# Bright Data 10 Hacker News commenters recommended Bright Data and 32 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for scraping at scale, with a large residential IP network and hosted browser. Main caveat: its SDK and proxy software have been installed on devices without users' consent. ## Why people recommend it - Large residential IP network (3 comments): "hundreds of millions of residential ips, human browser fingerprints, custom browser binaries" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48899608)) "try services like Bright Data or Apify that have a ton of residential IPs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46156317)) "Their residential IPs service is one of the best ones" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47649704)) - Gets past sites that block scraping (3 comments): "If you want to access data from websites which prevent it, you gotta use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47898558)) "You need proxies (Zyte, BrightData, OxyLabs, etc.) to scrape at scale" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46104323)) "They are comically good at scraping a lot of things on the internet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157884)) - Seen as more compliant and transparent (2 comments): "BrightData is actually much more compliant and malicious actors wouldn't be allowed access." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49079810)) "The rep was refreshingly transparent about where they get the data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46833173)) ## What people warn about - Installed on devices without consent (4 comments): "has installed them on smart TVs made by Samsung and LG, millions of them, unknown to the people who purchase and use the TVs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48673460)) "the company that basically hacked unsuspecting chrome extension users to become residential proxies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48637979)) "turning their network into a brightdata exit node and they had no idea / did not consent to it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46837806)) - SDK hidden in mobile apps (4 comments): "Bright Data SDK is included in so many legitimate mobile apps and games and does similar stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46072115)) "Bright Data specifically offers a sdk that app developers can use monetize free games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46655117)) "they license their “SDK” to app developers, who launder the liability on their behalf" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272890)) - Shady sourcing and easy access (2 comments): "ive used brightdata and all you need is a credit card and you're good to go It is shady AF." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49080174)) "sells you shady "high quality residential IPs" that you can rotate to scrape the web" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47649662)) - Still detected and blocked by sites (2 comments): "block DNS and any actual attempts at outbound traffic to platforms like bright data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49073413)) "Bright Data ranks #1 on Foil's leaderboard [1], but is still detected." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48899692)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Firecrawl](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firecrawl.md): 17 recommend - [Apify](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apify.md): 5 recommend - [Jina Reader](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jina-reader.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://brightdata.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Bright Data", https://hackerapproved.com/p/bright-data/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).