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Neither Stellar nor Ethereum is always cheaper or faster for DeFi. Stellar charges a transaction inclusion fee and, for Soroban smart-contract transactions, an additional resource fee; Ethereum charges gas based on computation and the gas price. Stellar describes ledger closes as taking a few seconds, while Ethereum offers block opportunities every 12 seconds and documents finality at about 15 minutes. Those figures describe protocol milestones, not guaranteed app completion times. The better choice depends on the transaction, route, congestion, and how much finality you require.
How do Stellar and Ethereum charge DeFi transactions?
Keep network fees separate from the cost of trading. A swap can also involve a pool fee, spread, price impact, bridge charge, or application fee. A network-fee comparison alone does not show the full cost of a trade.
| Cost component | Stellar | Ethereum |
|---|---|---|
| Network fee | Every transaction pays an inclusion fee. Soroban smart-contract transactions also pay resource fees based on declared resource use, including computation and ledger access. Stellar Developers documents these mechanisms at Stellar fees and resource limits. | Transactions pay gas in ETH. The fee depends on gas used and the price per gas unit; contract calls can use more gas than a basic transfer. Ethereum explains the model at Ethereum gas. |
| Trading costs | The protocol-level AMM charges a 30-basis-point (0.30%) pool trading fee, according to Stellar Developers documentation accessed October 4, 2026. It is separate from the network fee; pool depth and trade size also affect price impact. See Stellar AMM documentation. | Trading costs depend on the application and route. The sources cited here do not establish one standard Ethereum DeFi pool fee. |
| Fee variability | Inclusion fees can rise under congestion, network parameters can change, and Soroban resource requirements vary by transaction. | Gas prices change with demand, while gas use varies with the transaction’s computation. |
Stellar: inclusion plus Soroban resources
Stellar’s inclusion fee is not the whole cost of a Soroban contract interaction. Soroban additionally meters declared resources such as CPU instructions, ledger reads and writes, transaction size, events, return values, and storage rent. An inadequate resource declaration can cause a transaction to fail; fee reconciliation differs between refundable and non-refundable components. Developers can simulate a transaction to estimate resource needs and fees before submitting it. Consequently, a simple transaction’s minimum inclusion fee should not be treated as the price of a Soroban DeFi action.
Ethereum: gas used multiplied by gas price
Gas measures computational work; it is not a fixed price for a particular type of transaction. A contract interaction such as a swap can consume more gas than a basic ETH transfer. A failed transaction can still incur a fee, because the network charges for computation already performed.
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Is Stellar DeFi cheaper than Ethereum DeFi?
There is no supported universal answer. The sources describe fee mechanics, but do not provide a same-time comparison of equivalent Stellar and Ethereum swaps. Whether one trade costs less depends on its exact route and amount, resource or gas use, network conditions, and application-level charges.
For a useful comparison, record the date and time, network, application, asset pair, trade amount, and route. Report network fees separately from pool fees, spread, price impact, bridge charges, and any application fee. Do not compare a simple transfer on one network with a contract-based swap on the other, or treat Stellar’s 0.30% AMM charge as a complete swap-cost estimate.
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Which network is faster, and what does finality mean?
Inclusion is the point at which a transaction is recorded in a block or ledger. Finality is a later security milestone. Neither nominal block or ledger cadence nor an app’s confirmation display should be mistaken for a universal guarantee of irreversibility.
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Stellar ledger closes
Stellar documentation describes ledger closes as taking a few seconds. The close timestamp comes from a proposing validator’s clock, however, and may lag a few seconds or be up to 60 seconds ahead. That makes ledger cadence a poor substitute for a measured end-to-end confirmation time. See Stellar ledgers.
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Ethereum slots and finality
Ethereum proof-of-stake divides time into 12-second slots, with 32 slots per epoch, according to its proof-of-stake documentation. A slot is a block opportunity, not a promise that a transaction will be included then; slots can be empty.
Ethereum inclusion and finality are distinct. Finality depends on checkpoint votes reaching a two-thirds supermajority. Ethereum’s finality documentation, last updated July 23, 2026, describes finality as taking about 15 minutes: Ethereum finality. This is a protocol-level estimate, not a guarantee of an application’s user-interface timing.
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What DeFi functions are built into Stellar?
Stellar provides a protocol-level order-book exchange and AMM liquidity pools. In the AMM, pool shares represent a proportional claim on reserves. These built-in exchange and pool features are distinct from liquidity supplied through Soroban smart contracts; a comparison should not treat all Stellar DeFi activity as one mechanism. Stellar’s documented 0.30% AMM fee applies to the pool trade and is separate from the network transaction charge.
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- Compare the same action: price a swap against a comparable swap, not against a basic transfer.
- Inspect all costs: include the network fee and separately identify pool charges, spread, price impact, bridges, and application fees.
- Check the time-sensitive quote: congestion and fee conditions can change. Use actual quotes for the intended route and record when they were captured.
- Decide how much settlement assurance matters: distinguish first inclusion from the finality milestone relevant to your use case.
- Verify current network parameters: Stellar fee settings and live market conditions can change, so documentation-level mechanisms do not substitute for a current transaction quote.
The official materials support a comparison of protocol mechanics, not a current ranking of DeFi application ecosystems, market share, average costs, or measured latency. Those broader comparisons require current, matched data.
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