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Cryptocurrency & Blockchain · head to head

CoinMarketCap vs Alchemy

CoinMarketCap logo

CoinMarketCap

Cryptocurrency & Blockchain

The world's most-referenced price-tracking website

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Alchemy logo

Alchemy

Cryptocurrency & Blockchain

The web3 development platform

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CoinMarketCap the free Basic plan gives historical data going back only 60 seconds, so it cannot answer any question about the past; Alchemy the free tier is capped at 30M compute units a month and 25 requests per second
  • They diverge on capability: CoinMarketCap covers Price Tracking, Alchemy covers Node APIs.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CoinMarketCap and Alchemy actually diverge.

Attributes where CoinMarketCap and Alchemy differ
AttributeCoinMarketCapAlchemy
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidApi, Web
Founded20132017

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (freemium), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cryptocurrency & Blockchain).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in CoinMarketCap

  • Price Tracking
  • Market Cap Rankings
  • Portfolio Tracker
  • Crypto News
  • API Access
  • Binance
  • Exchanges
  • Ios support

Only in Alchemy

  • Node APIs
  • Enhanced APIs
  • NFT API
  • Webhooks
  • Mempool
  • 35+ chains
  • SDKs
  • Api support

Both cover

  • Web support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

CoinMarketCap

  • Cryptocurrency price and market capitalisation data over an APInot Alchemy
  • Historical market data for analysis and backtestingnot Alchemy

Alchemy

  • Hosted blockchain node access across mainnets and testnetsnot CoinMarketCap
  • Backing a production web3 application without running nodesnot CoinMarketCap
  • Webhook-driven notifications for on-chain eventsnot CoinMarketCap
  • Scaling read throughput beyond self-hosted node limitsnot CoinMarketCap

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CoinMarketCap

  • The free Basic plan gives historical data going back only 60 seconds, so it cannot answer any question about the past
  • Three years of history requires the $29 Builder plan and all time history the $79 Startup plan
  • Free is capped at 15,000 credits a month and 50 requests a minute
  • Rate limits are tiered separately from credits, from 50 a minute on free to 1,200 on Professional
  • Enterprise pricing is custom despite listing 30,000,000 credits

Alchemy

  • The free tier is capped at 30M compute units a month and 25 requests per second
  • Free accounts are limited to 5 apps and 5 webhooks
  • Beyond the free allowance it is $0.45 per 1M compute units for the first 300M a month
  • Request cost varies by call complexity, from around 10 compute units to over 100, so spend is hard to predict from request counts alone
  • Signed SLAs and priority support require an Enterprise contract

Pricing, plan by plan

CoinMarketCap

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Price data
    • Charts
    • Portfolio
  • API Basic$79/month
    • 10K credits/month
    • Historical data

Alchemy

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 300M compute units
    • 5 apps
    • Core APIs
  • Growth$49/month
    • 400M compute units
    • 15 apps
    • Enhanced APIs
  • Scale$199/month
    • 1B compute units
    • Unlimited apps
    • Premium support

Which should you pick?

Choose CoinMarketCap if

  • You need price tracking.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want market cap rankings.
CoinMarketCap review

Choose Alchemy if

  • You need node apis.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Api, Web.
  • You also want enhanced apis.
Alchemy review

Questions people ask

Is CoinMarketCap or Alchemy better?
Neither clearly leads. CoinMarketCap starts at Free and Alchemy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CoinMarketCap or Alchemy?
CoinMarketCap starts at Free and Alchemy at Free.
Does CoinMarketCap or Alchemy run on more platforms?
CoinMarketCap runs on Web, Ios, Android. Alchemy runs on Api, Web.
Can I use CoinMarketCap for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is CoinMarketCap best used for?
CoinMarketCap is most often used for cryptocurrency price and market capitalisation data over an api, historical market data for analysis and backtesting. Of those, cryptocurrency price and market capitalisation data over an api and historical market data for analysis and backtesting are not what Alchemy is typically brought in for.
What can CoinMarketCap do that Alchemy cannot?
CoinMarketCap covers Price Tracking, Market Cap Rankings, Portfolio Tracker, Crypto News. Alchemy covers Node APIs, Enhanced APIs, NFT API, Webhooks. Both handle Web support.
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