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RPC Infrastructure

Solana RPC Providers Ranking (2025 Edition)

Performance, Reliability & Provider Comparison for RPC Nodes

Last Updated: December 2025 • Technical Level: Expert • Reading Time: 18 min

Introduction

RPC nodes are the backbone of any Solana ecosystem service.

While validators secure the blockchain, RPC nodes serve the blockchain.

They power:

  • wallets
  • dApps
  • explorers
  • staking platforms
  • bots
  • analytics dashboards

If your RPC setup slows or fails:

  • clients see timeouts
  • frontends hang
  • transactions fail
  • users lose trust
This page evaluates the real options for Solana RPC infrastructure in 2025 — not marketing fluff, but what operators actually choose under load.

What Is an RPC Node? (Quick Primer)

An RPC (Remote Procedure Call) node is a Solana Full Node configured to expose JSON-RPC and WebSocket APIs.

It answers requests like:

  • getBalance
  • getConfirmedSignaturesForAddress2
  • getTransaction
  • getProgramAccounts
  • WebSocket subscriptions

RPC nodes do not:

  • vote
  • produce blocks

They serve data, so the constraints are different:

Metric Validators RPC Nodes
CPU Bound Medium High
RAM Bound Medium Very High
I/O Bound High Very High
Network Bound High Very High
Load Pattern Steady Bursty
Latency Sensitivity High Very High

How We Ranked Providers

We evaluated RPC providers on criteria that actually impact production usage:

Performance

  • latency under burst
  • average response times
  • WebSocket stability
  • historical reliability

Scalability

  • horizontal scaling options
  • connection limits
  • rate limiting policies
  • real-world throughput

Cost Transparency

  • pricing clarity
  • hidden bandwidth fees
  • tiered rate limits

Operational Control

  • custom config
  • deployment flexibility
  • logs / metrics access
  • automated scaling

RPC Provider Categories

✔ Self-Hosted Bare Metal RPC

Full control. Highest performance.

Best for:

  • wallets
  • exchanges
  • dApps with heavy traffic

Examples: Self-hosted nodes deployed on Cherry Servers, highly tuned RPC clusters

Pros

  • No rate limits
  • Full control over resources
  • Predictable performance

Cons

  • Requires infra expertise
  • Higher upfront cost

✔ Managed Third-Party RPC Providers

Good for mid-tier usage or fast deployments.

Examples: GenesysGo, Blast, Figment RPC

Pros

  • Fast setup
  • No hardware ops
  • SLA for uptime

Cons

  • Rate limits
  • Higher ongoing cost
  • Less control over behavior

✖ Public / Shared Endpoints

Provided free or low cost.

Examples: public mainnet.rpcpool, community nodes

Pros

  • Free

Cons

  • Heavy rate limiting
  • Downtime under load
  • Unpredictable performance

Not recommended for production.

Solana RPC Provider Rankings (2025)

🥇 1. Self-Hosted Bare Metal (Cherry Servers)

Best For: Production wallets, exchanges, heavy-traffic apps, analytics dashboards

Why #1:

  • True bare metal performance
  • No virtualization overhead
  • Full API exposure
  • No shared noisy neighbors
  • Excellent sustained I/O performance
  • Predictable latency

This is the professional standard for serious Solana RPC nodes. Operators who need performance, uptime, and control choose this.

Pros

  • unlimited connections
  • configurable rate limits
  • full control over retries/fallbacks

Cons

  • Requires infra ops
  • Higher initial cost (but better ROI)
Verdict: Best overall choice if you plan to run your own RPC infrastructure long-term.
View Cherry Servers Inventory →

🥈 2. Blast RPC (Managed)

Best For: Medium-traffic apps, smaller teams without infra ops

Why It's Good:

  • robust managed service
  • strong uptime
  • developer-friendly tools

Pros

  • no hardware management
  • fast onboarding

Cons

  • rate limits on shared tiers
  • higher ongoing cost
  • limited tuning
Verdict: Reliable managed option if you can live with rate limits or choose a higher tier.

🥉 3. GenesysGo RPC (Managed / Hybrid)

Best For: Integrations, Solana dApps with modest load

Why It's Popular:

  • large ecosystem integration
  • used by bots and staking tools

Pros

  • easy provisioning
  • decent performance

Cons

  • rate limits
  • shared resources
  • less control
Verdict: Solid mid-tier choice if you don't want full self-hosting.

⚠️ 4. Public Shared Nodes (Not for Production)

These include free public endpoints often linked in docs or community posts.

Why They Fail:

  • aggressive rate limiting
  • poor uptime under load
  • no SLA

Use Case: hobby experimentation, local dev

Do NOT use for:

  • production dApps
  • live wallets
  • staking platforms

Ranking Table (Side-by-Side)

Provider Scalability Latency Rate Limits Cost Controlled
Self-Hosted (Cherry) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ None $$ ✔
Blast RPC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Moderate $$$ ✖
GenesysGo ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ Moderate $$ ✖
Public Shared ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ Heavy Free ✖

Why Self-Hosting Wins (Long-Term)

Managed RPC providers are fine early, but they all enforce:

  • rate limits
  • throttling
  • pricing tiers
  • unpredictable shared nodes

If your app scales or needs:

  • custom caching
  • high throughput
  • predictable SLA

Then the only real option is to own your RPC infrastructure.

This means:

  • bare metal nodes
  • load balancing
  • horizontal scaling
  • monitoring & alerting

Everything you can't control otherwise.

Self-Hosted RPC Node — Best Practices

If you are self-hosting, follow these architectural rules:

1) Separate validator and RPC infrastructure

Do not combine roles — performance collapses.

2) Load balance multiple RPC nodes

This spreads load and prevents saturation.

3) Use caching layers

Redis or local caches reduce latency.

4) Monitor health constantly

CPU, memory, IO, response time.

5) Apply rate limiting at the edge

Nginx / Cloudflare / HAProxy to protect origin nodes.

When Third-Party RPC Makes Sense

Managed RPC providers are valid when:

  • you are building early prototypes
  • you don't want hardware ops
  • your traffic is light

In those cases: Blast RPC, GenesysGo, QuickNode can be acceptable.

But be ready to migrate to self-hosting when:

  • traffic grows
  • rate limits throttle users
  • uptime matters for revenue

Cost Comparison (Real World)

Option Monthly Cost Control Scale
Self-Hosted (Bare Metal) $300–$900+ High High
Managed RPC $50–$500+ Medium Medium
Public Shared Free None None

Note: Managed RPC pricing often increases sharply with usage.

Common RPC Performance Issues & Solutions

High Latency During Spikes

Cause: under-powered CPU, disk saturation

Solution: horizontal scaling, faster CPUs

Timeouts

Cause: heavy requests

Solution: rate limits, caching, load balancer

Connection Drops

Cause: WebSocket mishandling

Solution: Nginx WS proxy, keep-alive tuning

Deploying RPC Nodes on Cherry Servers (Recommended)

Cherry Servers provides:

  • bare metal CPUs with strong single-thread perf
  • Gen4 NVMe
  • predictable network
  • no virtualization overhead

This gives:

  • lower latency
  • higher throughput
  • more predictable behavior

…than cloud alternatives.

Deploy RPC Infrastructure on Cherry Servers

  • CPU: AMD EPYC 7003 Series
  • RAM: 256GB – 512GB
  • Storage: Dual Gen4 NVMe
  • Network: 10Gbps unmetered
  • Deploy Time: Minutes, not days
View Cherry Servers Inventory →

Final Ranking & Recommendation

🏆 Top Choice by Performance and Control

Self-Hosted RPC on Cherry Servers

Best managed fallback: Blast RPC

Use:

  • Blast for prototyping
  • Cherry for production

Avoid: public shared endpoints for critical systems

Related Resources

RPC Node Setup Guide

Read Guide →

Troubleshooting Guides

Fix Issues →

Best Solana Servers

Compare Hosts →

These pages reinforce today's conclusions.

Conclusion

Solana RPC infrastructure is not a commodity.

There is a real performance gap between DIY bare metal and managed or shared options.

If your project is serious — wallets, exchanges, high-traffic apps — you will be running:

  • multiple self-hosted RPC nodes
  • behind a load balancer
  • with monitoring, caching, and autoscaling patterns
That architecture is what separates hobby projects from production infrastructure.