Vela is the only residential SOCKS5 / HTTP CONNECT provider among the four that holds sticky sessions with no provider-side timer, allow-lists streaming SNIs at the gateway, and bills purely per byte from €10/TB with no monthly minimum.
| Dimension | Vela | Bright Data | Oxylabs | Smartproxy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Streaming + general | Scraping | Scraping | Scraping |
| Sticky session length | Until you rotate | ≤ 30 min | ≤ 30 min | ≤ 30 min |
| Entry pricing | €10 / TB | ~$8–15 / GB | ~$8–12 / GB | ~$7–9 / GB |
| Minimum commit | €5 | $500+ / mo | $300+ / mo | $80+ / mo |
| SOCKS5 ATYP=3 (socks5h://) | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| HTTP CONNECT, same auth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Streaming SNI allow-list | Built-in | Manual | Manual | Manual |
| UK pool TTFB (median) | 34 ms | ~45 ms | ~50 ms | ~55 ms |
| Self-serve sandbox | Instant | After KYC | After KYC | Instant |
| Per-byte audit trail | Per-flow, in console | Aggregate | Aggregate | Aggregate |
| Pool catalogue exposure | Never exposed | Pool list available | Pool list available | Pool list available |
Competitor figures: public list prices on each provider's site, May 2026. TTFB measured London Tier-1 via each UK residential pool, 100-sample median.
You need residential exits that survive Netflix's session-cookie pinning. Vela holds the binding until you call /rotate, so a stream lasts as long as they watch — and the SNI allow-list spends bandwidth only where it's needed.
You probe catalogues from 100+ regions on a schedule. Vela's per-byte ledger gives line-item entries flushed every 5 seconds; the others give monthly aggregate.
You don't need the streaming allow-list, you need volume. Wholesale (€12/TB at 50 TB+) and Enterprise (€10/TB at 500 TB+) land below the equivalents — with no commit floor.
Self-serve a key — no KYC gauntlet, no sales call required.
Get a sandbox key