Oxylabs and IPRoyal both offer residential proxy networks with PAYG billing and no mandatory long-term commitments. The similarity ends there. One is built for teams that need a compliance audit trail and targeting precision at scale. The other is built on transparency and operational legibility: exact IP counts per country, sticky sessions documented at up to 7 days, and a 58-second average support response time confirmed in product documentation — not a marketing claim.

Oxylabs brings ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2, and EWDCI founding membership alongside ASN targeting, a 175M+ residential pool, and OxyCopilot for integration code generation. IPRoyal publishes per-country residential IP counts — US: 4.2M+, India: 3.7M+, China: 2.5M+ — and backs its network with PAYG traffic that does not expire and a dedicated-only datacenter product with 99.9% uptime documented.

The comparison separates teams whose requirements center on compliance verification from teams whose priorities are pool legibility and long-hold sessions.

Oxylabs suits teams whose procurement requires ISO 27001, SOC 2, or EWDCI founding credentials — or whose residential workloads need ASN targeting, mobile proxies with carrier targeting, or a pool above 100M+ IPs. The limitations: KYC is mandatory before full access, PAYG is capped at 50 GB per month, and sticky session configuration tops out at 24 hours via sesstime parameter.

IPRoyal suits teams that value knowing exactly what pool they are buying into — per-country IP counts are published on the residential proxies page — and whose workloads require sessions that hold for hours or days. Sticky sessions are documented at up to 7 days. Non-expiring PAYG residential traffic requires no contract. The 58-second average support response time is a stated operational metric. The limitations: ASN targeting is not documented on residential proxies, the pool is smaller at 32M+, no SLA exists, and no independent compliance certifications are documented.

Oxylabs' philosophy is that enterprise proxy infrastructure requires independently verified compliance at every layer. ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2, and EWDCI founding membership are third-party audits. KYC with documented rejection criteria applies to every customer. ASN targeting extends residential precision to network-operator level. OxyCopilot and a full REST API lower the integration burden at all tiers. The product is built for procurement processes that require audit reports.

IPRoyal's philosophy is that the relationship between a proxy provider and its customers should be legible before and during purchase. Per-country IP counts are published as specific figures — not ranges, not estimates. Traffic is non-expiring with no contracts, removing the pressure of billing cycles. Sticky sessions hold for up to 7 days, covering workloads that require long session persistence without re-authentication overhead. The 58-second average support response time is documented as an operational metric. The datacenter product offers dedicated IPs only — no shared pool — with 99.9% uptime confirmed.

You gain independently verified compliance, ASN targeting, and a larger pool with Oxylabs. You give up pool transparency, long-duration sticky sessions, and a documented support response time. With IPRoyal, the trade runs in reverse — you gain pool transparency, 7-day sessions, and an operational support commitment, and the ISO/SOC2 audit trail, ASN targeting, and pool scale become unavailable.

Oxylabs' residential pool is provider-reported at 175M+ IPs across 195 countries. Residential proxies support country, state, city, ZIP, and ASN targeting. Mobile proxies cover 20M IPs with carrier targeting and 3G/4G/5G support. ISP static and datacenter proxies are available. Sticky sessions are configurable up to 24 hours. Dedicated residential IPs with exclusive assignment are available.

IPRoyal's residential pool is provider-reported at 32M+ IPs across 195 countries. Per-country IP counts are published: US 4.2M+, India 3.7M+, China 2.5M+, UK 2.0M+, Germany 2.0M+, France 1.9M+. Country, state, ZIP, and city targeting are confirmed. ASN targeting is not documented on the residential proxies page. Sticky session TTL is up to 7 days and explicitly documented. Mobile proxies cover 4.5M+ IPs across 3G/4G/5G; carrier targeting is not documented. ISP static proxies are available in 31+ countries with flexible lease periods of 1, 30, 60, or 90 days. The datacenter product offers dedicated IPs only — no shared pool — in 50+ countries with 99.9% uptime documented.

Oxylabs authenticates via username and password in the proxy URL, with IP whitelist authentication for up to 10 IPs. Targeting is configured via proxy username parameters per request. The REST API covers proxy configuration, zone management, and usage statistics at all tiers. OxyCopilot generates integration code from natural language. KYC is mandatory before full network access.

IPRoyal supports IP whitelist authentication alongside credential-based access. Two-factor authentication is available for account security. Sticky sessions hold for up to 7 days without re-authentication overhead. Dashboard monitoring of success rates, traffic, and sessions is available for datacenter proxies. HTTP/S and SOCKS5 protocols are confirmed. Sub-user or team account management is not documented. The 58-second average support response time is documented on the datacenter documentation page.

Oxylabs bills residential and mobile proxies per GB on subscription tiers and PAYG. PAYG is capped at 50 GB per month. A 7-day free trial for businesses is available without a credit card. Unused subscription GB does not roll over. KYC must be completed before billing begins on the full network.

IPRoyal's residential PAYG traffic is non-expiring — purchased GB do not expire and no contracts are required. Bulk discounts reduce the per-GB rate at higher volumes. Datacenter proxies are billed per IP per month with 30, 60, or 90-day period options. ISP proxies are billed per IP with daily or monthly options. Mobile proxies offer unlimited traffic plans on a monthly basis. No free tier is documented.

ISO 27001, SOC 2, or EWDCI founding credentials are required by procurement — or ASN targeting, mobile proxies with carrier targeting, or a pool above 100M+ IPs are operational needs. Oxylabs fits.

Per-country IP count transparency before committing, sticky sessions up to 7 days, non-expiring PAYG with no contracts, and a documented sub-minute support response time are the priorities. IPRoyal fits.

You gain verified compliance, targeting depth, and pool scale with Oxylabs. You give up pool transparency and long-duration sessions. With IPRoyal, the trade runs in reverse — you gain pool transparency and 7-day sessions, and the ISO/SOC2 audit trail, ASN targeting, and pool scale become unavailable.

Neither fits teams that need both ASN-level residential targeting and sticky sessions longer than 24 hours.

Ask what your compliance process requires to approve a proxy vendor. If ISO 27001, SOC 2, or EWDCI founding membership must be on the vendor record — IPRoyal does not document independent certifications. Oxylabs addresses those requirements directly.

Ask whether knowing the exact IP count per target country matters before you commit — or whether your workload requires sessions that hold for hours or days without timing out. If yes to either, IPRoyal's per-country transparency and 7-day sticky sessions address those priorities directly, and the absence of ASN targeting and a compliance certification stack are the constraints to accept.

If your requirement is audited compliance and targeting precision — Oxylabs. If your requirement is pool transparency and long-duration sessions — IPRoyal.