Blockchain nodes store a full copy of the distributed ledger and connect to other nodes on a distributed network to send and receive information stored on the blockchain by executing and validating transactions. For a decentralized application (dApp) to interact with a blockchain, they must do so through a blockchain node. Developers building web3 applications can choose to run their own node, use a single node managed by another company, or use a node provider.

What is a blockchain node provider?

A blockchain node provider creates and maintains blockchain nodes for others to use, which shifts the responsibility of running nodes from the individual developer or company to the blockchain node service provider. Choosing to work with a blockchain node provider can help lower maintenance costs and improve reliability.

While developers can run a node on a computer, it would be extremely time-consuming, difficult to manage, and energy-intensive. Running a successful application also requires that the blockchain node be reliable, accurate, and secure. All three of these factors are hard to achieve when running one’s own node.

By using a blockchain node provider, web3 developers and enterprises can avoid the financial costs, development time, and reliability risks associated with the maintenance of individual blockchain nodes.

Web3 node providers can be blockchain-specific, such as Solana RPC node providers, while others provide node support to interact with multiple blockchains simultaneously. This article features the best multichain node providers.

Who are the best blockchain node providers?

These are the twelve blockchain node providers included in this article:

1. Alchemy
2. Infura
3. Quicknode
4. Pokt Network
5. Ankr
6. Chainstack
7. Blockdaemon
8. Coinbase Cloud
9. Getblocks
10. Nownodes
11. Infstones
12. Watchdata

This article covers important node provider traits like price, chain support, customer support, tools, user experience, and enhanced APIs.

1. Alchemy

Alchemy is a blockchain node provider known for offering extremely high reliability compared to competitors, and a proven track record of data accuracy. In addition to providing blockchnodes for developers, Alchemy also offers a suite of development tools such, APIs, and a web3 SDK. 

Current customers of Alchemy include Opensea, 0x, Aave, Meta, Adobe, Yearn, Maker, and more.

Which blockchains does Alchemy support?

Alchemy currently supports Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Arbitum, Optimism, Flow, and Crypto.org, and are adding new chains all the time.

How much does Alchemy cost?

There are three pricing tiers in Alchemy’s RPC node service:

• Alchemy Free Tier - $0/month, approximately 12 million transactions per month
• Alchemy Growth Pricing - $49/month, approximately 16 million transactions per month
• Alchemy Enterprise Pricing - customized usage and throughput based on specific needs

Alchemy’s free tier of service is the most powerful free node provider service in blockchain, including free archive access.

Alchemy Special APIs

Alchemy offers a number of web3 APIs that simplify the blockend developer experience. Alchemy’s suite of enhanced APIs include:

• NFT API - instantly find, verify, and display any NFT, across all major blockchains
• Notify API - use webhooks on Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum and more
• Trace API - gain low-level insights into how transactions were executed on chain
• Transfers API - get the transaction history for specific accounts over any block range
• Subscription API (Websockets) - get full transaction receipts for all new pending transactions
• Token API - return crucial token metadata, balances, and more for a given contract addresses
• Transaction Receipts API - returns the full transaction receipt for each transaction contained within a specified block.
• Debug API - replay transactions under controlled network states to debug transactions

In addition to chains and APIs, Alchemy offers 24/7 support via three key channels: support tickets, Discord, and direct Telegram groups for enterprise customers.

2. Infura

Infura is another major node provider in the blockchain space, with a developer base of over 400,000 users. Infura is one of the largest centralized node providers, and is owned by Consensys. Similar to Alchemy, Infura provides an interface to monitor application operations, such as requests and their status.

Which blockchains does Infura support?

Infura currently supports Ethereum, and Ethereum testnets. For an additional fee, Infura provides blockchain node support for Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum.

How much does Infura cost?

Infura has four pricing tiers:

• Infura Free Tier - $0/month, approximately 3 million transactions per month
• Infura Developer Pricing - $50/month, approximately 6 million transactions per month
• Infura Team Pricing - $225/month, approximately 30 million transactions per month
• Infura Growth Pricing - $1000/mo, approximately 150 million transactions per month

Infura offers approximately 750,000 archive requests per month on their free plan.

3. Quicknode

Quicknode touts three key value propositions as a blockchain node provider: scalability, speed, and analytics tools. Quicknode emphasizes that it is faster than 65% of competitors in locations globally. 

Which blockchains does Quicknode support?

Quicknode has wide chain support, supporting Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Algorand, Arbitum, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Celo, Fantom, Harmony, Optimism, Terra, and major testnets.

How much does Quicknode cost?

Quicknode has four pricing tiers:

• Quicknode Discover Pricing - $0/month, 10 Million API credits per month
• Quicknode Build Pricing - $49/month, 20 Million API credits per month
• Quicknode Scale Pricing - $299/month, 120 Million API credits per month
• Quicknode Enterprise Pricing - custom pricing, 300 Million+ API credits per month

Quick Quicknode offers à la carte add-ons, such as archive data, for $250/month.

To understand how many transactions are included in Quicknode's free tiers, here are a few examples:

1. eth_accounts - this costs 1 API Credit, which converts to 10 million transactions
2. eth_call - this costs 2 API Credits which converts to 5 million transactions
3. eth_estimateGas - this costs 6 API Credits which converts to 1.7 million transactions

For comparison, Alchemy can process 30 million eth_accounts calls (+300%), 15 million eth_call requests (+300%), and 3.4 million eth_estimateGas calls (+200%).

Quicknode Special APIs

Quicknode offers a cross-chain NFT API that allows developers to retrieve NFT information from the Solana and Ethereum networks.

4. Pokt Network

Pocket Network is a decentralized API with a network of decentralized nodes. Pokt is created and hosted by developers who own POKT tokens in return for supporting a node. 

Pokt Network’s main value propositions are the decentralized nature of the network, and the high number of supported chains, which results in increased flexibility for dApps using Pokt’s blockchain nodes. 

While their crypto-economic model allows Pokt to support more chains, the lack of dedicated nodes to clients can lead to the possibility of unreliable nodes. 

Which blockchains does Pokt Network support?

Pokt has chain support for Algorand, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Fantom, FUSE, Gnosis Chain, Harmony, IoTeX, NEAR, Optimism, Polygon, Solana, and more.

How much does Pokt Network cost?

Pokt does not disclose pricing on their website. However, support documentation suggests that Pokt provides free blockchain node support to developers up to a certain number of requests. Once the daily (or per-session) number of requests runs out, users must contact Pokt to learn more about pricing.

5. Ankr

Ankr offers both a decentralized node provider model and a hybrid RPC endpoint to its users. Ankr offers 30+ supported chains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitum, Fantom, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and many more. 

How much does Ankr cost?

• Ankr Public RPCs - $0/month, no advanced API, discord support, a soft limit of 30 million requests per month
• Ankr Premium - pay as you go, unlimited requests, secure and private RPC endpoints, custom SLA support

6. Chainstack

Chainstack provides infrastructure solutions to web3 application developers, ranging from nodes to hosting solutions that allow developers to access a wide variety of geographically distributed hosting infrastructure.

Chainstack’s appeals to enterprise customers in particular is due to its enterprise-level software which provides capabilities such as user account management, permissions, and enterprise-level support.

Chainstack offers access to custom node parameters and node customizations; nodes are optimized for low-latency, production-grade workloads. Similar to other providers on this list that support enterprise customers, Chainstack also provides monitoring solutions to customers using their nodes.

Finally, Chainstack global mempool access allows devs to use transaction propagation and discovery with Chainstack through bloXroute on Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Smart Chain.

Which blockchains does Chainstack support?

Chainstack supports the following chains, Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Solana, Harmony, StarkNet, Tezos, Fabric, Corda, Bitcoin, Quorum, and MultiChain.

How much does Chainstack cost?

Chainstack has four pricing tiers:

• Developer - $0/month + usage cost, 3 Million/month transactions, Platform API, consortium nodes
• Growth - $49 /month + usage cost, 20 Million/month, elastic archive nodes, MEV API, dedicated nodes, unlimited requests
• Business - $349 /month + usage cost, 140 Million/month, Debug and trace APIs on elastic archive nodes
• Enterprise - $990 /month + usage cost, 400 Million/month, Custom configuration, custom monitoring, priority support option

Chainstack Special APIs

Chainstack’s Platform allows developers to get access to APIs for orchestration, reading ledger data, application management, events and notifications.

7. Blockdaemon

Blockdaemon runs a peer-to-peer node provider marketplace, allowing developers to buy node access at Blockdaemon’s market price. Blockdaemon’s key value proposition is the number of chains supported, with over 50 chains currently available for node support.

Which blockchains does Blockdaemon support?

Blockdaemon supports 50+ chains, including: Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Cosmos, Polkadot, Solana, Moonbeam, Algorand, Cardano, Bitcoin, Chainlink, Cronos, Dogecoin, Fantom, Filecoin, Harmony, Helium, Near, Optimism, Stellar, Terra, Tezos, and XRP. 

How much does Blockdaemon cost?

Pricing for Blockdaemon starts with a free plan at $0/month. Additional pricing rates for Blockdaemon are not published on their website or externally.

Blockdaemon Special APIs

Blockdaemon has a suite of APIs called Ubiquity. The Blockdaemon Ubiquity Universal API allows access to multiple protocols. Ubiquity NFT allows access to on-chain and off-chain data related to NFTs. Ubiquity Native Access API allows developers to dive deeper into protocols. Finally, the Ubiquity Specialized APIs allow developers to extract useful information from the blockchain. 

8. Coinbase Cloud (Query and Transact)

Coinbase cloud offers dedicated nodes with unlimited requests. Coinbase Cloud provides a number of features, including enterprise security, and multi-cloud, multi-region hosting options. Similar to other providers on this list, Coinbase Cloud offers data and analytics so that developers have visibility into the health and performance of nodes and API requests.

Coinbase Cloud support options include access to on-site engineering and protocol operation teams, and 24/7 monitoring.

Which blockchains does Coinbase Cloud support?

Coinbase Cloud supports over 25 chains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and more.

Unfortunately, Coinbase does not list pricing information on their website related to their node infrastrucutre offerings.

9. Getblocks

Getblocks is a decentralized node provider, and has a competitive pay-as-you-go pricing model, which may be appealing to some. Additionally, their helpful docs, support, and chain support makes them an option worth considering.

Getblocks Features

• Decentralized - rather than running centralized nodes, Getblocks runs decentralized nodes through its providers
• Quick Assistance - fast personal consulting for both beginners and experienced developers
• Helpful Docs - technical guides, node endpoints and methods, API references, and much more
• Custom SLAs - fully-featured SLAs based on your project performance and business model

Which blockchains does Getblocks support?

Getblocks supports many chains, including: Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, XRP, Polkadot, Cardano, Near, Solana, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Stellar, Tezos, Fantom, Algorand, Arbitum, and more. 

How much does Getblocks cost?

Getblocks pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model where customers buy a fixed amount of requests at a given price, and use them without limitation until they’re used up. 

• Getblocks Free Tier - $0 per 40K requests
• Getblocks Newbie Pricing - $6 per 500K requests
• Getblocks Lite Pricing - $10 per 1M requests
• Getblocks Base Pricing - $30 per 5M requests
• Getblocks Popular Pricing - $50 per 10M requests
• Getblocks Team Pricing - $200 per 50M requests
• Getblocks Unlimited Pricing - $500/month, unlimited requests

10. Nownodes

While Nownodes’ pricing is not the most competitive on this list, they offer developers the option to either participate in shared or dedicated nodes, allowing for maximum customizability to fit developers’ needs. 

Nownodes Features

One of Nownodes features is its <24hr response time for all tiers, which means, even if you’re only on their free plan, they’ll respond to your questions quickly. Another selling point for Nownodes is its 99.95% API uptime. Finally, they also offer both shared and dedicated nodes. 

Which blockchains does Nownodes support?

Nownodes supports 40+ chains, including: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tezos, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, Polkadot, Cardano, Algorand, and more. 

How much does Nownodes cost?

Nownodes has four pricing tiers:

• Free - 150,000 requests/month
• Standard - $3 per 100,000 requests
• Pro - $200 per 30 million requests
• VIP - $500 per 100 million requests

11. Infstones

Binance chose Infstones to provide its validation nodes service and underlying Ethereum 2.0 infrastructure support because of its reliability, track record in providing staking service, and experience in blockchain node management.

Infstones Features

Infostones offers API security features such as access control, whitelists, password protection, dedicated IP addresses, and maximum allowed costs for your projects. They also allow you to monitor progress 24/7 with advanced API logs that help devs to keep track of errors, project status, response times, sent times, and more.

Which blockchains does Infstones support?

Infstones offer access to 60+ chains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Cosmos, and more.

12. Watchdata

Watchdata excels in allowing devs to visualize data across important chains, and their dedicated nodes. While pricey, are a good option for devs seeking to take their application to the next level.

Which blockchains does Watchdata support?

Watchdata supports Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron.

How much does Watchdata cost? 

Watchdata has three pricing tiers:

• Dedicated Tron Node - $499/month
• Dedicated Ethereum Node - $499/month
• Dedicated Bitcoin Node - $249/month

Watchdata Special APIs

The WatchData Node API returns structured data on block, transaction, and event logs, giving you access to real-time data without creating complex queries.

Choose the Best Blockchain Node Provider

There many good options for choosing a blockchain node provider. Between reliability guarantees, price, chain support, enhanced APIs, and support, any one of the companies on this list could be a good option. Spend time reviewing your options, and choose the partner that is best positioned to help you scale.