Relay scores 25 points above Base Bridge, led by route coverage and transfer speed. Relay ranks #1 and Base Bridge #6 of 18 published bridges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
Relay86
vs
Base Bridge61
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #1 and #6 of 18
Relay scores 25 points above Base Bridge, led by route coverage and transfer speed.
Relay #1 of 1886
Base Bridge #6 of 1861
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termRelay leads on 2 of 4 published criteria; Base Bridge on 2. The terms sum to the gap.
TermRelayBase BridgeWeightPoints
Route coverage8/102/106.7+10.5for Relay+5.4 of 32
Trust5/109/106.2−6.5for Base Bridge−3.3 of 32
Route clarity7/108/105.8−1.5for Base Bridge−0.8 of 32
Transfer speed9/104/105.3+6.9for Relay+3.5 of 32
AvailabilityScore dimension201420+15.6for Relay
Net of the terms+25.0
Reproduced gap+25.0
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 threeBase BridgeScore 61Native canonical bridge for Ethereum ↔ BaseStrength: Trust — 9/10Watch-out: Direct withdrawals to Ethereum wait out a 5-day window, or 1 day on the fast path when a TEE proof and a ZK proof back the same proposal
Quick facts
At a glance
FactRelayBase Bridge
Bridge feeSnapshotRelay 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".Base docs (fetched 30 September 2026): the canonical deposit path pays gas only - "They buy their L2 gas on L1 and, as such, the L2 gas is not refundable." (docs.base.org/specifications/base-protocol/bridging/deposits). Base no longer runs its own bridge interface: its "Bridge to Base" page (docs.base.org/base-chain/network-information/ecosystem-bridges) sends Ethereum users to "Superbridge or Brid.gg" and Coinbase-account holders to "Withdraw directly to Base (no bridge)". The previous pricing page, docs.base.org/use-base/bridge, now returns HTTP 404. No bridge fee is stated on the pages read.
Asset coverageEditorialLower-friction cross-chain token movement across supported routesETH and registered ERC-20s
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, globalglobal
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
Relay
86#1 of 18
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Relay if route coverage matters most — it scores 8/10 to Base Bridge's 2/10 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
Base Bridge
61#6 of 18
Pick it when
Pick Base Bridge if trust matters most — it scores 9/10 to Relay's 5/10 there (weight 26).
Strength
Trust — 9/10
Tradeoff
Direct withdrawals to Ethereum wait out a 5-day window, or 1 day on the fast path when a TEE proof and a ZK proof back the same proposal
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
RelayLeads
Choose Relay if route coverage matters most
Route coverage: 8/10 against 2/10 for Base Bridge (weight 28)
Transfer speed: 9/10 against 4/10 for Base Bridge (weight 22)
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
Base Bridge
Choose Base Bridge if trust matters most
Trust: 9/10 against 5/10 for Relay (weight 26)
Route clarity: 8/10 against 7/10 for Relay (weight 24)
Base BridgeScore 61Native canonical bridge for Ethereum ↔ BaseStrength: Trust — 9/10Watch-out: Direct withdrawals to Ethereum wait out a 5-day window, or 1 day on the fast path when a TEE proof and a ZK proof back the same proposal
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 6 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Relay leads
Relay8/10 out of 10
Base Bridge2/10 out of 10
Route clarity
by 1 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Base Bridge leads
Relay7/10 out of 10
Base Bridge8/10 out of 10
Transfer speed
by 5 of 10weight 5.3 of 86Relay leads
Relay9/10 out of 10
Base Bridge4/10 out of 10
Trust
by 4 of 10weight 6.2 of 86Base Bridge leads
Relay5/10 out of 10
Base Bridge9/10 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
Relay20/20Base Bridge14/20
Relay leads
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Relay17.3/30Base Bridge13.7/30
Relay leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Relay2.7/10Base Bridge2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86
Relay5.6/8Base Bridge5.6/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Relay12.5/18Base Bridge12.5/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order
Choose Relay unless the term Base Bridge leads on is the one you are buying.
Pick Base Bridge if trust matters most — it scores 9/10 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% (Relay 5/10, Base Bridge 9/10)
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 25 points above Base Bridge, led by route coverage and transfer speed. Published scores, out of 100: Relay 86 (rank 1 of 18 bridges), Base Bridge 61 (rank 6 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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