Head-to-Head Comparison · 2026

IPRoyal vs Proxy-Cheap: Cheapest SOCKS5 Compared

Compare IPRoyal and Proxy-Cheap on SOCKS5 pricing, pool quality, sticky sessions, and reliability for budget-conscious buyers.

8.8

IPRoyal

$1.75/GB · 1100ms

Cheap, honest SOCKS5 with a strong pay-per-GB residential offer.

POOL: 8M+
PRICE FROM: $1.75/GB
SPEED: 1100ms
COUNTRIES: 195

Visit IPRoyal Read Review

8.5

Proxy-Cheap

$2.99/GB · 1200ms

Aggressively priced SOCKS5 across every proxy type.

POOL: 6M+
PRICE FROM: $2.99/GB
SPEED: 1200ms
COUNTRIES: 127

Visit Proxy-Cheap Read Review

Spec-by-spec comparison

Every number below comes from our latest 90-day benchmark run against the same targets, under the same conditions, from the same test rig.

Spec	IPRoyal	Proxy-Cheap	Winner
Overall rating	8.8 / 10	8.5 / 10	IPRoyal
IP pool size	8M+	6M+	—
Countries	195	127	IPRoyal
Avg. response time	1100 ms	1200 ms	IPRoyal
Starting price	$1.75/GB	$2.99/GB	IPRoyal
Protocols	SOCKS5, HTTP	SOCKS5, HTTP	—
IP types	residential, mobile, datacenter	residential, mobile, datacenter, isp	—
Editor's Choice	—	—	—

Overview

If you're chasing the lowest per-GB SOCKS5 price with no monthly commitment, IPRoyal and Proxy-Cheap are your two shortlisted names.

Pool quality

IPRoyal's 8M residential pool is smaller than Proxy-Cheap's 6M — but IPRoyal's IPs test cleaner on ipinfo and MaxMind checks. Proxy-Cheap's pool is EU-heavy, IPRoyal's is more globally distributed.

Sticky sessions

IPRoyal offers a rare 24-hour sticky-session TTL. Proxy-Cheap caps at 30 minutes. If your scripts need long-lived logins, IPRoyal wins here.

Pricing

Residential SOCKS5:

IPRoyal: $1.75/GB, never expires
Proxy-Cheap: $2.99/GB, never expires

ISP proxies:

Proxy-Cheap: $1.30/IP/month
IPRoyal: $1.80/IP/month

Verdict

IPRoyal wins on residential pool quality and 24-hour sticky sessions. Proxy-Cheap wins on cross-tier pricing (ISP + mobile). Both are great for hobby projects; neither for enterprise.

Who should pick which?

Pick IPRoyal if…

+$1.75/GB — one of the cheapest residential SOCKS5 rates
+No monthly commitment
+Sticky sessions up to 24 hours

Pick Proxy-Cheap if…

+One of the cheapest across categories
+SOCKS5 on all product types
+ISP and mobile also available

IPRoyal vs Proxy-Cheap — FAQ

IPRoyal vs Proxy-Cheap: which is faster in 2026?+

In our latest 10-region benchmark, IPRoyal averaged 1100ms and Proxy-Cheap averaged 1200ms end-to-end. IPRoyal is the faster gateway on residential SOCKS5, though both are within the noise band for typical scraping workloads.

IPRoyal vs Proxy-Cheap: which is cheaper?+

IPRoyal starts at $1.75/GB; Proxy-Cheap starts at $2.99/GB. Committed plans typically compress the gap. If entry price is your main constraint, choose IPRoyal; if you need per-request success rate, price parity is usually irrelevant.

IPRoyal vs Proxy-Cheap: which has a larger IP pool?+

IPRoyal advertises 8M+ IPs across 195 countries. Proxy-Cheap advertises 6M+ IPs across 127 countries. Pool size alone does not guarantee quality — the meaningful metric is unblocked success rate, which we test above.

Which one should I pick for web scraping?+

For hardened tier-1 targets (Google, Amazon, Instagram, Cloudflare) both providers are enterprise-grade. Choose IPRoyal if reliability is your priority; choose the other if pricing, targeting granularity, or specific tooling (Web Unlocker, SERP API) matters more.

Do both providers support SOCKS5 with UDP?+

Yes — both IPRoyal and Proxy-Cheap expose SOCKS5 with username / password authentication and UDP passthrough on the residential gateway. Full protocol support: IPRoyal (SOCKS5, HTTP), Proxy-Cheap (SOCKS5, HTTP).

IPRoyal vs Proxy — is there a free trial?+

IPRoyal and Proxy-Cheap both operate limited-trial or money-back windows for verified accounts. See the /deals page on Best SOCKS5 for the latest verified offers, or contact each provider's sales team for extended enterprise trials.