Top decentralised exchanges compared

About Top decentralised exchanges compared

Decentralised exchange traders weigh a short list of things: what a trade costs, who holds the keys, how wide the market is and how help arrives when something breaks. This ranking covers 30 decentralised exchanges, from a single-chain specialist with the shortest book on the list to a venue that reports 9,000,000 coins. The main trade-off is cost against reach. Some members list a free maker and taker schedule yet trade a handful of coins, while others open a much larger catalogue and charge 0.25% a swap. Custody is the quieter dividing line: every member here keeps trading in a wallet you control, so what matters is the contract and chain behind the venue rather than a pooled customer balance. Support ranges from a community forum alone to chat, email and a help centre, and the median taker fee in this group is 0.05%.

How we picked

The score behind this ranking is built from weighted inputs: cost at 35%, offer at 25% and trust at 40%, so trust carries the single largest share of the total. Cost reads the maker and taker figures each venue publishes, plus any withdrawal charge it states. Offer reads what a venue does beyond swapping, including staking, liquid staking, derivatives and whether cash can be routed into the wallet. Trust reads custody and the routes to help, with a help centre and a community channel both counting. Coin counts and founded years are taken from the exchange profiles on CoinGecko, while fees, features, support channels, headquarters and legal entities come from each project's own documentation, help centre and terms pages. Anything a venue does not publish is left out rather than estimated. Partners are listed ahead of score-ranked entries; this ranking has no partner slots, so every member below is placed on score. Each entry then says why it sits in this ranking and how it compares with the member after it.

Our top picks

1. 3. coin98

   coin98 makes this ranking on longevity and reach into newer markets. It is the oldest protocol in the list, founded in 2017, runs as a decentralised exchange on self-custody, and lists derivatives as available, which suits traders who want more than spot swaps. It is headquartered in VN. What sits around the trade is thinner here: support runs on help centre only, so questions lean on written answers first. Buyers who want the broadest catalogue in this ranking should look one place further down, to SimpleSwap with 2,800 coins, a taker fee of 0.2% and support across email, chat and help centre.

   • Wallet type: Software
   • Price: $0
   • Custody: Self custody

   Pros

   • The wallet costs $0 to start, which puts it at 1 of 120 brands on price
   • Coins stay in your own hands: custody is self custody
   • A coin list of 150 is well above the 49 median across wallet brands
   • Backup is by seed phrase, the option most wallet brands use
   • A built-in dex of the dex kind means swaps sit inside the same app

   Cons

   • Support runs on help centre only, with no live chat or phone line listed
   • A software wallet keeps keys on the device you use daily, unlike Trezor's hardware wallet
   • Backup rests on seed phrase alone, while share splitting and recovery services stay rare across wallet brands at 5.8% and 21.2%
   • The offer side scores 6.3 against a cost part of 8.1

2. 4. Orca

   Orca earns its place in this ranking on support and staking rather than catalogue size. 418 coins sits just under the group upper quartile of 418, and taker fees of 0.01% to 2% give a wide spread across pools, so the cheapest route on a given pair can sit well below the headline. Withdrawals carry no exchange fee of their own; only Solana network fees apply. Support is the strongest mix here, running on chat, help centre and community, and the feature list pairs self-custody with staking. It launched in 2021. The member below it, coin98, is older, based in VN and runs support on help centre.

   • Taker fee: 0.01% to 2%
   • Coins listed: 418
   • Withdrawal fee: No withdrawal fee; only Solana network fees

   Pros

   • Self-custody and staking sit together, so trading and earning need no other platform (self custody and staking).
   • Taker fees of 0.01% to 2% compare favourably with the 0.2% median across exchanges here.
   • 418 coins listed, well above the 69 median for decentralised venues.

   Cons

   • Support runs on chat, help centre and community only, with no email or phone route in the mix.
   • The top of the 0.01% to 2% range sits above the 0.25% typical of a decentralised venue, so frequent trading can cost more.
   • Orca's 418 coins trail Bitpanda's from 650, which is where breadth still favours a custodial platform.

3. 5. Uniswap

   Uniswap sits near the top of this ranking for a clear reason: the cost of trading is spelled out and the maker side is free. Maker fees are 0% and taker fees are 0.05% to 1%, so adding liquidity costs nothing on the exchange side. 674 coins is well clear of the group median of 69, with card and bank for cash entry. It is run by Uniswap Labs and was founded in 2018, giving it more history than the member above. The trade-off is service breadth: support runs on help centre and the feature list is self custody, where Orca, next in this ranking, adds staking and a wider spread of support routes.

   • Taker fee: 0.05% to 1%
   • Coins listed: 674
   • Fiat deposit methods: Card, Bank

   Pros

   • Maker fees are 0%, so a swap is charged only through the taker fee of 0.05% to 1%.
   • The coin list of 674 clears the 62 median for the brands compared, which is where the long tail of tokens comes from.
   • The self custody setup keeps assets in the trader's own wallet, so there is no platform balance sitting behind the order.
   • Deposits run by card or bank transfer, card and bank, so an ordinary bank payment is enough to get going.

   Cons

   • Support runs on a help centre alone, with no listed live chat or phone line for a trade that stalls.
   • The upper end of the taker fee, 0.05% to 1%, runs past the 0.25% mark most decentralised venues stay under.
   • A plain broker account can undercut a swap: ActivTrades charges 0% in taker fees, a flat figure against the 0.05% to 1% range here.

4. 6. KyberSwap

   KyberSwap is in this ranking for cost. Maker fees are 0% and taker fees are 0%, and that taker figure matches the group minimum of 0%, well under the 0.05% median, so the exchange takes nothing for a swap or for adding to a pool. The trade-off is depth: 5 coins is the smallest list here, at the group minimum of 5, so you trade into a narrow set of pairs. Features pair self-custody with staking, support runs on email and community, and it was founded in 2018. Osmosis, the member below it, keeps fees low but widens both the catalogue and the feature set.

   • Taker fee: 0%
   • Coins listed: 5
   • Maker fee: 0%

   Pros

   • Taker fee 0% and maker fee 0% make the platform's own trading charge free.
   • Self-custody keeps control of the assets in the wallet you connect, and staking is listed as a feature too.
   • For a single token, a free swap is cheaper than a listed platform charge such as 0.25% to 1.99% at bunq.

   Cons

   • Only 5 coins are listed, so anything outside that range needs another venue.
   • Support runs on email and community, so there is no phone or live chat help when a swap goes wrong.

5. 7. Osmosis

   Osmosis sits in this ranking as the widest feature set among the mid-sized venues. It lists 89 coins, above the group median of 69, with taker fees of 0.02% to 0.8% across its pools. The feature list is self custody, staking and liquid staking, so you can stake, and stake in liquid form, while keeping self-custody, and derivatives are listed as available. Support runs on chat, help centre and community, the same broad mix as the member above, and it was founded in 2021. Synthetix, next in this ranking, is the narrower specialist on 10 coins, with a cheaper schedule and a per-asset withdrawal charge.

   • Taker fee: 0.02% to 0.8%
   • Coins listed: 89
   • Derivatives: Yes

   Pros

   • Self-custody, staking and liquid staking in one place, as the feature list self custody, staking and liquid staking shows.
   • Derivatives: yes, so the platform covers more than plain spot swaps.
   • A coin list of 89, a little above the decentralised exchange median of 69.

   Cons

   • The top of the fee range is steep for this kind of venue: 0.02% to 0.8% against a median of 0.05%.
   • Support runs on chat, help centre and community only, which is thin for anyone stuck on a transaction that will not go through.
   • The coin list is modest next to custodial platforms, 89 against from 650 at Bitpanda.

6. 8. SimpleSwap

   SimpleSwap ranks here on being easy to fund and easy to reach, not on being cheap. A taker fee of 0.2% sits above the group median of 0.05%, and derivatives are listed as off, so this is a spot venue rather than a perps venue. In return you get 2,800 coins, card, bank and apple pay for cash entry, and support across email, chat and help centre, the widest support mix in this ranking. There is no separate withdrawal charge; the network fee is set by the blockchain. The member below it, Matcha, lists more coins on 9,000,000 at a similar taker fee of 0.25% but runs fewer support routes, on help centre, community and email.

   • Taker fee: 0.2%
   • Coins listed: 2,800
   • Fiat deposit methods: Card, Bank, Apple-pay

   Pros

   • A coin list of 2,800 puts SimpleSwap at 5 of 172 brands on our ranking.
   • A taker fee of 0.2% per swap, below the 0.55% upper quartile across the site.
   • No separate withdrawal fee, so the network fee set by the blockchain is the only cost of taking coins out.
   • Self-custody, so every swap settles to a wallet the user controls instead of a platform balance.
   • Fiat deposits cover card, bank and apple pay, so a purchase can be funded by card or a bank transfer.

   Cons

   • ActivTrades lists 0% as its taker fee, so SimpleSwap's 0.2% is the costlier of the two for frequent traders.
   • Derivatives are not offered, which leaves the venue with spot swaps only.
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre only, so a stuck swap is handled in writing.

7. 9. Synthetix

   Synthetix is in this ranking for cheap trading on a short, deliberate market. A maker fee of 0.02% and a taker fee of 0.05% put it at the cheap end of the group against a median of 0.05%, and the market is 10 coins, so you pick from a small set of pairs. It is run by Molon Labe Inc., based in PA, and founded in 2018. Withdrawals are the trade-off: a per-asset fee is deducted from the amount you receive, plus Ethereum Mainnet gas paid in ETH from the wallet. The member below it, Camelot DEX, lists more coins on 53 at a higher taker fee of 0.3%.

   • Taker fee: 0.05%
   • Coins listed: 10
   • Maker fee: 0.02%

   Pros

   • Trading runs in self custody, so the keys stay with you: self custody.
   • Spot and derivatives sit in the same decentralised venue: dex.
   • A maker fee of 0.02% is lower than the taker fee of 0.05%.

   Cons

   • Only 10 coins are listed, against a site median of 62.
   • Support runs on chat and help centre only, with no phone desk listed.
   • Withdrawals cost a per-asset fee taken out of the amount received, plus Ethereum Mainnet gas paid in ETH by your own wallet.

What to look for

What a trade costs

Taker fees here have a median of 0.05%, a lower quartile of 0.04% and an upper quartile of 0.25%, with the highest listed at 1%. Maker fees matter if you fund a pool, and they range from 0% at KyberSwap to 0.02% at Synthetix. Withdrawal charges are worth checking too, since some venues add their own and some leave it to the chain.

How wide the market is

The median listing in this group carries 69 coins, the lower quartile 18 and the upper quartile 418. Matcha sits at the top of the field on 9,000,000, while KyberSwap lists 5. A long list is only useful if the pairs you want actually have liquidity.

Who holds the money

Every member here is a decentralised exchange that trades from a wallet you control, and self-custody is the listed feature for 89.7% of the listings in this group. That removes pooled customer balances from the picture and moves the responsibility for keys, network choice and gas onto you.

What you can do besides swapping

Staking is a listed feature for 44.8% of the listings here and liquid staking for 6.9%, so a venue that pays for idle balances can be worth a look. Derivatives trading appears in 61.1% of the group and not in 38.9%.

How to get help

A help centre is listed for 70.8% of the listings here and a community channel for 79.2%, with chat at 25% and phone lines at 0%. On a self-custody venue, support often means help with a stuck transaction rather than a balance query.

Getting cash in

Card entry appears in 51.7% of listings across the site and bank transfer in 92.5%. Only some venues in this ranking list a cash route at all, so read the individual entry before you plan a purchase around a card.

Frequently asked questions

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV