This page explains how StackHyre researches, ranks, writes and updates its proxy and web scraping guides, and how we keep money away from our verdicts.
Last updated: October 24, 2026
Who Writes StackHyre
StackHyre is written and edited by Daniel Brooks, a pen name for the site’s proxy and web scraping consultant. Guest authors are named on their posts. Sponsored posts are labeled. You will always know who wrote a page and why it exists.
How We Research
We build every guide from sources you can check yourself:
- Published pricing pages. Prices come from each provider’s own site, with the month we checked them. If we can’t confirm a price, we link to the pricing page instead of guessing.
- Docs and plan limits. Setup guides, supported protocols, targeting options, session rules, traffic expiry and refund terms.
- Independent benchmarks. Results from independent testers such as Proxyway, credited to them and linked.
- Policies. Terms of service, acceptable use rules, KYC checks and how a provider says it sources its IPs.
- Reputable news. Shutdowns, rebrands, product changes and security issues.
How We Rank Providers
We compare providers on the same criteria each time, weighted by the use case of the page. These usually include:
| Criteria | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Price and value | Real cost per GB, IP or request, minimum spend, expiring traffic and hidden fees |
| Fit for the job | Proxy types, locations, targeting, rotation and session options |
| Performance | Success rates and speed from independent benchmarks, where available |
| Ethics and compliance | IP sourcing, user consent, KYC and acceptable use rules |
| Ease of use | Dashboard, docs, integrations and support |
| Trial and refunds | Free or paid trials and refund terms |
We name a best pick for each use case, because the right provider depends on what you need. We also say who a provider is not a good fit for.
No Pay for Placement
Affiliate Links and Sponsored Content Are Kept Apart
- Affiliate links may appear in our own guides. We may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. We include providers that don’t pay us when they are the better choice. See the Affiliate Disclosure.
- Sponsored content is paid content. It is labeled “Sponsored”, paid links use
rel="sponsored", and it never changes our rankings. See the Advertise page.
How We Label Vendor Claims
Providers make big claims about pool size, uptime and success rates. Most of these can’t be checked from the outside. So we label them as the vendor’s own claim, for example “the provider says its pool has X million IPs”, and link to where they say it. Our own views are written as opinions. Facts from third parties are linked to the source.
Keeping Guides Current
Proxy prices and plans change often. We review our main guides, including the best proxy providers pillar and the proxy pricing guide, on a regular basis and when we learn about a big change. Each page shows a “Last updated” date. When a provider shuts down, rebrands or drops a product, we update or remove our recommendation.
Corrections
We make mistakes sometimes. If you find one, email mail@stackhyre.com with the page URL, what’s wrong and a source if you have one. If the correction checks out, we fix the page and update its date. If a change is large, we note it on the page.
How We Use AI
We may use AI tools to help with research, outlines and first drafts. A person then checks every fact, price and link against the source, edits the text and decides what gets published. We don’t publish AI text without that human review, and we don’t let AI make up numbers, tests or quotes.
Responsible Use
We write about proxies and scraping for lawful uses. We won’t publish guides on fraud, account abuse or getting around security, and we won’t recommend providers we believe source IPs without clear consent.
Guest Contributors
Guest authors must meet the same standards. See the Write for Us page for our rules.