What to Consider When Choosing an RPC Provider

In the rapidly expanding blockchain ecosystem, developers and protocols are only as strong as the infrastructure they build on. While smart contracts and consensus layers get most of the spotlight, it’s the often-overlooked Remote Procedure Call (RPC) layer that serves as the real lifeline between dApps and blockchain networks. In 2025, as blockchain adoption scales, the importance of fast and reliable RPC solutions has never been more pronounced. The surge in dApps and the expansion of blockchain networks have highlighted performance gaps in many decentralized RPC providers, which often lack the load balancing, caching and throughput optimization needed to handle high traffic efficiently. As demand continues to rise, decentralized RPCs can struggle with latency, inconsistent uptime, and limited support for complex, high-frequency applications. Given the high stakes, let’s explore five critical factors to weigh when selecting an RPC provider.

1) General reliability

Needless to say, downtime kills dApps. Whether you're building DeFi protocols, NFT platforms or high-frequency trading apps, even a few seconds of RPC unavailability can lead to failed transactions, undermined user trust and serious revenue loss. The best RPC providers offer near-perfect uptime and automated failover systems.

At Gateway.fm, we currently support an array of enterprise services such as unlimited requests per second and multi-region support – which allows us to be closer to the clients traffic for faster transaction responses, which is especially important for DeFi protocols. We also offer dedicated nodes, enabling clients to have their own cluster of nodes for their own usage without being shared with other clients.

2) Latency & Speed

High-latency RPC connections can result in missed blocks, transaction failures and a compromised user experience. Whether you’re submitting trades in a decentralized exchange or updating an NFT’s metadata, slow RPC performance can be catastrophic. The right RPC provider should offer low-latency global routing, load balancing and optimized response times.

Compared to industry averages, Gateway.fm’s RPC services consistently demonstrate lower latency, higher throughput (handling tens of thousands of RPC requests per second), and excellent uptime metrics. Two key factors power this performance edge: a smart load balancing system that intelligently routes traffic across its infrastructure and a highly optimized caching layer that reduces response times for repeated queries.

3) Scalability

In an ideal world, your RPC provider should scale in parallel with your application. For scaling blockchain applications, particularly those running on high-volume chains like Solana, Ethereum or L2s, horizontal scalability of the RPC layer is an absolute prerequisite. While decentralized infrastructure has its merits, Gateway.fm takes a focused approach: by centralizing control, we’re able to deliver superior speed, uptime, and throughput that meets the needs of scaling, high-frequency DeFi applications, NFT platforms, and emerging Web3 services.

4) Overall cost

I think we can all agree that developers should be focused on building apps, not wasting time in the weeds navigating the infrastructure. A good RPC provider removes friction and lets builders focus on shipping features. Additionally, free, reliable RPC infrastructure lowers the barrier to entry, allowing more innovation and experimentation, especially in early-stage projects.

Our free public RPC infrastructure enables developers to effortlessly execute smart contracts and build dApps. Free, reliable RPC infrastructure also ensures network stability while facilitating faster transaction processing times for developers. Moreover, with reliable RPC infrastructure, developers can focus on building their applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

5) Ease of use

At Gateway.fm, we have made it very simple for developers to get started with our services with just a few clicks. It’s really as simple as copying a URL to their dApp and they are connected to our service. If the developer needs higher bandwidth or specific service SLA they can just create an account which takes 1 minute to add their email and they are set up and ready to go. We offer a range of RPC endpoints to match developer needs:

• Public RPC: Free and accessible to everyone, with bandwidth limits for fairness and stability.
• Private RPC: Dedicated access via API keys, tailored for individual developers or teams.
• Partner RPC: Custom bandwidth and access profiles set up for projects with larger or specialized needs.
• Dedicated Nodes: Full machines reserved for single projects, enabling maximum control and isolation.

An additional feature, address blocklisting, lets teams restrict specific wallet addresses from accessing the network, providing an extra layer of operational control and compliance. We greatly simplify the integration process too, enabling developers to start using public RPCs in seconds, and with just a quick sign-up, unlock access to private or partner services with more bandwidth and service-level customization.

Case study: Gateway.fm Building Public Soroban RPC Infrastructure for Stellar

Last year, our partners at Stellar announced the launch of Soroban, the Stellar Development Foundation’s long-awaited smart contracts platform, designed to empower developers to build, deploy and interact with dApps on the Stellar blockchain.

For us at Gateway.fm, we were extremely proud to work closely with the Stellar team to help bring this vision to life, playing a key role in building the public Soroban RPC infrastructure on privately hosted data centers. This critical work strengthened the decentralization of the network and provided free, reliable public RPC access, allowing developers to seamlessly execute smart contracts and scale dApps on Stellar/Soroban.

Throughout Soroban’s two-year test phase, which Gateway was deeply involved in, the platform attracted over 190 projects across industries like gaming, lending and insurance, signaling strong market demand for programmable, low-cost smart contract functionality. At the time of launch, Soroban represented the most significant upgrade in Stellar’s history, expanding its use case from payments to full-scale DeFi, NFTs and beyond.

Gateway.fm has a demonstrable track record when it comes to delivering robust node infrastructure, high-performance validators, and developer-first tooling that helps Web3 projects scale efficiently. We are firmly committed to democratizing access to scalable Web3 infrastructure, while empowering developers and projects to do their best work in a supportive and purpose-built environment.

For more information on how we can help your project, please contact