PacketStream vs ProxyEmpire

PacketStream provides a peer-to-peer residential proxy network that routes customer traffic through household connections and supports country targeting. For each new proxy connection, its gateway selects a residential exit, so applications can distribute requests without maintaining proxy lists. A session ID can retain the same exit for up to 60 minutes; if the Packeter disconnects, the session fails rather than changing exits. Country targeting uses ISO two-letter codes, and a request fails if no exit is available in the selected country. The gateway supports HTTPS, SOCKS5 and HTTP, with HTTPS recommended. Setup guides cover tools and languages including cURL, Wget, Python Requests, Node.js, PHP Guzzle, Go, Scrapy, Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, Firefox and Chrome. Listed uses include public web data collection, market research, price monitoring, ad verification and localized search tracking. Test credits can be requested, but support decides whether to approve them and how much credit to grant. Residential Proxies is $1 a month, metered at the gateway, with a $50 minimum purchase. PacketStream does not guarantee a particular exit, response time, success rate, availability or uninterrupted session.

ProxyEmpire sells proxy connections for business uses such as web scraping, marketing research, and e-commerce comparisons. Its listed networks include rotating and static residential, rotating and dedicated mobile, rotating datacenter, and unlimited residential proxies. Connection settings can keep the same IP, assign a new one for each request, or rotate on a custom schedule of up to two hours. The service advertises no concurrent session limit and bandwidth rollover. It supports HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5, and HTTP/2; compatible software must accept HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS5 proxies authenticated with a username and password. ProxyEmpire offers an API, Chrome extension, and Android tool, with setup guides for more than 35 tools and apps, including 14 anti-detect browsers. The extension includes profile switching, bulk import and testing, WebRTC leak protection, a kill switch, status and bandwidth views, and image blocking. Pricing varies by network and plan: listed options include $7.00 per month for 1 GB of rotating residential traffic and $3.50 per month for one static residential proxy. The company advertises 24/7 human support.