Compare · BlockCypher

BlockCypher alternative for deep, queryable Bitcoin data

BlockCypher is a well-known blockchain web service: a multi-chain REST API for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and others, with address and transaction endpoints, webhooks and payment forwarding, plus a free tier for getting started. If you want one API across several chains, it is a reasonable pick and plenty of apps run on it.

What teams weigh when they look at BlockCypher alternatives is depth on Bitcoin specifically and how they get at the raw data. BitcoinDatabase is Bitcoin-only and fully indexed, with a purpose-built schema you can hit three ways: a REST API, SQL for analysts, and dashboards. You query addresses, transactions, balances, UTXOs, entity labels and fund flows directly, not just prebuilt endpoints. Pricing is usage-based with no free plan. Informational on-chain data only, not investment advice.

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

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BTC address or sample query

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informational on-chain data · not financial advice

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

BlockCypher is a broad multi-chain API with webhooks and a free tier, while BitcoinDatabase goes deeper on Bitcoin alone and lets you query the raw indexed chain over REST, SQL and dashboards.

Side by side

BlockCypher vs BitcoinDatabase, honestly

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

What matters	BitcoinDatabase	BlockCypher
Chain focus	Bitcoin-only, fully indexed and deep	Multi-chain (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and more)
Access methods	REST API, SQL and dashboards	REST API and webhooks
Raw queries	Query addresses, txs, UTXOs and flows directly, plus SQL	Prebuilt REST endpoints
Entity labels	Exchange, miner, mixer and service labels	Address and transaction data, fewer entity labels
Webhooks	Address and transaction webhooks	Webhooks and payment forwarding
Free tier	No free plan, usage-based paid	Free tier (about 2,000 requests/day), then paid
Bitcoin paid entry	Usage-based, pay for what you query	Bitcoin plans from roughly $119/month (verify current)
Point-in-time balances	Balance at any block height or date, plus a running balance timeline	Current balance totals; the address endpoints page transactions rather than restate balances

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

Bitcoin-native depth

Because the whole product is Bitcoin, the schema and indexing go deep on UTXOs, scripts, confirmations and entity labels, giving you raw detail a broad multi-chain API may not expose.

Query it your way

Hit the REST API from an app, run SQL for an investigation, or open a dashboard, all against one fully-indexed chain, instead of being limited to fixed endpoints.

Flows and labels included

Trace fund flows across hops and read exchange, miner or service labels as informational context, so analytics and compliance work read from the same source your app uses.

Good questions

BlockCypher vs BitcoinDatabase, answered

If your work is Bitcoin-focused and you want to query the raw indexed chain over REST, SQL and dashboards rather than only call fixed multi-chain endpoints, yes. BlockCypher is a solid broad API across several chains with webhooks and a free tier; BitcoinDatabase goes deeper on Bitcoin alone.

BlockCypher offers a free tier (around 2,000 requests per day) and paid Bitcoin plans that start near $119 per month, so verify their current rates on their site. BitcoinDatabase has no free plan and uses usage-based paid plans, where you pay for what you query.

Yes. BitcoinDatabase offers address and transaction webhooks so you get a callback when an address is paid or a transaction confirms. BlockCypher additionally offers payment forwarding; BitcoinDatabase focuses on data, webhooks and raw querying.

Its balance endpoint reports current totals. The before parameter on the address endpoints is documented for paging through transactions, not for restating a balance, and in our own test on 4 August 2026 a balance request scoped with before=300000 and before=800000 returned zero in every field for an address that held coins at both heights. Treat that response as unsupported rather than as a historical balance, because a script reading it will record a zero.

You need a source that indexes every input and output against its confirming block, so a balance can be summed as of any height. BitcoinDatabase returns the balance at a given height or date directly, plus a running balance timeline across a date range, which is the format tax, audit and reserve work actually needs. See the balance history API for the detail.

Their documentation lists a complimentary tier of 3 requests per second and 100 per hour, plus 10 confidence lookups per hour, with paid plans starting at $119 a month and a 10 percent discount for paying in Bitcoin. Checked 9 August 2026. Hourly limits reset on the hour UTC and requests beyond them return HTTP 429.

Yes, and it is the only one of the four public Bitcoin APIs we tested that does. An unauthenticated call to /v1/btc/main on 11 August 2026 came back with an x-ratelimit-remaining header giving the requests left in the current window, while mempool.space, Blockstream and Blockchair returned no quota header at all. That header is a real engineering advantage: a client can slow itself down before it starts failing rather than discovering the ceiling from a 429.

No. We called /addrs/{address}/balance on 13 August 2026 and the response carried nine fields, all of them counts and amounts: address, balance, final balance, transaction counts, total received, total sent and the unconfirmed pair. There is no timestamp anywhere in it, so the date of the last movement has to come from the transaction references instead. Blockstream and mempool.space have the same gap, and it is what makes screening a list of addresses for dormancy expensive on any of the three.

No. BitcoinDatabase provides informational on-chain data and analytics only. It is not investment, financial or legal advice, and entity labels are context to support your own review, never claims about individuals.

Explore the data

The Bitcoin data you can query here

Bitcoin exchange flow API

Measure bitcoin moving into and out of exchanges: inflows, outflows and net flow.

Explore

Bitcoin address lookup

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

Explore

On-chain metrics

Active addresses, realized cap, SOPR, HODL waves and exchange flows.

Explore

BTC address balance API

Get exact balances and UTXOs for any address, in batches.

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 Dune

Dune alternative

Bitcoin-only and fully-indexed, with a REST API too, not just cross-chain SQL.

vs Blockchair

Blockchair alternative

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

vs Chainalysis

Chainalysis alternative

Developer-first, self-serve on-chain data with compliance tooling to support your own review.

vs Chainstack

Chainstack alternative

Indexed Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, not raw RPC nodes you still have to query.

vs Blockchain.com

Blockchain.com API alternative

Production-grade indexed Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, not a rate-capped free explorer 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 CoinAPI

CoinAPI alternative

On-chain Bitcoin data: addresses, balances, UTXOs and labels, not cross-asset market prices.

vs TRM Labs

TRM Labs alternative

Bitcoin-native on-chain data and screening signals over REST and SQL, not a full multi-chain investigations suite.

vs Whale Alert

Whale Alert alternative

Query large bitcoin transactions on your own thresholds from the fully-indexed chain, not just a fixed real-time feed.

vs CoinGecko

CoinGecko alternative

Raw on-chain Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, not market prices across thousands of coins.

vs CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap alternative

On-chain Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, where CoinMarketCap serves market prices.

vs Blockdaemon

Blockdaemon alternative

A query-first indexed Bitcoin database over REST and SQL, not raw node RPC infrastructure.

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 Alchemy

Alchemy alternative

An indexed Bitcoin database you query by address, not a Bitcoin Core JSON-RPC passthrough.

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