ChainBench · Flotapponnier · Jun 21, 2026 · Jun 21, 2026
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Multi-chain node + enhanced API provider
 benchmark: aggregator-head-lag
 
 intro: |
- Alchemy serves RPC endpoints and enhanced data APIs across EVM chains and Solana. For real-time feeds, the metric that matters most is freshness. how long between a transaction landing on chain and the API reflecting it? Below is the live head-lag for each major onchain data provider, measured against a canonical-tip archive node and refreshed every minute. Lower is faster.
+ Alchemy is an EVM-first node and API provider whose surface is shaped by its enhanced endpoints (`alchemy_getAssetTransfers`, NFT API, webhooks, getTokenBalances, the simulation and debug suite, the account-abstraction bundler) rather than by a raw RPC tuned for edge latency. Pricing is metered in compute units, which charges more for an enhanced call than for a plain `eth_call`, so the ceiling shows up first on teams streaming high-cardinality events into a backend rather than on dapp front-ends issuing single reads. Solana coverage exists but sits on a stack built around Ethereum and its L2s. Teams that need a live view of trades on Base, BNB Chain or Solana usually leave Alchemy at the point where the enhanced API list stops mapping to what the product actually reads from chain.
 
 seo_title: Alchemy alternatives. live head-lag benchmark across data providers
 seo_description: Compare Alchemy alternatives on real-time data freshness. Live head-lag against a canonical archive node, refreshed every minute and published openly.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: GraphQL API for blockchain data, multi-chain
 benchmark: network-coverage
 
 intro: |
- Bitquery is a GraphQL data API covering many chains. If you're sizing alternatives, the first axis is breadth. how many networks does each provider officially support? Below is the live count from each major onchain data provider, scraped from their public supported-networks endpoint and refreshed every six hours.
+ Bitquery is a GraphQL surface on top of indexed onchain data, with the schema as the actual product: queries declare exactly the fields needed across transfers, trades, DEX events and account state, and the indexer fans those out across chains. Pricing is point-based, with each field, filter and join consuming from a monthly point budget rather than from a flat request quota, which means a single dashboard with many panels can hit the ceiling well before request volume looks high. Chain coverage is broad but uneven in depth: some networks expose full DEX trade indexing, others only basic transfers. The team usually compared next is the one whose chain list either covers a long-tail network Bitquery does not, or covers the same network with a flatter pricing model that does not penalise wide GraphQL fragments on a per-field basis.
 
 seo_title: Bitquery alternatives. live network coverage benchmark
 seo_description: Compare Bitquery alternatives on the number of blockchains each major onchain data provider officially supports. Live data, refreshed every six hours.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Crypto price + market data API, multi-chain
 benchmark: network-coverage
 
 intro: |
- CoinGecko offers a broad price + market data REST API used across thousands of crypto apps. The first axis people compare alternatives on is breadth. how many blockchains does each provider officially support? Below is the live count from each major onchain data API, scraped directly from their public supported-networks endpoint and refreshed every six hours.
+ CoinGecko is a coin-centric price and market data REST API built around a curated asset list (the `/coins` universe) rather than around on-chain events. Tokens are added through a listing process, prices land on the API after that process completes, and the free tier is famously throttled (around 30 requests per minute on the demo key) which pushes any real product onto a paid plan within days of integration. The on-chain DEX side ships as a separate `/onchain` namespace inherited from GeckoTerminal, with its own quotas. Teams usually leave CoinGecko at one of two points: when the launch cadence of the tokens they care about outpaces the listing pipeline, or when the per-minute cap on the free tier forces a migration before the product is monetised enough to justify the enterprise tier.
 
 seo_title: CoinGecko alternatives. live network coverage benchmark
 seo_description: Compare CoinGecko alternatives on the number of blockchains each major onchain data API officially supports. Live data, refreshed every six hours.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Cross-chain bridge + DEX aggregator
 benchmark: bridge-quote-latency
 
 intro: |
- Li.Fi is a cross-chain aggregator that quotes routes across many bridges and DEXes. If you're sizing alternatives, quote latency is one of the most user-felt axes. how long does the aggregator take to return a usable route for a given pair? Below is the live measurement for the four major bridge aggregators on identical routes (Solana ↔ Base ↔ Arbitrum), across notional sizes ($5/$50/$300). Numbers refresh every five minutes.
+ Li.Fi is a cross-chain aggregator that stitches together third-party bridges (Stargate, Across, Connext, Hop and others) and DEX aggregators behind a single `/quote` endpoint. The quote response carries a full execution plan with calldata, approval steps and gas estimates, which is convenient for a wallet integration but means the latency reflects fan-out across many underlying providers plus the time to pick a winner. Each upstream has its own SLA, and a slow leg in the cohort drags the quote even when the chosen route is fast. The trade-off is breadth for tail-latency: Li.Fi covers a long tail of bridges that intent-routed competitors do not, but pays for that breadth on the p95 of its `/quote` call. Teams move off when the latency of the fastest route they actually use exceeds what a narrower router can return for the same pair.
 
 seo_title: Li.Fi alternatives. Debridge, Mobula & Relay live quote latency benchmark
 seo_description: Compare Li.Fi alternatives on cross-chain quote latency. Debridge, Mobula and Relay measured on identical routes, refreshed every five minutes.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Real-time pump.fun token data API on Solana
 benchmark: aggregator-head-lag
 
 intro: |
- Pump Portal is a real-time API serving pump.fun-launched tokens on Solana. websocket trade events, new pool detection, swap data. Looking for an alternative? Below is how the three major onchain data providers compare on the metric that matters most for this kind of feed: time between an on-chain event and its delivery on a WebSocket. Numbers are live, refreshed every minute, measured against a canonical-tip archive node. Lower is faster.
+ Pump Portal is a single-purpose WebSocket on Solana, scoped to pump.fun and the bonding-curve launchpad ecosystem around it (new token creations, migration to Raydium, per-mint trade events). The surface is intentionally narrow: no support for other chains, no general DEX coverage outside the pump.fun graduates and no historical query layer beyond the live stream. The free tier exists, but high-volume readers route through a paid trading endpoint that adds a per-trade priority fee on top. The provider sits close to the launchpad it tracks rather than near a canonical Solana archive, so the bottleneck is usually the upstream indexer rather than the WebSocket itself. Teams that outgrow the pump.fun-only scope (cross-DEX routing, non-Solana chains, OHLCV history) tend to drop it the moment a second venue or chain enters the product.
 
 seo_title: Pump Portal alternatives. Codex, GeckoTerminal & Mobula live latency benchmark
 seo_description: Looking for an alternative to Pump Portal? Compare Codex, GeckoTerminal and Mobula on real-time blockchain data latency, measured continuously and published openly.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Multi-chain RPC + data infrastructure
 benchmark: aggregator-head-lag
 
 intro: |
- QuickNode runs RPC endpoints, streams and data APIs across EVM chains, Solana and more. For any pipeline that consumes the chain in real time, the practical question is how quickly the provider sees a fresh block. Below is the live head-lag for each major onchain data provider, measured against a canonical-tip archive node and refreshed every minute. Lower is faster.
+ QuickNode runs a multi-chain RPC business plus a Marketplace of paid add-ons (token API, NFT API, streams, Yellowstone for Solana) that bolt onto the base node subscription. The pricing model layers per-add-on fees on top of the per-method credit metering, so the bill scales with the breadth of features turned on rather than just request volume; teams running a single workload often discover that two add-ons cost more than the base plan. Chain coverage is broad across EVM and Solana, with regional endpoints in major cloud zones, but the streams product (filter-based push) lives behind a separate quota from the RPC. Real-time price and swap pipelines often end up offloading the head-of-chain stream to a dedicated provider so the QuickNode bill stays on the dapp-read side of the workload.
 
 seo_title: QuickNode alternatives. live head-lag benchmark across data providers
 seo_description: Compare QuickNode alternatives on real-time data freshness. Live head-lag against a canonical archive node, refreshed every minute and published openly.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Cross-chain bridge with intent-based routing
 benchmark: bridge-quote-latency
 
 intro: |
- Relay is a cross-chain bridge that routes via solver intents. If you're sizing alternatives, quote latency is one of the most felt UX axes. how long does the bridge take to return a usable quote for a given route? Below is the live measurement for the four major bridges on identical routes (Solana ↔ Base ↔ Arbitrum), with multiple notional sizes ($5/$50/$300). Numbers refresh every five minutes.
+ Relay is an intent-based bridge: the user signs an order, a solver fronts the destination-chain funds and the cross-chain settlement happens off the user's critical path. The architecture compresses the user-felt latency because the quote does not have to scan many upstream venues; the solver inventory itself is the route. That same architecture exposes a different failure mode, which is solver depth: routes the solvers do not maintain inventory on either fail or fall back to a slower path, so coverage on long-tail pairs is narrower than a fan-out aggregator's. Fees are quoted inclusive of the solver spread rather than as a separate gas-plus-bridge breakdown. Teams that switch away usually do so for a chain pair the Relay solvers do not actively support, where a route that exists at all beats a fast quote that does not.
 
 seo_title: Relay alternatives. Debridge, Li.Fi & Mobula live quote latency benchmark
 seo_description: Compare Relay alternatives on cross-chain bridge quote latency. Debridge, Li.Fi and Mobula measured on identical routes, refreshed every five minutes.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Decentralised indexing protocol with subgraph queries
 benchmark: network-coverage
 
 intro: |
- The Graph powers subgraph queries used by many dApps for indexed onchain data. If you are evaluating alternatives, the first dimension worth checking is the breadth of supported networks. how many chains does each major data provider officially cover? Below is the live count from each provider's public supported-networks endpoint, refreshed every six hours.
+ The Graph is a decentralised indexing protocol where each dataset (a subgraph) is written, deployed and queried independently rather than read off a pre-built schema. Queries are GQL against indexer nodes, billed in GRT, with a hosted gateway in front. The model means data shape is owned by whoever wrote the subgraph: a missing field, a stale index or a deprecated mapping is on the publisher, not on a central API team. Chain coverage tracks what indexers have chosen to support, which leans heavily EVM and lags on newer L2s and non-EVM networks until someone publishes a subgraph for them. The two reasons teams move off are the cost of running a private subgraph at production load, and the operational burden of debugging an indexer regression on a chain the public hosted service does not cover.
 
 seo_title: The Graph alternatives. live network coverage benchmark
 seo_description: Compare The Graph alternatives on the number of blockchains each major onchain data provider officially supports. Live data, refreshed every six hours.