QuickNode vs Alchemy: which should you pick in 2026?
Head-to-head on the facts that decide the purchase: real prices in the provider's own unit, minimum, KYC, proof, payment and terms - every number sourced in the linked reviews.
Short answer: QuickNode wins overall (7.7/10 vs 7.3/10). Facts checked 2026-09-24.
| QuickNode | Alchemy | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score (0-10) | 7.7 | 7.3 |
| Vertical | RPC / nodes | RPC / nodes |
| Type | RPC provider | RPC provider |
| Price from | $49 per month | $0 per month (Free tier, up to 30M compute units) |
| Minimum | unknown | unknown |
| KYC | not documented | not documented |
| Proof | partial | partial |
| Payment | fiat | fiat |
| Contract term | unknown | unknown |
| Maintenance / fee | unknown | unknown |
| Operator | QuickNode | Alchemy |
| Facts checked | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-24 |
// Score breakdown
QuickNode leads on reliability (+1).
why 7.7/10?
why 7.3/10?
// QuickNode at a glance
A well-established, transparent US RPC vendor with a real free tier and published prices, but method-weighted credits make cross-vendor cost comparison hard and the terms are buyer-hostile on refunds and liability.
++ What works
- Named US legal entity (Quiknode, Inc.) and published Terms
- Free trial plus five self-serve paid tiers and cheap overages
- 80+ chains, archive data and add-ons (Streams, Webhooks, IPFS, Solana gRPC)
- SOC 2 Type II / ISO 27001 claims, public status page and benchmarks
- Crypto top-up available from the Build tier up
-- What to watch
- API Credits are method-weighted, so headline credits are not comparable to competitors
- All fees non-refundable; liability capped at three months' fees or $20
- Yearly subscriptions auto-renew
- No uptime-credit SLA published; 'SLA' tiers are support response times
- KYC policy not documented
// Alchemy at a glance
Alchemy is a well-established, well-documented multi-chain RPC provider with a real free tier and published usage pricing, but it is card/invoice-only (no crypto), non-refundable, and the standard SLA is 99.9% while its recent status history shows a cluster of regional incidents.
++ What works
- Named Delaware entity (Alchemy Insights, Inc.) with a full public legal center
- Generous free tier: 30M compute units/month with no commitment
- Transparent usage price: $0.525 per 1M CU and published compute-unit methodology
- Broad coverage: 100+ chains plus data APIs, webhooks, subgraphs and account abstraction
- Public status page and a documented 99.9% monthly uptime Service Commitment
- Self-serve signup and dashboard with cost calculator
-- What to watch
- No crypto payment: billing is card/invoice only (Terms), contrary to common RPC-vendor claims
- All payments non-refundable and default invoicing is annual up-front
- Standard SLA is 99.9% while the site advertises 99.99%
- Throughput is capped self-serve at 30,000 CU/s; capacity blocks cost $160/month each
- Gas sponsorship adds an 8% admin fee and Solana gRPC storage starts at $75/TB
- Compute-unit weights make cross-vendor price comparison hard
// FAQ
Which is cheaper, QuickNode or Alchemy?
QuickNode publishes a price (from $49 per month); Alchemy does not publish a comparable figure - and unknown is not free. Compare only the same unit before concluding anything.
Which is more verifiable, QuickNode or Alchemy?
Tie - both publish partial or full proof (partial).
Which needs less KYC, QuickNode or Alchemy?
At least one provider does not document its KYC policy - treat it as unknown, not as "no KYC".
Which has the longer track record?
Only QuickNode publishes a founding year (2017); the other has no verifiable history on file.
Scores and facts: meta-reviews with dated sources - QuickNode · Alchemy. Method: how we verify. More: all providers compared.