DECODO Review 2025 (Ex-Smartproxy) | Still the BEST Proxy?

Summary

In this 2025 review of Dakota, formerly Smart Proxy, the platform’s standout features are showcased. Dakota impresses with its intuitive dashboard, robust proxy infrastructure, and an array of proxy options for diverse use cases, including residential, mobile, and data center proxies. It emphasizes flexibility, allowing users to customize plans, along with offering a 3-day free trial. Dakota’s unique tools like the site unblocker, all-in-one scraping API, and AI parser make data scraping easier and more efficient. With its focus on usability, transparency, and performance, Dakota is a strong contender for the best proxy provider in 2025.

Takeaways

• 😀 Dakota has undergone a major transformation, rebranding from Smart Proxy, now offering a more powerful and user-friendly proxy service for 2025.
• 😀 The Dakota dashboard is highly intuitive and clean, allowing users to easily navigate and filter proxies by use case and features.
• 😀 Dakota offers a variety of proxies, including residential, static residential ISP, mobile, and data center proxies, each tailored to different needs.
• 😀 With over 125 million IPs spanning 195 locations and an impressive 99.95% success rate, Dakota's proxy performance is top-tier.
• 😀 The platform allows for high customization, including session duration, geolocation, and protocol settings, making it versatile for various use cases.
• 😀 Dakota provides convenient code snippets in multiple programming languages (curl, Python, NodeJS, PHP, Go) for seamless integration.
• 😀 Ethical sourcing is a priority for Dakota, ensuring proxies are clean and compliant without using shady opt-out methods or hijacked devices.
• 😀 Dakota supports flexible payment plans, allowing users to pay per gigabyte or opt for dedicated IPs, ensuring no one-size-fits-all limitations.
• 😀 The 3-day free trial and extensive documentation, including tutorial videos, make Dakota a user-friendly and accessible option for both beginners and professionals.
• 😀 Unique features like the site unblocker and AI parser provide advanced scraping tools, allowing users to easily bypass website restrictions and extract data without coding.
• 😀 Dakota's all-in-one scraping API streamlines various web scraping tasks, handling everything from proxies to JavaScript rendering and data extraction.

Q & A

What is Dakota, and why is it noteworthy in 2025?

Dakota, formerly Smart Proxy, is a proxy provider that stands out due to its enhanced features, usability, and performance in 2025. It rebranded and significantly improved its proxy services, making it one of the top contenders for web scraping and data-driven projects.

How does the Dakota dashboard improve the user experience?

The Dakota dashboard is designed with a user-first approach. It is intuitive, clean, and well-organized, allowing users to easily filter proxies by use case or feature. Additionally, the dashboard offers customization options and simplifies the proxy setup process with copyable code snippets in various programming languages.

What proxy solutions does Dakota offer in 2025?

Dakota provides a variety of proxy solutions, including residential proxies, static residential ISP proxies, mobile proxies, and data center proxies. These proxies cater to different needs such as market research, ad verification, SEO monitoring, and high-scale web scraping.

How does Dakota ensure the reliability of its proxy services?

Dakota ensures reliability by offering over 125 million IPs across 195 locations, with an impressive response time of just 0.3 seconds. Their proxies come with a high success rate (up to 99.95%) and are ethically sourced without shady opt-outs or hijacked devices.

What makes Dakota's residential proxies stand out?

Dakota’s residential proxies are highly regarded due to their authenticity, coming from real residential devices. With a network of over 115 million IPs, they offer precise targeting and seamless integration, ideal for tasks like market research and SEO monitoring.

What are static residential ISP proxies, and when are they useful?

Static residential ISP proxies offer the same legitimacy as standard residential IPs but with the added benefit of a fixed identity. This makes them ideal for long-running tasks like financial services, AI training, and high-scale scraping, where session stability is crucial.

What role do mobile proxies play in Dakota's offering?

Mobile proxies route traffic through real mobile devices, leveraging IPs assigned by mobile carriers. They are ideal for tasks like ad verification and social media management, especially with access to over 10 million mobile IPs in 160+ countries.

What features make Dakota's proxy platform user-friendly?

Dakota’s platform stands out for its ease of use, featuring live statistics for real-time insights, detailed video tutorials for every tool, and an extensive documentation library. These resources make it simple to navigate and use, even for beginners.

What unique tools does Dakota offer beyond traditional proxies?

Dakota offers standout tools like the Site Unblocker, which automatically rotates proxy IPs to avoid bans, and an all-in-one scraping API that handles eCommerce, general web scraping, and social media data. They also have an AI parser for converting HTML into structured data without coding.

How does Dakota support developers and teams with flexible pricing?

Dakota offers flexible pricing models that cater to both solo developers and large teams. Users can pay per gigabyte or IP, or opt for dedicated IPs depending on their needs. Additionally, there are 3-day free trials available for all proxy products.