Irmu vs Bright Data
The largest proxy network in the market versus a simpler, credit-priced access layer.
Bright Data operates at a scale nobody else in this comparison matches — a residential network in the hundreds of millions of IPs, Web Unlocker, SERP API, pre-built Web Scraper APIs, Scraper Studio, and a Scraping Browser that speaks CDP so Puppeteer, Playwright and Selenium connect directly. For the hardest targets on earth, that infrastructure is the answer.
It comes with enterprise weight. Billing spans requests for Web Unlocker at $1.5 per thousand and gigabytes for the Scraping Browser at $8 per GB, which means forecasting spend requires modelling both request counts and payload sizes. The console reflects the breadth of the product, and so does the onboarding.
Irmu is deliberately smaller: one key, one credit ledger, four fetch modes and a browser endpoint. You give up the depth of Bright Data's network and product catalogue; you get pricing you can compute in your head and an API you can integrate in an afternoon.
What each one costs
Public list pricing, checked on 29 August 2026. Vendors change plans often — verify on their pricing page before you commit.
Irmu
$40 / month — 200,000 credits
Credits, one ledger for every API. Plain fetch is 1 credit, JavaScript rendering 5, premium residential 10, premium plus rendering 25, an AI extraction query 5, and geotargeting by country, region or city is free. A response from the target — including 404, 500 or an anti-bot block — is a successful request and is billed. Requests Irmu cannot serve for its own internal reasons, or to domains outside coverage such as .gov, are not billed.
Bright Data
Web Unlocker pay-as-you-go at $1.50 per 1,000 requests; Scale plan $499 / month
Mixed units by product: Web Unlocker bills per request, the Scraping Browser bills per gigabyte at $8/GB pay-as-you-go, and other products use credits. Bright Data states you pay only for success.
- At $1.50 per 1,000 Web Unlocker requests, 200,000 unlocked requests is roughly $300 before volume discounts. On Irmu, 200,000 plain fetches is the $40 Lite plan — but a like-for-like comparison must match proxy tier and rendering, since premium plus rendering costs 25 credits on Irmu.
- Bright Data's per-GB Scraping Browser billing makes payload size a cost driver. Irmu's browser endpoint draws from the same credit pool regardless of page weight.
- Bright Data offers a permanent free tier of 5,000 credits a month across several products without a card; Irmu's free plan is 200 credits a month.
Side by side
| Capability | Irmu | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|
| Residential IP pool | Global premium pool, 10 credits per request | One of the largest networks available |
| CDP browser endpoint | Browser endpoint via HTTP API | Scraping Browser, connects Puppeteer, Playwright and Selenium over CDP |
| Billing units | Credits, one ledger for everything | Per request, per GB and credits depending on product |
| Pre-built scrapers | Integrations plus AI extraction on any page | Extensive Web Scraper API catalogue and Scraper Studio |
| Time to first request | API key, one GET, minutes | Zone configuration and product selection first |
| Geotargeting | Country, region and city at no extra cost | Very granular, including ASN targeting |
| Free tier | 200 credits monthly, no card | 5,000 credits monthly, no card |
| Enterprise controls | SSO and DPA available | Full enterprise compliance suite |
Which one fits your job
Choose Bright Data when
- Your hardest targets have defeated every mid-market provider you have tried.
- You need CDP access from an existing Playwright or Selenium suite with no rewrite at all.
- ASN-level or carrier-level targeting is a genuine requirement.
- Procurement wants the largest vendor with the deepest compliance paperwork.
Choose Irmu when
- You want a bill you can predict without modelling payload gigabytes.
- A single key across fetch, browser, screenshot, extract and proxy matters more than network size.
- You want to be in production the same afternoon rather than after a zone-configuration call.
- Your volume is real but not at the scale where Bright Data's discounts start to bite.
What Bright Data does well
- Largest residential and mobile IP network
- Scraping Browser with real CDP access
- Deep catalogue of pre-built scrapers
- Mature enterprise compliance and support
Bright Data is the right answer when network depth is the binding constraint and you have the team to operate it. Irmu is the right answer when engineering time and predictable billing matter more than owning the biggest IP pool in the industry.
The same request, both ways
Bright Data's Web Unlocker is typically used as a proxy; Irmu offers both a proxy port and a direct API.
Bright Data
import requests
proxy = f"http://{BRIGHTDATA_USER}:{BRIGHTDATA_PASS}@brd.superproxy.io:33335"
r = requests.get(
"https://example.com/product/42",
proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy},
verify=False,
timeout=90,
)
html = r.textIrmu
import requests
r = requests.get(
"https://app.irmu.com/api/crawl",
params={"url": "https://example.com/product/42", "premium": "true"},
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {IRMU_KEY}"},
timeout=90,
)
html = r.textSwitching questions
Other comparisons
Irmu vs Firecrawl
Agent-ready markdown and crawling versus a full fetch, browser, screenshot and proxy stack.
Irmu vs ScrapingBee
A closely matched credit model — the difference is browser control and the proxy port.
Irmu vs ScrapingDog
Similar entry pricing — the split is dedicated site scrapers versus general-purpose access.
Irmu vs ScraperAPI
Structured e-commerce endpoints and no-code pipelines versus a general access layer.
Irmu vs ZenRows
Two similar credit-based platforms — the difference is agent tooling versus browser and proxy depth.
Irmu vs Apify
A marketplace of pre-built Actors versus a direct API you call from your own code.
Irmu vs Oxylabs
Per-target enterprise pricing and strict pay-for-success versus a single credit ledger.
Try Irmu alongside Bright Data
200 free credits every month, no card required — benchmark on your own targets.