Skip to main content

Head-to-head · Bridges

Across vs Synapse Across leads by 28 points.

Across scores 28 points above Synapse, led by route coverage, trust, and route clarity. Across ranks #2 and Synapse #11 of 18 published bridges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.

Across79
Synapse51
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #2 and #11 of 18
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-ACROSS-VS-SYNAPSE-d1fd9d5f
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

Across leads by 28 points

Across scores 28 points above Synapse, led by route coverage, trust, and route clarity.

Across #2 of 1879
Synapse #11 of 1851
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termAcross leads on 4 of 4 published criteria; Synapse on 0. The terms sum to the gap.
TermAcrossSynapseWeightPoints
Route coverage7/106/106.7+1.7for Across+0.9 of 32
Trust7/104/106.2+4.9for Across+2.5 of 32
Route clarity9/103/105.8+9.0for Across+4.6 of 32
Transfer speed10/107/105.3+4.1for Across+2.1 of 32
Trust recordScore dimension6.43.28+8.3for Across
Net of the terms+28.0
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.2
Reproduced gap+27.8
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below7951+28.0

Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.

  • EvidenceEvidence evidence high vs evidence medium — how well each score is supported, not the score itself
Quick facts

At a glance

1 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactAcrossSynapse
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).No Synapse price could be read on 30 September 2026. The Synapse REST API (api.synapseprotocol.com), which its docs page docs.synapseprotocol.com/docs/Bridge/REST-API describes as the way to "retrieve quotes", returned "No bridge routes found" for USDC Ethereum to Arbitrum, Ethereum to Optimism and Arbitrum to Base and for ETH Ethereum to Arbitrum and Arbitrum to Optimism, and its /bridge/v2 endpoint returned "An unexpected error occurred in /bridge/v2. Please try again later." The Synapse docs pages read (Bridge, REST API, Supported Routes, Synapse Intent Network, contract pages) publish no fee rate, so the percentage the previous note carried is not repeated.
Asset coverageEditorialCross-chain token transfers across supported bridge routesToken transfers through Synapse's legacy nUSD/nETH pools and its RFQ relayer network, where a route can be quoted
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, globalus, europe, global
From the published criteria

Which should you pick?

Across

79#2 of 18
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Across if route coverage matters most — it scores 7/10 to Synapse's 6/10 there (weight 28).
Strength
Speed — 10/10
Tradeoff
Less specialist than some bridge-native power-user options

Synapse

51#11 of 18
Pick it when
Synapse leads Across on no published criterion and no score dimension — pick it only if a fact outside the score (country, funding rail, custody) decides for you.
Strength
Speed — 7/10
Tradeoff
Synapse's quote API answered "No bridge routes found" for USDC and ETH between Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism and Base on 2026-09-30, and again for ETH from Ethereum to Arbitrum and from Arbitrum to Optimism on 2026-10-23, when its /bridge/v2 endpoint returned HTTP 500. The bridge still settles transfers: its Ethereum contract (0x2796317b0fF8538F253012862c06787Adfb8cEb6) logged 50 TokenWithdraw and TokenMint events between 11 and 22 October 2026, the latest at 20:04 UTC on 22 October. Get a quote in its app before you rely on a route
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

AcrossLeads

Choose Across if route coverage matters most

  • Route coverage: 7/10 against 6/10 for Synapse (weight 28)
  • Trust: 7/10 against 4/10 for Synapse (weight 26)
  • Route clarity: 9/10 against 3/10 for Synapse (weight 24)
Synapse

Synapse leads Across on no published criterion

  • Choose it only if something outside the published criteria decides for you — your country, a funding rail, or custody.
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 86Across leads
Across7 out of 10
Synapse6 out of 10

Route clarity

by 6 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Across leads
Across9 out of 10
Synapse3 out of 10

Transfer speed

by 3 of 10weight 5.3 of 86Across leads
Across10 out of 10
Synapse7 out of 10

Trust

by 3 of 10weight 6.2 of 86Across leads
Across7 out of 10
Synapse4 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
Across20/20Synapse20/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Across19.5/30Synapse12/30
Across leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Across2.7/10Synapse2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86
Across6.4/8Synapse3.2/8
Across leads
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Across6.9/18Synapse6.9/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

Choose Across unless the term Synapse leads on is the one you are buying.

Synapse leads Across on no published criterion and no score dimension — pick it only if a fact outside the score (country, funding rail, custody) decides for you.

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, Synapse 4/10)
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

Across scores 28 points above Synapse, led by route coverage, trust, and route clarity. Published scores, out of 100: Across 79 (rank 2 of 18 bridges), Synapse 51 (rank 11 of 18).

Related pages

Go deeper

Reviewed Next review by Methodology v2026.10.18
How this page is reviewed

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.

Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.

How we review · Review calendar · Corrections log · How we make money

Free advisorNo signup needed

Skip the comparison — get your best match

Answer a few quick questions and get one clear recommendation based on how you actually plan to use crypto — with rationale, tradeoffs, and a path to monitor the decision.

No signupFree first pass · PrivateNo spam · No account

Not financial advice · Independent · Always do your own research

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research