Data Availability Layers
Data Availability Layers evaluated across a verifiable published cost per MB, what actually secures the data, live sampling and how long data stays retrievable, and the blast radius if it halts, with documented uptime.
7providers tracked
7ranked (methodology v2026.11.1)
12 November 2026Ranking snapshot
22 October 2026oldest read · due 6 DecIndependent. Evidence-based.We rank with a published method and sourced evidence. No one can pay to rank.How it works
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Out of 7 ranked providers. 0 excluded.
What this ranks
Ranked here: data availability layers that secure a rollup's data and keep it retrievable, for anyone moving that data off Ethereum to cut costs.Not ranked here: products that are not data availability layers for rollup data moved off Ethereum.7 of the 7 assessed are ranked.Requirements narrow the list; they never change a published ChainChoice Score. How the ranking works
Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS)
How Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) was chosen
Leads this ranking on Verifiable published cost per MBNative L1 blobspace
82 / 100 out of 100published score, #1 of all 7 worldwide
Evidence
High
4/4 criteria scored, with 4 dated sources quoted.Verifiable published cost per MBWhat actually secures the dataBlast radius if it halts + documented uptime
Why it leads
- Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) is 11 points ahead of Ethereum L1 Calldata, mainly because it scores higher on its published cost per mb and its das and retention.
- Best in this ranking on published cost per mb and das and retention
- Ahead of Ethereum L1 Calldata on published cost per mb (+11.2 points) and das and retention (+3.1 points)
Tradeoff
Security model actual: 1 point below the best in this ranking
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#ProviderPriceCompare
2
EL
The security ceiling
71 / 100 out of 100
3
Sovereign DA chain
68 / 100 out of 100
4
Substrate NPoS DA chain
51 / 100 out of 100
5
EI
Restaked-ETH DA from Eigen Labs
46 / 100 out of 100
6
Blob store on NEAR receipts
≤41 / 100 out of 100
7
Same score, not joint · ordered by weighted total (32.40 against 32.30)
AI-oriented DA layer
≤41 / 100 out of 100
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See key differences in features, fees, security and more.
Published cost per mb
Verifiable published cost per MB
30% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.
| Provider | Published cost per mb (0–10) | ChainChoice Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) | 9 | 82 |
| Celestia | 7 | 68 |
| EigenDA | 4 | 46 |
| Ethereum L1 Calldata | 3 | 71 |
| Avail DA | 2 | 51 |
| NEAR DA | 1 | 41 |
| 0G DA | 1 | 41 |
Security model actual
What actually secures the data
30% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.
| Provider | Security model actual (0–10) | ChainChoice Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum L1 Calldata | 10 | 71 |
| Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) | 9 | 82 |
| Celestia | 6 | 68 |
| Avail DA | 5 | 51 |
| EigenDA | 3 | 46 |
| NEAR DA | 2 | 41 |
| 0G DA | 2 | 41 |
Das and retention
Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable
25% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.
| Provider | Das and retention (0–10) | ChainChoice Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) | 8 | 82 |
| Ethereum L1 Calldata | 6 | 71 |
| Celestia | 6 | 68 |
| Avail DA | 5 | 51 |
| EigenDA | 2 | 46 |
| 0G DA | 2 | 41 |
| NEAR DA | 1 | 41 |
Halt blast radius
Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime
15% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.
| Provider | Halt blast radius (0–10) | ChainChoice Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum L1 Calldata | 10 | 71 |
| Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) | 9 | 82 |
| Celestia | 7 | 68 |
| NEAR DA | 4 | 41 |
| Avail DA | 3 | 51 |
| EigenDA | 2 | 46 |
| 0G DA | 2 | 41 |
All 4 published criteria
Every ranked row’s score on each criterion, in the published order. Choose a column to order by it.
| Provider | ChainChoice Score | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 82 |
| 2 | Ethereum L1 Calldata | 3 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 71 |
| 3 | Celestia | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 68 |
| 4 | Avail DA | 2 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 51 |
| 5 | EigenDA | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 46 |
| 6 | NEAR DA | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 41 |
| 7 | 0G DA | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 41 |
How this ranking works
How firm the #1 is, the per-criterion arithmetic behind each score, who pays ChainChoice, and which data availability layers were assessed and left out.
FirmThis verdict holds under every one-point re-read
See the arithmetic
Every published criterion was moved up and down by one point and the ranking re-run. The same product came first each time. The published rankings file
Why this score4 published criteria · leads 2 of 4
Published criterionWtScore, and the best hereGap/10 out of 10Pts
Verifiable published cost per MB7.2·98.6
What actually secures the data7.2−198.6
Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable6·86.4
Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime3.6−194.3
Σ methodology points28.0/32
Each bar is the score on that criterion’s own 0–10 scale, never rescaled to the pool. The dark line is the best any product here reached on that axis. Wt is the most the criterion can add to the 86-point weighted total. Pts is weight × score × 32; the sum is the methodology score, and each weighted point behind the leader costs 2.6 on the displayed score. how these are weighted
Why it ranks first
Why Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) leads this category right now
Native L1 blobspace, sampled since Fusaka, pruned after about 18 days. Strongest on verifiable published cost per MB (9/10): Blob pricing is a protocol rule in EIP-4844 and EIP-7918, reproducible to the wei from any block header. At the 2026-10-22 median it is about $0.0116 per MiB, with a same-day range of $0.0048 to $0.0355, because blobs trade on a spot fee market. Weakest on sampling live + how long data stays retrievable (8/10): PeerDAS (EIP-7594) is live on mainnet since December 2025: nodes sample and custody columns instead of downloading every blob. Blob data is kept for 4,096 epochs, about 18 days, then pruned; after that a rollup depends on archives or its own copies. Published price: EIP-4844 (Final, fetched 2026-10-22): GAS_PER_BLOB 2**17 (131,072); MIN_BASE_FEE_PER_BLOB_GAS 1.
Best for
Verifiable published cost per MB — 9/10
Main tradeoff
'As safe as Ethereum' is true for the attestation and false for the archive: consensus clients are only required to serve blob sidecars for 4096 epochs, about 18 days. After that the data is gone from the protocol and you need your own archive or a third-party blob indexer. Also, the price you see is a spot price on a volatile fee market — the $0.0145/MiB measured here is the median of blocks 25,982,517-25,983,541 on 15 September 2026 (5,748,814 wei per blob gas, ETH at $2,402.28); within that window block 25,983,538 reached $0.163/MiB, and the later blocks 25,983,956-25,984,979 had a median of $0.0321/MiB.
Verify before signup
EIP-4844 (Final, fetched 22 October 2026): GAS_PER_BLOB 2**17 (131,072); MIN_BASE_FEE_PER_BLOB_GAS 1. EIP-7918 (Final, live since Fusaka; fetched 22 October 2026) adds a reserve price: "the reserve blob base fee becomes BLOB_BASE_COST * base_fee_per_gas / GAS_PER_BLOB" with BLOB_BASE_COST 2**13, a ratio that "is 1/16". Live mainnet, 2026-10-22: eth_config (ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com) current blobSchedule {"baseFeeUpdateFraction":11684671,"max":21,"target":14}, no next fork scheduled. eth_feeHistory (ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com) over blocks 26,245,860-26,246,883 gives a blob base fee of min 1,896,597 / median 4,583,621 / max 14,019,988 wei and an execution base fee median of 81,733,558 wei; in 999 of the 1,024 blocks the blob base fee was at or below 1.05x the EIP-7918 reserve (execution base fee / 16), so the blob price now tracks execution gas. Latest block 26,246,887 (08:13:23 UTC): excessBlobGas 0xb5a0102 = 190,447,874, which fake_exponential(1, 190,447,874, 11,684,671) turns into 11,982,412 wei per blob gas, against a reserve of 12,545,257 wei (baseFeePerGas 0xbf6ce96 = 200,724,118 / 16). DERIVED (arithmetic) at ETH $2,416.88 (CoinGecko 22 October 2026): at the median, 131,072 x 4,583,621 wei = $0.00145 per 128 KiB blob = $0.0116/MiB raw, $0.0120/MiB on the 126,976 usable bytes; window min $0.0048/MiB, max $0.0355/MiB. This is a spot price on a fee market, not a fixed rate.
Recommendation summary
What should decide this category
Can you read a real price per MB off a public page or on-chain parameter today, or does it require a sales conversation?
How many days is your data guaranteed retrievable before you depend on archival nodes or your own snapshots?
If the layer halts, does sequencing stop and can the L1 bridge still verify the attestation?
Quick picks
Strong options in this category
Start with the lead choice first, then use the shortlist only if you still need a challenger or stronger fit for a specific setup.
Best overall
Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS)
Native L1 blobspace, sampled since Fusaka, pruned after about 18 days
Native L1 blobspace, sampled since Fusaka, pruned after about 18 days. Strongest on verifiable published cost per MB (9/10): Blob pricing is a protocol rule in EIP-4844 and EIP-7918, reproducible to the wei from any block header. At the 2026-10-22 median it is about $0.0116 per MiB, with a same-day range of $0.0048 to $0.0355, because blobs trade on a spot fee market. Weakest on sampling live + how long data stays retrievable (8/10): PeerDAS (EIP-7594) is live on mainnet since December 2025: nodes sample and custody columns instead of downloading every blob. Blob data is kept for 4,096 epochs, about 18 days, then pruned; after that a rollup depends on archives or its own copies. Published price: EIP-4844 (Final, fetched 2026-10-22): GAS_PER_BLOB 2**17 (131,072); MIN_BASE_FEE_PER_BLOB_GAS 1.
Best for: Verifiable published cost per MB — 9/10
Verifiable published cost per MB · weight 30%9/10What actually secures the data · weight 30%9/10Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable · weight 25%8/10Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime · weight 15%9/10
Quick pick
EL
Ethereum L1 Calldata
The security ceiling: longest retention here, sampled by nobody, 267x blob cost
The security ceiling: longest retention here, sampled by nobody, 267x blob cost. Strongest on what actually secures the data (10/10): Calldata sits in the body of executed Ethereum transactions and is secured directly by Ethereum L1 consensus, with no second validator set, disperser or sidecar in between. Weakest on verifiable published cost per MB (3/10): Calldata pricing is fully published (EIP-2028, EIP-7623), but data-posting transactions pay 40 gas per non-zero byte: about $8.29 per MiB at the 2026-10-22 median base fee, roughly 700 times the Ethereum blob median that day. Published price: EIP-2028 (Final, fetched 2026-10-22): "The gas per non-zero byte is reduced from 68 to 16.
Best for: What actually secures the data — 10/10
Verifiable published cost per MB · weight 30%3/10What actually secures the data · weight 30%10/10Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable · weight 25%6/10Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime · weight 15%10/10
Quick pick
Celestia
Sovereign DA chain with light-client sampling and its own validator set
Sovereign DA chain with light-client sampling and its own validator set. Strongest on verifiable published cost per MB (7/10): Celestia publishes every fee parameter in its docs and app spec, and the clearing gas price is on-chain: 1 MiB costs about $0.0205 at the 2026-10-22 gas and TIA prices, 1.77x the Ethereum blob median that day. The docs still say there is no protocol minimum fee, which the spec contradicts. Weakest on what actually secures the data (6/10): Celestia's data is secured by its own TIA-staked validator set, not by Ethereum. Its docs state that light-node sampling means availability does not depend on an honest majority of block producers. Published price: celestia-app parameters v10 spec (raw.githubusercontent.com/celestiaorg/celestia-app/main/specs/src/parameters_v10.md, fetched 2026-10-22; the latest mainnet block header, height 15,182,637, read from a Celestia node reports app version 10, up from 9 on…
Best for: Verifiable published cost per MB — 7/10
Verifiable published cost per MB · weight 30%7/10What actually secures the data · weight 30%6/10Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable · weight 25%6/10Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime · weight 15%7/10
Quick pick
Avail DA
Substrate NPoS DA chain with KZG light-client sampling, price unpublished
Substrate NPoS DA chain with KZG light-client sampling, price unpublished. Strongest on what actually secures the data (5/10): Avail runs its own Nominated Proof of Stake validator set: a supermajority must sign each header, which carries KZG commitments to the data, before GRANDPA finalises it. Security rests on the AVAIL stake, not on Ethereum. Weakest on verifiable published cost per MB (2/10): Avail's fee formula depends on submitDataFeeModifier, a governance-set value its docs do not print, so no price per MB can be formed from published numbers. Turbo DA, the hosted fast path, is a whitelisted private beta whose credits have no public price. Published price: Read 2026-10-22 (docs.availproject.org/docs/da/concepts/tx-pricing): "Base fee: The minimum base amount attached to every single transaction.
Best for: What actually secures the data — 5/10
Verifiable published cost per MB · weight 30%2/10What actually secures the data · weight 30%5/10Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable · weight 25%5/10Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime · weight 15%3/10
Considered and not ranked
None left out by name
We assessed 7 products here and rank all 7. No product has been turned away by name; when one is, its name and the reason appear here. Evidence last read 22 October 2026.
What this ranking does not assess
- Contract failure: the code holding the funds is exploited.
- Control failure: a key or vote changes the rules, freezes or mints.
These can still cost you money here; the ranking does not measure them, so a high place says nothing about them. Which criterion scores each family, and why the others do not apply, is in /data/risk-coverage.json.
How this ranking is built
Reviewed on published cost per MB, what actually secures the data, sampling and retention, and blast radius if the layer halts.
Data checked Oct 2026 · Independent rankings · We show our work
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means every product ranked on this page was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.
Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.
How we review · Review calendar · Corrections log · How we make money
Direct answer
What is the best data availability layer in 2026?
Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) ranks #1 overall for data availability layers on ChainChoice. Native L1 blobspace, sampled since Fusaka, pruned after about 18 days. It holds that rank under an affiliate-blind methodology scored across 4 published, weighted criteria — the code that ranks providers physically cannot read affiliate payouts (CI-enforced), so a payout can't move a rank. The verdict re-computes on every fee change, incident, or regulatory action; the full reasoning and the audit receipt are under Methodology.
How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
- Verification failure: an invalid state or transfer is accepted.Scored by What actually secures the data · 30% (Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) 9/10, Ethereum L1 Calldata 10/10, Celestia 6/10)Scored by Sampling live + how long data stays retrievable · 25% (Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) 8/10, Ethereum L1 Calldata 6/10, Celestia 6/10)
- Liveness failure: the operator stops, censors you or loses data.Scored by Blast radius if it halts + documented uptime · 15% (Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS) 9/10, Ethereum L1 Calldata 10/10, Celestia 7/10)
Not assessed by this ranking: Contract failure, Control failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means.
Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: Verifiable published cost per MB (30%).
FAQs
3 questions readers ask before choosing data availability layers.
Frequently asked
Questions people ask before choosing DA layers
Is Ethereum blobspace really much more expensive than alternative DA layers?
Not by the margin the category claims. Measured on 2026-08-05 with every price taken from the parameter or page that sets it and converted the same day, Ethereum blobs came to $0.0177/MiB and Celestia — the cheapest verified layer in this comparison — to $0.0121/MiB. That is roughly a 1.5x gap, not the 25x or more that alternative-DA marketing typically cites, because those figures were written when blob base fees were at a different level. EigenDA is the sharpest example: its own payments documentation quotes 0.015 ETH/GB, which works out to $0.0274/MiB, making it more expensive than the Ethereum blobs it is sold as an alternative to.
How long does my rollup data actually stay available?
Every layer in this category prunes, including Ethereum, and the guaranteed windows differ by more than an order of magnitude. Ethereum consensus clients are only required to serve blob sidecars for 4096 epochs — around 18 days. Celestia light nodes sample a 7-day window as of celestia-app v6 under CIP-36, and its docs warn that archival nodes serving historical data for free is not guaranteed. NEAR DA prunes from consensus after roughly 36 to 60 hours. Only Ethereum L1 calldata is permanent, and it measured 334x the cost of blobs. If a rollup node can go offline for a long weekend, that retention window is a real operational constraint, not a footnote.
Which DA layers actually run data availability sampling today?
Sampling lets a light client establish that data was published without downloading all of it. Celestia runs it in production, with light nodes sampling a share matrix and gossiping verified shares. Avail runs it light-client-side, sampling cells against per-row KZG commitments to compute a confidence score. Ethereum began sampling with PeerDAS at the Fusaka upgrade, with each full node holding a fraction of the data. EigenDA has none — validators hold disjoint erasure-coded shards sized to their stake — and what 0G describes as sampling is a node-side workload optimisation rather than the trust-minimising kind a rollup user runs.
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Best picks
Best data availability layers in 2026
Weighted on verifiable published cost per MB (30), what actually secures the data (30), live sampling and how long data stays retrievable (25), and the blast radius if it halts, with documented uptime (15). The heaviest is verifiable published cost per MB: Can a buyer read a real price per MB off a public page or on-chain parameter today, and what is it when converted to USD at spot?
Best overall
Ethereum Blobs (EIP-4844 / PeerDAS)
Native L1 blobspace, sampled since Fusaka, pruned after about 18 days
Data checked Oct 2026
Native L1 blobspace, sampled since Fusaka, pruned after about 18 days. Strongest on verifiable published cost per MB (9/10): Blob pricing is a protocol rule in EIP-4844 and EIP-7918, reproducible to the wei from any block header. At the 2026-10-22 median it is about $0.0116 per MiB, with a same-day range of $0.0048 to $0.0355, because blobs trade on a spot fee market. Weakest on sampling live + how long data stays retrievable (8/10): PeerDAS (EIP-7594) is live on mainnet since December 2025: nodes sample and custody columns instead of downloading every blob. Blob data is kept for 4,096 epochs, about 18 days, then pruned; after that a rollup depends on archives or its own copies. Published price: EIP-4844 (Final, fetched 2026-10-22): GAS_PER_BLOB 2**17 (131,072); MIN_BASE_FEE_PER_BLOB_GAS 1.
Best for: Verifiable published cost per MB — 9/10
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Written and reviewed by Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research