Polygon vs ZKsync

Polygon4.1/5

VS

ZKsync3.7/5

Feature	PolygonVisit	ZKsyncVisit
Ratings
Our score	4.1/5	3.7/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Performance	4.5	4.0
Fees	4.5	4.0
Ecosystem	4.5	3.5
Decentralization	3.5	3.0
Developer experience	4.0	4.5
Specs
Layer	Sidechain	Layer 2
Consensus / design	Proof of Stake	ZK rollup
Native token	POL	ZK
EVM compatible	Yes	Yes
Smart contract languages	Solidity	Solidity, Vyper
Block time	Not disclosed	~1s
Typical transaction fee	$0.002	$0.05
Finality	~1.8 seconds	minutes to Ethereum
Mainnet since	2,020	2,023
Throughput (TPS)	5,000	Not disclosed
Sequencer	Not applicable	Not disclosed
Gas paid in	POL	ETH
Company
Founded	2020	2023
Headquarters	Cayman Islands	—
Investors	Peak XV Partners, Galaxy Digital, Republic Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 +4	Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly, Ethereum Foundation +5
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	Typical transaction fees average approximately $0.002 per transfer Settlement finality completes in roughly 1.8 seconds Full EVM execution environment supports standard Solidity tooling and libraries Processed over 8 billion transactions across more than $3.0 trillion in cumulative volume	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	Relies on sidechain checkpoints rather than native Layer 2 zero-knowledge rollups Bridge smart contracts on Ethereum introduce third-party settlement and locking risks Past smart contract vulnerability resulted in the loss of 801,601 tokens in 2021 Separate Polygon zkEVM sequencer suffered an operational halt in July 2026	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	High-frequency stablecoin payment providers, Fintech developers seeking EVM compatibility, DeFi apps requiring sub-cent fees	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.

More comparisons