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Santiment alternative and Santiment API pricing compared

Santiment is a metrics catalog: social, developer and on-chain series for thousands of assets.

If you need exact Bitcoin balances for any address type, flows and SQL you can reproduce at a block height, compare the two here.

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

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informational on-chain data · not financial advice

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

Santiment leads on breadth, with more than 1,000 metrics, social sentiment and developer activity across 2,800 assets behind one GraphQL endpoint, while BitcoinDatabase is a Bitcoin-only index that returns row-level balances and flows for every address type, including P2WSH and Taproot, with SQL over an indexed chain that grows with every block.

Side by side

Santiment vs BitcoinDatabase, honestly

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

What matters	BitcoinDatabase	Santiment
What you buy	A Bitcoin data index over REST, SQL and exports	A metrics catalog: on-chain, social, developer and price series for 2,800+ assets
API style	REST plus SQL	GraphQL only
Published API price	Developer $49, Growth $199, Scale $799 a month, Enterprise on contact	Sanbase Pro $49, Sanbase Max $249, Business Pro $420, Business Max $999 a month, Enterprise custom
Monthly volume	500K, 5M or 50M credits by plan	1,000 calls on Free, 5,000 on Pro, 80,000 on Max, 600,000 on Business Pro, 1.2M on Business Max
History on the entry API plan	1 year on Developer, full history from Growth	Restricted metrics: 1 year with a 30 day lag on Free and Pro, 2 years on Max and Business Pro, full on Business Max
Address balance, P2WSH and Taproot	Yes, every script type	historicalBalance refused bc1q P2WSH and bc1p Taproot addresses in our 29 Sep test
Balance precision	Exact to the satoshi: REST returns satoshis, SQL a fixed eight decimal column	3 to 21 satoshis below the chain on three idle addresses we checked
Metric breadth	Seven series: hashrate, difficulty, block fees, active addresses, realized cap, SOPR and exchange flows	1,165 metrics, 533 of them on the free plan, intervals down to 5 minutes
SQL across addresses	Yes, POST /v1/sql from Growth	Santiment Queries runs SQL inside Sanbase on query credits
Error for data outside your plan	HTTP 401 or 402 with a JSON error	HTTP 200 with the error inside the body and data set to null
Best suited for	Bitcoin exchanges, custodians, auditors and analysts who need numbers they can reproduce	Traders and researchers who want sentiment and on-chain signals across many coins

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

What the Santiment API costs

We read Santiment's pricing page and its SanAPI plan table on 29 September 2026. Individual plans are Free, Sanbase Pro at $49 a month ($529 a year) and Sanbase Max at $249 a month ($2,700 a year). Business plans are Business Pro at $420 a month ($4,788 a year), Business Max at $999 a month ($11,388 a year) and a custom Enterprise tier with data reselling rights. The call budget is the thing to size first. Free allows 1,000 API calls a month, Sanbase Pro 5,000, Sanbase Max 80,000, Business Pro 600,000 and Business Max 1.2 million, with per minute limits of 100, 600 and 1,200. History is gated by metric: restricted metrics reach back 1 year with a 30 day lag on Free and Pro, 2 years with no lag on Max and Business Pro, and fully only on Business Max. BitcoinDatabase publishes Developer at $49 for 500,000 credits, Growth at $199 for 5 million credits with SQL and full history, and Scale at $799.

We checked Santiment's balances against the chain

On 29 September 2026, at block 969,173, we asked Santiment's historicalBalance query for the daily balance of the five exchange cold addresses we track and compared each answer with two public explorers. Two of the five, bc1qgdjq and bc1qjasf, are 62 character P2WSH addresses holding 226,942.49 BTC between them. Santiment refused both with an error saying the infrastructure "other" is not supported, and a Taproot bc1p address was refused the same way. The legacy and P2SH addresses did return, but not exactly. 34xp4v read 248,597.59262926 BTC against 248,597.59262947 on chain, 21 satoshis short. 3M219K was 3 satoshis short and 1FzWLk 3 satoshis short. None of those addresses had moved for days, so it is not timing, and no transaction of those sizes exists on them. For a chart the gap is invisible. For a reconciliation, a proof of reserves or an audit tie-out, a balance that is 21 satoshis off, or missing for every multisig SegWit wallet, is a failed check.

The free tier answers 200 even when it refuses

Santiment's GraphQL endpoint answered our keyless calls in 0.14 seconds, which makes it easy to try. active_addresses_24h for Bitcoin came back for 26 to 29 September as 602,182, 557,602, 698,476 and 664,436. Asking for mvrv_usd over the last three days also came back as HTTP 200, but with data set to null and an error in the body saying the free subscription may only query from 29 September 2025 to 30 August 2026, so the most recent 30 days are held back. Code that checks the status code and plots whatever arrives will draw an empty line and raise no alert. Read the errors array on every GraphQL response, not just the status. BitcoinDatabase returns a refused request as HTTP 401 or 402 with a JSON error, and a metric series states the first and last day it covers.

Where Santiment is the better buy

If you trade or research across many coins and want sentiment, social volume, developer activity and on-chain series from one query language, Santiment is the stronger product and we do not pretend otherwise. Its catalog lists 1,165 metrics, 533 of them on the free plan, with intervals down to five minutes, and its Sanbase interface and alerts are built for that work. BitcoinDatabase is the better fit when Bitcoin is the business and the output is a number someone will check: an exact balance for a multisig SegWit or Taproot wallet, the balance at a period-end block, net flow through an exchange cluster over a window, or every output of a script type in a range. You can start on REST at $49 a month and move to SQL at $199 when your questions span many addresses.

Good questions

Santiment vs BitcoinDatabase, answered

On 29 September 2026 Santiment listed Sanbase Pro at $49 a month, Sanbase Max at $249, Business Pro at $420 and Business Max at $999, with a custom Enterprise tier. Monthly API calls run from 5,000 on Pro to 1.2 million on Business Max, and full history on restricted metrics needs Business Max.

There is a free plan with 1,000 API calls a month, 100 a minute, and 533 metrics. Restricted metrics on it cover only one year and stop 30 days before today. BitcoinDatabase has no free plan: you can run one demo query on the site, and paid plans start at $49 a month.

Create a Sanbase account and generate the key in your account settings, then send it in the Authorization header as Apikey followed by the key. Some free metrics answer without a key. A BitcoinDatabase key is issued the moment you pick a plan.

Not in its historicalBalance query in our test. On 29 September 2026 it refused two bc1q P2WSH exchange cold wallets and a bc1p Taproot address with an error saying the infrastructure is not supported, while legacy, P2SH and short bc1q addresses returned. BitcoinDatabase reads every script type.

Close, not exact, on the three addresses we could check. On 29 September 2026 Santiment read them 3 to 21 satoshis below the chain values that two explorers agreed on, and none of the addresses had moved for days. That is fine for charts and not fine for reconciliation or audit work.

GraphQL puts errors in the response body. When a metric is outside your plan's allowed time range, Santiment answers HTTP 200 with data set to null and a message giving the allowed from and to dates. Check the errors array on every response instead of trusting the status code.

For cross-asset on-chain metrics, Glassnode and CryptoQuant are the closest matches, and for social sentiment LunarCrush. If Bitcoin is the whole business and you need exact balances for every address type, flows across addresses or SQL over the chain, a Bitcoin-only index like BitcoinDatabase fits better.

Yes. Santiment publishes the sanpy library, which wraps its GraphQL API. BitcoinDatabase is plain REST and SQL over HTTPS, so any HTTP client works, and our Python guide shows balance, history and SQL calls with the requests library.

No. BitcoinDatabase provides informational on-chain data and analytics only. It is not investment, financial or legal advice. Vendor facts on this page were read on 29 September 2026 and may change after that date. Santiment and Sanbase are trademarks of their owner.

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

On-chain metrics

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

Explore

Bitcoin address lookup

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

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 BlockCypher

BlockCypher alternative

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

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 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