DeFi Development — small scale stack.
For each requirement below, pick the option that fits your build — recommended first, then free and cheaper alternatives — or skip what your project doesn't need. Tap the info icon next to any requirement to see why it matters.
Node RPC for DeFi (Mainnet + Testnet)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsAlchemy Free 300M CU/mo incl. 3 apps, Growth $49/mo 1.5B CU, Scale $199/mo 10B CU, overage $0.15/1M CU; Infura Free 100k req/day, $50/mo Developer 500k req/day, $225/mo Team 2.5M req/day, overage $0.10/100k req; QuickNode Free 10M credits/mo, Growth $49/mo 30M credits, $100/mo 125M, overage $0.10/1M credits; Ankr Free 30 req/sec public
Archive Node / Full Node Hosting (Self-hosted Fallback)
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsSelf-hosted $0 software + Hetzner AX41 $45/mo 64GB RAM 512GB NVMe; QuickNode Free 10M credits, $49/mo 30M; Chainstack $45/mo Starter 20M req, $99/mo Growth 100M, $199/mo Business 250M; AWS Managed Blockchain $0.15/hr ~$110/mo per node + $0.10/GB-mo storage + $0.06/M req; Alchemy $49/mo same as above
Price Oracle (Market Data Feeds)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsChainlink $0.50/call on-chain median (paid in LINK) + LINK staking, Functions $0.50/1k calls off-chain via API, Data Streams $0.10/stream Low-latency; Pyth Free tier 5M price updates/mo pull, then $0.01/call after free, Hermes $0/mo self-hosted; Band Protocol $0.10/call, Free 10k calls/mo, Pro $99/mo 100k calls, overage $0.08/call; API3 $0.02/call dAPI
Randomness Oracle / VRF for DeFi Lotteries & Draws
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsChainlink VRF Free testnet, mainnet $0.25-$2.00/req depending on gas + LINK (sub min $20 LINK), 500k gas callback; Drand Free OSS threshold sig; API3 QRNG $0.05/call Free 1k/mo, $49/mo 10k; Gelato VRF $0.10/call, Pro $49/mo 2k calls, overage $0.08/call
Indexing for DeFi (Subgraphs, Substreams, Custom APIs)
Lets users find things fast. A slow or missing search directly costs engagement and conversions.Pricing & free-tier limitsThe Graph Free 100k queries/mo, Pro $49/mo 1M queries, Growth $199/mo 15M queries, overage $0.10/1k queries; Goldsky Free 100k queries/mo, Pro $49/mo 1M sync + 2M queries, Growth $199/mo 10M queries, overage $0.12/1k; Alchemy Subgraphs Free 100k queries, Growth $49/mo 1M, $0.10/1k over
DeFi Analytics / TVL / Portfolio Tracking API
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsDeFiLlama Free OSS unlimited (fair use 1000 req/min, $0); Covalent Free 100k credits/mo, Premium $49/mo 1M credits, overage $0.05/10k; Dune Analytics Free 10k query executions/mo, Pro $399/mo 100k queries, Team $999/mo 500k queries, overage $0.01/query exec; Flipside Free 10k queries, Pro $50/mo 100k
Liquid Staking Infra & Restaking Integration
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsLido Free OSS SDK + 10% fee on staking rewards (no infra cost); Rocket Pool Free OSS + node operator $0 infra + 8 ETH min + RPL collateral, 14% commission; Stader Free OSS; EigenLayer Free OSS restaking integration; p2p.org Enterprise $500/mo + custom commission API; SSV DVT $2/validator/mo
Monitoring for DeFi (Simulation, Forks, Alerts, Incident)
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsTenderly Free 100 tx simulations/mo + 10 alerts, Pro $50/mo 1000 tx sim + 100 alerts, overage $0.05/tx sim, $0.10/alert; OpenZeppelin Defender Free 1 sentinel + 5 autotasks, Pro $99/mo 10 sentinels; Forta Free 1 bot, Paid $100/mo per bot, detection $0.10/alert; DefiSafety reports $0 public
Secrets Management for DeFi Private Keys & Mnemonics
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsVault OSS Free self-hosted, Cloud $0.03/hr + 50k ops free; AWS KMS $1/key/mo + $0.03/10k requests, free 20k req/mo KMS; Infisical Free 1000 secrets, $20/mo Starter 10k, $99/mo Pro unlimited; GCP KMS $1/key version/mo + $0.03/10k ops, free 5k ops/mo; Azure Key Vault $0.03/10k transactions
CI/CD for DeFi Smart Contracts (Tests, Fuzzing, Deploy)
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Actions Free 2000 mins/mo (Linux) + 500MB packages, Team $4/user/mo 3000 mins, overage $0.008/min; GitLab Free 400 compute mins/mo; CircleCI Free 6000 mins/mo, Team $15/mo, overage $0.008/min; Buildkite Free 1 agent, Team $29/mo; Hardhat + Foundry OSS $0
Audit Logs WORM for DeFi Transactions & Compliance
Keeps you secure and compliant with regulations. Required for enterprise customers and handling sensitive data.Pricing & free-tier limitsS3 Free tier + $0.023/GB-mo Standard, $0.0125/GB-mo IA, Object Lock $0 governance; CloudTrail Free 1 trail, $2/100k management events; Backblaze B2 $0.006/GB-mo + $0.01/10k download, free 10GB; Datadog Log Mgmt $0.10/GB ingest, overage $0.10/GB; Retention 7y WORM $0 additional
Wallet Connection / Web3 Auth & Session Infra
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsWalletConnect Cloud Free 10k MAU, Growth $49/mo 50k MAU, $299/mo 250k MAU, overage $0.10/100 MAU; Dynamic Free 100 MAU, Starter $150/mo 1000 MAU, $0.05/MAU over; Privy Free 1000 MAU, $0.02/MAU after, Pro $299/mo 10k MAU; Particle Free 2000 MAU, $99/mo 10k; Web3Auth Free 1k MAU, $99/mo 10k
Smart Contract Framework / Dev Environment Infra
Stores API keys and credentials safely, separate from your code. Leaking secrets is one of the most common breaches.Pricing & free-tier limitsFoundry Free OSS $0, Pro support via Paradigm $0; Hardhat Free OSS $0; Ape Free OSS; Tenderly CI Free 100 sims, $50/mo 1000; Slither + Mythril Free OSS; solc $0; Anvil local $0
Blockchain Explorer API & Contract Verification
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsEtherscan Free 5 req/sec 100k req/day, Pro $199/mo 10 req/sec 500k req/day, Pro+ $329/mo 20 req/sec; Blockscout Free self-hosted $0 + $20/mo hosting, Cloud $49/mo; Routescan Free 10k req/mo, $50/mo 500k; Sourcify Free OSS verification $0; Tenderly $50/mo 1000 simulations
Mempool / MEV Protection / Private Transaction Relay
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsFlashbots Protect Free 0% fee private tx, MEV-Share Free; bloXroute Free plan 2M req/mo, Pro $300/mo BDN, overage $0.15/M req; Eden RPC Free, $200/mo Pro 50M calls; SecureRPC by Manifold Free, $99/mo 10M requests; MEV Blocker 90% rebate Free, no fixed cost
IPFS / Decentralized Storage for Frontend & NFT Metadata
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsPinata Free 1GB + 100 files, $20/mo Starter 250GB + 50k files, Pro $100/mo 2.5TB, overage $0.03/GB; Filebase Free 5GB, $5.99/mo 250GB, overage $0.015/GB; Lighthouse Free 5GB, $0.10/GB thereafter; Arweave $8/GB one-time permanent, Bundlr $0.10/GB bundled; Web3.Storage Free 5GB, $10/mo 100GB
Layer 2 / Rollup-as-a-Service & Settlement
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsOP Stack Free OSS self-hosted + L1 gas; Conduit Free testnet, Starter $500/mo devnet, Pro $3000/mo mainnet + $0.10/tx after 100k, Enterprise custom; Caldera Free $0 devnet, $499/mo Growth mainnet 200k tx incl., overage $0.02/tx; Gelato RaaS $500/mo + gas; AltLayer Free testnet, $1000/mo mainnet
Cross-Chain Bridge / Interoperability Messaging
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsLayerZero Free integration + $0.10-0.50/msg gas (DVN fees), no platform fee; Wormhole Free integration + gas $0.10/msg, Guardian $0 self-hosted; Axelar Free SDK + $0.05-0.30/msg + gas; Hyperlane Free OSS, $0.05/msg after free 10k/mo; Chainlink CCIP $0.10/msg + LINK + gas; Stargate fees 0.06% bridge
Gas Management / Paymaster / Account Abstraction Infra
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsPimlico Free 50k ops/mo, Pro $99/mo 500k userOps, overage $0.20/1k ops; Alchemy AA Free 1M gas credits, Growth $49/mo 10M credits, $0.15/1M over; Biconomy Free 50k tx/mo, Pro $199/mo 500k tx, $0.01/tx over; Stackup Free 10k ops, $35/mo 100k; Paymaster gas sponsorship 5% fee on gas sponsored
How this small scale defi development checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a small scale defi development build typically needs. Pick one of the four researched options — recommended, free, cheaper or paid — add your own with "Other", or skip the requirement if your project doesn't need it. Nothing is mandatory; the plan on the right tracks what you've decided so nothing gets forgotten.
Your picks are saved in this browser automatically, so you can come back anytime. Options are researched per build level and refreshed as vendors change their plans — always verify details on the provider's page before committing.