Alchemy vs Infura: Core Ethereum RPC Providers

Higher Throughput & Uptime: Benchmarks show higher requests per second and consistent >99.9% SLA. Their proprietary "Supernode" architecture is optimized for heavy load. This matters for high-traffic production applications where downtime directly impacts revenue.

Comprehensive suite beyond RPC: Offers dedicated APIs for NFT, Transfers, and enhanced transaction simulation. The Alchemy Notify webhook system and Enhanced APIs (e.g., trace_transaction) provide deeper observability than standard JSON-RPC. This matters for building complex dApps (like OpenSea, 0x) that require real-time alerts and detailed debugging.

Architected for high throughput: Publicly documents >99.9% uptime and consistently higher requests per second (RPS) capacity. Optimized for demanding workloads like NFT minting events and high-frequency DeFi protocols (e.g., Aave, Chainlink). This matters for applications where transaction success and sub-second latency are critical to user experience and protocol revenue.

Native support for 15+ chains: Includes Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and non-EVM chains like StarkNet and Filecoin via a unified dashboard and API. This matters for teams building cross-chain applications or hedging ecosystem risk without managing multiple vendor relationships. It's the default provider for MetaMask and many Truffle/Ganache setups.

Seamless integration with the Consensys stack: Native compatibility with MetaMask, Truffle, and Diligence tools. Offers streamlined access to Infura Transactions (meta-transactions) and Filecoin/IPFS storage. This matters for teams already invested in the Consensys product suite, reducing integration complexity and leveraging trusted audit and wallet infrastructure.

Pricing scales with compute units (CUs): Complex applications with heavy eth_getLogs or tracing calls can consume CUs rapidly, leading to higher costs at scale compared to simpler per-request models. This matters for data-intensive applications or protocols with high user volume, where infrastructure cost predictability is a key budget factor.

Stricter default rate limits on core and archive plans, with more aggressive throttling during traffic spikes. This can lead to increased latency or dropped requests for high-throughput dApps. While enterprise tiers mitigate this, it matters for growth-stage protocols that need consistent performance without immediately committing to custom enterprise contracts.

First-mover advantage: Launched in 2017, it's the default RPC for MetaMask and integrated into major frameworks like Truffle and Hardhat. This matters for rapid prototyping and teams that prioritize ecosystem familiarity and broad tooling support.

Feature gap vs. Alchemy: Lacks native equivalents to Alchemy's Notify (webhooks), Transfers API, and Mempool Watcher. This matters for production-grade applications requiring real-time event monitoring, complex transaction debugging, or NFT data aggregation without building custom infrastructure.

Comprehensive API suite: Offers specialized endpoints like alchemy_getAssetTransfers and alchemy_getTokenBalances, plus the NFT API and Webhook Notifications. This matters for scaling dApps that need rich data, reliable transaction broadcasting, and automated backend logic without managing indexers.

Pricing complexity at high volume: While competitive for startups, enterprise-scale usage can become costly compared to running dedicated nodes or using emerging alternatives like QuickNode or Chainstack. This matters for high-throughput protocols (e.g., DeFi aggregators, gaming) with millions of daily requests where RPC cost is a significant operational expense.