In this Article
Web scraping depends on residential proxies that are reliable, affordable, and sourced the right way. With NetNut disrupted by law enforcement in July 2026, scraping teams are choosing a new provider under time pressure. This guide covers what matters for scraping, and how to pick a residential proxy you will not have to replace again in a hurry.
Quick answer: For scraping in 2026, look for a large pool of ethically sourced residential IPs, a high success rate, flexible rotation, country targeting, and pay-as-you-go pricing so you are not locked in. DataImpulse offers more than 90 million ethically sourced IPs across 195 locations from 1 dollar per GB, with rotating and sticky sessions and non-expiring traffic.
What matters for scraping
- Pool size and quality. A large residential pool spreads requests across many real addresses, which keeps your success rate up on tough targets.
- Ethical sourcing. After NetNut, this is not optional. IPs from users who opt in and are compensated keep your supply chain defensible.
- Rotation and sessions. Rotating sessions give a fresh IP per request, while sticky sessions hold one IP when a site needs continuity.
- Targeting. Country level targeting lets you collect location-specific data, with finer targeting available when you need it.
- Pricing that does not lock you in. Pay-as-you-go with non-expiring traffic means you scale up and down freely and never race a subscription clock.
Why sourcing is now part of the checklist
Before 2026, many teams treated residential proxies as a commodity chosen on price and speed. The NetNut case, where reporting says the network was built on hijacked devices, changed that. If your data collection runs through non-consented IPs, that becomes your compliance problem. So sourcing now sits alongside success rate and price when you compare providers.
Where to start
DataImpulse runs its own pool of more than 90 million ethically sourced residential, mobile, and datacenter IPs across 195 locations. The residential IPs come from users who opt in through a disclosed SDK and are paid for the bandwidth they share. It supports rotating and sticky sessions, HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5, and country targeting is included, with city, ASN, and ZIP targeting available as an add-on. Pricing is pay-as-you-go from 1 dollar per GB with non-expiring traffic. For scraping teams leaving NetNut, that is a reliable pool, a defensible supply chain, and predictable costs. See our residential proxies page, or our guides on Python and Scrapy setups.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best residential proxies for scraping in 2026?
Look for a large, ethically sourced pool, a high success rate, flexible rotation, country targeting, and pay-as-you-go pricing. DataImpulse fits all of these from 1 dollar per GB.
Why not just use the cheapest residential proxy?
Because a price far below the market often means the IPs were not sourced with consent, which is the exact risk the NetNut case exposed. Cheap and unaccountable is not a bargain.
Do I need sticky or rotating sessions for scraping?
Rotating sessions suit most scraping, giving a fresh IP per request. Use sticky sessions when a target needs continuity across steps, for up to 120 minutes.
Will switching from NetNut break my scraper?
No. Residential proxies use standard credentials, so switching providers is mostly a configuration change.
How much does it cost?
DataImpulse starts at 1 dollar per GB, pay-as-you-go, with non-expiring traffic. Verify current pricing on the provider’s official site before you buy.
Scrape on proxies you can trust
Reliable, ethically sourced residential IPs keep your data pipeline running and defensible. Start with DataImpulse at 1 dollar per GB.
State/City/Zip/ASN Targeting 
