DEX Screener API vs. DEX Guru API vs. Bitquery DEX APIs? Which is Best?
Today we will compare different DEX (Uniswap, Pancake Swap, etc.) API providers.
We will compare Bitquery DEX APIs, DEX Guru API, and DEX Screener APIs based on the following criteria
- Supported Chains
- API Data coverage (In-depth)
- API limitations
- Pricing
- Data set availability
- Data delay
To sign up for Bitquery API here, and for DEXGuru, use this.
Blockchains supported by Bitquery vs. DEX Guru vs. DEX Screener
Bitquery has most no. of blockchains supported.
They support 40+ blockchains, including testnets; you can check the complete list here.
However, they have DEXs on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Celo, Avalanche, Polygon, Klaytn, Tron, Solana, Velas, Moonbeam, and Cronos.
On the other hand, DEX Guru supports the following chains. Ethereum, optimism, Canto, BSC, Gnosis, Polygon, Fantom, KCC, Arbitrum, Celo, Avalanche, Nova, zkSync Era, zkEVM Polygon.
DEX Screener APIs are in beta and are very limited at this point. Therefore we might not consider them for comparison; we will mainly compare Bitquery and DEX Guru.
DEXs Support
If you are looking for Uniswap API for PancakeSwap API, 0x API, 1inch API or Sushiswap API, or any other DEX swap API, you can check any of these tools. However, there are now thousands of DEXs now on different chains.
Bitquery support all DEXs protocols, For example, if it’s indexing Uniswap, it means it’s indexing all DEXs using the variant of Uniswap protocol, for example, Sushiswap, Quickswap, etc. You can query them using their factory address.
DEX Guru also has these DEXs. However, it doesn’t provide APIs for any DEX that it doesn’t support specifically.
API Data coverage (In-depth)
Bitquery has GraphQL APIs, while DEX Guru and DEX Screener have REST APIs.
Swap Data / Trade Data
- Bitquery and DEX Guru provide Swaps for Transactions, Exchanges, Tokens, and Addresses. However, Bitquery can also provide Trades for pairs, protocol (regardless of the DEX), and blocks.
- Additionally, Bitquery allows you to query swaps from both sides. For example, a pair of tokens A and B can do a swap between A and B. In this case, Bitquery allows you to query where the Base or Quote currency is either token A or B, which is useful when building DEX terminals or Consoles.
Let’s compare the results of Swap API from DEXGuru and Bitquery.
And this is an example output of Bitquery DEX API; let’s analyze them in the following section.
As you can see, Bitquery DEX API also gives additional data, such as transaction information.
It is also processing make, taker, transaction from, and to.
These can be different as the Transaction sender can be different from the taker of the transaction.
And the best thing about Graphql APIs is you can remove the field you do not want in the results.
Power of GraphQL
To showcase you power of GraphQL, let me show you something interesting.
Bitquery allows you to write run-time calculations inside the query if you see this example.
It shows you expression operator, which allows you to write run-time calculations inside the API. Here buy_amount_usd and buyAmount are two result fields in the same query.
With Bitquery, you can query data from different angles.
For example, querying it for trades for an address for a specific token on a specific chain for a specific exchange for a specific amount for a specific timeframe.
This is impossible with DEX Guru and very difficult to enable in REST APIs.
Pair and Liquidity Data
- Bitquery and DEX Guru both provide tokens-related liquidity details. However, DEX Guru does not provide the latest created pool tokens.
- Additionally, Bitquery also provides Pair tokens for specific tokens. DEX Guru doesn’t seem to provide it.
- Bitquery does not provide TLV directly; you need to aggregate the balance of pairs to get TLV. Additionally, it doesn’t provide liquidity details in Pair API; you must use balance API to get liquidity.
- DEX Screener only provides pairs of data such as vol and price but in a minimal fashion.
Mint and burn
As Bitquery indexes complete blockchains, you can check mint and burn for specific tokens, token pair, users, and dex. Here is an example of getting the latest pairs for Uniswap.
DEXGuru provides mint and burns on the DEX level only.
TradingView integration
Read this Guide by Bitquery to do TradingView integration with their DEX APIs.
Additionally, they also created a video for TradingView charting implementation, and the code is here on GitHub.
DEX Guru also provides TradingView integrations config here.
Delay in APIs
Bitquery released new streaming APIs this year, which are optimized to provide real-time data.
These APIs are built on GraphQL Subscription (Websocket), which allows you to subscribe to changes on the blockchain.
Here is an example of getting real-time swaps for WETH.
DEXGuru provides the latest updates without delay in their paid plan.
In the DEX Guru Free plan, there is 6 mint delay. However, Bitquery streaming APIs do not provide a delay in the freemium plan too.
Pricing and API limitations
Bitquery provides 100K points in their free plan monthly with 10 calls per minute (Sign up and get your API key).
Whereas DEX guru provides 200k requests per month with 5 calls per minute.
Additionally, DEX Guru only provides plans for up to 1 million monthly requests, which is problematic for building any scalable solution. (Sign up and get the API key)
However, Bitquery is a data provider first, built for scalability, providing plans up to 100 million points per month without restrictions on API per minute.
It also has an Enterprise plan that provides unlimited access to blockchain data through GraphQL, SQL Access, push data to your premise, and other cloud infra such as AWS, Google Cloud, Snowflake, etc.
Bitquery is a total beast.
DEXTerminal does not have pricing for their API for now.
Additionally, DEX Guru API calls return only 20 results per query, whereas Bitquery returns up to 25000 returns per query.
Support
Bitquery provides support through Telegram Discord, Forum, Slack(Enterprise), and Zendesk.
DEX Guru provides support through Discord.
Documentation
Bitquery has multiple things to help you get started with their APIs, such as Explorer, Builder, and their docs. Check their getting started guide.
DEX Guru documentation is here.
DEXScreener provides only pair data; you can check their documentation here.
Building Tool vs. Building API
Bitquery is a data-first company; therefore, it builds APIs and then sells them to the customer to build tools.
It enables a wide variety of use cases through APIs, so many types of applications can be built.
Whereas DEX Guru and DEX Screeners built tools first and then opened APIs. Therefore most APIs are designed in a way that is needed in their UI.
That’s why Bitquery APIs are very flexible and scalable.
Conclusion
If you are building anything related to DEXs, I would recommend Bitquery as it’s one of the biggest blockchain data providers in the space and has mature, scalable DEX APIs.
Additionally, Bitquery’s support is one of the best in business; they are always available through their Telegram, discord and are very responsive.
If you are looking for API to build DEX Terminal or DEX console, you can use Bitquery.
