Choosing the best-fit Solana RPC nodes: RPC SaaS vs. Dedicated nodes vs. Self-hosted model

Solana is no longer a “promising L1”⁠—it’s a throughput monster that hit 138 million daily transactions in December 2024, a 64 % jump YoY. Every CIO thinks of how to utilize this dense network. We love Solana because of its dynamics and the people who work with it:

• In 2024, Solana attracted 7,625 new developers—more than any other blockchain and an 83 % YoY jump, according to Electric Capital’s latest report, Blockworks.
• Settled 81 % of all on-chain DEX transactions and clocked 1.7 M unique trading wallets.
• Won enterprise validation when Visa picked Solana for USDC treasury settlements, citing 400 ms block times and sub-cent fees.

Behind every tap-to-trade experience, game, or payment rail on Solana sits an RPC (Remote Procedure Call) node—the gateway that lets applications read blockchain state and push transactions in real time.

For CTOs, that gateway is now a performance KPI, not a checkbox. Millisecond latency, predictable throughput, and 99.99% uptime translate directly into user stickiness and revenue capture in Solana’s ultra-high-frequency environment.

How you organize your node sets your gains and expenses. If they don’t meet your project’s type and growth pace, you’ll be dealing with expensive consequences. Some reasons that may cause you to worry about your Solana node decision are as follows: 

• Cost of failure
  Downtime on a public RPC endpoint can freeze thousands of TPS, dreadful for DeFi.
• Performance edge
  Self-hosting lets you co-locate validators and cache hot accounts, squeezing latency below 50 ms for HFT or market-maker use cases.
  
  Managed providers amortize that engineering overhead, and increasingly offer SLA-backed, multi-region clusters hardened by Solana-specific autoscaling and Jito-MEV protection.
  
  Governance & Compliance demands
  Regulated enterprises may need dedicated, geo-fenced nodes to meet data-residency or audit-trail requirements.‍
• TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) & Talent
  Running a modern Solana validator stack demands 128 GB RAM servers and 24/7 DevOps.

Choosing between a premium RPC SaaS, dedicated node providers, and a self-hosted cluster option, alongside the additional powerups, is therefore less about “cloud vs. on-prem” and more about aligning risk appetite, compliance posture, and speed-to-market.

The rest of this article unpacks the decision matrix in our DevOps pragmatism and the performance focus you expect from RPC Fast.

What is a Solana node?

A Solana node is a high-performance server responsible for maintaining the blockchain’s state, validating transactions, and serving data to applications via RPC endpoints. Solana’s node infrastructure is engineered for high throughput, horizontal scaling, and low-latency data access.

In 2025, Solana nodes are more critical than ever, powering a network that regularly processes tens of millions of transactions per day with sub-second finality and ultra-low fees. The network’s architecture, now enhanced by upgrades like Firedancer and a new consensus algorithm, is designed for institutional-grade reliability and scalability.

The network’s decentralization is reflected in its global distribution—over 4,500 nodes, including 1,400+ validators and 3,100+ RPC nodes, operate independently worldwide. Those validators connect to wallets, dApps, trading desks, and BI dashboards.

For C-level executives, running or contracting the right RPC layer determines customer latency, analytics depth, and ultimately revenue.

General characteristics

Solana nodes are categorized as validator nodes (which participate in consensus and block production) and RPC nodes (which provide real-time data and transaction relay for dApps and users).  Both of them are technically full nodes. Archival node functions in the same way as everywhere else—the richest source of Solana historical data.

Recent upgrades have doubled block space and introduced confidential transfers, making Solana a preferred platform for DeFi, payments, and enterprise adoption. The network’s rapid growth—adding 80–95 TB of ledger data per year—means node operators must continuously monitor and scale their infrastructure to keep pace with demand.

A dedicated Solana node

Dedicated nodes on the Solana blockchain provide significant advantages for applications requiring specific performance and reliability. Their primary benefit is exclusive access to computing resources—processing power, memory, and bandwidth. This exclusivity guarantees consistent performance, especially during high network activity, as there’s no competition for resources. Features for you to admire:

• Enhanced performance: Dedicated nodes typically exhibit lower latency and higher transaction throughput, which is crucial for applications requiring real-time data and rapid transaction processing.
• Reliability: Dedicated nodes often come with SLAs that guarantee high uptime, ensuring consistent availability for critical applications.
• Improved security and privacy: The isolated environment of dedicated nodes reduces the risk of unauthorized access or performance degradation caused by other users' activities.
• Greater customization options: Dedicated nodes often provide greater customization options, allowing users to tailor the node configuration to their specific application requirements.

What is a Solana RPC node?

Why RPC anyway? To answer this question, we have some points:

• API gateway: An RPC node exposes Solana’s ledger and runtime via HTTP(S)/WebSocket calls, shielding applications from validator complexity.
• Performance amplifier: Advanced RPC stacks add read-only replicas, in-RAM caches, and QUIC transport, shaving milliseconds off every balance check or swap.
• Compliance & analytics hub: Full RPC nodes keep complete historical data—vital for audit logs, AML triggers, and real-time profitability dashboards.
• Risk buffer: Dedicated endpoints isolate you from public-endpoint rate limits and the reputational damage of “network busy” errors.

JSON-RPC in 60 Seconds

Solana follows the stateless JSON-RPC 2.0 spec. A request looks like:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "getBalance",
  "params": ["9zwAb...gJd"]
}

Key endpoints (all documented and freely accessible) include getAccountInfo, getProgramAccounts, sendRawTransaction, and streaming variants via WebSockets. Version 1.17 added the optional “priority fee” headers that top-off validator tip jars for time-sensitive trades.

Launching your Solana RPC node

With a 1 Gbps link, initial ledger sync can take 24–36 hours. Most operators use trusted snapshots to accelerate onboarding.

If Solana is in your roadmap for payments, DePIN, or high-frequency DeFi, budgeting for a private RPC endpoint isn’t optional—it’s a customer-experience SLA.

Whether you run your own Solana mainnet RPC node, use a dedicated node, or sign an SLA with a SaaS provider, treat the RPC layer as essential infrastructure like load balancers and databases.

What is a Solana validator node?

Validator nodes are essential: they are the trust anchors of the network, the gatekeepers of consensus, and a direct lever for both influence and revenue in the Solana ecosystem. Unlike RPC nodes, which serve data to applications, validators are responsible for:

• Securing the network: Validators confirm transactions, produce blocks, and maintain the integrity of the ledger.
• Earning rewards: By staking SOL and validating transactions, operators earn protocol rewards and, in some cases, additional MEV (maximal extractable value) tips.
• Decentralization and governance: Each validator increases the network’s Nakamoto coefficient (currently 18, among the highest in the industry), making Solana more resilient to attacks and censorship.

Requirements for running a validator on Solana

Launching a validator is a technical and capital-intensive commitment. Here’s what’s needed for mainnet-grade performance:

How to launch one

The process is straightforward for seasoned DevOps teams, but operational excellence is key for uptime and rewards:

Operating a validator node is a strategic move: it’s a direct stake in Solana’s security, governance, and economics. For enterprises and startups, the choice between self-hosted, dedicated, or managed validator services comes down to control, compliance, and operational agility. 

As Solana’s ecosystem matures, validator participation is not just technical—it’s a boardroom-level decision.

What is a Solana full node?

In Solana’s architecture, validator and RPC nodes are considered full nodes, as they both process and store the current state of the blockchain, though only validators vote on new blocks. 

Full nodes require significant hardware resources to handle Solana’s high throughput and rapid ledger growth, which can add 80–95 TB of data per year at current network activity levels. 

This robust infrastructure allows full nodes to answer real-time queries, serve historical data (depending on pruning settings), and support the network’s scalability and reliability.

What is the difference between all these nodes in practice

Each node type serves a distinct operational and strategic function, directly impacting performance, compliance, and UX. Here’s how the nodes differ according to the best usage practice:

Business cases for each type of Solana node

• Validator: Best for startups seeking direct influence over network governance, staking revenue, and enhanced security. Financial enterprises, custodians, and large DeFi protocols often run their own validators to maximize rewards and ensure protocol alignment.
• RPC node: Ideal for any business building on Solana—wallet providers, NFT marketplaces, DeFi apps, and trading platforms. Running a dedicated RPC node ensures high availability, custom performance tuning, and data privacy, which is crucial as public endpoints can become congested or rate-limited during network spikes.

• Archive node: Suited for compliance-driven organizations, blockchain analytics providers, and legal teams. Archive nodes enable granular historical queries for regulatory reporting, dispute resolution, and anti-fraud operations.

So now you know—the infrastructure itself is a key to the prosperity of your organization. The underlayer choices can make or break your product’s UX, compliance posture, and time-to-market. 

Moving to the real-life choices for the Solana node acquisition.

What is a Solana RPC node provider (and other ways to get nodes)

General options we’ll discuss here include:

RPC SaaS Providers: Fastest route to market

Cloud-based RPC SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) providers like QuickNode, Alchemy, Helius, Ankr, GetBlock, and dRPC have become the go-to for teams seeking instant access to Solana’s network. These platforms offer:

• Rapid onboarding: Launch in minutes, not weeks, with no hardware procurement or DevOps overhead.
• Enterprise-grade SLAs: 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support, and DDoS protection.
• Value-added services: Enhanced analytics, webhook notifications, NFT indexing, and even MEV protection.
• Scalability options: Instantly scale from MVP to millions of users without re-architecting your backend.

Drawbacks:
You trade some control for convenience. Customization is limited to what the provider exposes, and you’re subject to their rate limits, maintenance windows, and pricing models. For mission-critical or highly regulated use cases, concerns about vendor lock-in and data privacy may arise.

Best fit: Startups, MVPs, hackathons, and any team prioritizing speed, agility, and predictable costs over deep customization. 

Dedicated node providers: Performance and customization

For DeFi protocols, exchanges, and high-traffic services, dedicated node providers offer a middle ground. Providers like RPC Fast, GetBlock, and Chainstack rent out isolated, high-performance Solana nodes with:

• Resource isolation: No “noisy neighbors” impacting your latency or throughput.
• Custom configuration: Fine-tune node settings, enable advanced indexing, or deploy custom plugins.
• SLA-backed reliability: Enterprise support, proactive monitoring, and rapid failover.

Drawbacks:
Expect higher monthly costs than in the RPC SaaS version and continued reliance on a third-party provider. While you gain more control, customization, and scaling options, you rely on both your decisions and your vendor’s expertise (and it would be better if there’s a plethora of it!).

Best fit: DeFi, CEX/DEX platforms, and any business where uptime, low latency, and custom features are non-negotiable.

Self-hosted nodes: Maximum control, maximum responsibility

Running your own Solana node—on-premises or in your private cloud—offers the highest degree of control and privacy. You dictate hardware specs, security policies, and update cycles. This approach is favored by:

• 100% control: No external dependencies; tailor every aspect to your business needs.
• Profound integration: Seamlessly connect with internal systems, custom monitoring, and compliance tooling.
• Top privacy: Sensitive data never leaves your infrastructure.

Drawbacks:
The bar is high: 512 GB+ RAM, 2 TB+ NVMe storage, and a 24/7 DevOps team for maintenance, security, and disaster recovery. Initial setup can take days or weeks, and ongoing costs are significant.

Best fit: Large enterprises, regulated entities, and teams with advanced technical expertise or unique integration requirements.

Other options: Hybrid, community, and white-label

• Hybrid approach: Combine your own node for sensitive operations with SaaS endpoints for public traffic—balancing control and agility.
• Community RPC endpoints: Free, public nodes for testing and prototyping. Not recommended for production due to rate limits and reliability concerns.
• White-label/Managed solutions: Turnkey, branded RPC infrastructure managed by a third party—ideal for platforms offering blockchain access as a service.

Strategy comparison: Solana RPC deployment models

In conclusion: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. 

• For startups and scale-ups, RPC SaaS is the fastest way to validate ideas and scale without infrastructure headaches. 
• As your product matures and requirements grow—think compliance, performance, or custom features—dedicated or self-hosted nodes become strategic investments. 
• Hybrid models offer flexibility for teams balancing speed and sovereignty.

Ultimately, your business size, technical talents, resources for coping with risks, and appetites for scaling, security, and control will clash together to help you decide your infrastructure choices.

Deep research of top Solana RPC node providers: Prices and conditions

This analysis examines the landscape of providers offering dedicated Solana nodes, detailing their pricing structures, package features, support options, and performance statistics where available. 

Key findings reveal a wide range in pricing and features, reflecting the varied needs of applications building on Solana. While some providers focus on broad multi-chain support, others specialize exclusively in Solana.

The market demonstrates a clear trend towards providing high uptime guarantees and low-latency infrastructure, which are critical for demanding applications such as DeFi platforms and high-frequency trading (HFT).

Ultimately, this research aims to equip readers with the necessary information to navigate the dedicated Solana node provider market and select the most suitable option for their specific requirements.

Comparative analysis of providers

The following table provides a comparison of key features and pricing for dedicated Solana nodes across some of the prominent providers identified in the research. It's important to note that pricing can vary based on specific configurations and may require direct contact with the provider for an accurate quote.

A word about each provider

Helius specializes in Solana RPC infrastructure, offering dedicated nodes and fleets for varying application scales. Key features include real-time data streaming via Geyser, Jito bundle simulation, and infrastructure colocation for trading advantages. They boast a 99.99% transaction landing rate, sub-1.5-second confirmation times, and 24/7 support from Solana-native engineers.

Pricing starts at $2,300 per month, with custom pricing for dedicated fleets. Their exclusive focus on Solana enables specialized expertise and tailored features.

RPC Fast specializes in high-performance dedicated Solana RPC nodes, emphasizing speed and low latency for trading applications. 

They offer dedicated nodes starting at $1,800/month and node clusters from $2,500/month + server costs, with pricing dependent on server capacity and location. 

Key features include sub-4ms RPC response times, robust security, 99.9% uptime, and a Solana Trading Node with bloXroute integration for prioritized transactions. 

RPC Fast focuses on custom-built solutions rather than SaaS endpoints, catering to users with demanding performance needs.

Triton One offers dedicated Solana RPC nodes for heavy backend workloads like bots and trading applications, with Basic ($2900/month) and NodeZilla ($3800/month + custom requests) options. 

Both include globally distributed dedicated servers, Geyser servers for real-time data streaming, and redundancy. They emphasize multi-region deployment to avoid single points of failure and utilize custom-built, bare-metal machines. 

Triton One targets users with demanding backend workloads and specific needs for real-time data and customized indexing.

NOWnodes provides access to over 100 blockchain networks, including Solana, offering both shared and dedicated node options. 

Dedicated Solana nodes are priced at $2700/month + $500 setup fee for single solutions and $5400/month + $700 setup fee for cluster solutions. These include geo-located nodes optimized for getProgramAccounts and getTokenAccountsByOwner, scalable infrastructure, 24/7 monitoring, automatic updates, and optional add-ons like Yellowstone, Geyser, and Jito shred stream. 

They guarantee 99.95% uptime with <2-hour response time and priority support. NOWNodes caters to users working with multiple networks requiring shared and dedicated solutions.

Allnodes offers Solana full RPC nodes, but with limited options compared to other providers. Their cheaper plan is a shared node in only three locations (Frankfurt, Ashburn, Tokyo) with limited tooling (Yellowstone gRPC only). The bloXroute gateway is only available in their Enterprise plan from $3,840/month, also with just three limited locations. 

Account indexing incurs additional costs of $960-$1,920/month, though some RPC methods are included in the base price, and Allnodes suggests higher capacity servers as a potentially cheaper alternative.

A concise checklist for selecting a Solana dedicated node provider

Self-hosted Solana node option for ambitious companies

While RPC SaaS providers and dedicated node vendors offer speed and convenience, self-hosting a Solana node remains the gold standard for organizations demanding maximum control, privacy, and customization. But is it the right move for your business? Let’s break down the realities, requirements, and business cases for self-hosted Solana nodes and compare them to managed solutions.

What Is a Self-Hosted Solana Node?

A self-hosted Solana node is a server—physical or cloud-based—fully managed by your team, running the Solana validator or RPC software. Unlike SaaS or dedicated node providers, you own the hardware, control the network, and are responsible for every aspect of operation, from security to disaster recovery.

Hardware requirements: The real numbers

Solana’s performance comes at a price: hardware demands are among the highest in Web3. As of 2025, running a production-grade full RPC node or validator requires:

TCO calculation: CAPEX, OPEX, and hidden costs

CAPEX (Capital expenditure):

• Hardware purchase: $12,000–$20,000 per server (bare metal, enterprise-grade)
• Initial setup: $2,000–$5,000 (rack, networking, security, backup systems)

OPEX (Operational expenditure):

• Colocation/data center fees: $500–$1,500/month
• Power consumption: 500–1,200W per node, $100–$300/month (region-dependent)
• Maintenance & monitoring: $1,000–$3,000/month (DevOps, 24/7 on-call)
• Software updates, security patches, and backups

Other costs:

• Disaster recovery: Offsite backups, failover nodes, DR drills
• Scaling: Additional nodes for load balancing, redundancy, or sharding

TCO example (Year 1)

Note: Costs scale with redundancy, region, and performance requirements.

Advantages of the self-hosting deployment model

• Every aspect—from OS hardening to custom plugins—is under your command.
• Tailor node configuration, indexing, and monitoring to your unique needs.
• Sensitive data and transaction flows never leave your infrastructure.
• Meet strict regulatory or audit requirements with in-house security and logging.
• Optimize for ultra-low latency, high throughput, and custom failover.

Drawbacks and risks

• Requires deep DevOps, security, and blockchain expertise.
• 24/7 monitoring, patching, and troubleshooting are non-negotiable.
• Hardware failures, DDoS attacks, or misconfigurations can cause outages.
• Rapid data expansion demands constant storage upgrades and pruning.
• Adding capacity or redundancy is slower and more expensive than with cloud-native solutions.

When is self-hosting justified?

Self-hosting is not for everyone. It’s best suited for:

1. Large DeFi protocols: Where transaction privacy, custom mempool logic, or MEV strategies are business-critical.
2. Exchanges (CEX/DEX): Demanding ultra-low latency, direct access to the validator set, and custom failover.
3. Enterprises with strict compliance: Needing full audit trails, on-premises data residency, or integration with legacy systems.
4. Teams with advanced technical resources: Capable of managing complex, high-availability infrastructure.

Self-hosted vs. RPC provider: Side-by-side comparison

TCO analysis: Is self-hosting worth it?

While the first-year TCO for a self-hosted node can exceed $50,000, costs may decrease over time as hardware is amortized and processes are streamlined. However, the hidden costs of downtime, security incidents, or failed upgrades can be significant. In contrast, managed providers offer predictable monthly fees, rapid scaling, and built-in support, but at the expense of control and deep customization.

Scaling, redundancy, and disaster recovery

For mission-critical applications, a single node is never enough. Best practices include:

• Load balancing: Distribute traffic across multiple nodes for performance and failover.
• Geographic redundancy: Deploy nodes in multiple regions to minimize latency and mitigate regional outages.
• Automated backups: Regular, off-site backups of ledger and account data.
• Disaster recovery drills: Test failover and recovery procedures quarterly.

Hybrid approaches are increasingly popular: run a self-hosted node for sensitive operations and use a managed provider for overflow traffic or as a hot standby.

Hybrid scenarios: The best of both node worlds

Many fast-growing companies adopt a hybrid model:

• Primary self-hosted node: Handles sensitive, high-priority, or compliance-critical workloads.
• Secondary provider node: Absorbs traffic spikes, serves as a backup, or provides global coverage.
• API-level failover: Automatically reroute requests if one node goes down.

This approach balances control and agility, ensuring business continuity and optimal performance.

Conclusions: Making the right choice for your growth trajectory

• Assess your needs: If privacy, compliance, or custom logic are non-negotiable, self-hosting is justified.
• Budget realistically: Factor in not just hardware, but ongoing DevOps, security, and scaling costs.
• Invest in expertise: A self-hosted node is only as reliable as the team managing it.
• Plan for growth: Design for horizontal scaling and redundancy from day one.
• Consider hybrid: For most startups, a hybrid approach offers the best mix of control and flexibility.

Monitor and optimize: Use advanced monitoring, alerting, and benchmarking to maintain performance and security.