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Alchemy vs. Quicknode: Web3 Node Provider Comparison
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Written by Alchemy
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Reviewed by Logan Ross
Alchemy's blockchain development platform provides RPC nodes with more accurate and reliable blockchain data, and more web3 tools and APIs compared to Quicknode.
Companies building web3 products have two choices:
Run web3 infrastructure by themselves
Use a web3 infrastructure provider
Because running your own nodes can incur significant maintenance, operational, and opportunity costs, many companies elect to use web3 infrastructure providers.
To evaluate web3 infra providers, it is important to assess companies on a range of performance metrics including latency, accuracy, and reliability.
This article will help you choose the best provider by comparing Alchemy and Quicknode, two of the leading web3 developer platforms across nine categories
Node Latency
Data Accuracy
Node Reliability
Enhanced APIs
Developer Tools
Supported Blockchains
User Experience
Customer Support
Pricing
Alchemy vs. Quicknode Comparison
Alchemy and Quicknode are two blockchain node providers that assist web3 startups in building dapps without the need to self-host their own nodes, which can be a costly alternative due to the ongoing resources required for maintenance.
With a thorough understanding of these characteristics, you can decide which node provider will work best for your dapp.
What is Alchemy?
Alchemy is an industry-leading multichain node provider whose revolutionary Supernode technology enables the largest applications in web3, like OpenSea, Trust Wallet, and Hop, to interact with public blockchains through a single endpoint that combines the power of multiple independent distributed systems. Alchemy was founded by Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau, two Stanford University graduates, in 2017, and today is a Series C, San Francisco-based web3 startup valued at over $10 billion.
What is Quicknode?
Quicknode is a multichain node provider and blockchain development platform founded by Alex Nabutovsky, Dmitry Shklovsky, Manuel Kreutz, and Auston Bunsen in 2017. Quicknode raised $60 million during their Series B round in January of 2023 at an $800M valuation.
1. Node Latency
There are two types of blockchain latency to understand: block discovery latency is the amount of time a node provider uses to discover a new block has been added to the blockchain, and request latency is the time difference between sending a blockchain request to the network and receiving a response.
Latency Test
During the second week of August 2022, we queried eth_blockNumber and measured the time between the origination of the request and the receipt of the response on the Ethereum mainnet for Alchemy and Quicknode. We then aggregated and averaged this number across approximately 250 total queries, each at 15-minute intervals for Alchemy and Quicknode.
The results of this test showed that Alchemy averaged 39.2 ms and Quicknode averaged 26.3 ms for the US East location over the course of a week. Quicknode's request latency is 49% lower than Alchemy's in this experiment. One reason why latency is higher for Alchemy in this test is because of Alchemy's secondary infrastructure, which provides web3 developers with improved data accuracy.
In addition to US-East, Quicknode has nodes in the US-West, UK, Europe, India, Singapore, and Sydney.
2. Data Accuracy
Blockchain data accuracy is a measure of how many requests to the blockchain returned correct and consistent data. Incorrect data can occur because nodes recieve new information at different times, and don't always have the same view of the network as the newest blocks propagate across the network.
While low request latency is important, it becomes less significant if the information returned by blockchain nodes is incorrect. Without accurate data, your dapp may experience several issues, such as:
Requests return different answers to the same question
Dapps may retrieve incorrect transaction nonces
Users have a poor experience when tokens and NFTs appear incorrectly
Data Accuracy Test
Using a web3 data accuracy benchmarking tool, we tested a Quicknode Ethereum Mainnet node against Alchemy’s Ethereum Mainnet node to measure how many responses were incorrect over the course of a 24-hour period. The benchmark sends repeated eth_blockNumber calls to each node, looking for failed calls. Below are the results of Alchemy vs. Quicknode.
After more than 1 million eth_blocknumber queries in 24 hours, the results showed that Quicknode returned 712 inaccurate block numbers compared to Alchemy which returned zero incorrect block numbers.
![Alchemy vs. Quicknode data accuracy comparison results.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.datocms-assets.com%2F105223%2F1703915512-number-of-inconsistent-blocks.png&w=1920&q=75)
While 712 inaccurate block numbers out of approximately 1,000,000, or 0.07%, may seem small, it still represents over 700 instances per day where a user or dapp could receive false information from the blockchain. Although Quicknode has lower latency, the tradeoff of delivering data quickly at the expense of sending incorrect information is something developers need to consider carefully.
3. Node Reliability
Node reliability is a measure of uptime, and it is an important category to compare when choosing a node provider because it directly impacts an application's ability to serve customers at any time of the day.
Alchemy and Quicknode both have highly reliable systems. The node reliability status page shows the following comparisons for the Polygon Mainnet from January 2022 to July 2022.
January - Alchemy (100%) vs. Quicknode (100%)
February - Alchemy (100%) vs. Quicknode (100%)
March - Alchemy (99.84%) vs. Quicknode (95.97%)
April - Alchemy (99.94%) vs. Quicknode (99.98%)
May - Alchemy (100%) vs. Quicknode (100%)
June - Alchemy (99.99%) vs. Quicknode (100%)
July - Alchemy (100%) vs. Quicknode (100%)
The distributed systems of Alchemy’s Supernode ensure that there is always a redundant backup in the event of a failure in part of your node’s functionality. These systems have the same power at scale as those used by companies like Facebook and Amazon, allowing your dapp to maintain its functionality even as it grows.`
Quicknode uses 5+ different bare-metal server providers to help them avoid a single point of failure allowing uptimes that are guaranteed through Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
4. Enhanced APIs and SDKs
In addition to core RPC services, Alchemy and Quicknode offer APIs to expand your dapp's functionality. Rather than writing complex code to use APIs and SDKs, ship improved functionality faster. Some of the core APIs and tools that Alchemy offers that Quicknode does not offer include: Gas Manager API and Bundler API, Reinforced Transactions, and Transaction Simulations.
![Alchemy's Product Suite](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.datocms-assets.com%2F105223%2F1703913096-alchemy-products.jpeg&w=1920&q=75)
The APIs and SDKs offered by Quicknode include:
![A comparison of QuickNode's product suite, where red boxes indicate a missing feature.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.datocms-assets.com%2F105223%2F1703915411-quicknode-products.jpeg&w=1920&q=75)
NFT API Comparison
Both Alchemy and Quicknode offer an NFT API with helpful endpoints such as:
getNFTs
isHolderOfCollection
getNFTsForCollection
getContractMetadata
getNFTSales
However, Alchemy's NFT API offers over a dozen additional endpoints compared to Quicknode's NFT API.
Alchemy NFT API
The Alchemy NFT API supports methods usable on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and more. For more information, check out the detailed documentation of all available Alchemy NFT methods.
In addition to the endpoints mentioned above, Alchemy offers the following NFT API endpoints for Ethereum:
getOwnersForCollection
getNFTMetadata
getOwnersForToken
getOwnersForCollection
getSpamContracts
isSpamContracts
reingestContract
getFloorPrice
computeRarity
summarizeNFTAttributes
reportSpam
All of these endpoints are unique to Alchemy's API, and are not possible with Quicknode.
Quicknode NFT API
Quicknode offers its own NFT API that supports six methods, with one method, qn_fetchNFTsByCreator, exclusive to Solana.
Quicknode also acquired the Icy Tools company in May 2022, which gives users access to other NFT API methods supported by Icy Tools' GraphQL NFT API.
There are no Quicknode NFT API endpoints that Alchemy does not offer.
Alcehmy's Web3 SDK (Software Development Kit)
Alchemy has recently released a powerful new Web3 SDK. With the Alchemy SDK, developers can now use all standard ether.js methods and all of Alchemy’s Enhanced APIs from a simplified SDK.
![Code snippet demonstrating the simplicity of Alchemy’s new SDK.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.datocms-assets.com%2F105223%2F1703915464-alchemy-sdk-code-snippet.png&w=1920&q=75)
With the new SDK, developers gain a consolidated tool for making all their dapp's API requests. From your {alchemy} object, fetch NFT data, find token balances, and view transaction history–after adding just two lines of code!
Alchemy's Account Abstraction SDK
The Account Abstraction SDK can be used to simplify the interaction with account abstraction primitives (user operations and bundlers).
It's a complete solution that implements an EIP-1193 provider, handling gas estimation, signing the tx, and fetching paymaster data (if you use one) with one method call. If you're using eth_sendTransaction, the SDK converts that into a user operation for you and sends it along.
5. Developer Tools
In addition to node services and API endpoints, web3 developers choosing a developer platform should evaluate the tools that make the development process easier to manage.
Alchemy Developer Tools
Alchemy offers an extensive suite of developer tools, including:
Alchemy AI - generate web3 code quickly to supercharge your development cycle
Explorer - see historical request information to quickly identify patterns
Mempool Visualizer - monitor the current status of confirmed, stuck, and dropped transactions
Composer - troubleshoot RPC requests, replay failed transactions for easier debugging
Debug Toolkit - scan recent requests and quickly detect errors while debugging
Dashboard - get high-level analytics on your dapp performance
Usage Analytics - get dapp’s usage over different timeframes, app versions, and individual methods.
Command Center - get high-level app health, requests per second, response times, and error rates
User Insights - get geographic usage, traffic, and activity data, all without compromising user privacy or data security
Alerts & Digests - get automated alerts of error points, and a daily digest reporting all key health metrics of your dapp
Faucets - Alchemy provides multiple testnet faucets, including Sepolia faucet and Mumbai faucet
Alchemy's developer tools provide an extremely robust control center for guaranteeing you control your dapp's behavior every step of the way.
Quicknode Developer Tools
Quicknode offers developers a set of tools covering a similar functionality for dapps using their node services. However, Quicknode’s developer tools do not cover all the same uses as Alchemy’s.
Quicknode developer tooling includes:
EtherFlow - easily compose RPC calls and test nodes
Node Metrics - get a graphical representation of node usage, latest blocks, number of method calls used, and more
Security - customize the security of your endpoint
Webhook (add-on) - efficiently monitor real-time changes to application data
6. Supported Blockchains
Alchemy and Quicknode support different layer 1 blockchains, sidechains, and layer 2 blockchains.
Alchemy
The blockchains supported by Alchemy include:
Ethereum
Optimism
Arbitrum
Polygon PoS
Starknet
Solana
Polygon zkEVM
Base
Astar (Polkadot)
Alchemy supports the following testnets:
Goerli (Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum)
Sepolia (Ethereum)
Mumbai (Polygon)
Quicknode
The blockchains that Quicknode supports in addition to the list Alchemy supports include:
Bitcoin
Arbitrum Nova
Avalanche
Aptos
Gnosis
Fantom
Celo
BNB Chain
Polkadot
Stacks
Overall, Quicknode supports more unique blockchains than Alchemy, however, both companies serve the primary web3 developer ecosystems. When deciding between Alchemy and Quicknode, it's important first to consider the blockchains you're planning to build on and any chains you may want to expand to in the future.
7. User Experience
When deciding between Alchemy and Quicknode, it’s important to consider the developer experience, as it’s a tool that will be used frequently. Some aspects of the user experience (UX) to compare include:
User interface design
Product design
Onboarding flow
Documentation
Discord channels
Educational resources
Tutorials
Guides
Alchemy and Quicknode feature modern user interfaces, are designed for simplicity, and provide educational content. Two distinctions include documentation and tooling.
Alchemy recently updated its documentation to improve the user experience, increase page speeds, and use the OpenAPI specification. Additionally, Alchemy's additional tooling makes the developer platform easy to navigate and not crowded.
8. Customer Support
Support for both Alchemy and Quicknode varies based on your membership tier, ranging from community Discord support to custom Service Level Agreements and VIP support via Telegram.
In the free tier, Alchemy developers get 24/7 support through Discord. In the Growth tier, users are upgraded to 24/7 Discord support by a dedicated team. 24/7 VIP support is provided to all dapp development teams through Telegram and/or Slack in the highest tier.
Quicknode's platform and documentation should be sufficient to answer most questions, but their support team is available as a final line of defense against user issues. Support differs between community support, 24-hour response times, and at best, 8-12 hour response times for enterprise clients.
9. Pricing
Price is an important consideration when choosing either Alchemy or Quicknode. Alchemy and Quicknode both support a free, growth, and enterprise tier.
Alchemy Free Tier ($0/month)
Alchemy has four main pricing tiers: Free, Growth, Scale, and Enterprise.
300 million compute units (CUs)/month
330 compute units per second (CUPS)
All developer tools
Enhanced APIs and SDK
Full archive data
Multichain mainnets and testnets
No daily request limits
5 apps
24/7 Discord Support
Quicknode Discover ($0/month)
10 million API Credits/month
25 requests / sec
1 endpoint
Single region
Community support
NFT API
Which platform offers the best free tier - Alchemy or Quicknode?
Alchemy offers the best free blockchain node provider tier.
Alchemy and Quicknode use two usage scales: Compute Units (CUs) and API Credits. We can compare the two scales by calculating the total number of requests that can be made for standard RPC requests.
eth_call - 30 million transactions (Alchemy) vs. 10 million transactions (Quicknode)
eth_getLogs - 15 million transactions (Alchemy) vs. 5 million transactions (Quicknode)
eth_sendRawTransaction - 3.45 million transactions (Alchemy) vs. 1.67 million transactions (Quicknode)
If you are a new web3 developer looking to build a minimum viable product, see exactly why Alchemy offers the best free tier compared to Quicknode in our in-depth overview.
Alchemy Growth Tier ($49/month)
In addition to everything included in Alchemy's free version, growth tier customers receive:
400 million compute units (CUs)/month
Auto-scaling compute units at $1.2 per 1 million additional CUs
Parity Trace and gETH debug
Enhanced transaction propagation
2x higher throughput (660 CUPS)
15 apps
24/7 dedicated Discord support
Quicknode Build Tier ($49/month)
20 million API Credits/month
Auto scaling at $20 / additional million API Credits
100 requests / sec
10 endpoints
Debug / Trace API
Multiple Regions
24hrs support response time
Alchemy Scale Tier ($199/month billed annually)
For teams with big goals who want to move quickly, the new Scale tier provides Alchemy's best products and prices at the click of a button.
1.5 billion compute units (CUs)/month
3,000 compute units per second
Auto-scaling compute units at $1 per 1 million additional CUs.
Ability to purchase discounted additional CUs at $0.7 per 1 million on the annual plan.
30 apps
24/7 dedicated Discord support
Quicknode Scale Tier ($299/month)
120 million API Credits/month
Auto scaling at $10 / additional million API credits
600 requests / sec
20 endpoints
Global Regions
8-12hrs Support response time.
Debug / Trace API
Enterprise Tiers
Committed use discounts
Custom SLAs
Pay with crypto
Custom throughput
Unlimited apps
24/7 VIP support
Beyond the above three tiers, Quicknode offers an Enterprise level, where service is customized for dapps requiring tremendous scale.
Which blockchain node provider is better - Alchemy or Quicknode?
Alchemy's blockchain development platform provides RPC nodes with more accurate and reliable blockchain data, and more web3 tools and APIs compared to Quicknode. The main differences between Alchemy and Quicknode can be found in their latency, reliability, developer tooling, free tier, and customer support.
To decide which multichain node provider is the right choice, determine the non-negotiable areas of your project (e.g., blockchains) and test both options to choose the one that works best.
With the most powerful free tier, web3 startups would be wise to bootstrap on Alchemy to gain access to an extensive set of developer tools and APIs.
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