Fusion Proxy vs Bright Data: compare your proxy setup

Are you replacing a proxy or a data collection service?

Open the configuration of the job you want to move. If it supplies a proxy host, port, username and password to a browser or HTTP client, you are comparing network connections. If it calls an API that returns parsed records, starts a remote browser or downloads a prepared dataset, the provider is doing additional work. Write down the returned fields and the parts your own application supplies before choosing a replacement.

Bright Data lists those product categories separately. Fusion Proxy’s residential product supplies a connection for your own application. Moving a proxy setting can be a small integration change; replacing a collection API can also require a parser, browser hosting, retry handling and scheduling. For example, a retail team receiving ready-made product records needs to account for how those records will be produced after a switch. Keep the existing data service if its saved development and maintenance time is worth the cost for that project.

Sources: Bright Data product catalog · Fusion Proxy residential specifications

Compare the order you will actually place

Bright Data’s residential pricing includes both pay-as-you-go and monthly commitments. Compare the applicable option with your expected traffic and purchase schedule. A discounted monthly rate and a small one-off purchase have different commitments, even when both are described in dollars per gigabyte. Keep any promotion, minimum purchase and tax treatment beside the quote so the comparison can be checked later.

Fusion Proxy’s published residential table lists $2.13 per GB at a 10 GB purchase and $0.65 per GB at 10,000 GB. The latter is a large-volume tier, not the price of a small first test. The 10 GB example totals $21.30 before any checkout adjustments. Use the current Bright Data quote for the same traffic requirement rather than a historical rate from an old review. Also include your application hosting and any separate browser or parsing charges if they would change with the provider.

Sources: Bright Data residential pricing and billing FAQ · Fusion Proxy pricing

Which location settings does your job need?

Make a list of the actual countries and cities in your job. For a delivery check, add the postcode entered on the retailer’s website; for a search check, add language and device settings. These are useful requirements to test because a connection location alone does not determine every part of the page. A saved account address can still change delivery options or the currency shown.

Bright Data’s residential pricing page lists ZIP and ASN targeting alongside country and city choices. Fusion Proxy documents country, state and city selection for its standard residential product. If a specific ZIP or network is essential, check that requirement explicitly before moving. Try a few pages from each necessary market and save the requested location, the exit IP lookup and the website’s displayed region. Review disagreements rather than choosing a provider solely from a global country count. A country that is available generally may still need a test at the exact time and location your project uses.

Sources: Bright Data residential pricing and billing FAQ · Fusion Proxy residential specifications

Keep connected page visits on the same session

A sequence such as signing in, opening a settings page and saving a change should be tested as one complete visit. Copying a working proxy endpoint into a new tool does not automatically preserve browser cookies or storage. Keep the browser profile with the session, and check the IP at the beginning and end of the actions that matter to your application.

Fusion Proxy’s residential session setting accepts durations from 1 to 120 minutes. When evaluating a Bright Data configuration, record its current session settings from the account or documentation and reproduce the required behavior in the test. Avoid treating the maximum configured duration as a promise that a household device will stay online. If you need one assigned address across different days, compare the dedicated ISP option separately. That is a different purchase from a temporary residential session, and may fit an allowlist or a recurring business account more directly.

Sources: Fusion Proxy residential specifications · Fusion Proxy ISP specifications

Try the new connection in one application first

Start with a copy of a working script or a separate browser profile. Save the original connection settings securely, then enter the host, port, protocol and credentials generated for the new provider. Do not carry provider-specific location or session suffixes into another provider’s username. Recreate those options in the destination dashboard instead, where you can see the settings that produced the connection string.

Run an IP check from that application, then request a page you are permitted to access. If the IP check works but the page does not, keep the page response and timestamp; the connection itself may already be functioning. If neither works, check authentication, the selected protocol and the account balance. Compare HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 only when the client supports both. A successful browser-extension test does not establish that a separately running script uses the same proxy, so check each client that will be part of the move.

Sources: Fusion Proxy residential specifications

Use your real pages for the comparison

Choose a short list that contains the page types your work depends on. A product collection job might include a category page, a product with variants, pagination and a discontinued item. A quality-assurance job might include a landing page, a sign-in step and a page with large images. Keep the list and the expected fields the same for both configurations.

Record completed results, transferred data, elapsed time and errors. Review some saved results manually: a response can arrive successfully while containing an unexpected country, a login prompt or a missing price. Run tests at comparable times and with the same browser resource settings. If a page changes during the comparison, investigate that change before attributing it to the proxy. This produces a result your team can use for its own workload. It does not turn one small test into a general speed or success-rate ranking for every Bright Data or Fusion Proxy customer.

Prepare account access before the handover

List who needs to create endpoints, purchase traffic and view usage. Use separate application credentials where your account setup supports them, and keep passwords in protected configuration rather than in a shared comparison spreadsheet. Redact authentication strings before sending diagnostic screenshots or logs to either support team. If an external developer maintains the script, agree who will update and later revoke its access.

Bright Data describes a KYC step for residential-network access. Schedule any required provider review before a deadline, and check the onboarding requirements for the account you intend to use. Separately, confirm your own permission to collect or test the destination pages and what information you need to retain. A vendor account check and your organization’s responsibilities are different tasks. Keep a short record of the selected product, responsible owner and access method so the next person can understand how the running job connects without needing the password in that record.

Sources: Bright Data residential pricing and billing FAQ

Check what changes for the person running the job

Ask the operator to review an ordinary run and a deliberately failed request on each setup. They should be able to find the used traffic, locate a failed page and understand whether to correct a password, wait after a rate limit or inspect changed page markup. These small support tasks matter when the same job runs every morning and the original developer is unavailable.

Record which alerts come from the proxy account and which come from your application. An account dashboard can show traffic while your parser still misses a field. Conversely, a correct parser cannot fix an expired credential. If your current Bright Data arrangement supplies monitoring or collection functionality that you use, decide how to retain or replace it before cancellation. Keep operating effort in the comparison alongside the bill. A provider that already fits the team’s routine may remain the practical choice even when another connection option deserves a test.

Move one scheduled job and keep a rollback copy

Choose a job with clear expected output and a manageable schedule for the first move. Save the old endpoint configuration, create the Fusion Proxy configuration in a separate environment and run the same page list. Compare the actual records, not just the request count. For a product feed, check identifiers, variants, currency and collection time before sending the output to another system.

After the test, move that one job and watch its next scheduled runs. Keep the previous configuration available until the new output and traffic usage are understood. Prevent both versions from writing duplicate records during the transition. When the move is complete, remove unused credentials and review the old plan’s billing settings in its dashboard. Do not assume that changing a hostname cancels a subscription or transfers unused traffic. This staged approach also lets you retain Bright Data for an API or dataset that still serves a separate purpose.

When does a Bright Data alternative make sense?

Fusion Proxy is worth testing when the requirement is a proxy connection for an application you already operate, the documented targeting fits your markets and prepaid traffic suits your purchasing pattern. Set a small test budget and an explicit list of pages that must work. The next decision should follow those results and the current order details, rather than the largest discount headline on either website.

Bright Data may remain the closer fit when you rely on its managed browser, collection APIs, datasets or account arrangements and replacing them would add substantial work. You can also keep different providers for different jobs. Before placing a larger Fusion Proxy order, confirm the location, connection settings and expected transferred data with the actual client. If you are unsure which product matches an existing Bright Data configuration, describe what the job receives and which parts your code performs. That gives support a concrete starting point for recommending a residential or static connection.

Sources: Bright Data product catalog · Fusion Proxy residential specifications

Before and after a provider switch