The Top Three Cryptocurrency Price Checkers
Prices rapidly change in the cryptocurrency market. Prices can spike or crash in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Keeping up to date with the price performance and the data driving price is important business for those involved in the cryptocurrency markets. We cover the ins and outs of three of the leading price and data providers so that you can make a quick decision which is the best fit for you.
CoinMarketCap
CoinMarketCap is the most popular price checker by a large margin. The homepage is extremely intuitive to understand and lists cryptocurrencies according to their market cap. Users can easily search for cryptocurrencies in a search bar and can also organise the list whatever way they see fit. For example, users could easily organise rankings according to 24-hour volume so that the cryptocurrencies that have had the largest trading volume over the past 24 hours are at the top. Users can click into the cryptocurrencies to gain further information on them including price charts and links to websites and social media accounts. Users also have access to other lists including ones which organises all tokens by their market and another which ranks exchanges according to their 24-hour trading volume.
CoinMarketCap has an API for developers who wish to use CoinMarketCap data in external applications. While the CoinMarketCap API used to be free for all to use, CoinMarketCap released a pricing plan in 2018 where users are restricted on the free version and have to pay for more features. The pricing ranges from $33 to $699 per month. This is one of the main drawbacks of CoinMarketCap and may drive users to some of the other providers.
CoinMarketCap also has a host of other tools and services including an events calendar, a website widget so that you can easily display the price performance of cryptocurrencies on your own website, and a crypto glossary which provides explanations for some of the confusing terminology and jargon which surrounds cryptocurrency.
CoinGecko
At face value, CoinGecko looks very similar to CoinMarketCap. The homepage for both organises cryptocurrencies according to their total market cap. However, there are differences between the two that may lead a user to choose one or the other. CoinMarketCap lists slightly over 2,000 cryptocurrencies. CoinGecko is more loose with their listing requirements and currently lists over 3,600 cryptocurrencies.
One of the key differences between CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap is CoinGecko have more of a focus on ICO’s and tokens. They list a significantly greater amount of tokens but they also provide a list of upcoming ICO’s. Users can find some of the key information about the ICO’s from the CoinGecko ICO rankings along with links to where they can find further information.
One of the advantages CoinGecko have over CoinMarketCap is that they provide their API completely for free. Users can easily find a link to documentation on how to use the API through the CoinGecko website.
Messari
Messari – formerly OnChainFX – takes a different approach to both CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. Their home screen is highly editable by users. Users can easily add or take away what metrics they are interested in via the right-hand toolbar. One of the reasons Messari came into existence was to provide more accurate inflation data for cryptocurrency assets. Users can add metrics such as the supply issued of expected 2050 supply and an estimation of the annual inflation rate. Messari has many other interesting data options which can be added easily by users. This includes price performance over varying time frames, data from the blockchains, and developer activities on GitHub.
Similar to CoinMarketCap, Messari has both a free and a premium API. Those interested in making use of the premium API can contact Messari for further information on pricing. Messari has a community of analysts which contribute to the newsletter that Messari publishes and also contribute to releasing research reports. Users can find the research reports via the Messari website and can apply to become part of the exclusive analyst community.
Overall, Messari has more of a focus on providing data. The Messari newsletter is filled with interesting research and insights. CoinMarketCap and Coingecko are quick and convenient but Messari is more suitable for those wanting to take a deeper dive into the data.
Price Checker Considerations
While CoinMarketCap remains the dominant price performance checker, both Messari and CoinGecko are both worthy alternatives and offer their own unique benefits over CoinMarketCap. CoinMarketCap is the most popular. This is likely due to it being highly convenient and intuitive to use. CoinGecko is similar to CoinMarketCap but differs in the respect that it provides lists for upcoming ICO’s and their API is also free to use. However, CoinGecko is vastly behind CoinMarketCap in terms of users. CoinMarketCap has over 480,000 followers on Twitter making chump change out of CoinGecko’s 20,000 followers. Messari has even less followership with around 15,000 followers but is differentiating itself to a greater extent with more of a focus on data and research.
