Many teams are stuck on two questions when selecting data infrastructure: Can it be operationalized in the first month, and will it be locked in after going live? Chainbase's pricing starts free, with the Developer plan priced at $99/month, which is more lenient in dimensions like throughput (requests/second), real-time synchronization, project quotas, and cross-chain archiving compared to the free tier; for most POCs/early products, this price point, combined with the platform's multi-chain archiving + real-time synchronization + unified model, is ready to go. The key point is that queries can run online and can also land in their own lake warehouses (S3, Postgres, Snowflake), so when migrating or changing stacks later, they will not incur doubled costs due to data being 'trapped' on the platform.
The speed of going live is another hidden cost. Building your own route requires: finding nodes/running indices/maintaining ETL/building a unified model/performing incremental synchronization/connecting webhooks; while the platform 'functionalizes' all of this: REST/Stream initially covers 80% of the needs, SQL API handles complex JOINs/aggregations, and Sink stabilizes demand into its own warehouse. Taking cross-chain wallet profiling as an example: in the platform model, splicing addresses → a single JOIN flattens multi-chain balances/activities → adding a stream subscription to monitor 'risk protocol interactions' → landing the results in Snowflake for BI use; completing this set within a week is not uncommon. In comparison, the labor hours for building equipment and maintaining indices often start at several times higher.
Scalability is not just about 'spending more for larger quotas'. If certain teams need higher assurance and customized pipelines, they can combine online SQL with local lake warehouses: keeping low-latency business online while placing batch offline analysis in their own warehouse; this way, even if they switch platforms or create redundancy with multiple suppliers, it will not tear the product's user experience apart. For businesses like risk control, trading, and growth that require both speed and stability, this is a practical approach.
Coverage also affects selection. The platform claims '30+ mainstream chains can be queried without building nodes', which means teams can shift personnel from 'connecting chains' back to 'developing products'. Compared to solutions that are 'fast for single chains, but need to start over for cross-chains', this is a real saving for small and medium teams.
In the triangle of 'speed to go live + portability + full-chain coverage', the $99/month developer tier can be justified: reducing POC failure rates and opportunity costs in the short term, while avoiding technical lock-in in the long term. For teams that are budget-sensitive but have experience requirements, this is a pragmatic solution.
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