Hedera
Hedera is a sustainable enterprise-grade public network that lets you build and deploy decentralized applications with high throughput, low fees, and finality in seconds for your business needs.
Stellar
Stellar is an open-source decentralized network that connects global financial institutions to provide low-cost, near-instant cross-border payments and digital asset issuance for businesses and developers worldwide.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Hedera | Stellar |
|---|---|---|
| Website | hedera.com | stellar.org |
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Free |
| Starting Price | Free | Free |
| FREE Trial | ✓ 0 days free trial | ✘ No free trial |
| Free Plan | ✓ Has free plan | ✓ Has free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2018 | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Richardson, USA | San Francisco, USA |
Overview
Hedera
Hedera is a decentralized public network that gives you the tools to build powerful applications with high performance and security. Unlike traditional blockchains, it uses hashgraph consensus to achieve high throughput and low, predictable fees. You can create and manage fungible and non-fungible tokens, build decentralized finance protocols, or verify data integrity across your supply chain with ease.
The platform is governed by a council of global organizations, ensuring stability and long-term reliability for your enterprise projects. You can start building immediately using familiar languages and tools, benefiting from a network that processes thousands of transactions per second with immediate finality. It is designed for developers and businesses who need a carbon-negative, scalable environment for their digital assets and decentralized services.
Stellar
Stellar is an open-source decentralized network designed to help you move money and create digital assets quickly and reliably. Unlike traditional banking systems that take days to settle international transfers, you can clear and settle transactions on Stellar in seconds for a fraction of a cent. You can issue your own digital tokens or use existing stablecoins to represent real-world currencies like Dollars, Euros, or Pesos.
The platform provides a unified infrastructure where you can integrate with global financial institutions through a single integration. Whether you are building a global remittance app, a digital wallet, or a payment gateway, you can access a distributed exchange and automated market makers directly on the network. It simplifies the complexity of blockchain development so you can focus on building financial products that reach anyone, anywhere.
Overview
Hedera Features
- Hedera Token Service Mint and manage your own custom tokens or NFTs with native speed and performance without writing complex smart contracts.
- Consensus Service Create verifiable logs of events for your application to ensure data integrity and transparency across any distributed system.
- Smart Contract Service Deploy Solidity-based smart contracts on a high-performance network that remains fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
- Predictable Low Fees Budget your project accurately with transaction fees pegged to the US Dollar, ensuring costs stay low regardless of token volatility.
- High Throughput Process over 10,000 transactions per second, allowing your application to scale to millions of users without performance bottlenecks.
- ABFT Security Protect your network operations with the highest level of security possible for distributed systems, preventing malicious actors from disrupting consensus.
Stellar Features
- Asset Issuance. Create and manage your own digital tokens to represent currencies, securities, or loyalty points with just a few lines of code.
- Fast Settlement. Confirm your transactions in 3 to 5 seconds using a unique consensus mechanism that doesn't require expensive mining.
- Low-Cost Transactions. Send global payments for a fixed fee of 0.00001 XLM per operation, making micro-payments finally viable for your business.
- Path Payments. Send one currency and have the recipient receive another automatically through the network's built-in decentralized exchange.
- Anchor Integration. Connect your application to regulated financial institutions that handle the on-ramping and off-ramping of local fiat currencies.
- Smart Contracts. Build sophisticated decentralized applications using Soroban, a Rust-based smart contract platform designed for high performance and scalability.
Pricing Comparison
Hedera Pricing
- Free test HBAR
- Access to all network services
- Developer portal access
- Unlimited testing environment
- Community support
- Everything in Testnet, plus:
- Live network deployment
- $0.0001 average transaction fee
- Real-world asset minting
- Enterprise-grade governance
- Production-ready scalability
Stellar Pricing
- Open-source access
- 0.00001 XLM base fee
- Unlimited transactions
- Public API access
- Community support
- Standard ledger limits
- Free testing environment
- Free test XLM (Friendbot)
- Full API functionality
- No real-world value risk
- Rapid prototyping
- Developer documentation
Pros & Cons
Hedera
Pros
- Extremely low and predictable transaction costs
- Fast transaction finality in under five seconds
- Carbon-negative footprint supports your sustainability goals
- Strong enterprise backing provides long-term stability
- EVM compatibility simplifies migration from Ethereum
Cons
- More centralized governance than some competitors
- Learning curve for hashgraph-specific architecture
- Smaller ecosystem of dApps compared to Ethereum
Stellar
Pros
- Extremely low transaction fees for global payments
- Fast settlement times compared to other blockchains
- Built-in decentralized exchange for easy currency conversion
- Comprehensive developer documentation and SDK support
- Energy-efficient consensus protocol reduces environmental impact
Cons
- Requires holding a minimum XLM balance
- Smaller ecosystem compared to Ethereum or Bitcoin
- Limited smart contract complexity before Soroban update