorded, and the gap is widest in France. Anti-bot systems key on the network an address belongs to, so a pool concentrated on fewer operators is easier to fingerprint at the same size.
The Smartproxy rebrand, and what it costs
Decodo is Smartproxy renamed. The network, dashboard and pricing carried over, so older reviews of Smartproxy still describe this service, and both names appear across the market.
Pricing starts at $3.75 per GB for 3 GB and falls to $2.75 at 100 GB. The $2.00 rate quoted in most comparisons requires 1,000 GB a month, which is a different class of buyer.
For a team on 100 GB, that means roughly $275 a month. Our own published rate is $1.00 per GB at that volume and $0.75 at 200 GB, which is a disclosed commercial interest rather than a neutral observation, and the reason the performance numbers above come from a test anyone can repeat.
Pricing
| Plan | Traffic | Per GB | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | 1 GB | $4.00 | $4 |
| Starter | 3 GB | $3.75 | $11.25 |
| Regular | 50 GB | $3.00 | $150 |
| Advanced | 100 GB | $2.75 | $275 |
| Enterprise | 1 TB | $2.00 | $2,000 |
Pros and cons
- Deep live pool: 281,121 addresses across five countries, leading four of them
- Self-serve throughout: 3 day trial, 14 day money-back, no sales call
- 195+ locations with ZIP and ASN targeting included at no extra cost
- Genuine self-serve: 3 day trial, 14 day money-back, no sales call
- Entry pricing of $3.75 per GB is among the highest in the mid-market
- The $2.00 rate needs a 1,000 GB monthly commitment
- Fewer distinct networks than the pool size suggests, especially in France
- HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 only, no HTTP3
Who Decodo is for
- You want a large, dependable pool without an enterprise sales process.
- You value a polished self-serve dashboard and fast onboarding.
- You buy 100 GB or more a month, where the ladder starts to make sense.
- You are price sensitive: the entry tier is $3.75 per GB.
- You need maximum network diversity rather than raw address count.
- You want the cheapest route to the same coverage.
How we scored it
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live pool measured | 25% | 9.1 | 281,121 IPs live across five countries, against the tested field. |
| Network spread measured | 20% | 9.2 | 2,284 distinct networks across five countries. |
| Price per GB measured | 25% | 7.1 | $2.00 per GB, which requires 1,000 GB a month. A 100 GB buyer pays $2.75 and the entry tier is $3.75. |
| Response time measured | 10% | 8.8 | 702 ms median across the countries tested. |
| Country coverage | 10% | 10 | 195+ countries advertised, scaled against full global coverage. |
| Features | 5% | 9 | Unlimited concurrency, sticky sessions from minutes to days, ZIP and ASN targeting included, strong dashboard. Loses a point for no HTTP3. |
| Transparency | 5% | 9 | Full price ladder published, self-serve signup, a real trial and a money-back guarantee. Among the most open in the market. |