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Crypto · head to head

CoinMarketCap vs Snowplow

CoinMarketCap logo

CoinMarketCap

Crypto

The world's most-referenced price-tracking website

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Snowplow logo

Snowplow

Business Intelligence

Behavioural data pipeline you run in your own cloud, relicensed away from Apache 2.0 in 2024

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only CoinMarketCap has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • 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; Snowplow the core pipeline was relicensed from Apache 2.0 on 8 January 2024 to the Snowplow Limited Use Licence Agreement and a Confluent-derived community licence, so organisations that adopted it as permissively licensed software must now review their entitlement, buy a licence, or migrate.
  • They diverge on capability: CoinMarketCap covers Price Tracking, Snowplow covers Own-cloud deployment.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CoinMarketCap and Snowplow actually diverge.

Attributes where CoinMarketCap and Snowplow differ
AttributeCoinMarketCapSnowplow
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidLinux, Web, Docker
CategoryCryptoBusiness Intelligence
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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
  • Web support

Only in Snowplow

  • Own-cloud deployment
  • Schema enforcement
  • Warehouse loading
  • Enrichment
  • Trackers
  • Streaming output
  • Data models
  • Snowplow BDP

What people use each for

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

CoinMarketCap

  • Real-time cryptocurrency market tracking and analysisnot Snowplow
  • Historical price data retrieval for researchnot Snowplow
  • Exchange tracking and aggregationnot Snowplow
  • Token information and metadata accessnot Snowplow
  • Portfolio monitoring integrationsnot Snowplow

Snowplow

  • A data team that needs full-fidelity event data in its own warehouse to build attribution or machine learning features rather than to populate dashboardsnot CoinMarketCap
  • A regulated business that cannot send behavioural data to a third-party analytics vendor and must keep collection inside its own cloud accountnot CoinMarketCap
  • A product organisation tired of silently malformed events, which wants a schema contract enforced at collection timenot CoinMarketCap
  • A company modelling customer behaviour across web, mobile and server events that needs them in one consistent structurenot 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

Snowplow

  • The core pipeline was relicensed from Apache 2.0 on 8 January 2024 to the Snowplow Limited Use Licence Agreement and a Confluent-derived community licence, so organisations that adopted it as permissively licensed software must now review their entitlement, buy a licence, or migrate.
  • You run the pipeline in your own cloud, which means the infrastructure bill, the on-call rota and the upgrade work are yours, and at high event volume that operational cost frequently exceeds what a hosted product would have charged.
  • Schema enforcement is the main benefit and the main friction, because every new event requires a schema to be authored and versioned, and teams without discipline around that end up blocked on their own governance process.
  • There is no analysis layer: Snowplow delivers data to your warehouse and nothing else, so you still need modelling, a BI tool and the people to run them before anyone sees a number.
  • The licence change fractured the community, spawning an Apache 2.0 fork, which means community contributions and third-party tooling are now split across two codebases with uncertain long-term maintenance.

Pricing, plan by plan

CoinMarketCap

Free
  • Keyless (Trial)Free
    • No signup required
    • Access to selected API endpoints
    • Market listings, quotes, global metrics
  • Basic (Free Authenticated)Free
    • 15,000 monthly call credits
    • 50 requests per minute
    • Historical data access

Snowplow

On request
  • Snowplow BDP$undefined/year
    • Commercial pricing quoted by event volume and deployment
    • Core pipeline components under the Snowplow Limited Use Licence Agreement, not Apache 2.0
    • Trackers, analytics SDKs and Iglu SDKs remain Apache 2.0

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 Snowplow if

  • You need own-cloud deployment.
  • You work on Linux, Web, Docker.
  • You also want schema enforcement.
Snowplow review

Questions people ask

Is CoinMarketCap or Snowplow better?
Neither clearly leads. CoinMarketCap starts at Free and Snowplow at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CoinMarketCap or Snowplow?
CoinMarketCap has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for CoinMarketCap and On request for Snowplow.
Does CoinMarketCap or Snowplow run on more platforms?
CoinMarketCap runs on Web, Ios, Android. Snowplow runs on Linux, Web, Docker.
Can I use CoinMarketCap for free?
Yes. CoinMarketCap has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Snowplow starts at On request.
What is CoinMarketCap best used for?
CoinMarketCap is most often used for real-time cryptocurrency market tracking and analysis, historical price data retrieval for research, exchange tracking and aggregation, token information and metadata access. Of those, real-time cryptocurrency market tracking and analysis and historical price data retrieval for research are not what Snowplow is typically brought in for.
What can CoinMarketCap do that Snowplow cannot?
CoinMarketCap covers Price Tracking, Market Cap Rankings, Portfolio Tracker, Crypto News. Snowplow covers Own-cloud deployment, Schema enforcement, Warehouse loading, Enrichment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CoinMarketCap: Does CoinMarketCap offer a free API?

Yes, CoinMarketCap offers a free Basic tier with 15,000 monthly API call credits, 50 requests per minute, historical data access, and commercial use rights after creating a free Developer Portal account.

Source
Snowplow: Is Snowplow still open source?

Not in the permissive sense. On 8 January 2024 the core pipeline moved from Apache 2.0 to the Snowplow Limited Use Licence Agreement, with version 1.1 following in December 2024, alongside a community licence based on the Confluent Community Licence. Trackers and analytics SDKs remain Apache 2.0.

CoinMarketCap: What are CoinMarketCap's rate limits?

The free Basic plan allows 50 requests per minute with 15,000 monthly call credits. Paid plans offer higher limits; specific rates require contacting sales.

Source
Snowplow: Can we still run it for free in production?

Free use of the relicensed core components is materially constrained and commercial use generally requires an agreement. Read the current licence text against your intended use rather than relying on older documentation.

CoinMarketCap: Can I use CoinMarketCap API for commercial purposes?

Yes, the free Basic plan explicitly allows commercial use after signup. Higher-tier commercial plans are also available.

Source
Snowplow: Is there an Apache 2.0 alternative?

Yes, a fork called OpenSnowcat was created in response to the relicensing and continues under Apache 2.0.

CoinMarketCap: How much historical cryptocurrency data does CoinMarketCap provide?

CoinMarketCap provides 16 years of historical data across 50 million+ tracked tokens and 941+ exchanges.

Source
Snowplow: What does Snowplow BDP cost?

Not published. It is quoted by event volume and deployment, and your own cloud infrastructure costs are separate and additional.

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