// Comparison
Solana gRPC providers compared.
The Solana gRPC market has grown rapidly. Multiple providers now offer Yellowstone gRPC endpoints, but they differ significantly in pricing, filtering capabilities, output format, and latency. This comparison helps you choose the right provider for your use case.
The Yellowstone gRPC landscape
Yellowstone gRPC — formally known as Dragon's Mouth — is the standard protocol for streaming real-time Solana data. It is maintained by Triton One under the rpcpool/yellowstone-grpc repository on GitHub. The plugin hooks directly into the Solana validator through the Geyser interface, capturing transactions, account updates, slots, blocks, and entries the moment the validator processes them. Most gRPC providers in the Solana ecosystem run this same open-source Yellowstone plugin on their validator infrastructure.
Because the plugin is standardized, the raw capabilities are similar across providers: all of them stream the same on-chain data over persistent gRPC connections using Protocol Buffers. Where providers differentiate is in everything around the protocol — pricing, filtering capabilities, output format, regional coverage, and additional features like pre-parsing, custom SDKs, or bundled RPC access. These differences matter significantly depending on what you're building.
The key question for most teams is this: do you need raw Yellowstone output — binary protobuf with Borsh-encoded instruction data — or pre-parsed output that delivers structured JSON? For analytics and indexing use cases, raw protobuf is often fine because you have a dedicated parsing pipeline. For trading bots, the parsing step is the biggest pain point. Decoding Borsh, mapping instruction discriminators, resolving account indices, and converting lamports to SOL all add latency and engineering complexity. That parsing step is exactly where providers differentiate — and where Subglow takes a different approach. For background on how the Geyser interface works at the validator level, see our Solana Geyser plugin guide.
Provider comparison
Side-by-side comparison of the major Solana gRPC providers as of April 2026. Pricing reflects publicly available starting tiers — actual costs may vary by plan level and usage.
| Feature | QuickNode | Chainstack | Helius | Solana Tracker | Subglow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol | Yellowstone gRPC | Yellowstone gRPC | Yellowstone-compatible | Yellowstone gRPC | Yellowstone gRPC |
| Output format | Raw protobuf | Raw protobuf | Raw protobuf | Raw protobuf | Pre-parsed JSON |
| Server-side filtering | Standard | Standard | Standard + tokenAccounts | Standard | Program-level |
| Borsh decoding required | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Starting price | $499/mo (included on Scale) | ~$300–400/mo (Growth) | $499/mo (Business) | $247/mo | $99/mo |
| Regions | Global fleet | US, EU, Asia | 9 (US, EU, Asia) | US, EU | US, EU, Asia, US West |
| Historical replay | No | No | ~24h (216k slots) | No | No |
| Standard Yellowstone client | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Figures are taken from each provider's own published documentation and pricing pages; last verified September 2026. Streaming pricing in this market changes often, so confirm on the provider's own page before committing. Note that QuickNode folded Solana gRPC into its Scale and Business plans on 1 June 2026, and that Helius LaserStream is wire-compatible with Yellowstone, so standard clients connect to every provider listed here.
Raw Yellowstone vs pre-parsed output
With raw Yellowstone gRPC, you receive binary protobuf messages containing Borsh-encoded instruction data. To extract meaningful information from a single Pump.fun buy event, you need to: decode the protobuf SubscribeUpdate wrapper, identify the Pump.fun program within the transaction's instruction array, read the 8-byte discriminator to determine the event type, deserialize the remaining bytes using the Pump.fun IDL and a Borsh library, resolve account indices to actual wallet addresses, and convert lamports to SOL. That's six discrete steps — each requiring specific knowledge of protobuf schemas, Borsh encoding, and program-specific IDLs.
With Subglow's pre-parsed output, you receive structured JSON with human-readable field names, native types, and program-specific event types already extracted. The same Pump.fun buy event arrives with fields like type, token, sol_amount, buyer, and bonding_curve_pct — ready for your trading logic with zero parsing on your end.
The trade-off is coverage. Raw Yellowstone gives you everything — every program, every instruction, every account update on Solana. If you're building an indexer that needs to process arbitrary programs, raw output is the right choice. Pre-parsed output is limited to programs Subglow supports (currently Pump.fun, Raydium, and Jupiter), but for those programs it eliminates weeks of parsing development and ongoing IDL maintenance. For most trading bots, the supported programs cover the primary use cases.
// Raw Yellowstone
// With Subglow
For a deeper look at how Subglow processes Pump.fun data specifically, see the Pump.fun streaming guide. For Raydium AMM parsing, see the Raydium gRPC guide.
What to look for in a provider
Not every gRPC provider is built for every use case. These six criteria will help you evaluate which provider fits your architecture, budget, and performance requirements.
Latency
How fast does data arrive after slot confirmation? Sub-10ms is table stakes for competitive trading. Measure slot lag — the time between the validator processing a slot and your client receiving the event. Provider infrastructure, geographic proximity, and network routing all affect this number.
Filtering
Can you filter server-side or do you process everything client-side? Server-side filtering saves bandwidth, CPU, and processing time. Basic Yellowstone filtering lets you select by program ID. Subglow goes further with program-level event filtering for Pump.fun, Raydium, and Jupiter.
Output format
Raw protobuf requires significant parsing work — protobuf deserialization, Borsh decoding, account resolution, and type conversion. Pre-parsed JSON accelerates development and eliminates an entire class of parsing bugs. Consider how much engineering time you want to invest in the parsing layer.
Protocol compatibility
Does the provider use standard Yellowstone gRPC? Or a custom protocol requiring a provider-specific SDK? Standard Yellowstone means no vendor lock-in — you can switch providers by changing the endpoint URL. Custom protocols offer potential advantages but tie you to a single vendor.
Pricing
gRPC endpoints range from $99/mo to $500+/mo depending on the provider and tier. Consider what’s included in the base price vs add-on pricing for features like higher rate limits, additional regions, or dedicated infrastructure. The cheapest option isn’t always the best fit.
Regions
Where are the provider’s endpoints hosted? Closer regions mean lower network latency between your infrastructure and the gRPC server. If your bots run in US East, an EU-only provider adds 80-120ms of network round-trip time. Check that your preferred provider has endpoints near your deployment.
When to choose each provider
Every provider has strengths. The right choice depends on your existing stack, your engineering resources, and what you're building. Here's an honest assessment of when each provider is the best fit.
QuickNode
Best for multi-chain teams that want Solana streaming on the same bill and dashboard as everything else — 80+ networks, DAS API, Streams for ETL, and a mature add-on marketplace. Since 1 June 2026 Solana gRPC is included with Scale ($499/mo) and Business at no separate access charge, metered in bytes against your API credit pool; on Build and Accelerate it remains a paid add-on. The trade-offs are that Solana-specific depth is not the priority and standard tiers carry RPS caps that matter for read-heavy workloads.
Chainstack
Best for multi-chain teams that need gRPC alongside EVM chains. Chainstack supports Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, and other networks alongside Solana, making it a natural choice for teams building cross-chain applications. Their global presence spans US, EU, and Asia. If you need a single provider for both Solana gRPC and EVM WebSocket/RPC, Chainstack simplifies vendor management.
Helius LaserStream
Best for reliability and regional coverage. Nine regional endpoints, roughly 24 hours of historical replay, automatic multi-node failover, and shred-level ingestion make this the strongest option when a dropped connection must not become a data gap, or when your workers run in Asia or the US West coast. It is Yellowstone wire-compatible, so there is no protocol lock-in, and the optional Helius SDK adds auto-reconnect and replay handling. The trade-offs are price — mainnet needs a Business plan at $499/mo — and credit-metered billing that scales with the market activity driving your throughput. If you already use Helius RPC, DAS API, and webhooks, this keeps your stack unified.
Solana Tracker
A good balance of price and raw Yellowstone access, starting at $247/mo. Solana Tracker is focused specifically on Solana trading infrastructure, which means a leaner product surface area but strong alignment with trading use cases. If you need standard Yellowstone gRPC at a lower price point than QuickNode or Chainstack and are comfortable building your own parsing layer, Solana Tracker is a solid option.
Subglow
Best for bot developers who want pre-parsed JSON and a predictable bill. Every other provider here hands you raw protobuf with Borsh-encoded instruction data; Subglow decodes it server-side and delivers structured output for Pump.fun, Raydium, and Jupiter events, so the decode step leaves your hot path entirely. At $99/mo flat with no credit metering it is the lowest entry price in this comparison, and because it is standard Yellowstone gRPC, leaving is a one-line endpoint change. Where it loses: four regions against Helius’s nine, and no historical replay, so gap recovery after a disconnect is your responsibility.
For a full overview of how gRPC compares to JSON-RPC and WebSocket on Solana, see our gRPC vs RPC comparison. For a step-by-step guide to connecting to any Yellowstone endpoint, see the Yellowstone gRPC tutorial. If you're building a copy trading bot specifically, see our copy trading provider guide.
Migration is simple
If you're currently using any Yellowstone-compatible provider — QuickNode, Chainstack, Solana Tracker, or a self-hosted validator — switching to Subglow takes three lines of code. The Yellowstone gRPC protocol is standardized: the same @triton-one/yellowstone-grpc client in Node.js and the same yellowstone-grpc-client crate in Rust work across all Yellowstone providers. Change the endpoint URL, update the API key header, and your existing subscription logic works unchanged.
The only difference you'll notice is the output format. Where other providers return raw protobuf with Borsh-encoded data, Subglow returns the same events as pre-parsed JSON. Your existing protobuf deserialization code becomes unnecessary — you can remove it and read structured fields directly. Teams coming from Helius LaserStream are in the same position, since LaserStream is Yellowstone wire-compatible; the one extra step is that if you used the Helius SDK for its auto-reconnect and replay, you will need to handle reconnect and gap recovery in your own client. See the full migration guide in the documentation.
Same client library. Same subscription API. Same filter syntax. The only change is the endpoint and key.
Head-to-head comparisons
Detailed side-by-side breakdowns of Subglow against each major provider — covering protocol, pricing, execution latency, and migration.
Subglow vs Helius
Both Yellowstone-compatible. Pricing model, pre-parsed JSON, regional coverage, and replay compared.
Read comparison →Subglow vs QuickNode
Both use Yellowstone — but output, pricing, and parse overhead differ. Full breakdown.
Read comparison →Subglow vs Chainstack
Multi-chain infrastructure vs Solana-only streaming. Pricing models and execution latency.
Read comparison →Subglow vs Solana Tracker
Analytics platform vs pure gRPC streaming. Which is right for your trading bot?
Read comparison →Subglow vs Alchemy
Deliberately hedged: Alchemy publishes little about its Solana streaming interface, so we mark the unknowns and give you the questions to ask.
Read comparison →Already decided to leave someone?
A head-to-head is the wrong shape when you have already made the decision and want a shortlist. These pages compare eight providers each, name the trade-off for every option including ours, and open by explaining when you should stay where you are.
Helius alternatives
Eight options. Helius still wins regions and replay outright.
See the shortlist →QuickNode alternatives
Eight options. QuickNode still wins multi-chain outright.
See the shortlist →Chainstack alternatives
Eight options. Chainstack still wins procurement and compliance.
See the shortlist →Need the whole machine? Dedicated nodes
Shared gRPC endpoints cover the vast majority of trading and indexing workloads. But if you need single-tenant isolation, a strict single-millisecond latency budget, or sustained volume that would rate-limit a shared plan, a dedicated Solana node is the next step up. Subglow offers single-tenant bare-metal AMD EPYC 7543p nodes (32 cores, 1TB RAM) in Frankfurt or Singapore, with Agave or Jito and the Yellowstone gRPC plugin included free — from $2,900/mo flat, and the first month is 50% off.
Configure a dedicated node
Single-tenant bare metal, Yellowstone gRPC included. First month 50% off.
Learn more →Dedicated vs shared RPC
An honest checklist for whether you actually need dedicated hardware.
Learn more →Dedicated node cost breakdown
Self-hosting runs $3,500–5,000/mo all-in. Where the money goes.
Learn more →Managed vs self-hosted
Total cost of ownership and the ops burden of running it yourself.
Learn more →Frequently asked questions
Which Solana gRPC provider is cheapest?
Subglow starts at $99/mo for filtered Yellowstone gRPC with pre-parsed JSON output, which is the lowest entry price among the providers compared here. Solana Tracker starts at $247/mo for raw Yellowstone access, Chainstack gates it behind its Growth tier (roughly $300–400/mo depending on add-ons — check their pricing page, as this one moves), and both QuickNode and Helius put mainnet gRPC on $499/mo plans — QuickNode includes it with Scale and Business as of 1 June 2026, and Helius requires Business for LaserStream mainnet. Note that everything except Subglow is metered on top of the plan price, so the effective cost rises with volume. Always check each provider’s current pricing page.
Do all providers use Yellowstone gRPC?
Effectively yes. QuickNode, Chainstack, Solana Tracker, Alchemy, Triton, and Subglow all serve the standard Yellowstone gRPC interface (rpcpool/yellowstone-grpc) maintained by Triton One, and Helius LaserStream is documented as wire-compatible with the same protocol, so standard clients connect to it too. In practice this means one client written against @triton-one/yellowstone-grpc or the yellowstone-grpc-client crate works across the whole market, and switching provider is an endpoint and key change. Compare providers on price, payload format, regional coverage, and reliability features rather than on protocol.
What is Helius LaserStream?
LaserStream is Helius’s managed Solana streaming product. It is wire-compatible with Yellowstone gRPC — same .proto, same SubscribeRequest fields — so a standard Yellowstone client connects without code changes, and Helius also ships an optional SDK that adds auto-reconnect, replay, and subscription management. What you are paying for is operations rather than a protocol: nine regional endpoints, roughly 216,000 slots (about 24 hours) of historical replay, automatic multi-node failover, and shred-level ingestion. LaserStream mainnet requires a Business plan at $499/mo; devnet is available on the Developer plan.
Why is Subglow different from other providers?
Subglow's differentiator is the payload and the billing model, not the protocol. Every other provider on this page delivers raw Yellowstone protobuf with Borsh-encoded instruction data that you decode client-side; Subglow does that decoding server-side and delivers structured JSON with event types, human-readable field names, native amounts, and resolved wallet addresses for Pump.fun, Raydium, and Jupiter. Pricing is flat monthly with no credit metering, starting at $99/mo, which is the lowest entry price in this comparison. Where Subglow does not lead: it has fewer regions than Helius or QuickNode and offers no historical replay, so latency-sensitive deployments far from our regions and pipelines that need gap recovery should weigh those gaps.
Try the difference.
Pre-parsed JSON. Server-side filtering. Yellowstone-compatible.