Blockchain · head-to-head
Bitquery vs Helium
Bitquery serves onchain data across 40+ blockchains through a single GraphQL schema, covering trades, transfers, balances, and DEX activity, plus real-time delivery over WebSocket streams. Access is metered per API point and stream-minute, with a 7-day free trial that unlocks the full streaming tier before billing kicks in. Tokens are issued through an OAuth2 client-credentials flow rather than a static key.
Helium's original Layer-1 blockchain was retired in an April 2023 migration to Solana, and the network's chain data now ships only as bulk Postgres/CSV snapshots over torrent or a requestor-pays S3 bucket rather than a queryable API. The one remaining live HTTP endpoint is the free Entity API, which returns a Hotspot's owner, asserted (H3-obfuscated) location, and on-chain asset IDs by wallet public key. It carries no uptime guarantee and is meant for light lookups, not production traffic.
| Bitquery | Helium | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | OAuth | None |
| Pricing | metered | free |
| Formats | GraphQL, WebSocket | JSON |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
Helium needs no API key, while Bitquery requires OAuth — pick Helium to start without signup.