How Ponder and Subsquid (SQD) differ on type, speed, chains and developer experience.
| Ponder | Subsquid (SQD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Open-source framework | Decentralized protocol |
| How it works | Define contracts + event handlers in TypeScript; Ponder indexes to Postgres and serves GraphQL/SQL. Run locally with hot reload or deploy anywhere — fully open-source and code-first. | An open SDK plus a decentralized data lake (the SQD Network): batch-fetch on-chain data fast, transform in TypeScript, and serve. Covers EVM and non-EVM in one framework. |
| Chains | EVM (any via RPC) | 100+ (EVM + non-EVM) |
| Speed | Moderate | Very fast |
| Coding | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Best for | Clean code-first DX | Fast multichain incl. non-EVM |
Pick Ponder for clean code-first dx; pick Subsquid (SQD) for fast multichain incl. non-evm.