Software · head to head
Lido vs Alchemy
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Lido lido takes a 10% fee on staking rewards, split between node operators and the DAO Treasury; Alchemy the free tier is capped at 30M compute units a month and 25 requests per second
- They diverge on capability: Lido covers Liquid Staking, Alchemy covers Node APIs.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Lido and Alchemy actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
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 Lido
- Liquid Staking
- stETH Token
- No Minimum
- DeFi Composable
- LDO Token
- Multi-chain
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.
Lido
- Liquid staking of ETH and other proof of stake tokensnot Alchemy
Alchemy
- Hosted blockchain node access across mainnets and testnetsnot Lido
- Backing a production web3 application without running nodesnot Lido
- Webhook-driven notifications for on-chain eventsnot Lido
- Scaling read throughput beyond self-hosted node limitsnot Lido
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Lido
- Lido takes a 10% fee on staking rewards, split between node operators and the DAO Treasury
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
Lido
Free- FreeFree
- Liquid staking
- stETH token
- DeFi integration
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 Lido if
- You need liquid staking.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want steth token.
Choose Alchemy if
- You need node apis.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Api, Web.
- You also want enhanced apis.
Questions people ask
- Is Lido or Alchemy better?
- Neither clearly leads. Lido 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, Lido or Alchemy?
- Lido starts at Free and Alchemy at Free.
- Does Lido or Alchemy run on more platforms?
- Lido runs on Web. Alchemy runs on Api, Web.
- Can I use Lido for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Lido best used for?
- Lido is most often used for liquid staking of eth and other proof of stake tokens. Of those, liquid staking of eth and other proof of stake tokens is not what Alchemy is typically brought in for.
- What can Lido do that Alchemy cannot?
- Lido covers Liquid Staking, stETH Token, No Minimum, DeFi Composable. Alchemy covers Node APIs, Enhanced APIs, NFT API, Webhooks. Both handle Web support.