Alchemy vs Infura: Data Privacy & Logging Policies

Enterprise-grade data isolation: Offers dedicated node deployments and private RPC endpoints, ensuring your application's traffic and logs are not co-mingled with other users. This is critical for high-volume DeFi protocols or institutional clients with strict data sovereignty requirements (e.g., GDPR, SOC2).

Clear, audited logging policies: Infura's data practices are transparently documented and designed for general-purpose dApp development. Their compliance with standards like GDPR simplifies onboarding for startups and projects that prioritize a straightforward, compliant service over deep customization.

Granular control over logs: Alchemy provides configurable log retention periods and the ability to disable specific types of logging (e.g., request payloads). This matters for protocols handling sensitive user data who need to minimize their audit surface and adhere to internal data lifecycle policies.

Battle-tested shared infrastructure: While using shared endpoints, Infura's scale and reliability are proven, supporting major projects like MetaMask and Uniswap. This is ideal for public-facing dApps where ultimate data isolation is less critical than proven, resilient uptime and network coverage.

Granular privacy settings: Alchemy offers dedicated Enhanced APIs with configurable logging. You can disable request/response logging entirely for specific API keys, a critical feature for applications dealing with private transactions or proprietary trading strategies. This is enforced at the infrastructure level.

Enterprise-grade audit trail: Alchemy is SOC 2 Type II certified, providing independently verified evidence of their security and privacy controls. This is a non-negotiable requirement for institutional clients (e.g., hedge funds, regulated DeFi protocols) and simplifies vendor due diligence processes.

Vetted by a major entity: As a ConsenSys product, Infura's infrastructure undergoes internal security audits aligned with MetaMask and other ecosystem standards. For teams already embedded in the ConsenSys stack (using Truffle, MetaMask SDK), this reduces integration complexity and trust surface.

Advanced privacy at a premium: The most stringent privacy features (like zero-logging APIs) are typically part of Alchemy's Growth and Enterprise tiers. For startups or projects with high request volumes, this can lead to significantly higher costs compared to base-tier offerings from competitors.

Opt-out model for IP logging: By default, Infura logs IP addresses and request data. Disabling this requires manual configuration per API key and may not be as comprehensively isolated as dedicated private endpoints. This presents a higher initial privacy risk for uninformed teams.

Formal Data Processing Agreements (DPAs): Infura offers legally binding DPAs for enterprise clients, crucial for GDPR and CCPA compliance. This matters for regulated DeFi protocols or institutional clients who must demonstrate formal data handling procedures to auditors and regulators.

Publicly documented data retention: Infura clearly states it retains request logs for 7 days for debugging, after which they are aggregated and anonymized. This matters for teams that need predictable audit trails and want to avoid indefinite, opaque data storage by their RPC provider.

IP addresses are logged by default: Unlike some competitors, Infura's policy explicitly states that client IP addresses are collected. This matters for privacy-first dApps or mixer protocols where user anonymity is a core feature and IP leakage is a critical threat vector.

No self-hosted option: You cannot run Infura's stack in your own VPC. All traffic routes through their centralized endpoints. This matters for high-security applications in finance or government that require data to never leave a private network, forcing a choice between Infura or a self-hosted alternative like Chainstack or Besu.

Privacy-focused data access patterns: Alchemy's transact and debug APIs allow fetching complex data in single calls, reducing the metadata footprint vs. multiple standard JSON-RPC calls. This matters for high-frequency trading bots and analytics dashboards that need rich data with fewer observable requests.

DPAs are negotiable but not standard: While available, formal Data Processing Agreements are not as prominently featured as part of Alchemy's core offering. This matters for large enterprises or public companies where procurement requires a standardized, easily accessible compliance package from day one.