# Chromia vs Ethereum vs Solana: fees, storage, SQL, finality

> Chromia, Ethereum and Solana compared on transaction fees, storage cost, SQL-style querying, data storage, developer language and finality. Every figure sourced and dated (read 1 Nov 2026). Fee and storage prices are live on the HTML page.

Source: https://chromia.com/compare/

| Measure | Chromia | Ethereum (L1) | Solana |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee a user pays per transaction | $0 for users; the app's developer leases hosting [1] | ≈$0.002 for a plain ETH transfer at 0.04 gwei (21,000 gas); 24 h average $0.14, median $0.02 on 1 Nov 2026 [3][4] | ≈$0.0005 base fee (5,000 lamports per signature) plus optional priority fee [8] |
| Cost to store data | ≈$90 per week for one container unit (2 GB RAM, 0.5 vCPU, 16 GB storage), live from economy_chain; files $0.10 per MB once, 30+ years (Filehub) [1][2][22] | ≈$0.06 per KB, ≈$64 per MB at today's gas (20,000 gas per new 32-byte slot) [5] | ≈$0.56 per KB, ≈$506 per MB refundable deposit (rent-exempt minimum) [9] |
| Relational / SQL querying | Yes: Rell queries compile to SQL on PostgreSQL, served by nodes [6] | No native query language; key/value trie; indexers such as The Graph [10][11] | No SQL; getProgramAccounts filters by bytes/size; indexers [12] |
| How data is stored | Own chain and PostgreSQL database per app, on every node of its cluster [7][13] | One global state in a Merkle Patricia trie, kept forever; EIP-4844 blobs deleted after ~18 days [10][14] | Accounts up to 10 MiB each; history archived outside validators [9][15] |
| Developer language | Rell [6] | Solidity, Vyper [16] | Rust (Anchor, Pinocchio, native) [17] |
| Finality | ≈1–2 s, final on commit: a transaction waits at most 1 s for its block, which is final once more than two-thirds of nodes sign it (EBFT); no reorgs [13][18][24] | ≈13–15 min (2 epochs ≈12.8 min; ethereum.org: about 15 min); single-slot finality still on the roadmap [19][20] | ≈150 ms target with Alpenglow, live on mainnet since 21 Oct 2026 (was ≈12.8 s) [21] |
| Block time | ≈2 s busy · 30 s idle (measured on 11 mainnet chains: busy chains median 2.1 s, idle chains an empty block every ≈30 s) [23][24] | 12 s slots [19] | ≈0.215 s per slot measured [23] |

Not sourced, so not shown: a typical Solana priority fee; a per-KB price for Chromia app data (the lease bundles compute and storage).

## Sources
1. [docs.chromia.com · Hosting](https://docs.chromia.com/get-started/about/hosting/): “…no gas fees, meaning users don't pay for transactions. Instead of gas fees, developers lease containers…” · “One SCU provides 2 GB of RAM, 0.5 vCPU, 16 GB of storage”; weekly target cost ≈90 USD (read 1 Nov 2026)
2. [docs.chromia.com · Filehub overview](https://docs.chromia.com/ecosystem/filehub/overview/): “The current price is $0.10 per MB for perpetual storage. Your files will remain accessible for a minimum of 30 years.” (read 1 Nov 2026)
3. [ethereum.org · Gas and fees](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/gas/): A standard ETH transfer uses 21,000 gas (read 1 Nov 2026)
4. [Blockchair · Ethereum stats API](https://api.blockchair.com/ethereum/stats): average_transaction_fee_usd_24h 0.143 · median_transaction_fee_usd_24h 0.022 (read 1 Nov 2026, 14:18 UTC)
5. [EIP-2200 · SSTORE gas metering](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2200): “SSTORE_SET_GAS: 20000” (writing a new, previously zero storage slot) (EIP status Final; read 1 Nov 2026)
6. [docs.chromia.com · What is Rell](https://docs.chromia.com/get-started/about/what-is-rell/): “Rell compiles into optimized SQL queries that run on Chromia's PostgreSQL-backed blockchain.” (read 1 Nov 2026)
7. [docs.chromia.com · Platform architecture](https://docs.chromia.com/get-started/about/architecture/platform-architecture/): “each dapp operates on its own unique blockchain(s)…” (read 1 Nov 2026)
8. [solana.com · Fees](https://solana.com/docs/core/fees): “a base fee of 5,000 lamports per signature and an optional prioritization fee” (read 1 Nov 2026)
9. [solana.com · Account structure](https://solana.com/docs/core/accounts/account-structure): Minimum balance “proportional to the account's data size… ongoing rent collection is disabled”; max account size 10 MiB (read 1 Nov 2026)
10. [ethereum.org · Merkle Patricia Trie](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/data-structures-and-encoding/patricia-merkle-trie/): State lives in a trie stored in a flat key/value database (page updated 25 Feb 2026)
11. [ethereum.org · Data and analytics](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/data-and-analytics/): “The Graph is an indexing protocol that provides an easy way to query blockchain data…” (read 1 Nov 2026)
12. [solana.com · getProgramAccounts](https://solana.com/docs/rpc/http/getprogramaccounts): “Returns accounts owned by the specified program, optionally filtered by data content or size.” (read 1 Nov 2026)
13. [docs.chromia.com · Node architecture](https://docs.chromia.com/get-started/about/architecture/node/): Nodes store blockchain data in PostgreSQL; consensus is EBFT; a final block stays final (read 1 Nov 2026)
14. [ethereum.org · Danksharding](https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/danksharding/): Blob data “is automatically deleted after… about 18 days” (page updated 24 Jun 2026)
15. [Anza docs · RPC transaction history](https://docs.anza.xyz/implemented-proposals/rpc-transaction-history): Long transaction history is kept in an external store, not in validators’ ledgers (read 1 Nov 2026)
16. [ethereum.org · Smart contract languages](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/smart-contracts/languages/): “The two most active and maintained languages are: Solidity, Vyper” (read 1 Nov 2026)
17. [solana.com · Programs](https://solana.com/docs/core/programs): Programs are written in Rust: “the Anchor, Pinocchio, and native Rust development approaches” (read 1 Nov 2026)
18. [chromia.com · home page](https://chromia.com/): “~2s to finalize a block” (read 1 Nov 2026)
19. [ethereum.org · Proof-of-stake](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/): Slots of 12 seconds, epochs of 32 slots (page updated 7 Oct 2026)
20. [ethereum.org · Single-slot finality](https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/single-slot-finality/): “It takes about 15 minutes for an Ethereum block to finalize.” Single-slot finality is listed as a roadmap item (page updated 23 Jul 2026)
21. [solana.com · Alpenglow](https://solana.com/upgrades/alpenglow): “Alpenglow is live on mainnet. It activated in epoch 1064… October 21, 2026…” Under TowerBFT finality took about 12.8 s; Alpenglow targets roughly 150 ms (read 1 Nov 2026)
22. [Chromia mainnet · economy_chain, live](https://chromia.com/#q=economy_chain%7Ccreate_container_cost(container_units%20%3D%201%2C%20duration_weeks%20%3D%201%2C%20extra_storage_gib%20%3D%200%2C%20cluster_name%20%3D%20%22pink%22%2C%20subnode_image_name%20%3D%20%22%22%2C%20extra_compute_requests%20%3D%200)): create_container_cost for 1 container unit, 1 week, and get_price_oracle_rates (CHR and ETH in USD). Run it yourself with the live demo. (live; 5,410 CHR ≈ $90 on 1 Nov 2026)
23. [Measured by us · block and slot times](https://chromia.com/explorer/): Chromia: median interval over the last 50 blocks of each chain: economy_chain 2.10 s, system_anchoring 2.11 s, cluster_anchoring_system 2.09 s; directory_chain, token_chain, price_oracle_chain, mines_of_dalarnia, filehub, colorpool_dex, dapp_aggregator 30.0–30.1 s; my_neighbor_alice 33 s. Solana: getRecentPerformanceSamples on Solana’s public RPC = 0.215 s per slot, ≈1,456 tx/s (Chromia measured 1 Nov 2026, 16:24 UTC; Solana 14:21–14:23 UTC)
24. [Postchain source (gitlab.com/chromaway) · block strategy and EBFT commit](https://gitlab.com/chromaway/core/postchain/-/blob/ca8d9406bff2dfdcd96d606914086078ac601b9a/postchain-base/src/main/kotlin/net/postchain/base/BaseBlockBuildingStrategy.kt#L92-108): maxtxdelay 1000 ms and maxblocktime 30000 ms by default; mainnet chains set mininterblockinterval 1000 ms. A block commits once n − (n−1)/3 nodes have signed it (commit ca8d940, 26 Oct 2026; read 1 Nov 2026)