Provider at a glance
- Category
- SocialFi
- Entity
- Not verified
- Official website
- farcaster.xyz
Independent rankingchecked How it works
Details
Scored 68 out of 100 under methodology 2026.10.18, from the evidence read in September 2026.
Farcaster
Social protocol with an onchain registry
SocialFi
#5 Overall
Ranked #5 of 8 SocialFi in the published ranking
68
ChainChoice Score
The ChainChoice Score, shown against 100: published scores run from 41 to 99.- High evidence confidence
Is Farcaster right for you?
Right for you if these matter most
- Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to?8/10; the category best is 9
Look elsewhere if these come first
- If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine?7/10 here; friend.tech scores 9
- Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down?5/10 here; friend.tech scores 9
- Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it?5/10 here; friend.tech scores 8
Not yet tested for your country. Markets it lists: Global.
to test where you can use it.
The rank above is the published one, the same for every reader. Find my best SocialFi platform shows where it lands for you.
What will Farcaster cost you?
Not priced on this basis
- Your monthly volume
- $1k
How safe is Farcaster?
- Evidence: verified4 of 4 criteria rest on quoted, sourced receipts. Read September 2026.
- LicenceMiCA (EU): no register record on file here.
Alternatives to Farcaster
Compare all 4- 2friend.tech10 points above · stronger on earnings waterfall (9 against 5)78
- 3Lens Protocol2 points above · stronger on handle and graph custody (9 against 7)70
- 4Bluesky / AT ProtocolLevel on score · stronger on exit path and somewhere to go (9 against 8)68
For your setup
Find out if Farcaster fits you
The rank above is the published one — the same for every visitor. Answer the category's questions and this section shows where Farcaster lands for you, which criteria your answers weight up, and which stated needs the record does or does not meet. The published rank stays beside it.
- A few questions
- No account required
- Ranking-blind: no commercial input
- Personalised in under 60 seconds
Find my best SocialFi platformNothing is inferred from clicks, popularity or commercial value.
Why this rank
Why Farcaster ranks #5
Each strength is read from evidence on a 0–10 ladder and weighted as the published methodology states. The 32 objective points these produce (20.6 here) sit inside the score; availability, friction, trust record and measured data add the rest.
4 published criteria · Σ weight 100
CriterionWeightStrength · 0–10ScoreContrib.MedianBestRankEvidence
327+7.176.510#4/8Loading evidence…
278+6.917.09#3/8Loading evidence…
255+4.005.59#5/8Loading evidence…
165+2.564.010#4/8Loading evidence…
Hairline = best in this ranking · tick = its median · a missing bar is "not scored", never zero
MarginLevelbehind Bluesky / AT Protocol, #4
RobustnessOne point from changingacross a one-point change to each of its 4 criterion scores, the re-run scores 66–70 and ranks #4–#5
Evidence4 of 4 scored4 quoted, 4 with a source link
What would move the rank
Each line is the ranking run again with one of Farcaster’s criterion scores changed and every other value held: the smallest whole-point change on that criterion that moves its rank, and where the re-run puts it. Up to 4 climbs and 3 falls are listed, smallest change first. Nothing here is a forecast.
If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine? 7 → 8 on its ladder · passes Bluesky / AT Protocol+170#5 → #4
Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to? 8 → 9 on its ladder · passes Bluesky / AT Protocol+169#5 → #4
Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down? 5 → 6 on its ladder · passes Bluesky / AT Protocol+169#5 → #4
Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it? 5 → 6 on its ladder · passes Bluesky / AT Protocol+169#5 → #4
Smallest climb: “If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine?” 7 → 8 passes Bluesky / AT Protocol, #4.
Strengths
1 from the score dataWhere it leads
Best for readers who weight
- Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to? — 8/10, category best 9/10
Tradeoffs
3 from the score dataWhere it trails
Not for readers who put first
- If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine? — 7/10 against a category best of 10/10
- Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down? — 5/10 against a category best of 9/10
- Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it? — 5/10 against a category best of 10/10
Record watch-outs
- Your audience is a rental, and your @handle is a licence. The follow graph is not onchain — it is a set of signed messages held on Snapchain nodes, and the vendor's own page states 'An account that lets its storage expire may lose all its messages. There is a 30-day grace period after a storage unit expires during which an account must renew or lose its messages.', with only 2,500 follows retained per rented unit. Separately, the default @name is explicitly revocable: 'Fnames are free but they can be revoked by Farcaster at any time.', with reclamation grounds that include 60 days of inactivity and where 'Decisions are made by the Farcaster team and often require human judgment.' A buyer who registers @alice, builds for two years, then goes quiet for two months can lose the name without breaching anything. The fix is published and costs money — register an onchain .eth name, which 'cannot be revoked by Farcaster' — but nobody is routed to it at signup. The sharper irritation for anyone budgeting from the docs: the published storage price ($7/unit/year, on two separate pages) is wrong by roughly 35x against the contract's live $0.20, so the only trustworthy number is a contract read.
Competitive position
Where Farcaster leads and where it trails
Rank on every objective dimension among the rows scored on it. A criterion in the top third of its pool is listed as a lead, the bottom third as a trail; the middle is neither. Popularity, size and commercial terms are not dimensions.
Availability#1 / 814.0 of 20 · constant here
Published criteria#5 / 815.5 of 30 · best 21.0
Friction#1 / 82.7 of 10 · constant here
Trust record#1 / 83.2 of 8 · constant here
Measured data#1 / 88.3 of 18 · constant here
Where Farcaster leads
- Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to?#3 / 8
Where it trailsNo criterion in the bottom third of its pool.
Closest alternatives
The 3 nearest rows by score
Nearest by published score in either direction. Each card states the criteria on which the two rows differ and the cost difference under the same scenario inputs; the compare arithmetic below shows why the higher one ranks higher.
Bluesky / AT Protocol#4 of 8 · score 68 · same score
Farcaster leads on
- If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine?7 vs 6
Bluesky / AT Protocol leads on
- Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to?9 vs 8
- Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it?6 vs 5
Largest single reason Bluesky / AT Protocol is ahead: published criteria (+0.5 display points).Scenario cost: Bluesky / AT Protocol has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Lens Protocol#3 of 8 · score 70 · 2.0 points ahead
Farcaster leads on
- Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it?5 vs 2
Lens Protocol leads on
- If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine?9 vs 7
- Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down?6 vs 5
Largest single reason Lens Protocol is ahead: published criteria (+2.6 display points).Scenario cost: Lens Protocol has no verified pricing for this scenario.
friend.tech#2 of 8 · score 78 · 10.0 points ahead
Farcaster leads on
- Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to?8 vs 6
friend.tech leads on
- If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine?9 vs 7
- Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down?9 vs 5
- Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it?8 vs 5
Largest single reason friend.tech is ahead: published criteria (+9.9 display points).Scenario cost: friend.tech has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Against the leader
82 vs 68 · gap 14.0Why Nostr ranks above Farcaster
The compare workspace's arithmetic applied to these two rows. Each dimension's share of the gap is its weight × the difference, on the displayed scale — it reproduces the displayed gap of 14.0 to within rounding.
DimensionThisNostrGap share
Availability · 23% weight · constant here14.014.0same
Published criteria · 35% weight15.521.0−14.3, worse
Friction · 12% weight · constant here2.72.7same
Trust record · 9% weight · constant here3.23.2same
Measured data · 21% weight · constant here8.38.3same
Published criterionThisNostrPoints
If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine? · w32710−3.07, worse
Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to? · w2789−0.86, worse
Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down? · w2556−0.80, worse
Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it? · w16510−2.56, worse
Net6882−14.0
Your scenario
Farcaster is not priced for this scenario
Marketplace fee on your volume for a year. Excludes network gas and any withdrawal fee. Change an input and every figure recomputes from the published rate; the published rank does not move.
your cost/yr · default scenario — set your own
Your monthly volume · your input$1k
Rate read from the provider’s published pricing ↗ on 28 September 2026.
your cost/yrCost is stated as your cost/yr in USD; it is never a yield, never annualised, and it does not enter the score.
Not priced on this basis
Under the default inputs · USDCategory medianNot priced0 of 8 rows priced
Cheapest pricedNone pricedDifference not stated · availability not applied — set your country to filter
8 of 8 rows in this ranking have no verified rate for this scenario and are absent from the median, not counted as free.
Evidence
Evidence read 28 September 2026
One row per published criterion: the page each strength was read from, its source type by domain, the reading date and whether the file and the published table agree. Open a row for the quote and the receipt.
4 of 4 cells scored
Score evidenceVerified4 of 4 criteria reconstruct from receipts
4 of 4 criteria reconstruct from a quoted, sourced receipt equal to the published strength.Public receiptsReading…4 quoted with a source URL
The receipt file has not been read yet.Evidence confidenceHighcoverage and corroboration, never freshness
4/4 criteria scored, with 4 dated sources quoted.RobustnessOne point from changingrank #4 to #5 across one-point re-runs
Whether the position holds when one criterion score is changed by one point and the ranking is run again. It is always a re-run of the ranking, never an estimate.The newest evidence read on the platform is 3 November 2026; this category's reading is older. The scores stand as read on 28 September 2026.
Reading the evidence ledger…
CriterionSourceTypeReadFreshnessStatusReceipt
If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine?strength 7 · weight 32Report an error—28 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to?strength 8 · weight 27Report an error—28 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down?strength 5 · weight 25Report an error—28 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it?strength 5 · weight 16Report an error—28 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
- Control failure (Farcaster 5/10): a key or vote changes the rules, freezes or mints.Scored by Whose key can override mine — and what exactly can they do with it? · 16%
- Custody failure (Farcaster 7/10): whoever holds the assets loses or withholds them.Scored by If this company shuts down tomorrow, is my handle and my follower list still mine? · 32%
- Exit failure (Farcaster 8/10): you cannot get out at par, on time, or with what is yours.Scored by Can I actually walk out with my audience — and is there anywhere to walk to? · 27%
Not assessed by this ranking: Contract failure, Regulatory failure, Execution failure, Information 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: Who takes a cut of what I earn here, and is the number actually written down? (25%).
Facts
facts, not scoresWhat the record publishes
- Pricing
- PUBLISHED PRICE, quoted exactly from https://
docs .farcaster .xyz /reference /contracts (fetched 28 September 2026, HTTP 200): "The Storage Registry allows an fid to rent one or more "units" of storage on the farcaster network. The current cost of storage is 7$ USD per unit, for one year. This fee must be paid in ETH." The same figure is still on https:// docs .farcaster .xyz /learn /what-is-farcaster /messages (fetched 28 September 2026): "A unit of storage costs $7 today, lasts for one year and lets each account store a certain number of messages of each type." THE CONTRACT STILL DISAGREES. eth_call to StorageRegistry 0x00000000fcCe7f938e7aE6D3c335bD6a1a7c593D on OP Mainnet at block 157,511,900 (28 September 2026): usdUnitPrice() = 20000000 at 8 decimals, i.e. twenty US cents per unit-year; unitPrice() = price(1) = 74,424,140,422,576 wei = 0.000074424140422576 ETH; the contract's cached ethUsdPrice() = 268,730,010,000 at 8 decimals. Worked example (arithmetic, not a quoted price): 0.000074424140422576 ETH x 2,687.3001 = 0.20 US dollars per unit-year, about one thirty-fifth of the published figure. The USD price is unchanged from the 17 August 2026 read; only the ETH amount moved with the oracle. Rental term, https:// docs .farcaster .xyz /reference /contracts /reference /storage-registry: "Rented units are valid for 1 year from the time of registration." SUBSCRIPTION PRICE STILL NOT PUBLISHED IN PROSE: https:// docs .farcaster .xyz /reference /contracts says only "The Tier Registry collects subscription payments for Farcaster Pro, paid in USDC. Unlike other core protocol contracts, it is deployed on Base mainnet." and names no figure. It is readable onchain only: eth_call TierRegistry 0x00000000fc84484d585C3cF48d213424DFDE43FD on Base at block 51,916,631 (28 September 2026), tierInfo(1) = minDays 30, maxDays 365, token USDC 0x833589fcd6edb6e08f4c7c32d4f71b54bda02913, tokenPricePerDay 328767 at 6 decimals, active; worked example: 0.328767 x 365 = 120.00 US dollars a year, unchanged from August.Farcaster — official pricing page ↗ · 28 September 2026 - Prices published in
- USDFarcaster — official pricing page ↗ · 28 September 2026
- Licences held
- Not published
- Compliance level
- partial
- Regulatory note
- Not published
- Supported chains
- Optimism, Base, Ethereum
- Markets served
- global
- Primary markets
- Not published
- Restricted markets
- Not published
- Operating limits
- Not published
- Availability note
- NO MARKET RESTRICTION FOUND — and notably, no OFAC/sanctions representation either, which is unusual for a crypto product. What the live Terms of Use (https://
farcaster .xyz /assets /TermsOfUsePage-BJUEKkfz .js, read 17 August 2026) carries is an extraterritorial-risk disclaimer plus US export controls, which applies everywhere and is not a regional footprint: 'headquartered in the United States. If you access or use the Services from outside of the United States, you do so at your own risk. Whether inside or outside of the United States, you are solely responsible for ensuring compliance with the laws of your specific jurisdiction. Software available in connection with the Services and the transmission of applicable data, if any, is subject to United States export controls. No software may be downloaded from the Services or otherwise exported or re-exported in violation of U.S. export laws.' The only hard eligibility gate is age, not geography: 'You may use the Services only if (1) you are 18 years or older (or the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction) or are between 13 years and 17 years old and your parent or legal guardian must agree to be bound by these Terms and (2) capable of forming a binding contract with Neynar, and are not barred from using the Services under applicable law.' Searching the full 4.3 MB application bundle for 'OFAC', 'sanction', 'jurisdiction', 'country' and 'not available in your' on 17 August 2026 returned zero hits for OFAC and zero for sanctions. Separately, the protocol layer has no gate at all: the contracts are permissionless and any address can call IdGateway. Classification: standard extraterritorial/export disclaimer, NOT a market restriction.
No confirmed legal entity is on file for this record. Nothing is inferred from the brand name.
If something goes wrong with Farcaster: where to complain, and where to report a scam
Loading the routes for your country.
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means this product in this category 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
History
What the record carries
Changes to published ranks are recorded in a ledger; every step and its cause is listed on the rank-history page. The entries below begin with the current verified snapshot, then the methodology versions whose changes applied to this category, newest first.
9 methodology entries
- 28 September 2026Current verified snapshot · methodology 2026.10.18Score 68, #5 of 8. 4 of 4 criteria scored. History starts here; earlier values are not interpolated.
- 10 October 2026
2026.10.8When nothing serves your country, the list shown for reference is the published ranking · platform-wide- fixed The reference list shown when nothing serves your country is the published order with the published scores, and a build check now fails any such list out of that order or with a score the ranking does not publish.
- fixed The explorer prints an overall rank only for a row the published ranking holds; a country entrant such as Coinbase Commerce for US merchants shows no overall rank.
- changed Published orders do not move. Country results change only where nothing serves the country: in India bill pay keeps Bitcoin Well first and now shows Strike second, as published; 35 such runs across all categories and countries now match the published list exactly.
- 10 October 2026
2026.10.6A criterion you require re-scores the rows that meet it · platform-wide- changed The explorer sends each criterion you require, at any band, as fit_required with your other answers; region, licence, chain and fact filters stay filters. On /best, a required criterion joins For you as a marked preference does, which needs your country; Overall stays the published ranking, filtered.
- added Every published criterion has a golden case as the explorer sends it (require:<criterion>), so the order a requirement gives is replayed and gated as the published order is, and a change to it needs an entry here.
- 16 September 2026
2026.09.15Dimension scores carry tenths, and eleven more categories are re-read from primary sources · platform-wide- changed Dimension scores resolve to tenths of a point (O-04b), and weightedTotal is rounded to six decimal places before the order is read. 518 published scores move across 107 categories that were not re-read; none of them moves by more than 4 points, and most move by 1.
- fixed 66 published scores change in the eleven re-read categories, against a verbatim source each. The largest moves are Reflexer RAI (−16), Beefy and Unrekt (−11), Aztec (−10) and Golem (+9) — all of them rows whose sources had moved since their last read.
- changed Published order moves in 38 of 119 categories and three #1s change: smart_contract_audits (Zellic → Certora) and travel_rule_compliance (Sumsub Travel Rule → CodeVASP) on the finer resolution, kyc_compliance (Veriff → Sumsub) on the re-read.
- added availabilitySource (O-04g): for a reader who states a country, a row whose availability in that country rests on a region tag its record gives no source for sorts below every sourced row. It is inert in every order published here, which states no country.
Methodology 2026.10.18, the same published run every visitor sees · receipt socialfi:farcaster:2026.10.18:4f61424dedef
Are you Farcaster? Reply to this verdict, or send evidence, ask for a correction or claim the listing. Every message gets a public ticket number; none of it changes a rank unless a public page or a signed statement supports it.