Helius vs Photon
Last updated: April 14, 2026
 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rating | (0) | (1) |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Health | Healthy | Healthy |
| Chain | solana only | solana only |
| Open Source | ||
| Features | 8 features | 8 features |
| Upvotes | ▲ 1 | ▲ 0 |
| Twitter Followers | 70,535 | 110,647 |
| Categories | RPC Providers, Data & Indexing | Trading Bots |
| Description | The developer platform for building on Solana | Lightning-fast Solana trading terminal built for degens |
Pros & Cons
Helius
- Most feature-rich Solana developer platform beyond basic RPC
- Enhanced APIs dramatically reduce development time for common tasks
- Webhook system eliminates the need for custom blockchain indexing
- Team actively contributes to Solana core development and ecosystem
- Excellent documentation and developer support
- Premium tiers required for production-level request volumes
- Some enhanced APIs have rate limits that can constrain high-traffic apps
- Solana-only — teams building multi-chain need additional providers
- Free tier limitations may be restrictive for growing applications
Photon
- Fastest new token detection among Solana trading terminals
- Integrated trading eliminates context switching between charting and execution
Helius vs Photon: Which Should You Choose?
Overview
Helius Helius is the premier developer platform for Solana, providing enterprise-grade RPC infrastructure, webhooks, enhanced APIs, and developer tools that power many of the ecosystem's most popular applica... Photon Photon is a high-speed Solana trading terminal purpose-built for active traders, memecoin enthusiasts, and anyone who needs the fastest possible execution in Solana's fast-paced token markets. The pl...
Community Ratings
Photon is rated higher by the MadeOnSol community with 5.0/5 stars across 1 review, compared to 0.0/5 for Helius (0 reviews). That said, ratings only tell part of the story — what matters most is which tool fits your specific workflow.
Pricing & Value
Helius uses a freemium model — Free tier: 30 RPS, 1M credits/day. Developer: $49/mo. Business: $499/mo. Enterprise: custom pricing., while Photon is freemium — Free to use with 1% platform fee on buy and sell transactions. Fee reduced to 0.9% with referral.. Both offer free tiers with paid upgrades, so try each before committing to a paid plan.
Key Features
Helius offers 8 features including Enterprise-grade RPC nodes with optimized routing and low latency, Enhanced transaction API parsing raw data into human-readable formats, Digital Asset API (DAS) for comprehensive NFT and token metadata, and 5 more. Photon counters with 8 features including Memescope for real-time new token launch detection, One-click fast swap execution with minimal latency, TradingView-style integrated charting with multiple timeframes, and 5 more. The right choice depends on which specific features matter for your use case — check the individual review pages for full breakdowns.
Reliability & Health
We monitor both tools around the clock for uptime, SSL validity, and response times. Helius currently has a healthy health status with 100.0% uptime over the last 30 days. Photon is rated healthy with 100.0% uptime. For tools you rely on daily — especially trading bots or wallets — uptime and speed are non-negotiable.
Strengths
Helius's key strengths include most feature-rich solana developer platform beyond basic rpc, enhanced apis dramatically reduce development time for common tasks, webhook system eliminates the need for custom blockchain indexing. Photon stands out for fastest new token detection among solana trading terminals, integrated trading eliminates context switching between charting and execution, built exclusively for solana with deep chain-level optimization. On the flip side, Helius's weaknesses include premium tiers required for production-level request volumes, while Photon's main drawback is 1% fee on both buy and sell transactions.