From Bright Data Web Unlocker

This guide explains the key differences and transition process from Bright Data's Web Unlocker to Oxylabs Web Unblocker, providing sample code snippets and feature comparisons to ensure a smooth migration.

Feature comparison

Oxylabs Web Unblocker offers most features available in Bright Data's Web Unlocker, along with several unique capabilities. The table below highlights the main differences between the two services:

Feature
Bright Data Web Unlocker
Oxylabs Web Unblocker

Proxy Endpoint

brd.superproxy.io:33335

unblock.oxylabs.io:60000

API Endpoint

https://api.brightdata.com/wsapi

Not supported yet (use Web Scraper API for API functionality)

Proxy Rotation

Automatic

Automatic

Captcha Bypass

Supported

Supported (AI-based)

Pricing

Separate pricing for premium domains

Single price

Geolocation targeting

Supported

Supported

Mobile targeting

Supported

Not supported

Custom headers/cookies

Supported

Supported

JS Rendering

Automatic

Manual (more control)

Rendering possibilities

HTML

HTML and PNG

Browser instructions

Not supported

Supported

POST requests

Not supported

Supported

Sessions

Not supported

Supported

Custom status code

Not supported

Supported

Making requests

Basic request format differences

The main difference between Bright Data and Oxylabs requests is how geolocation is handled. While Bright Data uses zone-specific accounts, Oxylabs allows you to use proxies from all locations immediately by passing location information in headers.

Bright Data example

import pprint
import requests

username = 'brd-customer-<customer_id>-zone-<zone_name>-country-us'
password = '<zone_password>'
proxy_url = f'http://{username}:{password}@brd.superproxy.io:33335'

proxies = {
    'http': proxy_url,
    'https': proxy_url
}

headers = {}
url = "http://lumtest.com/myip.json"

response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies, headers=headers)
pprint.pprint(response.json())

Oxylabs example

import requests

# Use your Web Unblocker credentials here
USERNAME, PASSWORD = 'YOUR_USERNAME', 'YOUR_PASSWORD'

# Define proxy dict
proxies = {
  'http': f'http://{USERNAME}:{PASSWORD}@unblock.oxylabs.io:60000',
  'https': f'https://{USERNAME}:{PASSWORD}@unblock.oxylabs.io:60000',
}

headers = {
    'x-oxylabs-geo-location': 'United States'
}

response = requests.request(
    'GET',
    'https://ip.oxylabs.io/headers',
    verify=False,  # Ignore the SSL certificate
    proxies=proxies,
    headers=headers
)

print(response.text)

Unique features of Oxylabs Web Unblocker

Persistent sessions

One of Oxylabs Web Unblocker's unique features is session functionality, allowing you to send multiple requests through the same proxy. Sessions can be used for up to 10 minutes by adding a custom session ID header to your request:

headers = {
    'X-Oxylabs-Session-Id': '123randomString'
}

response = requests.get(
    'https://ip.oxylabs.io/location',
    verify=False,  # Required to ignore certificate
    proxies=proxies,
    headers=headers,
)

For more information about sessions, check Web Unblocker Session documentation page.

POST requests

Unlike Bright Data's Web Unlocker, Oxylabs Web Unblocker supports sending POST requests to web endpoints:

data = {
    'Your POST JSON': 'data'
}

response = requests.post(
    'https://ip.oxylabs.io/location',
    verify=False,  # Required to ignore certificate
    proxies=proxies,
    json=data,
)

For more details on POST requests, see Web Unblocker POST requests documentation.

JavaScript rendering and browser instructions

Oxylabs Web Unblocker offers a Headless Browser feature that renders JavaScript of resulting pages as either HTML documents or PNG screenshots. Additionally, when using Headless Browser, you can define custom browser instructions to be executed during JavaScript rendering.

For more information on this feature, see Web Unblocker Headless Browser documentation.

Parameter reference

Below are the key parameters and headers you can use with Oxylabs Web Unblocker:

Parameter
Description
Example

X-Oxylabs-Geo-Location

Specifies the geographic location for the request

'United States', 'Germany', etc.

X-Oxylabs-Session-Id

Creates or continues a session with the specified ID

'123randomString'

X-Oxylabs-Render

Enables JavaScript rendering when set to 'html' or 'png'

'html', 'png'

X-Oxylabs-Browser-Instructions

Custom browser instructions for rendering

JSON with instructions

Migration checklist

  1. Update your proxy endpoint from brd.superproxy.io:33335 to unblock.oxylabs.io:60000

  2. Replace zone-based geolocation with X-Oxylabs-Geo-Location header

  3. Update authentication credentials to your Oxylabs proxy user username and password

  4. Add verify=False to your requests to ignore SSL certificate validation

  5. Take advantage of unique Oxylabs features like sessions and POST requests

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