How to Choose RPC Provider in 2025: Alchemy vs Infura vs QuickNode

Why Choosing RPC Provider Matters More in 2025

Your RPC provider is the bridge between your Web3 app and the blockchain. Pick the wrong one, and you'll face:

• Unpredictable bills that jump 5-10x when traffic grows
• Rate limits during peak hours that make your app unusable
• Slow response times that hurt user experience

The challenge? Every provider uses different pricing models. What costs $50/month on one provider might cost $500/month on another for the exact same traffic.

This guide breaks down the main providers, explains their pricing models, and helps you choose based on your project type.

The Big Three: Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode

These three handle most of the Web3 infrastructure market. Each has different strengths.

Alchemy: Best Developer Tools

What makes it different: Beyond RPC, you get debugging tools, enhanced APIs, webhooks, and detailed analytics.

Pricing (2025): Compute units model

• Free: 30M compute units/month
• Paid: $20 per million compute units
• Simple request = 10 units, complex request = 75+ units

Rate limits: Variable based on compute units per second, scales elastically

Chains supported: 8 major chains (Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Solana, etc.)

Pros:

• Best debugging and monitoring tools
• Enhanced APIs save development time
• Reliable infrastructure, 99.9% uptime
• Good documentation and support

Cons:

• Compute units make costs hard to predict
• Can get expensive for analytics-heavy apps
• Rate limits less transparent than competitors

Best for: Teams that value developer experience and need advanced tooling for debugging complex transactions.

Infura: Enterprise Standard

What makes it different: The oldest, most established provider. Many enterprises use it by default.

Pricing (2025): Credit-based with daily limits

• Free: 6M credits/day
• Developer: $50/mo
• Team: $225/mo
• Growth: $1,000/mo
• Enterprise: Custom

Rate limits: Varies by tier, includes daily request caps

Chains supported: 9 networks including major L1s and L2s

Pros:

• Proven reliability over many years
• Enterprise-grade support
• Simple, predictable pricing tiers
• Strong compliance and security

Cons:

• Daily caps can throttle your app mid-day
• Lower rate limits compared to competitors
• More expensive for equivalent throughput
• Fewer developer tools than Alchemy

Best for: Established companies that need proven reliability and enterprise SLAs.

QuickNode: Performance Focused

What makes it different: Fastest global infrastructure, supports 70+ blockchains.

Pricing (2025): API credits model

• Discover (Free): 10M credits, 15 requests/sec
• Build: $49/mo — 80M credits, 50 req/sec
• Accelerate: $249/mo — 450M credits, 125 req/sec
• Scale: $499/mo — 950M credits, 250 req/sec
• Business: $999/mo — 2B credits, 500 req/sec

Overage: $0.50-0.62 per million credits

Rate limits: Clearly defined per tier, guaranteed throughput

Chains supported: 70+ blockchains including all major networks

Pros:

• Fastest response times globally (95-120ms Ethereum)
• Clear rate limits, no surprises
• Broadest multi-chain support
• Good balance of features and performance

Cons:

• API credits can still get expensive at scale
• Fewer advanced developer tools than Alchemy
• Support quality varies by tier

Best for: Projects that need guaranteed performance and multi-chain support.

Specialized Providers Worth Considering

Chainnodes: Transparent Pricing

Unlike the big three, Chainnodes charges per request with no compute unit complexity.

Pricing:

• Free: 80M requests/month, 80 req/sec
• Team: $250/mo — 125M requests, 100 req/sec
• Growth: $1,000/mo — 500M requests, 500 req/sec

Best for: Teams that want predictable costs without compute unit math. Every request costs the same, whether simple or complex.

Helius: Solana Specialist

Built exclusively for Solana with optimized infrastructure.

Pricing:

• Free: 1M credits, 10 req/sec
• Developer: $49/mo
• Business: $499/mo
• Professional: $999/mo

Best for: Solana-only projects that need the fastest possible response times (45-70ms vs 90-120ms on general providers).

Understanding Pricing Models: What You're Actually Paying For

Here's the confusing part: providers charge differently for the same thing.

Compute Units vs API Credits vs Requests

Alchemy's Compute Units:

• eth_blockNumber: 10 units
• eth_call: 26 units
• eth_getLogs: 75 units

Result: 1 million "compute units" = anywhere from 13,000 to 100,000 actual requests

QuickNode's API Credits:

• eth_accounts: 1 credit
• eth_call: 2 credits
• eth_getLogs: 6 credits

Result: 1 million "API credits" = 166,000 to 1 million actual requests

Chainnodes' Simple Requests:

• Every request: 1 request

Result: 1 million requests = 1 million requests (finally!)

Why This Matters

If your app does mostly analytics (eth_getLogs heavy), Alchemy and QuickNode get expensive fast. Chainnodes stays the same price regardless.

If your app does mostly simple reads, Alchemy's compute units work in your favor.

You need to know your request mix to calculate real costs.

Rate Limits: The Performance Bottleneck Nobody Talks About

Monthly allowance doesn't matter if you can't handle peak traffic.

Example scenario: 500 concurrent users, each loading a dashboard with 10 requests

You need: 83 requests per second to serve everyone within 1 minute

What you get on different plans:

• Infura Free: ~1 req/sec → unusable for production
• Infura Team ($225): ~35 req/sec → users see delays
• QuickNode Build ($49): 50 req/sec → barely adequate
• QuickNode Accelerate ($249): 125 req/sec → smooth performance
• Alchemy: Variable (compute units per second, not clear rate)

Key insight: Sometimes cheaper plans with higher rate limits beat expensive plans with low rates.

Performance: Why Milliseconds Matter

Research shows every 100ms delay = 1% drop in conversions.

2025 benchmarks (Ethereum mainnet, P95 latency):

• QuickNode: 95-120ms
• Alchemy: 110-145ms
• Infura: 125-160ms

Over 20 requests per page load, that's 400-600ms difference between fastest and slowest.

For Solana:

• Helius: 50-70ms
• QuickNode: 45-65ms
• Alchemy: 90-120ms

Specialized providers (Helius) or performance-focused ones (QuickNode) deliver 2-3x faster response times on Solana.

How to Choose: Decision Framework

Step 1: Define Your Requirements

Expected traffic:

• Current monthly active users
• Growth projection for next 6 months
• Peak concurrent users

Technical needs:

• Which blockchains?
• Archive data required?
• WebSocket subscriptions needed?
• Request mix (simple reads vs analytics)

Budget constraints:

• Maximum monthly spend
• Need predictable costs vs flexible scaling

Step 2: Match to Provider Strengths

Choose Alchemy if:

• You're building complex DeFi protocols
• Debugging tools worth paying premium for
• Mostly simple reads (compute units work in your favor)
• Want enhanced APIs to speed up development

Choose Infura if:

• You're an enterprise needing compliance
• Steady, predictable traffic (no big spikes)
• Want established, proven reliability
• Already using ConsenSys ecosystem

Choose QuickNode if:

• Performance is critical (low latency matters)
• Need multi-chain support (10+ blockchains)
• Want clear, guaranteed rate limits
• Building on Solana or other non-EVM chains

Choose Chainnodes if:

• Cost predictability is priority #1
• Heavy analytics/archive data usage
• Want simple per-request pricing
• Focused on Ethereum and major L2s

Choose Helius if:

• Building Solana-only application
• Need Solana-specific features
• Performance on Solana is critical

Step 3: Test Before Committing

Most providers have free tiers. Before choosing:

• Run load tests at expected peak traffic
• Measure actual response times from your users' regions
• Track usage for 1-2 weeks to understand your request mix
• Calculate costs based on real data, not estimates

Common Scenarios: Which Provider Fits

NFT Marketplace (Medium Traffic)

Needs: Fast image loading, real-time ownership checks, moderate request volume

Recommended: QuickNode Build ($49/mo)

Why: Good rate limits (50 req/sec), multi-chain support for cross-chain NFTs, reasonable cost

DeFi Dashboard (Analytics Heavy)

Needs: Historical data, chart data, lots of eth_getLogs calls

Recommended: Chainnodes Team ($250/mo)

Why: No premium for complex queries, predictable costs, high rate limits (100 req/sec)

Trading Bot (High Frequency)

Needs: Lowest possible latency, consistent performance, WebSocket feeds

Recommended: QuickNode Accelerate ($249/mo) or dedicated nodes

Why: 95-120ms response times, guaranteed 125 req/sec, reliable WebSocket connections

Multi-Chain Aggregator

Needs: Support for 10+ blockchains, consistent API across chains

Recommended: QuickNode Scale ($499/mo)

Why: 70+ chains supported, unified API, 250 req/sec handles traffic across all chains

Early Stage Startup

Needs: Free/cheap to start, easy to upgrade, good developer experience

Recommended: Alchemy free tier

Why: 30M compute units covers early development, best debugging tools, seamless upgrade path

The Multi-Provider Strategy

Some teams use multiple providers for redundancy:

Primary: Alchemy (best tools)
Backup: QuickNode (reliability)
Auto-failover: Switch if primary is slow or down

Cost: Pay for both base plans (~$300-500/mo)
Benefit: Zero downtime, always fastest available provider

When it makes sense:

• Revenue-critical applications (DEXes, lending protocols)
• Apps where 1 hour downtime costs more than $500
• Enterprise products with uptime SLAs

When to skip it:

• Early stage (under 1,000 users)
• Non-critical applications
• Limited engineering resources

Optimizing RPC Usage: The Best ROI

Before upgrading to expensive tiers, optimize your code. As covered in our Web3 architecture guide, modern tools reduce RPC usage by 70-90%:

Key optimizations:

• Multicall batching (10 requests → 1 multicall)
• Intelligent caching (eliminate repeated requests)
• Request deduplication (shared state across components)

ROI example:

• Optimization cost: $8,000-15,000 (4-5 weeks)
• RPC savings: $400-800/month
• Payback: 10-18 months
• Bonus: 3-4x faster app, better retention

Result: Handle 10x traffic on same provider tier

Connecting Web3 to Business: Payment Infrastructure

Once you have reliable RPC infrastructure, consider accepting crypto payments. As we covered in our guide to crypto payments for SaaS, stablecoin payments can reduce transaction fees from 2.9% to 0.5% while enabling global customers.

Your RPC provider choice matters here too — payment processing requires reliable, fast blockchain connections for transaction verification and status updates.

Migration Guide: Switching Providers

Already on a provider but want to switch?

Safe migration process:

Week 1: Setup

• Add new provider alongside current one
• Route 10% of traffic to new provider
• Monitor performance and costs

Week 2: Gradual increase

• Increase to 50% if no issues
• Watch for problems under load
• Validate cost projections

Week 3: Full migration

• Move to 100% new provider
• Keep old provider active as fallback
• Monitor closely for issues

Week 4: Cleanup

• If stable, cancel old provider
• Document lessons learned

Total cost: One month of dual providers (~$100-500)

Red Flags: When to Switch Providers

You should consider switching if:

• Bills are consistently 2x+ what you budgeted
• Users complain about slow loading during peak hours
• Rate limit errors appear in your logs regularly
• Response times exceed 200ms consistently
• Support takes 24+ hours to respond to critical issues

Don't switch if:

• You just had one expensive month (might be fixable)
• You haven't tried optimizing your code first
• You're still under 1,000 users (too early to optimize)

2025 Trends: What's Changing

More transparent pricing: Alchemy moved to simpler pay-as-you-go in Feb 2025. Others may follow.

Specialized providers growing: Chain-specific providers (like Helius for Solana) deliver better performance than general providers.

AI features coming: Some providers adding AI-powered debugging and optimization suggestions.

Decentralized options emerging: Networks like Pocket Network offer decentralized RPC, but reliability still lags centralized providers.

Bottom Line: What to Do Now

If starting new project: Use Alchemy or Chainnodes free tier. Focus on building product, not infrastructure.

If growing (1K-10K users): Calculate your real usage over 2 weeks, then choose based on your request mix and budget.

If scaling (10K+ users): Optimize code first (70% RPC reduction possible), then choose provider based on guaranteed rate limits.

If paying too much: Either wrong provider for your usage pattern, or your code is inefficient. Usually both.

Get Expert Help

At 5hz, we've built Web3 infrastructure for 20+ projects across DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. We know which providers work best for different scenarios.

Free 30-minute consultation includes:

• Analysis of your RPC usage patterns
• Cost comparison across providers
• Optimization recommendations
• Migration plan if switching makes sense

Schedule Free RPC Consultation →