DeFi Intel vs DefiLlama: 2026 Comparison

DefiLlama is the gold standard for free TVL data and the most-cited DeFi dashboard in the industry. DeFi Intel is a different product: a research-and-context layer that knits 11,787 entities, 26,104 typed relations, 1,800 entity-tagged news items, 86 incident post-mortems and 237 long-form articles into a single graph. If you only need TVL charts and protocol counters, DefiLlama is free and excellent. If you need narrative, regulation, founder context, incidents, and a research feed wrapped around the data, DeFi Intel covers what DefiLlama leaves out.

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	DeFi Intel	DefiLlama
Free tier	Free + Starter $19/mo (limited rate API, full read site)	Free (full TVL data, basic API)
Paid tiers	Pro $49/mo · Enterprise (custom)	Pro $300/mo (API access)
Total entities tracked	11,787 typed entities (protocols, tokens, people, companies, DAOs, events, regulators, jurisdictions)	~3,000 protocols, ~1,500 chains/forks (TVL-shaped)
Typed relations	26,104 (founded-by, fork-of, audited-by, regulated-by, etc.)	None published; flat protocol list
News + research depth	1,800 entity-tagged news items, 237 long-form articles (722k words), 6 flagship reports	No editorial layer; news headlines only via partners
Regulation / jurisdiction coverage	Yes — 86 jurisdictions, regulator entities, enforcement-action timeline	Not covered
Incident post-mortems	86 incidents with root-cause + capital impact	Not covered (DefiLlama Hacks dataset is value-only)
API access	Pro: 60 req/min · 100k req/mo · entity-graph queries	Pro $300/mo: high volume, TVL/yields focus
Free tier scope	Full read access; rate-limited API	Full TVL/yields/stables data; community API
Best for	Analysts and writers who need context, regulation and incidents	Quants, treasurers and bots that consume raw TVL/yield data

Where DeFi Intel wins

Entity graph with 26,104 typed relations — DefiLlama is a flat list of protocols; we encode founder, audit, fork, exploit and regulator relationships.
1,800-item live news feed entity-tagged so you can pull every news item touching Aave, Curve or USDC in one query.
86 incident post-mortems with root-cause analysis and capital impact — DefiLlama Hacks lists value lost only.
Long-form library: 237 articles, 722k words, 6 flagship reports across DeFi, stablecoins, RWAs, MEV, regulation, L2s, derivatives, infra, lending, gaming.
Regulation and jurisdiction layer — 86 jurisdictions, regulator entities, enforcement timeline. DefiLlama does not cover this.

Where DefiLlama wins

TVL data is the gold standard. Every analyst, fund and protocol team checks DefiLlama TVL first; we do not try to replace it.
Free tier is genuinely best-in-class — full TVL, yields, stablecoin and bridges data with no paywall.
Yields aggregator (DefiLlama Yields) and Stablecoins dashboard are widely used reference points DeFi Intel does not yet match.
Bridge and chain coverage is broader for raw on-chain numbers; their crawler ingests new chains within days.
Established brand — 6+ years of public trust, cited by SEC, CFTC and Bank for International Settlements research.

Best for which user

Choose DeFi Intel if:

You need narrative, regulation, founder context, incident post-mortems and a research feed — context that explains what the TVL numbers mean.

Choose DefiLlama if:

You only need raw TVL, yields and stablecoin numbers, with the broadest free-tier dataset in the industry.

Use both if:

You run a fund or DeFi-native company and use DefiLlama for live numbers + DeFi Intel for the research, regulation and risk context that surrounds them.

Pricing detail

DeFi Intel runs a Free read tier (full graph, news and articles, rate-limited API), Starter at $19/month (higher API limits), Pro at $49/month (full API + Pro features) and Enterprise (custom — SSO, on-prem, custom rate limits). DefiLlama pricing in 2026-05 is summarised in the table above; check the vendor site for the latest tier definitions before purchasing.

One practical note on tier choice: for an individual analyst, the DeFi Intel Free tier and Starter at $19 are usually enough — full read access to the entity graph, news feed and long-form articles is on the free tier, and Starter unlocks higher API rate limits for light scripting. Pro at $49 is intended for analysts and small teams that hit the API every day or want to bulk-export the entity graph. Enterprise is for teams that need SSO, on-prem deployment, custom rate limits or a dedicated support channel — the price is sized to the organisation rather than the seat count.

What DeFi Intel covers

DeFi Intel is a research-grade entity graph: 11,787 typed entities (protocols, tokens, people, companies, DAOs, events, regulators, jurisdictions, products, tooling), 26,104 typed relations (founded-by, fork-of, audited-by, regulated-by, exploited-in), 3,354 events, 1,800 entity-tagged news items, 237 long-form articles totalling 722,000 words across 10 scopes, 67 long-form pieces plus 6 flagship reports, and 86 structured incident post-mortems. The free tier exposes the full read site; the API and Pro features are gated behind Starter and Pro.

How the two products differ in practice

Most teams that evaluate DeFi Intel against DefiLlama are not asking "which one is better" — they are asking "which one fits the workflow I already have." The honest answer is that the two products were built for different jobs. DefiLlama optimises for the workflow described in its "Where DefiLlama wins" section above; DeFi Intel optimises for the entity-graph and research-context workflow described in "Where DeFi Intel wins". A surprising share of paying customers buy both because they cover different surface area at different price points.

If you are a single-seat analyst on a budget, the cheaper option is usually correct — and DeFi Intel's $49/month Pro tier is materially below the comparable DefiLlama tier for the workflow surface area DeFi Intel covers. If you are buying for a larger team, the deciding factor is usually the workflow already in place: replacing an existing tool that the team trusts is rarely worth the migration cost, but adding DeFi Intel as a complement to an existing stack is a much smaller commitment.

What DeFi Intel does not do

DeFi Intel does not crawl wallet flows, does not produce per-token quarterly tokenomics reports on a research-desk cadence, does not maintain its own TVL methodology, and does not run an investigative-journalism newsroom. Where one of those workflows is the primary need, the right tool is the vendor named on the corresponding comparison page above. We cite DefiLlama for TVL, Token Terminal for protocol financials, Nansen for wallet labels, Messari for analyst-written tokenomics reports, and The Block for investigative reporting — and our pages link out to each of them where it is the better source.

Frequently asked questions

Is DeFi Intel cheaper than DefiLlama?

Yes. DeFi Intel Pro is $49/month; DefiLlama Pro (the API tier) is $300/month. DefiLlama is free for site browsing while DeFi Intel offers a free read tier plus Starter at $19/month. The two products solve different problems, so price is rarely the only deciding factor.

Does DefiLlama have features DeFi Intel does not?

Yes. DefiLlama TVL data, the Yields aggregator and the Stablecoins dashboard are all best-in-class and free. We do not replicate those — we explicitly cite DefiLlama as a source for TVL.

Can I use both DeFi Intel and DefiLlama together?

That is the most common pattern. Funds and analysts typically check DefiLlama for the live number and DeFi Intel for the context: who founded the protocol, has it been audited, has it been hacked, what jurisdictions does it operate in, what does the recent news flow look like.

What is the trial period for each?

DefiLlama is free indefinitely for the site and basic API. DeFi Intel offers a free read tier with no time limit; Starter ($19/mo) and Pro ($49/mo) do not run a separate trial — you can read the full site free, then upgrade for the API and Pro features.

Does DeFi Intel cover TVL?

We surface protocol-level TVL via DefiLlama and Token Terminal as cited sources rather than maintaining our own TVL crawler. Our value-add is the entity graph, news, regulation and incident data wrapped around the TVL number — not a competing TVL methodology.