Blockchain · head-to-head
Helium vs Nownodes
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.
NOWNodes runs hosted full nodes for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and dozens of other chains, giving developers a single JSON-RPC/REST gateway instead of operating node infrastructure themselves. A free tier covers 100,000 requests for one month to get started, after which usage moves to metered Pro/Business/Enterprise plans billed per request volume. Every endpoint requires an api-key header.
| Helium | Nownodes | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | None | API Key |
| Pricing | free | freemium |
| Formats | JSON | JSON |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
Helium needs no API key, while Nownodes requires API Key — pick Helium to start without signup.