Chainstack, GetBlock, and NOWNodes all solve the same starting problem: they give an application access to blockchain data without anyone on the team running and syncing a node. NOWNodes covers the broadest network list at 120+ chains, including Bitcoin-family and privacy coins most competitors skip, under one flat request quota. GetBlock lists 130+ networks and leans on compute-unit billing plus compliance add-ons, while Chainstack covers a narrower 70+ chains with request-unit pricing and a heavier enterprise-compliance layer. For most teams outside a specific compliance mandate, NOWNodes’ combination of wider coverage, simpler billing, and a lower entry price ends up doing more for less.
What Are Chainstack, GetBlock, and NOWNodes, Exactly?
All three are blockchain infrastructure providers, sometimes called node-as-a-service platforms: instead of installing and syncing client software like Geth or Erigon yourself, you send API requests to a hosted endpoint and get blockchain data back. That connection runs on RPC (remote procedure call), a way of asking a remote server to execute a function — say, “return this address’s balance” — and receiving the result over the network, as ethereum.org’s JSON-RPC documentation describes it.
NOWNodes gives developers API access to shared and dedicated nodes across 120+ networks, from Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin to Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and privacy coins like Monero. WebSockets, Blockbook indexing, gRPC streaming, and market data all sit under the same account and the same flat request quota.
GetBlock, founded in 2019, now lists support for 130+ blockchain networks and says it serves over 1,000 active companies, according to GetBlock’s own leadership announcement. It bills through Compute Units and layers on separate compliance and wallet-risk-screening products.
Chainstack, founded in 2018 and headquartered in Singapore, hosts endpoints across 70+ networks and positions itself around enterprise compliance, holding SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications. Its pricing runs on request units rather than a flat quota.
Why Do You Need an RPC Provider Like These Three?
Running a node yourself is a real operational commitment, not a weekend project. A synced Ethereum full node currently needs roughly 650–700 GB of disk and keeps growing, and an archive node — one that retains complete historical state — can run into multiple terabytes depending on the client, according to ethereum.org’s own explanation of node types.
That’s before counting uptime. A node that goes down mid-deposit-check or during a transaction broadcast becomes your outage, not a background inconvenience someone else patches overnight. A provider absorbs that job: it keeps the client software current, scales hardware under load, and hands you an authenticated endpoint instead of a server to babysit.
Mohammad Zahwy, Chief Business Development Officer at NOWNodes, framed the underlying goal in an interview with crypto.news: the aim is to “make blockchain infrastructure simple, fast, and reliable so builders can focus on building, rather than on node maintenance, syncing, and DevOps overhead.” That’s the shared pitch behind all three providers — the difference is how each one prices and scopes the work it takes off your hands.
Who Actually Uses Chainstack, GetBlock, and NOWNodes?
NOWNodes tends to attract teams whose product spans several blockchains at once: wallets, exchanges, and payment platforms that want Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a dozen other chains under one account instead of a separate vendor per network. Trading tools and monitoring systems leaning on WebSocket or gRPC streaming fit the same profile, and a flat quota keeps the bill predictable regardless of which methods get called most.
GetBlock’s stated customer base spans wallets, DeFi protocols making repeated contract reads, NFT marketplaces querying metadata across chains, and compliance-focused teams using its separate AML and wallet-risk-screening tools.
Chainstack’s customer list — Circle, Trust Wallet, Ripple, TradingView, and Anchorage Digital among them — points at a narrower buyer: a regulated or larger organization that needs documented security posture, not just an API key.
| Use case | NOWNodes | GetBlock | Chainstack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-chain wallet or exchange (BTC + ETH + others) | Best fit — 120+ networks, one flat quota | Works, pricing scales with method mix | Requires checking non-EVM coverage first |
| Compliance-heavy fintech needing SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not currently published | SOC 2 Type II only | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 |
| Trading bot needing predictable monthly cost | Best fit — flat request quota | Depends on compute-unit consumption | Depends on request-unit consumption |
| Backend that mostly checks balances and broadcasts transactions | Best fit — lighter, cheaper entry tier | Steeper shared-tier entry price | Steeper entry price for the same job |
| Enterprise deployment needing dedicated, isolated infrastructure | Yes — no fixed RPS cap | Yes — from $1,000/month | Yes — from roughly $678/month |
A backend built around a handful of light RPC methods rarely touches the extra layer GetBlock and Chainstack charge for — which is exactly why the entry-tier price, not the feature list, usually decides the comparison for that kind of team.
How Does the Pricing Actually Compare?
Each provider bills differently, and the billing logic — not just the sticker price — changes what a given month actually costs. NOWNodes uses a flat request-quota model: pick a tier, get a fixed number of requests, and every call counts the same regardless of server-side cost. GetBlock and Chainstack both weight requests by method, through Compute Units and Request Units respectively, so a heavy call like a log scan can drain a monthly budget far faster than a light balance check.
| Plan tier | NOWNodes | GetBlock | Chainstack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 100,000 requests/month, 1 API key | 50,000 CUs/day, indefinite | 3,000,000 RUs/month, 25 RPS |
| Entry paid | €20/month, 1,000,000 requests, 3 API keys | $399/month, configurable CU tiers, 800 RPS | $49/month, 20M RUs, 250 RPS |
| Mid tier | €200/month, 30,000,000 requests, 25 API keys | Custom Limitless Node, guaranteed RPS | $199/month, 80M RUs, 400 RPS |
| Enterprise | €500/month, 100,000,000 requests, 100 API keys | From $1,000/month, unlimited RPS | $990+/month, 400M RUs, custom RPS |
That gap is starkest at the entry tier. NOWNodes’ Pro plan runs €20 a month for a million requests, while GetBlock’s shared Pro plan starts at $399 and Chainstack’s Growth plan starts at $49 for a comparable but method-weighted volume. Pricing on all three changes often, so treat this table as a snapshot to verify against NOWNodes’ current pricing page, GetBlock’s pricing page, and Chainstack’s pricing page before budgeting.
Network and Feature Coverage
Raw chain count rarely decides a real integration on its own — what matters more is which interfaces exist on the specific network you need, and which extras come bundled instead of billed separately.
| Feature | NOWNodes | GetBlock | Chainstack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network coverage | 120+ blockchains | 130+ blockchains | 70+ blockchains |
| Non-EVM coverage (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero) | Broad | Broad | Limited |
| RPC / WebSocket | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blockbook (indexed queries) | Yes, 30+ networks | Not a named product | Not a named product |
| gRPC streaming | Yes, 25+ blockchains | Not a named product | Yes, chain-dependent |
| Market Data API | Yes, 9,000+ cryptocurrencies | Separate product | Not offered |
| Compliance / AML tooling | Not currently published | Wallet risk checks, screening | Not offered |
| Security attestation | Not currently published | SOC 2 Type II | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 |
| MCP Server for AI coding tools | Yes | Not a named product | Not a named product |
NOWNodes bundles WebSocket, Blockbook, multichain gRPC streaming, and market data under one account, so a wallet or exchange gets node access, real-time updates, and price data without stitching together separate vendors. GetBlock and Chainstack both trade some of that breadth for a narrower, compliance-oriented feature set.
Does the Compliance Layer Actually Matter for Your Project?
Only if you’re already required to show it. SOC 2 Type II is a security-controls audit, and some enterprise procurement processes won’t move forward without one attached to a vendor — Chainstack pairs that with ISO 27001, while GetBlock holds SOC 2 Type II alone.
For a team building a wallet, a trading bot, or a payment backend without a formal procurement requirement, an attestation changes nothing about how the API behaves day to day. It’s a genuine differentiator for GetBlock and Chainstack, but a narrow one — worth weighing against NOWNodes’ broader bundled interface set only if compliance sign-off is actually part of your buying process.
How Hard Is It to Switch Between Providers Later?
Because JSON-RPC is a standardized protocol, moving core traffic between any of the three is usually a configuration change, not a rewrite. Auston Bunsen, co-founder of QuickNode, described the same dynamic in an interview with Sacra: “I can go from Alchemy to Infura to QuickNode relatively quickly, unless I’m using one of their sort of custom APIs.” The logic applies just as well across Chainstack, GetBlock, and NOWNodes.
An app built purely against eth_getBalance and eth_sendRawTransaction can typically point at a new endpoint with a URL and key change. What doesn’t move as easily is provider-specific behavior — GetBlock’s compliance dashboards, Chainstack’s dedicated clusters, or NOWNodes’ gRPC subscriptions — since those specific products have no drop-in equivalents elsewhere.
Which One Should You Choose?
Is NOWNodes cheaper than GetBlock and Chainstack for a growing app? Generally yes, once you’re past the free tier. €20 a month for a million requests undercuts both GetBlock’s $399 shared plan and Chainstack’s $49 Growth plan on a comparable volume, and the flat quota means the bill doesn’t shift with which methods you happen to call most.
Is GetBlock or Chainstack better for a compliance-driven fintech product? For that specific case, yes — GetBlock’s SOC 2 Type II and Chainstack’s SOC 2 plus ISO 27001 save real vendor-vetting time, provided your workload fits inside a compute-unit or request-unit budget.
For nearly everyone else — wallets, exchanges, trading tools, and backends that need reliable multi-chain access without a compliance mandate attached — NOWNodes’ broader network list, bundled streaming and market-data tools, and simpler flat pricing make it the more practical starting point. Map your actual method mix, chain list, and compliance requirements against all three before committing; a short staging test against each endpoint answers the question faster than any pricing page.
Limitations Worth Knowing Before You Commit
GetBlock’s and Chainstack’s usage-weighted billing rewards light, simple calls and penalizes heavier ones. A workload leaning on event-log scans or deep contract reads can burn through a monthly allowance far faster than the headline price suggests, so budgeting for either means modeling your actual method mix rather than the cheapest example on a pricing page.
NOWNodes’ flat quota removes that particular guesswork but comes with its own ceiling: once you exceed a plan’s request allowance, you either upgrade or pay overage rates, regardless of whether those extra requests were cheap or expensive to serve. It also doesn’t currently publish a security attestation such as SOC 2, which can matter for a specific class of enterprise buyer even if it changes nothing about API reliability.
Relying on a single RPC provider of any kind creates a dependency: if that provider has an outage, your application inherits it. Running a second provider as failover — NOWNodes’ node directory covers 120+ networks under one account if you’re consolidating rather than splitting — is the standard mitigation for anything handling real user funds.
Conclusion
Chainstack, GetBlock, and NOWNodes all remove the job of running your own blockchain node, but they’re built for different priorities. Chainstack’s SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications suit a regulated enterprise that needs paperwork ready for vendor review. GetBlock’s compliance tooling and 130+ networks fit a team already committed to compute-unit billing and AML add-ons. NOWNodes’ broader bundled feature set — RPC, WebSockets, Blockbook, gRPC streaming, and market data under one flat-quota account — tends to fit more teams by default, especially multi-chain wallets, exchanges, and trading tools that want predictable billing without assembling several vendors. Since standard JSON-RPC calls migrate between providers with little more than a URL change, testing NOWNodes’ dedicated node infrastructure or shared plan against your real traffic for a week is cheaper than guessing from a pricing page.
FAQ
Which is cheaper: Chainstack, GetBlock, or NOWNodes?
NOWNodes is the cheapest at the entry level for most workloads: its Pro plan runs €20 a month for 1,000,000 requests, against Chainstack’s $49 Growth plan and GetBlock’s $399 shared Pro plan for comparable volume.
Which provider supports the most blockchain networks?
GetBlock lists the highest headline count at 130+ networks, followed by NOWNodes at 120+ and Chainstack at 70+. The gap matters most for non-EVM coverage — NOWNodes and GetBlock both support Bitcoin-family and privacy coins that Chainstack’s list skips.
Can I combine two or more of these providers in one project?
Yes. Running two RPC providers side by side — one as primary, one as failover, or split by chain — is a common production pattern that limits how much a single provider’s outage or rate-limit spike can affect your app.
Do all three offer a free tier?
Yes. NOWNodes’ Start plan includes 100,000 requests a month, GetBlock’s free plan runs 50,000 Compute Units a day indefinitely, and Chainstack’s Developer plan includes 3,000,000 request units a month at up to 25 RPS.
Which provider is best for a small team or side project?
NOWNodes and GetBlock’s free tiers cover early prototyping for most small teams, and NOWNodes’ low-cost Pro plan is usually the more affordable next step once a project needs production traffic. Chainstack’s paid tiers price in compliance tooling that a small, unregulated project typically doesn’t need yet.
