vioscaleAI
Comparison

Alchemy vs Hardhat

No clear leader: Hardhat (61.7) and Alchemy (57.6) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Alchemy full profile →Hardhat full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Alchemy58
Hardhat62
Score
vioscaleAI score
Alchemy58 / 100high · 76%
Hardhat62 / 100medium · 59%
Pricing
Free tier
Alchemy✓
Hardhat✓
Model
Alchemyfreemium
Hardhatopen_source
Price level
Alchemylow
Hardhatfree
Transparent
Alchemy✓
Hardhat✓
Integrations
Count
Alchemy2
Hardhat2
Security
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
Alchemy99.99
Hardhat–
Adoption
Dependent repos
Alchemy–
Hardhat36,669
Github stars
Alchemy–
Hardhat8,514
Activity
Commits last 30d
Alchemy–
Hardhat100
Release
History
Alchemy–
Hardhat20 items
Language
Primary
Alchemy–
HardhatTypeScript
Market
Availability
AlchemyAvailable worldwide
Hardhat–
Content
Faq
Alchemy5 items
Hardhat–

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for blockchain dev tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capabilities
Tooling type
AlchemyRpc node infra
HardhatFramework
Evm compatible only
Alchemy✗
Hardhat✓
Local dev network
Alchemy-
Hardhat✓
Native fuzzing invariant testing
Alchemy-
Hardhat✓
Mainnet forking
Alchemy-
Hardhat✓
Contract verification integration
Alchemy-
Hardhat-
Trace debugger
Alchemy-
Hardhat✓
Gas profiling
Alchemy-
Hardhat-
Archive node access
Alchemy-
Hardhat-
Graphql indexing
Alchemy-
Hardhat-
Static analysis security tool
Alchemy-
Hardhat-
Open source
Alchemy-
Hardhat✓
Maintenance status
AlchemyActive
HardhatActive

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Alchemy

A platform providing infrastructure APIs and tools for building blockchain applications, with flexible pay-as-you-go pricing and a generous free tier.

Independently observed

Hardhat

A development environment that enables engineers to write, test, deploy, and debug Ethereum smart contracts using Solidity and TypeScript, with support for fuzzing, code analysis, and multi-chain simulation.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Alchemy

Usage-basedFree tier

Free tier: 30M Compute Units/month. Pay-as-you-go pricing (rates not detailed). Enterprise custom plans available.

  • FreeFree
    • Node API
    • Data APIs
    • 60+ chain support
  • Pay As You GoPay-as-you-go with volume discounts
    • Node API
    • Data APIs
    • Account Kit
    • 60+ chains
    • 99.99% reliability
    • +1 more
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Custom pricing
    • Custom throughput (no fixed caps)
    • Dedicated 1-hour response support
    • Direct engineering team access
as of verify ↗

Hardhat

Open sourceFree tier

Open source

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Alchemy✓
Hardhat✗
CLI
Alchemy✗
Hardhat✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Alchemy✓
Hardhat✗
Self-hosted
Alchemy✗
Hardhat✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Alchemy

11 total
  • Hypernative
  • API3
  • Privy
  • Ethereum
  • Starknet
  • Stellar
  • Cronos
  • Sei
  • Mode
  • Flare
  • Hexagate
Independently observed

Hardhat

4 total
  • Optimism OP Stack
  • Base
  • Mocha
  • OP Stack
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Alchemy or Hardhat: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.