12 Best RPC Node Providers in 2026, Compared

Last updated: 25 October 2026 · Prices, limits and chain counts rechecked on vendor pages on 25 October 2026

The best RPC node providers in 2026 are Chainstack, Alchemy, dRPC, GetBlock and QuickNode, in that order, with Helius as the clear pick for Solana. We ranked 12 providers on price per call, published uptime terms, security audits, features, chain coverage and free tiers, using numbers from each vendor’s own pages.

Every provider sells the same basic product: a remote procedure call (RPC) endpoint that answers JSON requests from a synced blockchain node. The differences sit in the meter. Each vendor counts usage in its own unit, so the plan with the lowest sticker price can produce the highest bill. Read how we test for how we collect prices and screenshots.

This page is the pillar for our Node Infrastructure hub. Shortlists, head to head comparisons and setup guides sit under RPC Providers and Dedicated Nodes.

How We Ranked the 12 Providers

We scored each provider from 1 to 5 on six criteria, weighted them, and converted the result to a score out of 10. Price per call carries the most weight because it drives the monthly bill. Every input comes from a vendor page or a public benchmark we can link to. Our full process lives on the methodology page.

Criterion	Weight	What we measured
Price per call	25%	Standard calls a $49 entry plan or $49 of pay as you go usage buys, from each vendor’s method cost table
Reliability	20%	Published uptime terms, who gets them, and OpenChainBench latency where it exists
Compliance	15%	SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, as stated on the vendor’s own pages
Features	15%	Archive data, Trace and Debug, data APIs, streaming and dedicated node options
Chain coverage	15%	The vendor’s own chain count, checked against its docs where possible
Free tier	10%	Calls a month on the free plan, rate limit and expiry

Where a vendor does not publish method weights, we score its price as 2 out of 5 and say so. Ties go to the provider with the better price score. No vendor saw this ranking before publication, and none paid for placement.

Rank	Provider	Price	Reliability	Compliance	Features	Chains	Free tier	Score
1	Chainstack	5	4	5	4	4	3	8.6
2	Alchemy	3	4	4	5	5	5	8.3
3	dRPC	5	4	2	3	5	4	7.9
4	GetBlock	3	5	4	4	5	2	7.8
5	QuickNode	3	4	5	5	4	2	7.7
6	Helius	5	3	4	5	1	3	7.3
7	Ankr	2	3	4	3	4	4	6.3
8	Infura	4	3	1	3	3	4	6.1
9	Tatum	1	3	5	4	5	1	6.1
10	NOWNodes	4	3	1	2	5	1	5.8
11	CDP Node	3	2	1	3	1	3	4.4
12	Lava	2	2	1	3	3	2	4.3

What RPC Node Providers Do

An RPC node provider runs blockchain nodes for you and exposes them through an HTTPS or WebSocket endpoint. Your wallet, decentralized application (dApp) or backend sends JSON requests such as eth_call or getBalance, and the provider answers from a synced node. You pay for uptime, sync speed and capacity you would otherwise have to build.

Most providers bundle extras on top of plain node access. Common ones include archive history for old blocks, Trace and Debug methods for replaying transactions, streaming feeds, and indexed data for tokens and NFTs. Two providers can serve the same Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) call at very different prices, so the extras and the meter matter more than the raw endpoint.

The Decision Kernel

Answer three questions before you open any price table: which chains you need next year, which methods dominate your traffic, and how much downtime your product can absorb. Those three answers remove most of this list before pricing enters the picture. Use the shortcuts below to pick a starting shortlist of two or three.

• Solana first: start with Helius, then add QuickNode or Alchemy as a second endpoint.
• Many chains, one bill: shortlist dRPC, GetBlock and Chainstack, then test the chains you actually use.
• Heavy log reads or indexing: pick a flat meter such as Chainstack request units, GetBlock compute units or QuickNode credits.
• Data APIs alongside RPC: Alchemy and QuickNode sell token, NFT and transfer APIs on the same account.
• Procurement needs SOC 2 and ISO 27001: Chainstack, QuickNode and Tatum state both on their own pages.
• Base only: CDP Node gives 10M billing units free each month, with GetBlock or Alchemy as backup.
• Small team on a tight budget: start on a free tier, measure real traffic for a week, then price that mix on two providers. Our free RPC providers guide ranks seven no-cost options for testing and small dApps.

The 12 Providers at a Glance

The table lists each provider’s billing unit, free tier, entry paid plan and claimed chain coverage. Chain counts come from the vendors and change often, so check your own chains on each vendor’s list before you sign up. Prices are monthly list prices in US dollars unless marked in euros, as shown on 25 October 2026.

Provider	Billing unit	Free tier	Entry paid plan	Chains (vendor claim)
Chainstack	Request units (RU)	3M RU a month, 25 requests per second	Growth $49: 20M RU	70+
Alchemy	Compute units (CU) per method	30M CU a month, 15 requests per second	Pay as you go: $0.525 per 1M CU	100+
dRPC	CU pool, sold as requests	Public nodes, 210M CU pool	Pro $49: 10M requests	Over 120
GetBlock	Compute units with chain multipliers	50K CU a day, 20 requests per second	Starter $49: 90M CU	130+
QuickNode	API credits, flat per chain	One-month trial, 10M credits	Build $49: 80M credits	76+
Helius	Credits, mostly 1 per call	1M credits, 10 requests per second	Developer $49: 10M credits	Solana only
Ankr	API credits per request	200M credits a month, 30 requests per second	From $10 per 100M credits	50+ free, 75+ paid
Infura	Credits, daily quota	3M credits a day	Developer $50: 15M credits a day	25 chains in docs
Tatum	Credits per method	100K lifetime credits, 3 requests per second	Starter $49: 4M credits	130+
NOWNodes	Requests	100K requests for one month	Pro €20: 1M requests	120
CDP Node	Billing units (BU) per method	10M BU a month	Pay as you go: $0.50 per 1M BU	Base only
Lava	Compute units	750K CU a month, 25 requests per second	Developer $29: 50M CU	28+

What $49 a Month Buys

We converted each entry plan into calls per month with the vendor’s own method cost table. For the pay as you go sellers, Alchemy, Ankr and CDP Node, we spent $49 at list rates. Included volume differs by a factor of 25 between the most and least generous options. Ethereum rows use eth_call where the meter varies by method. Our RPC provider pricing comparison breaks down compute units, credits and request plans in more detail.

Provider and plan	Monthly price	Unit math	Calls per month
Chainstack Growth	$49 ($40 billed annually)	20M RU; archive calls cost 2 RU	20M full-node or 10M archive
dRPC Pro	$49	163M CU pool	10M multi-chain requests
Helius Developer	$49	Most RPC calls cost 1 credit	10M Solana calls
Infura Developer	$50	15M credits a day; 80 credits per eth_call	About 5.6M eth_call over 30 days
GetBlock Starter	$49 ($39 billed annually)	90M CU; 20 CU per Ethereum call	4.5M Ethereum calls
QuickNode Build	$49 ($34 billed annually)	80M credits; 20 credits per Ethereum call	4M Ethereum calls
Alchemy pay as you go	$49 of usage	$0.525 per 1M CU; 26 CU per eth_call	About 3.6M eth_call
CDP Node pay as you go	$49 of usage	$0.50 per 1M BU; 30 BU per eth_call	About 3.3M Base calls, plus the free 10M BU
Ankr pay as you go	$49 of usage	$0.02 per 1,000 EVM requests	About 2.45M EVM requests
Tatum Starter	$49	4M credits; 5 credits per eth_call	About 800,000 eth_call

The math has limits. Infura’s quota resets daily, so a spike cannot borrow from quiet days. Helius serves only Solana and CDP Node serves only Base, so their rows do not compete directly with multi-chain plans. Rate limits, archive access and support levels also differ by plan, and the table does not price them.

Two providers sit outside the chart. NOWNodes has no plan near $49: Pro costs €20 for 1M requests and Pro Plus costs €90 for 10M, per the NOWNodes pricing page. Lava does not publish per-method compute unit costs on its pricing page, so we cannot convert its plans into calls.

Why Method Weights Change the Bill

Per-method meters charge more for expensive calls, and log queries show the gap most clearly. CDP Node charges 100 billing units for eth_getLogs against 30 for eth_call, Infura charges 255 credits against 80, and Alchemy charges 60 compute units against 26. An indexer that reads logs all day can pay three times more on a per-method meter.

QuickNode charges a flat rate per call on each chain and doubles it for advanced APIs such as Trace and Debug, per its API credit table. GetBlock multiplies a chain factor by a method factor, and its calculator shows 20 CU for both calls on Ethereum. Chainstack charges one request unit per full-node call whatever the method. Alchemy publishes its weights in a compute unit cost table and Infura in its credit cost documentation. For a head-to-head on three of these meters, see our QuickNode vs Alchemy vs Chainstack comparison.

Uptime SLAs and Compliance

Procurement teams ask two questions before price: what uptime does the contract promise, and which audits can the vendor show. Most providers reserve contractual service level agreements (SLAs) for enterprise deals. GetBlock and NOWNodes are the only two that publish formal SLA terms for self-serve plans. The table shows what each vendor states on its own pages.

Provider	Published uptime terms	SOC 2	ISO 27001
Chainstack	Custom SLA on Enterprise; pricing page shows 99.99%+ uptime	Type II	Yes
Alchemy	Signed SLAs on Enterprise	Type II (Trust Center)	Not stated
dRPC	99.96% uptime listed on paid plans; committed SLAs on Enterprise	Compliance claimed; no report listed	Not stated
GetBlock	99% shared nodes from Starter, with a 20% discount if missed; 99.9% dedicated; 99.99% dedicated with load balancer	Type II	Not stated
QuickNode	99.99% contractual SLA with service credits on Enterprise	SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2	Yes
Helius	Latency and uptime SLAs on enterprise plans	SOC 2 Type II	Not stated
Ankr	Custom SLA on Enterprise	Type II (operator Asphere)	In progress
Infura	99.9% minimum uptime on its Ethereum page; committed SLAs on Enterprise	Not stated	Not stated
Tatum	Support response SLA; 99.99% uptime claim	Type II (via Trust Center)	Yes (27001:2022)
NOWNodes	99.95% API uptime and 3-minute support response on every plan	Not stated	Not stated
CDP Node	None published	Not stated on Node docs	Not stated on Node docs
Lava	SLA on the $2,499 Enterprise plan	Not stated	Not stated

Read the fine print on any SLA. GetBlock’s SLA page measures shared-node downtime as HTTP 503 responses and excludes scheduled maintenance. NOWNodes publishes its targets in a service quality standard that also lists a 200 ms API response time. Audit reports for SOC 2 usually ship under a non-disclosure agreement, so ask for them during your security review.

Latency: What Public Benchmarks Show

OpenChainBench publishes open RPC latency data under a CC BY 4.0 license. Its Ethereum benchmark sends the same eth_getBlockByNumber call from US East, EU West and Singapore, and reports the 24-hour median round trip. QuickNode’s keyed endpoint led at 6 ms, with GetBlock and Alchemy at 9 ms. We quote only figures shown on 25 October 2026.

Provider	Endpoint type	Median latency (p50, 24h)	Success rate
QuickNode	Private, API key	6 ms	100%
GetBlock	Private, API key	9 ms	100%
Alchemy	Private, free plan key	9 ms	7.62%
Chainstack	Private, API key	18 ms	100%
dRPC	Public, no key	30 ms	98.17%
NOWNodes	Public, no key	129 ms	95.27%

Three cautions apply. The benchmark measures one light call, so it says little about heavy methods such as eth_getLogs. Public endpoints are free shared gateways, so the dRPC and NOWNodes rows describe their free URLs and not their paid keys. Ankr’s public Ethereum endpoint now needs an API key, so OpenChainBench does not list it, and the other providers in this guide are not in its Ethereum set.

The cross-chain view on the OpenChainBench RPC hub covers more than 150 chains, and Tatum and Ankr lead several of them on public endpoints. Run your own test from your server region before you trust any single number.

1. Chainstack

Key fact	Chainstack
Pricing	Growth $49 for 20M request units (RU), Pro $199 for 80M, Business $499 for 200M, Enterprise from $990 for 400M
Free tier	Developer: 3M RU a month, 25 requests per second, no archive data
Chains	70+
Uptime SLA	Custom SLA on Enterprise; 99.99%+ uptime shown on the pricing page
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001
Our score	8.6 out of 10

Chainstack counts one request unit per call on full nodes and two on archive nodes, whatever the method. Growth allows 250 requests per second, Pro 400 and Business 600. Extra usage gets cheaper as you move up, from $15 per 1M RU on Growth to $5 on Enterprise, per the Chainstack pricing page.

It earned first place on price and audits. Its keyed Ethereum endpoint measured 18 ms at the median on OpenChainBench with a 100% success rate. It buys the most EVM calls for $49, and it lists both SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 on its own pages. A flat request unit is the easiest meter in this guide to forecast.

Dedicated nodes start at $0.50 an hour, so a team can move one busy chain to its own node without changing vendor. Pro adds single sign-on, and Business adds role-based access for larger teams.

Best for

• Indexers and analytics jobs with heavy eth_getLogs traffic.
• Teams that want shared RPC and dedicated nodes from one vendor.
• Buyers whose security review asks for both SOC 2 and ISO 27001.

Watch for

• The free Developer plan has no archive data.
• Archive-heavy traffic, which uses request units twice as fast.
• Contractual uptime terms, which start at Enterprise.

2. Alchemy

Key fact	Alchemy
Pricing	Pay as you go: $0.525 per 1M compute units (CU), 300 requests per second included; Enterprise on request
Free tier	30M CU a month, 15 requests per second, 5 apps
Chains	100+
Uptime SLA	Signed SLAs on Enterprise
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II, with a public Trust Center
Our score	8.3 out of 10

Alchemy pairs node access with a broad set of data products, including token balances, NFT metadata, asset transfers and transaction simulation. Pay as you go includes 10,000 CU per second, about 300 requests per second, and sells more in blocks of 5,000 CU per second for $160 a month, per the Alchemy pricing page.

Its free tier is the most useful in this guide: 30M CU covers about 1.15M eth_call requests a month. The keyed Ethereum endpoint measured 9 ms at the median on OpenChainBench, though only 7.62% of probes on the benchmark’s free-plan key succeeded in the latest 24 hours. The Alchemy Trust Center offers a SOC 2 Type II report on request. Alchemy suits teams that want RPC and indexed data from one vendor.

Debug and Trace methods sit on paid plans only. Support targets a 48 hour response on Free and 24 hours on pay as you go, and Enterprise adds signed SLAs and larger eth_getLogs ranges. Teams weighing a switch can compare options in our Alchemy alternatives guide.

Best for

• Product teams that need token, NFT or transfer data without running an indexer.
• Prototypes that need a generous free tier.
• Apps with a light read mix of eth_call and balance checks.

Watch for

• Log-heavy or trace-heavy workloads, which burn compute units faster.
• Throughput above the included 300 requests per second, which costs extra.
• No ISO 27001 claim on its own pages.

3. dRPC

Key fact	dRPC
Pricing	$0.30 per 1M CU; Pro $49 for 10M requests, Scale $199 for 47M requests, Enterprise from $990
Free tier	Public nodes only, 210M CU pool
Chains	Over 120 on paid plans
Uptime SLA	99.96% uptime listed on paid plans; committed SLAs on Enterprise
Compliance	SOC 2 compliance claimed; no report listed
Our score	7.9 out of 10

dRPC routes requests across independent node operators with an AI-driven load balancer, and sells one compute unit pool that covers multi-chain and Solana traffic. Pro allows 300 requests per second and charges $6 per 1M requests above the plan. Scale allows 600 requests per second, per the dRPC pricing page.

It has the cheapest published request price in this guide and the widest chain list among the top five. Its free public Ethereum endpoint led the OpenChainBench public cohort at 30 ms with a 98.17% success rate. dRPC sells requests at a published price, which makes forecasting simple.

The score loses ground on compliance. dRPC describes its infrastructure as SOC 2 compliant in announcements, but we found no audit report or ISO 27001 claim on its own pages.

Best for

• Teams spread across many chains that want one shared pool.
• Developers who want low-commitment access at a known price per request.
• Backup endpoints with wide chain coverage.

Watch for

• The free tier runs on public nodes only.
• Security reviews that need an audit report on file.
• Contractual SLAs, which start at Enterprise.

4. GetBlock

Key fact	GetBlock
Pricing	Starter $49 for 90M CU, Growth $99, Advanced $199, Scale $349, Pro $499 for 1B CU, Premium $699, Enterprise from $999
Free tier	50K CU a day, 20 requests per second
Chains	130+
Uptime SLA	99% on shared nodes from Starter; 99.9% to 99.99% on dedicated nodes
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II
Our score	7.8 out of 10

GetBlock meters compute units as a chain multiplier times a method multiplier, doubled for archive calls. Ethereum carries a multiplier of 20, so Starter’s 90M CU buys about 4.5M Ethereum calls at 250 requests per second. Pro raises the limit to 800 requests per second and sells extra CU at $0.40 per 1M, per the GetBlock pricing page.

GetBlock is the only top-five provider with a written SLA, including a remedy, on a $49 plan. Its SLA promises 99% monthly availability on shared nodes, with a 20% discount if it misses. Its keyed Ethereum endpoint matched Alchemy at 9 ms on OpenChainBench.

The Starter plan includes 30 endpoints, WebSockets, archive data on selected networks and 24/5 support. Dedicated nodes start at $1,000 a month with a 99.9% SLA, and GetBlock states SOC 2 Type II in its pricing documentation.

Best for

• Multi-chain teams that need a written uptime target without an enterprise contract.
• Ethereum apps with steady read traffic.
• Teams that want shared and dedicated nodes from one vendor.

Watch for

• Chain multipliers, which make some chains far more expensive per call than others.
• The free tier, which covers only about 2,500 Ethereum calls a day.
• Archive calls, which cost twice as much.

5. QuickNode

Key fact	QuickNode
Pricing	Build $49 for 80M credits, Accelerate $249 for 450M, Scale $499 for 950M, Business $999 for 2B, Business+ from $1,499
Free tier	One-month trial with 10M credits, 15 requests per second
Chains	76+
Uptime SLA	99.99% contractual SLA with service credits on Enterprise
Compliance	SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001
Our score	7.7 out of 10

QuickNode sells tiered monthly plans, and extra credits get cheaper on each tier: $0.62 per 1M on Build down to $0.50 on Business. Build allows 50 requests per second and Business allows 500, per the QuickNode pricing page. Archive data comes on every plan, and Trace and Debug start on Build.

QuickNode has the strongest compliance record in this guide. Its security page lists SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, and its enterprise page offers a 99.99% uptime SLA with service credits. Flat per-chain credits make QuickNode bills easy to budget.

Price held it at fifth. Its $49 plan buys 4M Ethereum calls, a fifth of Chainstack Growth, even though its keyed Ethereum endpoint posted the lowest median latency in the OpenChainBench private cohort at 6 ms.

Best for

• Enterprises that need audited controls and a contractual uptime SLA.
• Multi-chain teams that want predictable credits per call.
• Teams that need Trace and Debug on a mid-priced plan.

Watch for

• Chain multipliers: Solana and some layer 2 calls cost more credits than Ethereum calls.
• Advanced APIs that double the credit cost.
• No permanent free tier after the trial month.

6. Helius

Key fact	Helius
Pricing	Developer $49 for 10M credits, Business $499 for 100M, Professional $999 for 200M; dedicated nodes from $2,900
Free tier	1M credits, 10 requests per second
Chains	Solana only
Uptime SLA	Latency and uptime SLAs on enterprise plans
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II
Our score	7.3 out of 10

Helius builds only for Solana. Most RPC calls cost 1 credit, while heavier calls such as getProgramAccounts and its Digital Asset Standard (DAS) API cost 10. Developer allows 50 requests per second and sells extra credits at $5 per 1M, per the Helius pricing page.

Staked connections start on Developer, and LaserStream gRPC streaming arrives with Business. For Solana-only teams, a specialist beats a generalist on features. Its overall score trails the top five only because chain coverage carries 15% of the weight and Helius serves one chain. For Solana-only shortlists, see our Solana RPC providers comparison and our Helius vs QuickNode vs Triton head-to-head.

Helius states SOC 2 Type II, audited by Sensiba LLP, and shares the report on request through its Trust Center. Enterprise plans add latency and uptime SLAs, and dedicated nodes start at $2,900 a month.

Best for

• Solana dApps, wallets and trading systems.
• Teams that need fast transaction landing and streaming data.
• Builders who want Solana-specific APIs such as DAS.

Watch for

• No EVM support, so multi-chain teams need a second provider.
• Streaming bandwidth, which bills separately from credits.
• Heavier methods at 10 credits each.

7. Ankr

Key fact	Ankr
Pricing	Pay as you go from $10 per 100M credits; EVM $0.02 per 1,000 requests; Deal $500 to $3,000 a month
Free tier	200M credits a month, 30 requests per second
Chains	50+ free, 75+ paid
Uptime SLA	Custom SLA on Enterprise
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II for its operator; ISO 27001 in progress
Our score	6.3 out of 10

Ankr sells prepaid API credits. An EVM request costs 200 credits, so $10 buys about 500,000 requests, and paid access runs at up to 1,500 requests per second. Solana requests cost $0.05 per 1,000 and Advanced API calls $0.07, per the Ankr pricing page. A Deal subscription adds 20% more credits.

The free tier is generous at 200M credits, about 1M EVM requests a month. Ankr’s trust page says its RPC operator, Asphere, holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation audited by A-LIGN, with ISO 27001 still in progress. Ankr works best as a prepaid backup endpoint.

Paid plans add WebSocket, gRPC and allowlists for IPs, domains and contracts. Its public Ethereum endpoint now requires an API key, which is why it does not appear in the OpenChainBench Ethereum cohort.

Best for

• Backup or failover endpoints with low fixed cost.
• Teams that want to prepay and top up as they go.
• Prototypes that need a large free monthly allowance.

Watch for

• Higher cost per request than flat-plan rivals at steady volume.
• Fewer chains on Freemium than on paid plans.
• Contractual SLAs, which need an enterprise deal.

8. Infura

Key fact	Infura
Pricing	Developer $50 for 15M credits a day, Team $225 for 75M a day; extra credits $200 a month; Enterprise on request
Free tier	Core: 3M credits a day, 500 credits per second, archive included
Chains	25 chains in its endpoint docs
Uptime SLA	99.9% minimum uptime on its Ethereum page; committed SLAs on Enterprise
Compliance	No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 claim found on Infura pages
Our score	6.1 out of 10

Infura is the long-running Ethereum provider from Consensys, the company behind MetaMask. Plans meter credits per day with a per-second ceiling: 500 credits per second on Core, 4,000 on Developer and 40,000 on Team, per the Infura pricing documentation. For an Ethereum-only shortlist that includes archive node access, see our Ethereum RPC providers comparison.

The pricing page says 40+ networks, which counts mainnets and testnets. Its endpoint list names 25 chains, including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Linea and Solana, which is open to select customers only. Daily quotas punish traffic spikes more than monthly pools do.

Core includes archive data, and Debug and Trace start on Developer. Its Ethereum product page advertises a 99.9% minimum uptime, but we found no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 claim on Infura’s own pages, which cost it points on compliance. If those gaps rule Infura out, our Infura alternatives guide ranks replacements for Ethereum and L2 apps.

Best for

• Ethereum-focused apps with steady daily traffic.
• Teams already using MetaMask tooling.
• Prototypes that need free archive access.

Watch for

• Bursty workloads that can exhaust a daily quota before it resets.
• Log and fee estimation calls, which carry heavy credit weights.
• A narrower chain list than the top five.

9. Tatum

Key fact	Tatum
Pricing	Starter from $49 for 4M credits; Pro and Scale up to 80M credits; dedicated keys $99 to $1,049 a month
Free tier	100K lifetime credits, 3 requests per second
Chains	130+
Uptime SLA	Support response SLA; 99.99% uptime claim
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022
Our score	6.1 out of 10

Tatum charges 2 credits for a standard RPC method, 5 for eth_call and 50 for Debug and Trace methods, per its RPC docs. Paid plans allow 200 requests per second, and its plans page lists Starter at 4M or 7M credits, Pro at up to 20M and Scale at up to 80M.

Dedicated API keys sell guaranteed throughput separately: $99 a month for 10 requests per second, up to $1,049 for 100, and they do not consume plan credits, per the Tatum pricing page. Tatum ties QuickNode and Chainstack for the best compliance score in this guide.

Its security docs state SOC 2 compliance and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification. The weak spot is price: Starter buys about 800,000 eth_call requests, the fewest per dollar in our math, and the free tier’s 100K credits never renew.

Best for

• Teams that need RPC plus wallet, notification and data APIs from one vendor.
• Buyers who need ISO 27001 and SOC 2 evidence.
• Workloads that need a fixed throughput guarantee via dedicated keys.

Watch for

• High cost per eth_call compared with flat meters.
• A free tier of lifetime credits, which suits a trial only.
• Plan prices that sit behind an interactive slider.

10. NOWNodes

Key fact	NOWNodes
Pricing	Pro €20 for 1M requests, Pro Plus €90 for 10M, Business €200 for 30M, Business Plus €300 for 50M, Enterprise €500 for 100M
Free tier	Start: 100K requests, 15 requests per second, 5 networks, one month only
Chains	120 networks
Uptime SLA	99.95% API uptime on every plan
Compliance	No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 claim found on NOWNodes pages
Our score	5.8 out of 10

NOWNodes counts plain requests and prices in euros. Overage falls from €5 per 100K requests on Pro Plus to €0.50 on Enterprise, per the NOWNodes pricing page. Pro Plus works out to €9 per 1M requests.

Its service quality standard lists 99.95% API uptime, a 3-minute support response on any plan and a backup node within 10 minutes. Few vendors publish support targets this specific for every plan.

The public data is mixed. Its free Ethereum gateway measured 129 ms at the median on OpenChainBench with a 95.27% success rate, the lowest success rate in that cohort, and we found no audit claims on its own pages.

Best for

• Teams that want simple request counting across many networks.
• Projects that value fast human support on small plans.
• Wallets that need Bitcoin-family chains alongside EVM chains.

Watch for

• A free plan that expires after one month and covers 5 networks.
• Euro pricing, which adds currency risk for dollar budgets.
• No published audit reports.

11. CDP Node

Key fact	CDP Node
Pricing	Pay as you go: $0.50 per 1M billing units (BU)
Free tier	10M BU a month; payment method required since January 2026
Chains	Base mainnet and Base Sepolia only
Uptime SLA	None published
Compliance	Not stated on the CDP Node docs
Our score	4.4 out of 10

CDP Node is the Coinbase Developer Platform endpoint for Base. Standard methods cost 30 BU, enhanced methods such as eth_getLogs cost 100, and Debug, Trace and eth_sendRawTransaction cost 500, per the CDP Node pricing docs.

The free 10M BU covers about 333,000 standard calls a month, and the project limit is 7,500 BU every 5 seconds, roughly 50 requests per second. Sending a transaction costs nearly 17 times as much as reading a balance. The Node overview bundles Paymaster gas sponsorship and wallet history methods on the same endpoint.

It ranks low on this list because it serves one network, publishes no uptime terms and states no audits on its Node pages. For a Base-only app, those trade-offs can still make sense. For Base specifically, our Base RPC providers comparison ranks the options side by side.

Best for

• Apps built only on Base that want gas sponsorship on the same endpoint.
• Prototypes that fit inside 10M BU a month.
• Teams already using other Coinbase Developer Platform tools.

Watch for

• Write-heavy apps, since transaction sends cost 500 BU each.
• No published SLA.
• Rate limit increases that need a request in Discord.

12. Lava

Key fact	Lava
Pricing	Developer $29 for 50M CU, Starter $199 for 575M, Pro $499 for 2B, Business $999 for 5B, Enterprise $2,499 for 17B
Free tier	Hobby: 750K CU a month, 25 requests per second
Chains	28+
Uptime SLA	SLA on the Enterprise plan
Compliance	No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 claim found on Lava’s pricing page
Our score	4.3 out of 10

Lava routes each request across a decentralized network of providers with automatic failover, and every plan reaches all of its 28+ chains through one endpoint. Developer allows 100 requests per second, and Enterprise allows 15,000, per the Lava pricing page.

The pricing page says nothing breaks when you exceed your plan, which suits teams that fear hard cutoffs. Lava does not publish per-method compute unit costs, so we could not price a call. That opacity drives its low price score.

Uptime terms appear only on the $2,499 Enterprise plan, and we found no audit claims on its pricing page. Chain coverage is the narrowest of the multi-chain providers here.

Best for

• Teams that want failover across many node operators without building it.
• Projects on the chains Lava supports that dislike hard rate cutoffs.

Watch for

• Cost forecasting, since method weights are not published.
• A narrower chain list than most rivals.
• SLAs only at the top tier.

Providers We Left Out

We considered three more providers and left them out for stated reasons. Blockdaemon sells RPC through sales, and its old pricing page now redirects to a data services page. Allnodes focuses on dedicated nodes priced per chain, mostly for staking. Grove, the Pocket Network gateway, wound down its Portal in November 2025 and closed in July 2026.

We also looked at providers without a public price list. We will add any provider that publishes pricing we can verify and screenshot, and we will retest the list each quarter.

Shared RPC, Dedicated Nodes or Self-Hosting

Shared RPC fits most teams because the provider absorbs sync, upgrades and failover. Dedicated nodes make sense when shared rate limits cap growth, when you need custom client flags, or when latency targets demand a node near your servers. Self-hosting pays off only when you have node operators on staff.

Option	Choose it when	Main cost
Shared RPC	Traffic fits plan limits and you span several chains	Usage-based plan fees
Dedicated node	You need fixed throughput, custom methods or isolation	Hourly or monthly node fee
Self-hosted node	Data control or compliance rules require your own hardware	Servers, storage and engineer time

Dedicated node prices vary widely by chain and client, from $0.50 an hour on Chainstack to $1,000 a month on GetBlock and $2,900 a month on Helius. Our Dedicated Nodes section covers that market, and our Blockchain Data hub covers indexers that replace heavy log reads.

How to Test an RPC Provider Before You Commit

A one-week trial on real traffic tells you more than any spec sheet. Run each shortlisted provider side by side from the same region as your servers, and log latency, errors and block freshness. Keep a second provider wired in from day one so failover is a config change.

1. Create a free or trial key on two or three providers.
2. Send the same requests to each endpoint from your production region.
3. Record median and slow-tail latency, error rates and the newest block number each endpoint returns.
4. Price one day of your real method mix on each provider.
5. Check status page history and incident reports for the last 90 days.

This command times a single block number request. Run it in a loop against each endpoint and compare the results.

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{time_total}\n" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[]}' \
  "$RPC_URL"

Most client libraries accept a list of endpoints and retry on the next one when the first fails. Pair a primary from the top five with a cheap backup such as Ankr or dRPC.

Frequently Asked Questions