The Best Coinbase Alternatives

The multi-asset trading platform makes an excellent alternative to Coinbase given its transparent pricing, social trading capabilities, and intuitive interface. Feature depth and versatility are not eToro’s greatest assets – yet, this allows the platform to match Coinbase in ease of use. The sheer simplicity of the digital products, along with far-reaching educational materials, make eToro a very appealing option for novice traders. The focus on social trading, with which investors can identify, study, and automatically copy experienced traders’ behaviors, helps generate investment ideas and makes up for the lack of research arsenal.

eToro’s 1% flat commission is not among the cheapest in the industry, yet it results in simplicity in pricing when compared to Coinbase’s complex structure based on embedded spread costs.

Coinbase offers an impressive range of 150 coins, with reports of numerous altcoins being unreachable despite being listed, whereas Crypto.com offers exposure to a staggering 250 coins for spot trading. The platform lags behind when it comes to research amenities compared to Coinbase, such as charting features powered by the industry-grade tool TradingView, but Crypto.com can compete with other advanced features such as margin trading or multiple order types.

The pricing structure is also more transparent and straightforward than Coinbase’s, and charges are reduced significantly for the exchange’s native Crypto.com Coin (CRO) holders. Besides lower trading fees, token holders also benefit from easier funding processes, cashback rewards, and higher staking returns.

Note: For a deeper look, we compared Crypto.com and Coinbase - make sure to visit before signing up.

Much like its peers, Coinbase also launched a cryptocurrency debit card through which traders can spend their crypto assets without having to convert them into US dollars beforehand. But it falls short when compared to Uphold's card. The multi-asset trading platform, which also offers forex, stock, and commodity trading, has a unique multi-asset debit card that allows traders to use included securities in their transactions. Assets are converted into fiat currency as the transaction takes place, and FX rates are kept lower than normal bank rates.

The platform also offers more versatile tools geared towards advanced traders when compared to Coinbase. On Uphold, it is possible to automate trades by creating recurring buy and sell orders and setting up custom integrations using the platform’s open application programming interface (API).

The main difference between Kraken and Coinbase lies in their intended audience: Coinbase is an incredibly easy-to-use platform; any trader who has used a regular broker before will find it easy to get used to the platform. Kraken on the other hand, is more geared towards experienced traders; the learning curve is somewhat steeper, and deposit and withdrawal limits are higher.

Traders will appreciate Kraken’s most outstanding feature: Cryptowatch. The tool allows monitoring of over 2,000 crypto markets across multiple exchanges and placing trades with a few taps. It’s also possible to create price and volume alerts and analyze price movements with an in-built charting tool. Through this functionality, the platform extends its services to cover coins that may not be included within the exchange itself and allows keeping tabs on your portfolio at large.

Similar to Kraken, Bitstamp is also equipped with a set of tools and an outlay more suitable for advanced traders. Bitstamp eclipses Coinbase’s freshly launched Advance Trade, a renewed version of CoinbasePro, in terms of quantity and depth of features: The platform includes more order types, including trailing stop and fill-and-kill orders, and an open API to set up custom integrations.

Both platforms offer comparable pricing for high-volume trades, and largely overlap in their security, storage, and regional accessibility specifications. It’s worth noting that Bitstamp can’t match Coinbase’s long list of listed coins, and offers fewer funding options in comparison.

The crypto industry is not known for its solid customer service – almost every exchange across the board is struggling with meeting the demand, and according to customer feedback, Coinbase is among the lowest-scoring platforms in this department.

Changelly has an email address and a ticket system readily available for its customers and - based on customer feedback - the outfit seems to be swift and helpful in its responses. More often than not, team members reply to queries with personalized messages rather than generic ones. The majority of problems is reported to be fixed within 24 hours of the complaint being made.

Besides the customer service, the two platforms overlap in many aspects, including the number of cryptocurrencies included, little to no learning curve for figuring out the workings of the interface, and the services offered.

Coinbase has quickly become a household name due to its incredibly easy-to-use platform. The interface is not much different than that of a regular, new-generation stock broker like Robinhood; it’s intuitive, free of jargon, and neatly organized. In that sense, it has become the first stop for many beginner traders who wish to take their chances with cryptocurrencies.

Besides the ease of use, the platform also harbors an impressive reach of coins, only dwarfed by a few exchanges like Crypto.com. Its Coinbase Earn section is also highly regarded by users, and offers a solid selection of staking and DeFi options with respectable return rates.

Despite being one of the most widely used and established cryptocurrency exchanges available in the US - and being among the few that manage to remain available throughout most of the states - Coinbase’s customer service woes at times eclipse its unique offering. As of this writing, the outfit collects a very low rating of 1.5 from Trustpilot with numerous reports of lost funds, unanswered emails, and unexpectedly blocked accounts.

Coinbase also recently revamped its pricing structure which rendered it costlier and, for some mysterious reason, less transparent. The platform moved away from a maker/taker fee structure and began embedding its fees as spreads that only become available to see right before making the trade.