{"id":3389,"date":"2026-09-18T11:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nownodes.io\/blog\/?p=3389"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:27:14","slug":"ankr-vs-nownodes-which-blockchain-rpc-provider-should-you-choose-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nownodes.io\/blog\/ankr-vs-nownodes-which-blockchain-rpc-provider-should-you-choose-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Ankr vs. NOWNodes: Which Blockchain RPC Provider Should You Choose in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ankr and NOWNodes both give an application a way to talk to a blockchain without the team running its own node, and that’s where the similarity mostly ends. NOWNodes bills a flat monthly request quota across 120+ networks, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, and privacy coins most providers skip entirely. Ankr bills per method through a credit system, covers roughly 80 chains on its paid tier, and layers pre-indexed APIs and SDKs on top for teams that don’t want to build an indexing pipeline themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a product that spans several chains at once and needs to know its bill in advance, NOWNodes is usually the steadier starting point. Ankr earns its keep when a team is already inside its ecosystem \u2014 staking, App Chains, its Advanced API \u2014 or when a light, mostly-EVM workload fits comfortably inside its free credit allowance.<\/p>\n\n\n

What Are NOWNodes and Ankr, Exactly?<\/h2>\n\n\n

NOWNodes is a blockchain infrastructure provider that gives developers API-based access to shared and dedicated nodes across 120+ networks, from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Solana, Polygon, and Monero. You get an endpoint and an API key, and NOWNodes keeps the node behind it synced and running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ankr is a Web3 infrastructure provider founded in 2017 that operates blockchain nodes across more than 30 regions worldwide, with part of its capacity drawn from independent node operators rather than centralized servers alone \u2014 a setup it describes as a decentralized physical infrastructure network, or DePIN. On top of raw access, Ankr adds an Advanced API with pre-indexed methods and SDKs for JavaScript, Python, and React.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RPC<\/strong> (remote procedure call) is the mechanism underneath both services \u2014 a way of asking a remote server to run a function, such as “return this address’s balance,” and get the result back over the network. Every blockchain client, from Geth to Solana’s Agave, exposes its data this way, which is why standard JSON-RPC calls<\/a> move between providers without an application rewrite.<\/p>\n\n\n

Why Do You Need a Provider Like NOWNodes or Ankr?<\/h2>\n\n\n

Running a node yourself is a real operational job, not a background task. A synced Ethereum full node currently needs roughly 650\u2013700 GB of disk space and keeps growing, and it has to be patched and resynced through every protocol upgrade the network ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A provider takes that maintenance off your team’s plate. You get an authenticated endpoint, the provider keeps the client software current and the hardware scaled, and your engineers spend their time on application logic instead of server operations. That trade-off holds whether you’re on NOWNodes’ flat-rate shared nodes or Ankr’s credit-billed endpoints \u2014 only the pricing mechanics differ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s why that distinction matters day to day: a payment backend doesn’t need to know how a validator prunes state. It needs a balance check to come back correctly, on every call, without the team babysitting a server at 2 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n

Who Actually Uses NOWNodes and Ankr?<\/h2>\n\n\n

NOWNodes tends to attract teams whose product spans several blockchains at once \u2014 wallets, exchanges, and payment platforms that need Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a dozen other chains under one account instead of a separate vendor per network. Trading tools and monitoring systems that lean on WebSocket or streaming data fit the same profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ankr’s mix of a generous free tier and pay-as-you-go credits draws a wider spread of builders, including hobby projects and teams already using its staking or App Chain tooling. A DeFi dashboard tracking positions across Ankr’s 80-plus chain list, or a prototype testing traffic before committing to a paid plan, are both natural fits for its Freemium allowance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use case<\/th>Better fit with NOWNodes<\/th>Better fit with Ankr<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Multi-chain wallet or exchange (BTC + ETH + others)<\/td>Yes \u2014 one account, non-EVM coverage included<\/td>Requires checking chain coverage first<\/td><\/tr>
Prototype needing a large free allowance to test with<\/td>Possible \u2014 Start plan covers 100,000 requests<\/td>Yes \u2014 Freemium’s 200M credits\/month goes further<\/td><\/tr>
Team already using staking or App Chain tooling<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>Yes \u2014 Ankr’s ecosystem overlaps<\/td><\/tr>
Backend needing predictable monthly cost<\/td>Yes \u2014 flat request quota<\/td>Depends on which methods dominate traffic<\/td><\/tr>
Debug\/Trace access without a $500+\/month commitment<\/td>Yes \u2014 available on lower shared tiers<\/td>No \u2014 gated to Ankr’s Premium plan<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A production exchange handling real deposit volume usually cares more about predictable throughput than a generous free tier, which is where the two providers’ pricing philosophies start to matter more than their chain counts.<\/p>\n\n\n

Pricing: Flat Quotas vs. Credit-Weighted Billing<\/h2>\n\n\n

This is where the two providers diverge the most. NOWNodes’ shared plans bill on a flat request-quota model: pick a monthly tier, get a fixed number of requests, and every call counts the same against that number, light or heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ankr bills by API credit<\/strong>, a weight assigned to each method based on the network and call type. A standard EVM call such as eth_getBalance<\/code> costs 200 credits, a Solana call costs 500 credits, and a Beacon Chain or Advanced API call costs 700 credits, according to Ankr’s own pricing documentation<\/a>. At $0.10 per million credits on Premium’s pay-as-you-go rate, that works out to roughly $0.00002 per basic EVM call \u2014 cheap in isolation, but a workload leaning on heavier methods burns through an allowance faster than the sticker price suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plan tier<\/th>NOWNodes (shared, flat quota)<\/th>Ankr (credit-based)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Free<\/td>100,000 requests\/month, 1 API key<\/td>200M credits\/month (Freemium), 45+ chains<\/td><\/tr>
Entry paid<\/td>\u20ac20\/month, 1M requests, 3 API keys<\/td>Premium PAYG from $10, 80+ chains<\/td><\/tr>
Mid tier<\/td>\u20ac200\/month, 30M requests, 25 API keys<\/td>Premium subscription, $500\u2013$3,000\/month<\/td><\/tr>
Top published tier<\/td>\u20ac500\/month, 100M requests, 100 API keys<\/td>Enterprise, custom<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both companies adjust pricing and quotas often \u2014 verify current numbers against NOWNodes’ pricing page<\/a> and Ankr’s own docs before budgeting.<\/em> NOWNodes charges overage per 100,000 requests, dropping from \u20ac5 on lower tiers to \u20ac0.50 on Enterprise, so the marginal cost of extra traffic actually falls as you scale up. Ankr’s Debug\/Trace methods and WebSocket access sit entirely behind Premium, meaning a free-tier developer testing contract execution paths hits a wall before production even starts \u2014 NOWNodes offers those methods on its lower shared tiers instead.<\/p>\n\n\n

Network and Feature Coverage<\/h2>\n\n\n

NOWNodes advertises 120+ blockchain networks, including non-EVM chains such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Monero alongside Ethereum, Solana, and other EVM networks. Ankr’s Premium tier currently lists roughly 80-plus chains, concentrated in EVM-compatible networks with a smaller non-EVM footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That gap matters most for multi-asset products. An EVM-only dApp won’t notice much difference in raw chain count between the two providers. A wallet or exchange that also needs Bitcoin, Litecoin, or a privacy coin will find several of those aren’t part of Ankr’s lineup, something NOWNodes’ node directory<\/a> covers under a single account instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feature-for-feature, both platforms cover RPC basics on their major networks, and both gate some advanced methods by plan. Past that baseline, the emphasis differs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n