Novacula vs Alchemy

Alchemy provides managed blockchain APIs for teams that need fast access to onchain data. Novacula focuses on deploying and managing blockchain nodes on infrastructure your team controls, with direct visibility into node health, configuration and operations.

Novacula vs Alchemy: Compare Infrastructure, APIs and Operations

Feature	Novacula	Alchemy	What this means for you
Infrastructure and deployment	Nodes run on infrastructure your team controls: bare metal, virtual machines or Kubernetes. The Hub deploys, configures and monitors them; Agents and Operators on your side run them.	Alchemy operates the nodes and provides hosted HTTP and WebSocket API endpoints. You create an app and connect to it.	Novacula is for teams that want to own the node environment. Alchemy removes the need to operate nodes.
Where your requests go	Your nodes serve the RPC requests and responses. The Hub receives per-request metadata only: method, outcome, byte counts and duration. Request bodies and responses are not sent to the Hub	Every request and response passes through Alchemy’s infrastructure.	With Novacula the request path is your nodes and your clients; only per-request metadata reaches the Hub.
Client choice and upgrades	You choose the client and the pinned version per node, for example geth or reth on Ethereum. Every version change is a checked transition: in place, resync or blocked, and security-urgent, recommended or optional. An automatic upgrade policy applies a channel inside a daily window, and a failed in-place upgrade rolls back on its own.	Alchemy chooses and upgrades the clients behind its endpoints. Client selection and version pinning are not part of the product.	Novacula gives you control over what runs and when it changes.
Debug and trace access	Read-only debug tracers and trace methods are served from your own nodes on every network the client supports, on every plan. Method and range limits are your node’s own.	Debug API and Trace API are not available on the Free plan. eth_getLogs is limited to 10 blocks per query on Free; wider ranges need a paid plan.	Novacula does not gate methods by plan.
Endpoint reliability	A pool puts several of your own nodes behind one domain and one TLS certificate. Unhealthy or unsynced members leave rotation automatically, and a request that never reached a member is retried on the next one. The pool endpoint serves HTTP JSON-RPC only.	Endpoints are backed by Alchemy’s fleet, with load balancing and failover operated by Alchemy.	Both give you one address to point clients at. The difference is whose fleet stands behind it.
Endpoint access control	Pool keys, an optional guest allowance with pool-wide and per-IP limits, per-key rate limits, node-control RPC methods blocked at the gateway, on your own domain with automatic ACME certificate issuance.	Per-app allowlists for domains, IP addresses, contract addresses and networks. Endpoints live on Alchemy’s domain; custom domains are not offered.	Novacula lets you publish an RPC endpoint under your own domain, with or without keys.
Operational visibility and alerts	Node health, synchronization, peers, resource usage, metrics and process logs in the Hub. Preset alerts, no query language to learn, delivered to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram or a webhook.	Dashboard visibility into API requests, errors, response times and usage. Error-rate and usage alerts by email, not available on the Free plan.	Novacula watches the nodes themselves. Alchemy watches the requests you send it.

Novacula vs Alchemy FAQs

What is the main difference between Novacula and Alchemy?

Novacula is designed for teams that want to run blockchain nodes on infrastructure they control and manage them through the Novacula Hub. Alchemy provides managed blockchain APIs through provider-operated infrastructure.

Which node types can I deploy?

You can deploy full, archive, pruned, lite and blob-serving nodes. Availability depends on the selected blockchain network. Novacula manages blockchain nodes; it does not run validator clients or consensus signing.

Who controls the infrastructure with Novacula?

Your team controls the infrastructure where the nodes run. Depending on the blockchain, Novacula can manage nodes on bare-metal hosts, virtual machines or Kubernetes clusters.

How does monitoring differ between Novacula and Alchemy?

Novacula provides node-level operational visibility, including synchronization status, peer information, resource usage, metrics and process logs, with preset alerts delivered to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram or a webhook. Alchemy focuses on visibility into API requests, errors, response times and usage, with email alerts on paid plans.

Can Novacula manage multiple blockchain networks from one place?

Yes. Novacula uses one Hub to deploy, monitor and manage nodes across fourteen blockchains, with per-chain implementations handling the underlying deployment requirements.

When may Novacula be a better fit than Alchemy?

Novacula may be a better fit for teams that want direct control over where blockchain nodes run, need node-level operational visibility, want RPC traffic to stay inside their own infrastructure, or need debug and trace access without a plan gate.

Does Novacula abstract away the underlying nodes like Alchemy?

No. Novacula keeps the node environment visible and under your infrastructure control while centralizing deployment, configuration, monitoring and supported lifecycle operations through the Hub.

​Novacula vs Alchemy: Compare Infrastructure, APIs and Operations

​Novacula vs Alchemy FAQs

Novacula vs Alchemy: Compare Infrastructure, APIs and Operations

Novacula vs Alchemy FAQs