Compare · Alchemy

Alchemy Bitcoin API alternative with address, ordinals and runes data

Alchemy's Bitcoin API is a Bitcoin Core JSON-RPC passthrough. Reading its documented method list on 1 September 2026 there are 36 methods, and not one of them accepts a Bitcoin address.

That single fact explains most of the frustration developers hit here: searches for a Bitcoin getBalance, an address history call, or an ordinals or runes endpoint come back empty because those methods are not in the set. It is not a flaw in Alchemy's product. Bitcoin Core itself keeps a UTXO set and no address index, so a node genuinely cannot answer "what does this address hold" without a separate index somebody has to build. Alchemy hands you a well-run node; BitcoinDatabase hands you the index. Informational on-chain data only, never financial or investment advice.

or see the comparison ↓

REST API · SQL · dashboards · address history since the 2009 genesis block

Query Console

BTC address or sample query

btc

try:

Hit Run to query the Bitcoin blockchain.

Live from the chain for .

BTC

Balance trail

informational on-chain data · not financial advice

REST API · SQL · dashboards, one indexed dataset. Reading the chain ...

Alchemy leads on managed node access, transaction broadcasting and multi-chain breadth, while BitcoinDatabase leads on indexed Bitcoin data you can query by address, in SQL, or as ordinals and runes.

Side by side

Alchemy vs BitcoinDatabase, honestly

A fair look at what each does well. Both are capable tools. Here is where they differ.

What matters	BitcoinDatabase	Alchemy
API shape	Indexed REST API, SQL and dashboards	Bitcoin Core JSON-RPC passthrough to a managed node
Documented Bitcoin methods	REST resources for addresses, transactions, UTXOs, metrics and ordinals	36 Core RPC methods, none of which takes an address
Balance by address	One call returns the confirmed balance to the satoshi	Not available: no documented method accepts an address
Full address history	One query returns every transaction back to 2009	Requires building and maintaining your own address index
UTXOs for an address	Returned as a list for any address or xpub	gettxout needs a txid and vout you cannot derive from an address
Ordinals, runes and BRC-20	Ordinals and runes data available as indexed resources	No ordinals, runes or BRC-20 method in the documented list
Custom SQL	Yes, POST to the SQL endpoint on Growth and above	No SQL layer over the chain
Broadcast a transaction	No, we are read-only and do not broadcast	Yes: sendrawtransaction, testmempoolaccept and submitpackage
Mempool inspection	Mempool API for pending transactions	Yes: getrawmempool, getmempoolinfo, ancestors and descendants
Mining templates	No	Yes: getblocktemplate and submitblock
Chain coverage	Bitcoin only, indexed deeply	Bitcoin plus a large set of EVM and non-EVM chains
Entry pricing	Usage-based paid plans, no free tier	Free tier of 30M compute units a month at 25 requests per second

Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each product for the latest.

Why teams pick BitcoinDatabase

The fully indexed Bitcoin blockchain, queryable by REST, SQL and dashboards

The 36 documented methods, in full

Transactions: createrawtransaction, decoderawtransaction, decodescript, sendrawtransaction, getrawtransaction, testmempoolaccept. Blocks: getbestblockhash, getblock, getblockcount, getblockhash, getblockheader, getblockstats, getblocktemplate, getblockfilter, getchaintips, getchaintxstats, submitblock, submitheader, submitpackage. Network: getblockchaininfo, getconnectioncount, getdifficulty, getindexinfo, getmemoryinfo, getnetworkhashps, getnetworkinfo. Mempool: getrawmempool, getmempoolinfo, getmempoolancestors, getmempooldescendants. UTXO: gettxout, gettxoutproof, gettxoutsetinfo. Utilities: estimatesmartfee, validateaddress, verifymessage. No ordinals, runes or BRC-20 method appears anywhere in the list.

A Bitcoin node has no address index

Bitcoin Core stores unspent outputs keyed by transaction, not by address, so there is nothing to look up when you pass it an address. Every provider that answers address questions has built an index on top. Alchemy gives you the node; the index is the part you would otherwise write, run and reconcile yourself.

The endpoints people search for do not exist there

Searches for an Alchemy Bitcoin getBalance or an Alchemy ordinals or runes endpoint return nothing useful because those methods are not in the documented Bitcoin surface. Rather than send you round the docs again, the table above states plainly which calls exist and which do not, as read on 1 September 2026.

Where Alchemy is the right call

If your job is to sign and broadcast transactions, watch your own mempool, pull a block template, or run one account across Bitcoin and a dozen EVM chains, Alchemy is the better fit and we would rather say so. We are read-only. We never broadcast, and we do not pretend to replace node infrastructure.

Good questions

Alchemy vs BitcoinDatabase, answered

No. Reading the documented Bitcoin method list on 1 September 2026, there is no getBalance and no other method that accepts a Bitcoin address. The closest call is gettxout, which requires a transaction id and an output index, neither of which you can derive from an address without a separate index.

Not in the documented Bitcoin JSON-RPC method list read on 1 September 2026. There is no ordinals method, no runes method and no BRC-20 method. Ordinals and runes are indexer conventions layered on top of ordinary transactions, so serving them requires an indexer rather than a Core node.

The documented list is the standard Bitcoin Core JSON-RPC surface, 36 methods in six groups: 6 transaction methods, 13 block methods, 7 network and chain methods, 4 mempool methods, 3 UTXO methods and 3 utility methods. The quickstart shows the endpoint as a JSON-RPC URL of the form bitcoin-mainnet.alchemy-blast.com/v2/{apiKey}.

On the pricing page read 1 September 2026, the free plan includes 30M compute units a month at 25 requests per second. Pay as You Go is $0.45 per 1M compute units for the first 300M and $0.40 per 1M after that, starting at 300 requests per second. Enterprise is custom and starts at 1000 requests per second.

Yes, and this is where Alchemy beats us outright. sendrawtransaction submits a signed transaction, testmempoolaccept dry-runs it against mempool policy first, and submitpackage handles a parent and child together. BitcoinDatabase is read-only and does not broadcast, so if sending is part of your product you need a node provider.

Because Bitcoin has no account balances. The ledger is a set of unspent transaction outputs, and Core indexes them by transaction id and output index so it can validate spends. A balance is a derived number: find every output ever paid to an address, subtract the spent ones, and sum the rest. That derivation is what an indexed database does for you.

For reading the chain, yes. If your queries start with an address, an xpub, a balance, a history or an ordinal, you need an index, and that is exactly what BitcoinDatabase is. For broadcasting, mempool policy testing or multi-chain node access, Alchemy is the better product and the two are commonly used side by side.

No. BitcoinDatabase provides informational on-chain data and analytics only. It is not investment, financial or legal advice, and nothing here is a signal or guarantee.

Explore the data

The Bitcoin data you can query here

Bitcoin node API

JSON-RPC style access to blocks, transactions and balances, with no Bitcoin Core to run.

Explore

Bulk Bitcoin address balance checker

Check thousands of addresses in one pass, not twenty at a time.

Explore

Bitcoin active addresses

Daily active address counts, historical series and entity-adjusted numbers from the indexed chain.

Explore

Bitcoin address lookup

Look up any Bitcoin address: balance, full history and UTXOs in one query.

Explore

More comparisons

See how BitcoinDatabase compares

vs Glassnode

Glassnode alternative

Raw queryable Bitcoin data over REST, SQL and dashboards, not just curated charts.

vs Blockchair

Blockchair alternative

Bitcoin-deep with every UTXO, entity labels, metrics, SQL and dashboards.

vs BlockCypher

BlockCypher alternative

Bitcoin-native depth with SQL and dashboards, not just a multi-chain REST API.

vs Mempool.space

Mempool.space alternative

Indexed address, balance and history data over REST and SQL, alongside mempool and fees, on production plans.

vs Xverse

Xverse alternative

Query indexed ordinals, inscriptions, BRC-20 and Runes data over REST and SQL, not just wallet and minting endpoints.

vs BigQuery

BigQuery alternative

Balances, entity labels and fund flows already indexed, without per-terabyte scan billing.

vs Bitquery

Bitquery alternative

Bitcoin-only depth over REST and SQL, billed on calls rather than on points that move with query shape.

vs TimechainIndex

TimechainIndex alternative

Bitcoin-only like TimechainIndex, with published pricing and a commercial REST API.

vs CryptoQuant

CryptoQuant alternative

API access on the entry plan and the raw chain underneath, not day-resolution metrics.

vs QuickNode

QuickNode alternative

An indexed Bitcoin database you query by address, not a managed Core node with the address-capable calls switched off.

vs Hiro

Hiro alternative

Hiro retired its Bitcoin Layer 1 APIs. The endpoints now answer HTTP 410 Gone, and the migration link inside that answer is itself dead.

vs Amberdata

Amberdata alternative

Amberdata belongs to Kaiko as of June 2026. Its pricing page loads but publishes no number, and its API answers a missing key three different ways.

vs Elliptic

Elliptic alternative

Elliptic publishes no pricing and sells its screening API only on a negotiated contract. We measured its endpoints, and the OFAC list underneath it, on 4 September 2026.

vs Merkle Science

Merkle Science alternative

Merkle Science publishes no pricing and gates every product behind a demo. We measured its site, its API documentation and its blockchain coverage on 6 September 2026.

vs Coin Metrics

Coin Metrics alternative

Coin Metrics is now Talos and its pricing page is gone. We measured the redirects, the free community API and the exact metrics it withholds on 8 September 2026.

vs CoinGlass

CoinGlass alternative

CoinGlass publishes exchange balances per wallet address, hourly and rounded, from $29 a month with no free tier. We measured its plans, its documented precision and its Bitcoin gaps on 10 September 2026.

vs Crypto APIs

Crypto APIs alternative

Crypto APIs covers 35+ networks from $49 a month. For Bitcoin fee rates, balances and history, we measured where a Bitcoin-only index does the job better and where it does not.

vs Tatum

Tatum alternative

Tatum covers 130+ blockchains from $49 a month. For Bitcoin history, balances at a past block and fee rates, we priced its plans and measured the Bitcoin side on 22 Sep 2026.

vs NOWNodes

NOWNodes alternative

NOWNodes sells shared node and Blockbook access across 100+ networks from 20 euros a month. We read its price list and hit its Bitcoin endpoints on 26 Sep 2026.

vs GetBlock

GetBlock alternative

GetBlock sells shared nodes on 130+ chains, priced in compute units, from $49 a month. We read its plan table and CU rules and probed its Bitcoin endpoints on 27 Sep 2026.

vs Arkham

Arkham Intelligence alternative

Arkham names wallets across seven networks and grants its API by application. We read its access terms and probed its API on 28 Sep 2026.

vs Santiment

Santiment alternative

Santiment sells 1,000+ metrics across 2,800 assets over GraphQL. We read its plans and tested its Bitcoin balance query against the chain on 29 Sep 2026.

vs Nansen

Nansen alternative

Nansen labels wallets across 38 chains, and Bitcoin is one of them. We read its API docs, credit table and pay-per-call terms on 30 Sep 2026.

vs Allium

Allium alternative

Allium sells enterprise blockchain data across dozens of chains, Bitcoin included. We read its docs, unit tables and keyless pricing on 1 Oct 2026.

vs Flipside

Flipside alternative

Flipside sold its blockchain data business to SonarX in May 2026 and its old domain now redirects to an enterprise AI product. We checked what is left on 2 Oct 2026.

vs SonarX

SonarX alternative

SonarX ships Bitcoin as Snowflake shares, file dumps and Kafka streams, and turns on Bitcoin balances and REST on request. We read its Bitcoin page and checked its pricing URL on 5 Oct 2026.

vs GoldRush

GoldRush alternative

GoldRush, the API formerly sold as Covalent, covers 100 plus chains and gives Bitcoin three endpoints. We read its Bitcoin docs and pricing page on 6 Oct 2026.

vs Scorechain

Scorechain alternative

Scorechain is a Luxembourg blockchain analytics firm covering 25 plus chains. We read its site, its QuickNode add-on docs and pricing on 7 Oct 2026.

vs AMLBot

AMLBot alternative

AMLBot sells wallet checks, KYT monitoring and KYC to crypto businesses across many chains. We read its site and plan guide on 8 Oct 2026.

See everything BitcoinDatabase can query

Query the whole Bitcoin blockchain in one place

An address in, structured on-chain data out. BitcoinDatabase serves balances, UTXOs, transactions, entity labels and fund flows, with address history back to the 2009 genesis block over REST, and SQL and dashboards over the indexed chain. No node to run.

See pricing

REST + SQL + dashboards · new blocks within seconds · informational on-chain data only