Photon vs Orb

Overview

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... Orb Orb is a free, open-source Solana block explorer built by Helius that emphasizes speed and readability. It uses the Enhanced Transactions API to parse Solana transaction details into human-readable fo...

Community Ratings

Photon is rated higher by the MadeOnSol community with 4.5/5 stars across 4 reviews, compared to 4.0/5 for Orb (1 review). That said, ratings only tell part of the story — what matters most is which tool fits your specific workflow.

Pricing & Value

Photon uses a freemium model — Free to use with 1% platform fee on buy and sell transactions. Fee reduced to 0.9% with referral., while Orb is free. Orb has the edge for budget-conscious users, though Photon's paid tier may offer features worth paying for.

Key Features

Photon offers 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. Orb counters with 7 features including AI-powered transaction summaries, Human-readable transaction parsing, Time machine for historical transaction search, and 4 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. Photon currently has a healthy health status with 100.0% uptime over the last 30 days. Orb is rated healthy with 100.0% uptime. For any tool you trust with your funds, trades, or yield, uptime and speed are non-negotiable.

Strengths

Photon's key strengths include 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. Orb stands out for completely free with no rate limits for basic use, ai explanations make complex transactions understandable, fastest archival data access on solana.