Zerion API vs Bitquery: A Comprehensive Comparison

Building a consumer wallet and building a blockchain analytics dashboard require fundamentally different data infrastructure. Zerion API and Bitquery sit on opposite ends of this spectrum. One delivers pre-interpreted wallet data ready for UIs, the other provides raw blockchain primitives for custom analytics.

Here's how each serves different needs, from ready-to-ship wallet features to deeply customizable data queries.

Understanding Zerion API and Bitquery

Zerion API is an enterprise-grade wallet data API built specifically for consumer-facing applications. With its roots as a portfolio tracker, Zerion delivers comprehensive wallet data across both EVM chains and Solana through a single, normalized API.

Bitquery is a blockchain data platform that started as an Ethereum explorer and evolved into a multi-chain analytics API covering 40+ blockchains. It provides raw, queryable blockchain data through custom GraphQL queries. It’s designed for analytics teams, compliance workflows, and developers who need granular control over their data.

The core trade-off: Zerion gives you interpreted, enriched data ready for product UIs. Bitquery gives you raw blockchain primitives that you shape into whatever your application needs.

Core features comparison

Data coverage

Zerion API provides wallet-centric data designed for user interfaces:

• Token balances with real-time USD pricing across 16 currencies
• NFT positions and collections with full metadata
• DeFi protocol positions from over 8,000 protocols
• Transaction history with decoded operations (approve, swap, deposit, withdraw)
• Portfolio analytics including PnL calculations
• Chart data for assets and wallet performance
• Token logos, DApp icons, and human-readable labels included

Bitquery delivers raw blockchain data for custom analysis:

• Token balances and transfers across 40+ chains
• DEX trade data (Uniswap, PancakeSwap, SushiSwap)
• NFT ownership, trades, and marketplace data
• Smart contract events, calls, and execution details
• Failed transactions and internal calls

The critical difference: Zerion returns data your frontend can render immediately—with token logos, transaction labels, and protocol-specific positions. Bitquery returns raw blockchain state that requires your own enrichment layer for logos, labels, and position interpretation.

Chain support

Zerion API supports major chains with deep DeFi integration:

• All major EVM chains (Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, BSC, Avalanche, and more) with tokens, transactions, DeFi, and NFT support
• Solana with full token and transaction history support 
• Testnet support via header configuration

Bitquery covers a wide range of ecosystems:

• Limited EVM chains: Ethereum mainnet, Base, BSC,
• Non-EVM chains: Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano, Ripple, Stellar, Algorand, TON, Cosmos
• UTXO chains: Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash

The chain story splits in two directions. If you need broad EVM coverage with DeFi-specific positions (Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche), Zerion covers these with deep protocol support. If you need non-EVM chains like Bitcoin, Cardano, or Ripple alongside Ethereum, Bitquery's ecosystem breadth is stronger.

Note that Bitquery's EVM coverage has notable gaps. It’s missing major L2s and alternative EVM chains that Zerion supports.

Query model: REST vs GraphQL

This is where the two APIs differ most dramatically.

Zerion API uses RESTful endpoints with pre-defined data shapes:

• /v1/wallets/{address}/portfolio
• /v1/wallets/{address}/positions/
• /v1/wallets/{address}/transactions/

You get exactly the data wallet and consumer UIs need, interpreted and pre-aggregated. With a single call, you can fetch data for an address from across all supported EVM chains. You can even use the same schema to fetch data for Solana, even though the address template is different. 

Bitquery uses custom GraphQL queries:

• You define exactly which fields, filters, and aggregations you want
• Complex queries in a single request
• Full control over data shape and granularity

For wallet builders, Zerion's REST endpoints map directly to UI components. Call one endpoint, render the UI. It fully abstracts the complexity of blockchain data and returns normalized results. 

For analytics teams, Bitquery's GraphQL offers flexibility to construct bespoke queries, but requires GraphQL expertise and understanding of blockchain data structures.

Features and pricing

Data enrichment

This is where the developer experience difference becomes clear.

Zerion API includes out-of-the-box:

• Token logos, links, and metadata,
• Human-readable transaction labels (swap, deposit, withdraw, etc),
• Names and icons for 8,000+ DeFi protocols and dapps, 
• Position types (deposited, borrowed, locked, staked, etc),
• Fiat conversion in 16 currencies.

Bitquery provides:

• Raw token addresses and balances,
• USD valuations from on-chain DEX trades,
• Transaction hashes and event data,
• Smart contract interaction details.

With Zerion, you can render a complete wallet UI from API responses alone. With Bitquery, you'll need to build and maintain your own enrichment layer (e.g. token logos) before the data is consumer-ready.

Pricing

Zerion API uses transparent pricing: 

• The developer dashboard offers a generous free developer plan with up to 2,000 calls per month,
• Paid monthly plans that start at $149/month, offering progressively higher volumes and RPS limits, 
• Custom enterprise agreements for those who need over 2.5 million requests per month or 1,000+ RPS.

Bitquery offers custom pricing: 

• Free developer tier,
• Custom enterprise agreements with no public pricing.

Zerion’s transparent pricing makes cost estimation straightforward.

Use cases and when to choose each

Choose Zerion API when:

• Building consumer wallets: Zerion powers production wallets with complete data for balances, positions, transactions, and portfolio analytics. It’s designed for instant loading and user activation.
• DeFi position tracking matters: If showing users their Aave deposits, Uniswap liquidity, or positions across 8,000+ protocols is core to your UX, Zerion's protocol-specific positions save months of development.
• Solana + EVM: Zerion offers unified API access to both Solana and EVM chains with a consistent schema. 
• Time-to-market is critical: Pre-enriched data with logos, labels, and aggregated positions means your team ships features instead of building data infrastructure. Using Zerion API, helped OpenSea save up to 3 months of development time when building OS2. 

Choose Bitquery when you need:

Custom analytics products. If you're building blockchain analytics dashboards, research tools, or data products where you need full control over query logic, Bitquery's GraphQL flexibility is purpose-built for this.

Non-EVM chain support. Applications requiring Bitcoin, Cardano, Ripple, or Stellar data alongside EVM chains benefit from Bitquery's broad ecosystem coverage.

Deep smart contract analysis. When you need internal calls, failed transactions, and contract event data beyond what wallet APIs expose.

Making your decision

Zerion API is the stronger choice for consumer-facing, enterprise-grade applications, where pre-enriched data and broad EVM + Solana coverage drive user experience. Its wallet-first design means your team builds product features, not data pipelines.

Your decision comes down to what you're building: a consumer product that needs interpreted, enriched wallet data (Zerion) or a custom analytics application built on raw blockchain primitives (Bitquery).

Ready to get started? Create free Zerion API keys to see its data in action.