Hex Proxies vs Zyte (Scrapinghub) — Which Is Better in 2026?
Zyte, formerly Scrapinghub, is best known as the company behind Scrapy and a comprehensive web scraping platform. Their proxy offering, Zyte Smart Proxy Manager (formerly Crawlera), is one component of a broader data collection ecosystem. Hex Proxies is a dedicated proxy provider focused on delivering raw proxy infrastructure with maximum control and flexibility. The choice between them depends on whether you want an integrated platform or standalone proxy access.
Platform vs Infrastructure
Zyte's strength is vertical integration. Scrapy Cloud, Zyte API, Smart Proxy Manager, and automatic extraction work together as a unified data collection pipeline. If you are building your scraping operation from scratch and want a single vendor for everything from spider management to proxy rotation to data parsing, Zyte provides a cohesive experience.
The trade-off is lock-in. Building your pipeline on Zyte's platform means your spiders, proxy configuration, and data extraction logic are all coupled to their ecosystem. Migrating away from Zyte requires rebuilding not just proxy credentials but your entire scraping infrastructure. Hex Proxies provides standalone proxy access that works with any tool: Scrapy, Puppeteer, Playwright, custom Python scripts, Go programs, or enterprise ETL pipelines. Your proxy layer is decoupled from your scraping logic, which gives you the freedom to switch tools, frameworks, or even proxy providers without rewriting your stack.
IP Pool and Proxy Quality
Hex Proxies provides access to 10M+ residential IPs, offering the pool diversity needed for high-concurrency scraping across protected targets. Zyte's Smart Proxy Manager uses an intelligent routing layer that selects IPs based on the target domain's detection patterns. This can be effective for well-known targets where Zyte has accumulated optimization data, but it means you are dependent on Zyte's routing decisions. If you are scraping niche sites or targets that Zyte's AI has not optimized for, the routing advantage diminishes.
Hex Proxies' direct access model lets you implement your own rotation and targeting strategies, which experienced scraping teams often prefer because they can tune behavior precisely to their target set. The 250K+ ISP proxy pool also provides an option that Zyte does not emphasize: stable, low-latency connections for workflows that need consistent sessions rather than request-level rotation.
Pricing Model
Zyte's pricing is plan-based and scales with request volume and feature usage. The integrated platform means you are paying for smart routing, anti-detection, and infrastructure management bundled together. Hex Proxies uses transparent pay-as-you-go billing starting from $4.25/GB with no minimums. For teams that have already built their own anti-detection logic, retry handling, and request management, paying for these capabilities as part of a bundled proxy plan represents unnecessary overhead.
The Scrapy Factor
If your team is deeply invested in the Scrapy ecosystem, Zyte offers native integration that is hard to replicate. Scrapy Cloud provides managed spider deployment, scheduling, and monitoring. Smart Proxy Manager integrates directly with Scrapy middleware. For Scrapy-native teams, this integration reduces operational overhead. However, many modern scraping teams have moved beyond Scrapy to browser-based tools like Puppeteer, Playwright, or custom solutions built on headless Chrome. For these teams, Zyte's Scrapy-centric ecosystem is less relevant, and a framework-agnostic proxy provider like Hex Proxies is a better fit.
Onboarding and Flexibility
Zyte's platform-oriented approach means onboarding involves understanding the full ecosystem: project setup, spider deployment, proxy configuration within the platform, and data extraction API configuration. Hex Proxies activates instantly. You sign up, fund your wallet, generate proxy credentials, and plug them into whatever tool you are already using. For teams that want to evaluate proxy quality without committing to a platform, this low-friction onboarding is a significant advantage.
Data Ownership and Portability
With Zyte, your scraping data, spider configurations, and proxy optimization profiles live within their platform. With Hex Proxies, your proxy credentials are the only integration point. Your data pipeline, storage, and processing are entirely yours. This distinction matters for compliance-sensitive organizations that need full control over data handling and retention.
Who Should Choose Zyte?
Zyte is a strong fit if you want an all-in-one scraping platform, your team is heavily invested in the Scrapy ecosystem, and you prefer managed proxy routing over manual configuration. It is particularly effective for teams building their first large-scale scraping operation and want to minimize the number of vendors and integration points.
Who Should Choose Hex Proxies?
Hex Proxies is the better choice for teams that want decoupled proxy infrastructure, use browser-based scraping tools or custom frameworks, or need ISP proxies for session-stable workflows. The pay-as-you-go model with no minimums is also ideal for teams with variable workloads that do not want to commit to platform-level subscriptions.