Lava Network vs PublicNode

Lava Network leads on 2 of 7 shared benchmarks, PublicNode on 5. Lava Network wins on Most reliable free public RPC, correctness incidents across 7 EVM chains (3 vs 45), Fastest free Cosmos Hub RPC, live no-key Cosmos SDK endpoint latency (67 ms vs 203 ms). PublicNode wins on Fastest free public RPC for Ethereum, BNB, Polygon and 23 more chains (197 ms vs 298 ms), Fastest free Ethereum RPC, live no-key endpoint latency (101 ms vs 390 ms), Fastest free Arbitrum RPC, live no-key endpoint latency (90 ms vs 266 ms), Fastest free Sonic RPC, live no-key endpoint latency (95 ms vs 443 ms).

Read methodology Last measured Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:29:44 UTCWindow: rolling 24h7 shared benchmarks

Lava Network

Lava Network is a decentralized RPC mesh with permissionless validators. Public no-key endpoints work for Ethereum (`eth1.lava.build`) and Arbitrum (`arb1.lava.build`); other chains require an account-issued key.

PublicNode

Public no-key RPC service operated by Allnodes covering 70+ chains. JSON-RPC and WebSocket endpoints with archive support on most networks.

Side by side measurements

Fastest free public RPC for Ethereum, BNB, Polygon and 23 more chains (plus Solana and Polkadot)

RPCs

Lava Network

Trails

298 ms

p99: 2.39 s
rank: #9
samples: 21,556

PublicNode

Leads

197 ms

p99: 851 ms
rank: #3
samples: 267,574

Per chain · per region

Chain	Provider	US-East	EU-West	Singapore	Aggregate
Ethereum	Lava Network	395 ms	382 ms	394 ms	390 ms
Ethereum	PublicNode	100 ms	101 ms	101 ms	101 ms
Arbitrum	Lava Network	273 ms	254 ms	272 ms	266 ms
Arbitrum	PublicNode	91 ms	87 ms	93 ms	90 ms

Latency is conditional on success: the harness times only calls returning a valid fresh block, so a mostly-failing endpoint can post a fast p50. Rows below 50 percent success are degraded; unresponsive probes pin below the table. The All chains aggregate favours single-chain foundation endpoints (Base, Binance, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche officials) since they rank on one chain only; use a chain tab for honest comparison. Dead endpoints (cloudflare-eth POST returns -32603) are excluded.

Fastest free Ethereum RPC, live no-key endpoint latency

RPCs

Lava Network

Trails

390 ms

p99: 3.08 s
rank: #6
samples: 4,314

PublicNode

Leads

101 ms

p99: 418 ms
rank: #1
samples: 4,316

Per region

Region	Lava Network	PublicNode
US-East	395 ms	100 ms
EU-West	382 ms	101 ms
Singapore	394 ms	102 ms

Fastest free Arbitrum RPC, live no-key endpoint latency

RPCs

Lava Network

Trails

266 ms

p99: 2.11 s
rank: #5
samples: 4,308

PublicNode

Leads

90 ms

p99: 495 ms
rank: #1
samples: 4,315

Per region

Region	Lava Network	PublicNode
US-East	273 ms	91 ms
EU-West	254 ms	87 ms
Singapore	272 ms	93 ms

Fastest free Sonic RPC, live no-key endpoint latency

RPCs

Lava Network

Trails

443 ms

p99: 3.00 s
rank: #5
samples: 4,308

PublicNode

Leads

95 ms

p99: 280 ms
rank: #1
samples: 4,310

Per region

Region	Lava Network	PublicNode
US-East	408 ms	94 ms
EU-West	424 ms	99 ms
Singapore	487 ms	91 ms

Fastest free Solana RPC, live no-key endpoint latency

RPCs

Lava Network

Trails

323 ms

p99: 2.26 s
rank: #4
samples: 4,306

PublicNode

Leads

94 ms

p99: 5.44 s
rank: #2
samples: 4,310

Per region

Region	Lava Network	PublicNode
US-East	293 ms	94 ms
EU-West	342 ms	96 ms
Singapore	337 ms	92 ms

Most reliable free public RPC, correctness incidents across 7 EVM chains

RPCs

Lava Network

Leads

p99: 149
rank: #1
samples: 168

PublicNode

Trails

p99: 52.7K
rank: #2
samples: 576

A zero row means no incident was caught in the window, not a proof of correctness. Most providers post zero most days; this bench exists for the days they do not, and for the errors: a blocked eth_getLogs or a balance read gated behind a paid key at 40 blocks of depth counts as an incident because it is one from the caller's seat.

Fastest free Cosmos Hub RPC, live no-key Cosmos SDK endpoint latency

RPCs

Lava Network

Leads

67 ms

p99: 1.51 s
rank: #1
samples: 4,318

PublicNode

Trails

203 ms

p99: 626 ms
rank: #4
samples: 4,319

Per region

Region	Lava Network	PublicNode
US-East	69 ms	253 ms
EU-West	68 ms	95 ms
Singapore	65 ms	261 ms

Frequently asked questions

Lava Network vs PublicNode: which one is better?

Lava Network and PublicNode are compared on 7 shared OpenChainBench benchmarks. Lava Network leads on Most reliable free public RPC, correctness incidents across 7 EVM chains. PublicNode leads on Fastest free public RPC for Ethereum, BNB, Polygon and 23 more chains. See the live table on this page for every metric.

Which is faster, Lava Network or PublicNode?

On the Most reliable free public RPC, correctness incidents across 7 EVM chains benchmark, Lava Network leads at 3 versus PublicNode at 45. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

Which is faster, Lava Network or PublicNode?

On the Fastest free public RPC for Ethereum, BNB, Polygon and 23 more chains benchmark, PublicNode leads at 197 ms versus Lava Network at 298 ms. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

How is the Lava Network vs PublicNode comparison measured?

Every benchmark on this page uses the same open methodology, published at https://openchainbench.com/methodology. Data is CC-BY-4.0. Measurement harnesses are MIT-licensed.

How this pair was selected

Auto-generated pairs require: both providers in the same benchmark for seven consecutive days, at least 1000 samples per provider, observable third-party search demand, and a public /products/[slug] page on OCB. Editorially curated pairs (like this one) may publish early when search demand is high and data is accruing — panels with fewer than 100 samples are shown as provisional. The full pair ledger is versioned in the public repo.