Alchemy vs. Ankr - Multichain RPC and API Provider Comparison

Written by Turja

Reviewed by Logan Ross

Published on 2023-09-067 min read

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Alchemy's blockchain development platform provides RPC nodes with more accurate and reliable blockchain data, and more web3 tools and APIs compared to Ankr.

Alchemy and Ankr are multichain blockchain node providers that enable web3 developers to build decentralized applications. This article will compare these companies across multiple categories to help you choose a web3 node provider.

In this article, Alchemy and Ankr will be compared across nine key categories:

1. Supported Blockchains

2. Node Latency

3. Data Accuracy

4. Node Reliability

5. Pricing

6. Enhanced APIs

7. Developer Tools

8. User Experience

9. Customer Support
   

Alchemy vs. Ankr Comparison

In this section, we will compare Alchemy and Ankr, evaluating both platforms across several key dimensions. This will provide a comprehensive overview of their strengths and weaknesses, allowing readers to decide which platform is best suited to their needs.

What is Alchemy?

Alchemy is the world’s leading developer platform for blockchain and web3 development. This platform empowers developers with a suite of tools, including analytics, monitoring, etc., to enhance decentralized applications (dapps) while leveraging infrastructure that can scale to multi-nodes while maintaining data accuracy.

With an emphasis on high reliability, Alchemy has established itself as a fundamental asset in the Web3 tech stack for developers and enterprises alike. The combination of quality and reliability ensures customers an avenue for continuous growth.

The Alchemy developer suite consists of numerous enhanced APIs, contributing significantly to the developer experience. The numerous tools consisting of the NFT API, Trace API, Token API, Debug API, etc., offer a powerful approach to development in Web3.

What is Ankr?

Ankr is a Web3 infrastructure provider simplifying decentralized development and staking across multiple blockchains. Its node network supports many Proof-of-Stake blockchains, allowing for easy global node deployment. With simplified node deployment, multiple API endpoints, and utility-driven staking, Ankr makes it easier for users to get started.

The launch of Ankr Network 2.0 introduced new products designed to increase the decentralization of Web3 services. These include development projects that use the Ankr Network and can access it through a decentralized RPC layer. The ANKR token will also have additional utility, allowing access to on-chain data, earning as independent node providers, and staking for network security.

Ankr will also be transitioning into a consensus-based model unveiling the Ankr DAO. Its objective will be to leverage its community for fund allocation, operational decisions (i.e., pricing, revenue, etc.), and strategic product development decisions (i.e., future RPC onboarding).

Now, we'll dive deep into 9 important considerations.

1. Supported Blockchains

Alchemy provides RPC and Enhanced APIs for:

• Ethereum

• Optimism

• Arbitrum

• Polygon PoS

• Starknet

• Solana

• Polygon zkEVM

• Base

• Astar (Polkadot)

Alchemy also supports the following testnets:

• Goerli (Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum)

• Sepolia (Ethereum)

• Mumbai (Polygon)

Ankr's decentralized model allows for supporting more chains than Alchemy, however, the same quality assurances cannot be made across every network. Developers should opt for Alchemy when available, and use Ankr for chains that aren't supported by Alchemy.

2. Node Latency

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. The results of this test showed that Alchemy averaged 39.2 ms for the US East location over the course of a week.

Ankr's independent node providers create a globally distributed network that differs depending on where you located, and which chain you are requesting data from. The multi-region support allows availability globally, with nodes in nearly all continents.

3. 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 receive 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:

1. Requests return different answers to the same question

2. Dapps may retrieve incorrect transaction nonces

3. Users have a poor experience when tokens and NFTs appear incorrectly

Alchemy specializes in providing the most accurate blockchain data across all products with an explicit consistency layer called Vox Nodi, enabling a sustainable system. By diverting away from the load balancer infrastructure, Alchemy ensures that data accuracy is the top priority for Web3 development. Compared to other centralized node providers, Alchemy sets the industry standard.

Ankr's decentralized model leads to more data inconsistency on average according to a benchmarking tool that showed 0 incorrect pieces of data served by Alchemy's Ethereum nodes versus 11 incorrect pieces of data served by Ankr's nodes. Try it for yourself, as results may vary!

4. Node Reliability

Alchemy: Compared to competitors that provide 72% reliability with standard nodes, the Alchemy Supernode ensures a 99.9% up-time for blockchain accessibility. All Alchemy plans offer access to the Supernode.

Ankr: The global presence of Ankr’s nodes has granted this network to be a strong and reliable node provider. Following a similar structure of telecommunication network providers, Ankr emphasized an expansion approach to target 24+ regions creating a globally distributed network.

5. Pricing

Pricing plays a pivotal role when selecting a web3 node provider. Let's delve into the cost structures of both Alchemy and Ankr to determine which offers the best value.

Alchemy Pricing

Alchemy offers four value-packed plans, each tailored to meet the specific needs of developers and enterprises. These plans provide targeted solutions that perfectly cater to the unique requirements of each user group.

Alchemy Free ($0/month)

• 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

Alchemy Growth ($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

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
  

Enterprise (Custom Pricing)

For enterprise-scale web3 applications like OpenSea, The Graph, and 0x, Alchemy’s enterprise tier offers customized scale, throughput, and support to manage the largest dapps in web3.

• Committed use discounts

• Custom SLAs

• Pay with crypto

• Custom throughput

• Unlimited apps

• 24/7 VIP support

Additionally, large web2 corporations transitioning to web3, such as Meta, Shopify, and Adobe, with millions of users, opt for Alchemy to fulfill their scalability, dependability, and low latency demands.

Ankr  Pricing ‍

Ankr provides three distinct plans, each designed to cater to the diverse needs of developers and businesses.

Free ($0/month)

• 30 requests per second

• 23 chains

• 10 regions

• Community support
  

Premium ($10 per 100M credits)

• 1500 requests per second

• 30 chains

• 40 regions

• Support portal

Enterprise (From $1000)

• 15000 requests per second

• Custom chains

• Custom regions

• Engineering team support

6. Enhanced APIs

Besides blockchain node services, Alchemy and Ankr both offer enhanced APIs, SDKs, and other blockchain developer tools.

NFT API

The Alchemy NFT API is designed to streamline NFT development, including searching, verifying, and displaying on all major blockchains. It is the most trusted NFT API among top NFT platforms due to its ease of use in both Web2 and Web3, lightning-fast speed, availability on all major chains, and production-grade quality. While Ankr also offers an NFT API, it has limitations in terms of availability on major chains and developer-friendliness.

Web3 SDK

Alchemy’s SDK is the easiest way to start developing in the Web3 space. Once connected to a dapp, just two lines of code are needed to extend Ether.js and gain access to the NFT and Enhanced APIs, multi-chain support, and more.

The Ankr SDK also provides access to the NFT, Query, and Token APIs, allowing for reduced requests, lower cost per request, and querying multiple chains simultaneously. However, the Alchemy SDK offers additional developer tools from the beginning to the production stages of development.

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.

7. Developer Tools

Alchemy strives to provide the best tools for developers as the all-in-one solution platform for Web3 development. Developers are encouraged to leverage the various solutions with the flexibility to build with confidence for unlimited scaling, additional features via the enhanced APIs, no request limitation, and an established community of builders.

Alchemy’s suite of developer tools includes extensive documentation, tutorials, and articles, allowing developers to focus on what’s important without searching for information.

8. User Experience

Alchemy: Alchemy's interface is streamlined and intuitive, tailored for developers. The dashboard provides quick insights into application metrics, and tools like Alchemy's composer simplify blockchain requests. The platform's design ensures easy navigation and efficient development.

Ankr: Ankr emphasizes ease of use, focusing on making decentralized development straightforward. The launch of Ankr Network 2.0 highlights its dedication to user-centric enhancements. Their platform combines functionality with community engagement, making it user-friendly and community-driven.

9. Customer Support

Alchemy: Alchemy offers 24/7 Discord support, even for its free tier users. Their extensive documentation and active community further enhance the support experience, ensuring developers have the resources they need.

Ankr: Ankr offers customer support via Discord. With the launch of the Ankr DAO, they demonstrate a dedication to community-driven support, placing importance on feedback and user contributions. Premium users also have access to custom SLA support.

Which node provider is better - Alchemy or Ankr?

Alchemy's blockchain development platform provides RPC nodes with more accurate and reliable blockchain data, and more web3 tools and APIs compared to Ankr.

The key difference between Alchemy and Ankr lies in their structural and operational differences. Ankr operates on a decentralized model, has its own token (ANKR), and also provides app chains. On the other hand, Alchemy adopts a centralized approach, supports a variety of public blockchains, offers an extensive array of APIs, and equips teams with a broader suite of developer tools to facilitate their building process.

The best web3 node provider and blockchain development platform vary for each team based on their product, budget, and tooling needs. When deciding between Alchemy and Ankr, it’s important to determine which features are most important for the success of your project and assess which node provider will offer the best experience both now and as you scale. Developers may also want to consider Alchemy vs. Quicknode before making a final decision.

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.