Ethereum vs ZKsync

Ethereum4.3/5

VS

ZKsync3.7/5

Feature	EthereumVisit	ZKsyncVisit
Ratings
Our score	4.3/5	3.7/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Performance	3.0	4.0
Fees	3.5	4.0
Ecosystem	5.0	3.5
Decentralization	5.0	3.0
Developer experience	4.5	4.5
Specs
Layer	Layer 1	Layer 2
Consensus / design	Proof of Stake	ZK rollup
Native token	ETH	ZK
EVM compatible	Yes	Yes
Smart contract languages	Solidity, Vyper	Solidity, Vyper
Block time	12 seconds	~1s
Typical transaction fee	0.15 to 0.5 gwei	$0.05
Finality	12.8 minutes	minutes to Ethereum
Mainnet since	2,015	2,023
Sequencer	Not applicable	Not disclosed
Data availability	EIP-4844 blobs and calldata	Not disclosed
Gas paid in	ETH	ETH
Company
Founded	2015	2023
Headquarters	Switzerland	—
Investors	Public crowdsale participants	Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly, Ethereum Foundation +5
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	Uninterrupted 100% network uptime since its July 2015 launch Nearly $50B in total value locked in October 2026 Hosts approximately $180B of stablecoins on mainnet as of July 2026 Open client ecosystem with no single point of corporate failure	Native protocol-level account abstraction eliminates the need for separate ERC-4337 infrastructure Median transaction fees are around $0.05 Over 700M transactions processed and $4B in network value secured by October 2026 EVM compatibility lets developers deploy existing Solidity and Vyper contracts directly
Cons	Base-layer transaction fees spike significantly during periods of heavy congestion Layer-1 execution throughput remains limited to under 30 transactions per second Complex smart contract interactions can become costly during peak network demand	Layer 1 finality on Ethereum takes several minutes due to ZK proof batching Cross-chain transfers rely on rollup bridge contracts with smart contract risk
Best for	DeFi liquidity providers and traders, Smart contract developers using Solidity, Layer-2 rollup deployment teams	Developers deploying smart accounts with passkeys, Institutions building private, compliant rollups, Solidity teams seeking low-cost ZK scaling

Highlighted cells show the stronger value in each row. Data comes from each provider's site and public sources; check details before you sign up.

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