Relay scores 7 points above Across, led by route coverage. Across ranks #2 and Relay #1 of 18 published bridges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
Across79
vs
Relay86
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #2 and #1 of 18
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread+0.1
Reproduced gap+6.8
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below8679+7.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
RelayScore 86Cleaner bridge path for users who want low-friction multichain movementStrength: Speed — 9/10Watch-out: Relay's chain list on 2026-09-30 had no Sui, Stellar or Cosmos chains; Squid's chain data covers all threeAcrossScore 79Fast route-led bridge for mainstream cross-chain movementStrength: Speed — 10/10Watch-out: Less specialist than some bridge-native power-user options
Quick facts
At a glance
1 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactAcrossRelay
PricingSnapshotAcross Docs, "Fees in the System" (docs.across.to/introduction/fees, fetched 30 September 2026): the whole fee is the spread, "totalFee = inputAmount - outputAmount", split into an LP Fee (utilization-based, Aave-style two-slope curve, per route) and a Relayer Fee covering destination gas, capital opportunity cost and capital at risk; "If the relayer takes repayment on the origin chain (same chain as the deposit), no crosschain rebalancing is needed, so LP fees are zero." No headline percentage is published. Integrators may add an app fee on top ("Set appFee (a decimal from 0 to 1 , e.g. 0.01 = 1%) and appFeeRecipient on your Swap API request."). Measured the same day on app.across.to/api/suggested-fees for 1000000000 USDC base units (six decimals) Ethereum to Arbitrum: "outputAmount":"999892297", "capitalFeeTotal":"100000", "relayGasFeeTotal":"7703", "lpFeePct":"0", "estimatedFillTimeSec":2 (arithmetic: 1000000000 - 999892297 = 107703 base units, about 1.08 bps of the amount sent, plus origin-chain gas that the endpoint does not return).Relay docs, "Cost & Fee Structure" (docs.relay.link/references/api/api_core_concepts/fees, fetched 30 September 2026): four components - Execution Cost ("$0.02 flat fee - always included" plus a destination fill-gas estimate), Swap Cost (payments to liquidity providers, DEX fees and solver rebalancing; no rate published), Platform Fees, and integrator App Fees. The Platform Fee table reads "Token Bridge & Same-Chain Wrap/Unwrap Stablecoin Swap Major Swap Minor Swap Platform Fees charged to end users 0.00% 0.01% 0.06% 0.15%", so a same-token bridge carries a 0.00% platform fee. "For regular (non-gasless) transactions, the user pays origin gas directly from their own wallet to the network".
Asset coverageEditorialCross-chain token transfers across supported bridge routesLower-friction cross-chain token movement across supported routes
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, globalus, europe, global
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
Across
79#2 of 18
Pick it when
Pick Across if trust matters most — it scores 7/10 to Relay's 5/10 there (weight 26).
Strength
Speed — 10/10
Tradeoff
Less specialist than some bridge-native power-user options
Relay
86#1 of 18
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Relay if route coverage matters most — it scores 8/10 to Across's 7/10 there (weight 28).
Strength
Speed — 9/10
Tradeoff
Relay's chain list on 2026-09-30 had no Sui, Stellar or Cosmos chains; Squid's chain data covers all three
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
Across
Choose Across if trust matters most
Trust: 7/10 against 5/10 for Relay (weight 26)
Route clarity: 9/10 against 7/10 for Relay (weight 24)
Transfer speed: 10/10 against 9/10 for Relay (weight 22)
AcrossScore 79Fast route-led bridge for mainstream cross-chain movementStrength: Speed — 10/10Watch-out: Less specialist than some bridge-native power-user options
RelayLeads
Choose Relay if route coverage matters most
Route coverage: 8/10 against 7/10 for Across (weight 28)
RelayScore 86Cleaner bridge path for users who want low-friction multichain movementStrength: Speed — 9/10Watch-out: Relay's chain list on 2026-09-30 had no Sui, Stellar or Cosmos chains; Squid's chain data covers all three
Criterion by criterion
Scorecard
Published criteria · weight in points of 868 of 8 cells scored. Strength is read from the evidence file; the weight is the published one. Methodology
Route coverage
by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Relay leads
Across7/10 out of 10
Relay8/10 out of 10
Route clarity
by 2 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Across leads
Across9/10 out of 10
Relay7/10 out of 10
Transfer speed
by 1 of 10weight 5.3 of 86Across leads
Across10/10 out of 10
Relay9/10 out of 10
Trust
by 2 of 10weight 6.2 of 86Across leads
Across7/10 out of 10
Relay5/10 out of 10
Score dimensions
weights sum to 86
The published score is five dimensions, each weighted for the category. "Published criteria" is the criteria block above; the other four are the engine's own terms — availability, friction, trust record, measured data. Each bar is one side's points out of that dimension's maximum; the weight beside the name is its points of the 86-point weighted total. The published criteria above can fill 24 of the block’s 30. A weight marked “constant here” belongs to a dimension every ranked product in the category holds at the same value: it still counts in the total, and it orders nothing here.
Availabilityweight 20 of 86
Across20/20Relay20/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Across19.5/30Relay17.3/30
Across leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Across2.7/10Relay2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86
Across6.4/8Relay5.6/8
Across leads
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Across6.9/18Relay12.5/18
Relay leads
Decision rulePublished order
Choose Relay unless the term Across leads on is the one you are buying.
Pick Across if trust matters most — it scores 7/10 to Relay's 5/10 there (weight 26).
The published order weighs every criterion the same way for everyone. To weigh them your way, run .
From the published order
Next best action
If this isn't your case
Other matchups worth comparing
How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
Verification failure: an invalid state or transfer is accepted.
Scored by Trust posture · 26% (Across 7/10, Relay 5/10)
Not assessed by this ranking: Contract failure, Control failure, Liveness failure, Custody failure, Regulatory failure, Execution failure, Exit 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: Route coverage (28%), Route clarity (24%), Execution speed (22%).
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Relay scores 7 points above Across, led by route coverage. Published scores, out of 100: Across 79 (rank 2 of 18 bridges), Relay 86 (rank 1 of 18).
Reviewed means both products compared here 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.
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