Blockchain Indexers Compared: The Graph, Goldsky & More

Blockchain Indexer Overview

Blockchain indexers transform raw on-chain data into structured, queryable formats that applications can consume efficiently. Without an indexer, querying a blockchain for specific events or state changes requires scanning every block sequentially: a process that is slow, expensive, and impractical for production applications. Indexers solve this by continuously processing new blocks, decoding transactions and events, and storing the results in optimized databases that support fast reads via GraphQL or SQL APIs.

The indexer landscape has matured significantly. The Graph pioneered the subgraph model and remains the most widely adopted protocol, but newer entrants like Goldsky, Envio, and Subsquid (SQD) have introduced faster sync speeds, broader chain coverage, and more flexible deployment options. Meanwhile, infrastructure providers like QuickNode and Moralis bundle indexing capabilities into their broader node and API platforms.

The following table summarizes the six major indexing services. Each is covered in detail throughout this guide.

The Graph

The Graph is the original decentralized indexing protocol and remains the industry standard for subgraph-based data access. Developers define a subgraph manifest specifying which smart contracts and events to index, write mapping handlers in AssemblyScript (a TypeScript subset compiled to WebAssembly), and deploy to The Graph Network. Independent Indexers stake GRT tokens to serve queries, creating a competitive marketplace for data availability.

As of early 2026, The Graph supports 55+ chains and has served over 1.27 trillion queries across more than 75,000 projects. The Hosted Service was fully deprecated in 2026, requiring all projects to migrate to the decentralized network or to third-party subgraph hosting platforms like Goldsky or Chainstack. Subgraph Studio provides a free tier of 100,000 queries per month, with additional queries priced at $2 per 100,000 via credit card or payable in GRT.

The Graph's primary limitation is indexing speed. Initial subgraph syncs for contracts with long histories can take hours, and the AssemblyScript handler requirement introduces a steeper learning curve compared to plain TypeScript alternatives. The 2026 technical roadmap focuses on Substreams integration via Horizon, reduced streaming latency, and expanded chain coverage.

Goldsky

Goldsky positions itself as a managed data infrastructure layer with three core products: hosted subgraphs, real-time data streaming (Turbo Pipelines), and RPC services. It supports 153+ chains and 251+ networks, making it one of the broadest-coverage platforms available. Goldsky is fully subgraph-compatible, so existing Graph subgraphs can be deployed without modification.

Goldsky's standout feature is Turbo Pipelines: a streaming product that delivers decoded blockchain data directly into Postgres, ClickHouse, or Kafka with sub-second latency. This makes it particularly well-suited for teams that want to build custom analytics or power backend services from raw indexed data rather than querying through a GraphQL endpoint. Pricing starts at $0.05/hr per worker plus $4 per 100,000 entities, with a free tier for development.

Envio

Envio's HyperIndex is the fastest blockchain indexer in independent benchmarks. On the Sentio Uniswap V2 Factory workload (May 2025), HyperIndex completed in 8 seconds compared to The Graph's 19 minutes: a 142x speed improvement. This performance comes from HyperSync, a proprietary data retrieval engine that is up to 2,000x faster than standard RPC calls for historical data extraction.

Developers write event handlers in TypeScript (not AssemblyScript), which eliminates the learning curve associated with The Graph's handler language. HyperIndex supports multichain indexing from a single indexer, handles chain reorganizations automatically, and offers wildcard indexing for contracts that deploy dynamically. Deployment options include Envio Cloud (managed hosting with Git-based deploys and built-in monitoring) or self-hosting with no vendor lock-in. HyperSync is natively available on 82+ chains and supports both EVM chains and Solana.

Subsquid (SQD)

Subsquid rebranded to SQD and operates a decentralized, ZK-secured data access layer. SQD Portal indexes the full history of every supported chain, decodes it into typed tables (blocks, transactions, logs, traces, state diffs), and validates every block through a cryptographic pipeline at ingestion. With support for 225+ networks spanning EVM, Solana, Substrate, and Bitcoin, SQD has the widest chain coverage of any indexer in this comparison.

The Squid SDK uses TypeScript for defining indexer logic and supports output to both GraphQL and direct SQL databases. P90 response times are under 50ms with zero errors in production benchmarks. SQD offers a free public Portal endpoint that requires no API key, making it the lowest-friction option for prototyping and research. Production pricing tiers are under development.

Moralis

Moralis takes a different approach from subgraph-based indexers. Instead of requiring developers to define custom indexer logic, Moralis provides pre-built REST APIs and a Streams product for real-time event delivery. The Streams API monitors wallet addresses, contract events, and token transfers across 50+ chains (including Bitcoin and Solana) with a 100% delivery guarantee and automatic retry mechanisms.

This API-first model is faster to integrate but less flexible than custom subgraphs. Moralis is SOC 2 Type II certified, making it a strong fit for compliance-sensitive enterprise applications. Pricing uses a compute-unit (CU) model: the free tier includes 40,000 CU per day, with paid plans at $49/month (Pro), $249/month (Business), and $999+/month (Enterprise). For teams that need pre-indexed, standardized data without writing handler code, Moralis reduces time-to-market significantly.

QuickNode Streams

QuickNode Streams is a data ingestion product built into QuickNode's broader node infrastructure platform. It streams raw or filtered blockchain data in real-time with exactly-once delivery guarantees across 17 chains and 26 networks. Developers write JavaScript filter functions to extract specific data from blocks, and Streams routes matching data to destinations including webhooks, S3-compatible storage, SQL databases, and Snowflake.

Streams is best suited for teams already using QuickNode for RPC access who want to add indexing without adopting a separate service. Pricing is credit-based within QuickNode's platform plans, which range from free to $900/month (Business), with custom Enterprise pricing. The tradeoff is narrower chain coverage compared to dedicated indexing platforms and the requirement to build your own query layer on top of the raw data streams.

Pricing Comparison

Indexer pricing models vary significantly. Some charge per query, others per compute unit, and streaming platforms often bill by processing time or data volume. The following table normalizes costs where possible.

Bitcoin Indexing Challenges

Bitcoin's UTXO model creates fundamentally different indexing challenges compared to account-based chains like Ethereum. On Ethereum, indexers track events emitted by smart contracts and map state changes to known contract addresses. On Bitcoin, there are no smart contract events to subscribe to. Instead, indexers must parse raw transaction inputs and outputs, reconstruct spending chains, and track the flow of individual satoshis across the UTXO set.

The rise of Ordinals and inscriptions has made Bitcoin indexing even more complex. Ordinal theory assigns a sequential number to every satoshi ever mined, and inscriptions embed arbitrary data in transaction witness fields. Indexing these requires tracking individual satoshi transfers across the entire chain history: a computationally expensive process. By mid-2025, estimates suggested that over 30% of all UTXOs were linked to Ordinal inscriptions, significantly increasing the chainstate size and the resources needed to run a full node.

Different tools take different approaches to this problem. The ord indexer uses forward-carrying to track satoshi ranges as they move through transactions. Hiro's ordhook adopts backward traversals, tracing from an inscription back to its coinbase origin. Neither approach is trivial: the computational cost of proving which satoshi carries a given inscription is substantial. For developers building on Bitcoin, choosing the right indexing approach depends on whether you need ordinal-level granularity or simpler transaction and address tracking.

Among the general-purpose indexers compared here, Subsquid (SQD) includes Bitcoin in its 225+ supported networks. Moralis also supports Bitcoin through its Streams API for monitoring addresses and transactions. For Bitcoin-specific API access, see our Bitcoin API comparison and Bitcoin block explorer comparison. Teams building applications on Bitcoin's layer-2 ecosystem, including protocols like Spark, often need specialized indexing that combines L1 UTXO tracking with L2 state updates.

How to Choose a Blockchain Indexer

The right indexer depends on your technical requirements, team experience, and deployment preferences. Consider these factors:

If you need maximum decentralization and censorship resistance: The Graph Network is the only fully decentralized option, backed by an open marketplace of independent Indexers staking GRT tokens. Your subgraph queries cannot be censored by any single entity.

If sync speed is critical: Envio HyperIndex is the benchmark leader, completing historical syncs in seconds rather than hours. This matters for rapid iteration during development and for applications that need to re-index frequently.

If you need the broadest chain coverage: Subsquid (SQD) supports 225+ networks including EVM, Solana, Substrate, and Bitcoin. No other indexer covers as many chains from a single platform.

If you want streaming pipelines into your own database: Goldsky's Turbo Pipelines stream decoded data directly into Postgres, ClickHouse, or Kafka with sub-second latency. This is ideal for teams that want full control over their query layer.

If you want pre-built APIs without writing indexer code: Moralis provides standardized REST endpoints for common queries (token balances, NFT metadata, transaction history) with no handler code required. The tradeoff is less flexibility for custom data models.

If you are already on QuickNode: Streams integrates natively with QuickNode's node infrastructure, avoiding the overhead of adopting a separate indexing platform.

For a broader view of data infrastructure across the crypto ecosystem, see our crypto data API comparison and the Bitcoin node implementation comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a blockchain indexer?

A blockchain indexer is a service that reads raw data from a blockchain node, processes and organizes it into structured databases, and exposes it through APIs (typically GraphQL or REST). This allows applications to query on-chain data efficiently without scanning every block. Indexers handle the heavy lifting of decoding transactions, tracking events, and maintaining up-to-date state so developers can focus on application logic.

Is The Graph still the best blockchain indexer?

The Graph remains the most widely adopted indexing protocol with 55+ chains and over 1.27 trillion queries served. However, newer alternatives outperform it on specific dimensions. Envio HyperIndex is 142x faster in sync benchmarks. Subsquid covers 225+ networks compared to The Graph's 55+. Goldsky offers superior streaming pipelines. The Graph's primary advantage is decentralization: it is the only indexer backed by an open marketplace of independent node operators, making it the most censorship-resistant option.

How much does blockchain indexing cost?

Costs vary widely. The Graph offers 100,000 free queries per month, then charges $2 per 100,000 queries. Moralis starts at $49/month for its Pro plan. Goldsky charges $0.05/hr per worker plus $4 per 100,000 entities. Envio and Subsquid both offer free tiers for development. QuickNode Streams pricing is credit-based within platform plans starting at $49/month. For low-volume applications, free tiers are often sufficient. High-throughput production workloads may cost hundreds to thousands per month depending on query volume and chain coverage.

Can I index Bitcoin with these services?

Bitcoin support is limited compared to EVM chains. Subsquid (SQD) includes Bitcoin in its 225+ supported networks, and Moralis supports Bitcoin through its Streams API. The Graph, Goldsky, and Envio primarily focus on EVM-compatible chains and Solana. Bitcoin's UTXO model requires fundamentally different indexing logic than account-based chains, and specialized tools like ord and ordhook exist for Ordinals-specific indexing. For Bitcoin API access, see our Bitcoin API comparison.

What is the difference between a subgraph and a squid?

Subgraphs (The Graph, Goldsky) define indexer logic in AssemblyScript with a GraphQL schema and manifest file. Squids (Subsquid/SQD) define indexer logic in TypeScript with support for both GraphQL and direct SQL output. Both approaches let developers specify which contracts and events to index, but squids offer more flexibility in output formats and use standard TypeScript rather than the more restrictive AssemblyScript subset.

Do I need a blockchain indexer or can I use RPC directly?

Direct RPC calls work for simple, single-block queries: checking a balance, fetching a transaction, or reading current contract state. However, RPC becomes impractical for queries that span multiple blocks or require aggregated data, such as listing all transfers for a token, computing historical TVL, or tracking wallet activity over time. These queries require scanning thousands of blocks sequentially via RPC, which is slow and expensive. Indexers pre-process this data so applications can retrieve it in milliseconds.

What is HyperSync and why is it faster than RPC?

HyperSync is Envio's proprietary data retrieval engine that bypasses standard JSON-RPC endpoints for historical data extraction. Instead of requesting blocks one at a time through RPC (which adds network overhead and rate-limit constraints per call), HyperSync serves pre-processed, columnar blockchain data in bulk. Envio claims it is up to 2,000x faster than standard RPC for backfilling historical data, which is the primary bottleneck in indexer sync times.

This tool is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or technical advice. Data is approximate and based on publicly available information as of mid-2026. Pricing, chain support, and feature sets change frequently. Always verify current details on each provider's official documentation before making infrastructure decisions.