Coinbase Alternative Platforms: Get Better Security, Privacy & Lower Fees (2024)

Tired of Coinbase’s high fees, limited features and subpar user experience? Tired of their entire platform going down every five minutes or whenever the price of Bitcoin is pumping? Trust us, there’s way better Coinbase alternatives out there. So level up your crypto transactions with better security and privacy, all while getting a better service for cheaper.

Top Coinbase Alternatives

To cut right to the chase, below are our top recommended cryptocurrency exchanges if you’re looking for the best Coinbase alternative. We have an even bigger list on our Crypto Exchange Comparison page.

We’ve also included Coinbase in the table as well, so you can see just how poorly they score compared to our top winners. While they may have first drawn you into crypto promising you that you’ll be one of the next “successful traders”, hopefully you’ve since learnt your lesson and stopped margin trading digital assets all day like a degen. Let’s dig in!

RoboSats: Best For Speed & Low Fees

RoboSats is an amazing P2P exchange that only allows buying and selling Bitcoin with fiat over the Lightning Network. While doing our RoboSats review we were shocked to see it get almost perfect marks in Privacy & Security while also having the lowest fees of any exchange we’ve reviewed. Those great scores do come at a small cost though.

Quick Overview

• Non-KYC + Private Wallet: Entirely non-KYC and uses your own self custody private wallet
• Low Fees: It has the lowest fees we’ve ever seen from any exchange we’ve reviewed!
• Extreme Privacy: Requires no personal information, randomly generates a new and fun robot account each and every trade, is peer-to-peer, uses the Tor network by default and end to end encrypts everything
• Extremely Quick: Wide array of supported currencies and payment methods (including custom ones), works across a huge array of countries and ensures your sats arrive instantly by using the Lightning Network
• Low Liquidity: As a newer exchange, it thus suffers from low liquidity. This can make it hard to find a trade to take or get your trade taken by someone else.
• Requires A Security Deposit: As it uses a Lightning Network version of an escrow account to ensure trades are secure, you need to put in a small deposit to start a trade. This can make things hard for Beginners who have no sats at all.
• Technical: While the interface is simple and modern, the base concepts that it’s built on such as the Lightning Network, Lightning Wallets, Tor and its Robot Avatar system can be a bit confusing
• Trade Limit: As trades use the Lightning Network, it has a trade limit of 5 Million sats or 0.05 BTC

If you understand how Bitcoin and the Lightning Network works, RoboSats is an amazing exchange! While they’re new and quite unique in that they only operate over the Lightning Network, they use this to their advantage to give incredibly low fees and super fast trades all with top notch privacy. This makes it one of the best coinbase alternatives as it means you can still get super fast trades.

Bisq: Top For Privacy & Security

Bisq is an exceptionally well developed, mature and decentralized P2P exchange that takes the form of an app you install rather than a websites you visit. While doing our Bisq review we found a thriving market – especially in USA and Europe – where you can easily buy up to 2 BTC per transaction depending on which of the 50+ payment methods they support.

For seasoned traders the advanced trading features and age of the platform makes it one of the best Coinbase alternatives for those prioritizing security and privacy. The trading fees are a bit higher than RoboSats, but you can buy much larger amounts of bitcoin and it has more advanced trading options.

Quick Overview

• Non-KYC + Private Wallet: Entirely non-KYC and uses your own self custody private wallet. This takes the form of an automatically generated Bitcoin Wallet inside the app itself and you can even connect the entire app to your own Full Node too.
• Decentralized: One of the very few exchanges that is legitimately decentralized
• Perfect Privacy & Security: Bisq is one of only two exchanges that scores a perfect 30/30 for our Privacy & Security tests which is not easy! It requires no personal information, is completely decentralized, randomly generates a new account for you on startup, is peer-to-peer, uses the Tor network by default and end to end encrypts everything.
• Excellent Maker Fees: One of the lowest Maker fees we’ve ever seen from any exchange, their Taker fees are reasonably competitive too. These fees can also be further reduced by using their BSQ token to pay for the trade fees.
• Feature Rich: Wide array of supported currencies (and even other altcoins) and payment methods, works across a huge array of countries and has support for every platform regardless of whether you’re on Linux, Windows or macOS
• Requires Your PC To Be On: As Bisq is an app that you have to run on your computer, it means that for someone to take your offer or interact with it in any way, your PC must be on
• Requires A Security Deposit: As it uses an escrow account to ensure trades are secure, you need to put in a small deposit (15%) to start a trade. This can make things hard for Beginners who have no bitcoins at all.
• Technical: While the crypto trading interface is modern and pretty (even has dark mode!), it can still be a bit confusing for those that have never used trading interfaces before

While we do nit pick a bit here and there on things such as the account signing or trading interface, these are only small things and don’t take long for most people to become accustomed to. The result is then an incredible piece of software. More than software, Bisq has created what we consider to be the pinnacle of exchange privacy and security that all other software should strive for.

Hodl Hodl: Great For Ease Of Use & Beginners

Hodl Hodl is a P2P, centralized exchange that has so many different payment methods, they even support buying bitcoin with a Tesla! While doing our Hodl Hodl review we found a good amount of various trades on offer, especially for USD and EUR as well as advanced transaction types. On top of all that they have no security deposit for buying bitcoins which, coupled with their fantastic privacy, security and low fees means they’re hard not to recommend, especially for beginners.

Use the button above and get your trading fees reduced from 0.3% to 0.275%!

Quick Overview

• Non-KYC + Private Wallet + P2P: Doesn’t require any KYC, doesn’t hold user funds and is fully P2P. There’s no altcoins, no day trader gambling garbage or token pumping and it’s you the user that benefits hugely from these great decisions.
• Low Maker & Taker Fees: While there’s other exchanges out there with lower fees, Hodl Hodl is still one of the lowest exchanges we’ve seen out of all our tested exchanges. They charge an equal 0.3% for both market Makers and Takers making it very fair and simple. No hidden or overly complex trading fees here.
• Fun & Easy Website: The other thing you’ll notice straight away is their fun, big and simple to understand website. This is about as easy as it gets when it comes to buying bitcoins!
• No Security Deposit For Buyers: One of the best features that makes Hodl Hodl stand out is that they require no security deposit when you take an offer to buy Bitcoin. This is fantastic for new comers as it helps them get past the catch 22 where you need bitcoins (as a security deposit) to buy your first bitcoins.
• Endless Payment Methods: While the interface makes things easy on the eyes, their broad support for various countries, currencies and endless payment methods means there’s surely something for everyone when it comes to the actual trade.
• No E2EE: While the private key for the escrow account is end to end encrypted, the trader chat as well as the trade data, payment details etc is not. It’s encrypted via HTTPS, but Hodl Hodl itself can still see and record these details. They state that chats are automatically deleted after 60 days and any sensitive info is encrypted on the server.
• No Mobile / Desktop Support: There’s currently no desktop or mobile applications meaning that you must use their website to use Hodl Hodl. While we 100% prefer web interfaces as this means it cannot be “banned” from app stores, it can also be handy to have desktop or mobile clients for many users. They state that these are are coming in 2024 and in the meantime, their website is fully responsive meaning it looks and works great on mobiles.

If you’ve never bought peer to peer or simply don’t have any bitcoins at all Hodl Hodl is a great place to start as they don’t require any security deposit which can add a bit of complexity, especially if you don’t have any bitcoins to begin with.

While there are other exchanges with a slightly better fee structure and even better privacy features like E2EE, Hodl Hodl still has very good privacy and security, a vibrant and social trading platform with a huge number of payment methods, supported countries, real time market data and is fun and simple to use.

Peach Bitcoin: Great For Europeans

Peach Bitcoin is a P2P, centralized exchange that allows virtually anyone, even complete beginners, to stack sats in a safe and private way. Making something safe and private usually means making it much more complicated and harder to use, so when we did our Peach Bitcoin review we were very impressed to see just how simple and straight forward it was. It has a simple and fun user interface that all new investors should be able to pick up and use.

You can link it to your bank account, make near instant purchases and their educational resources and fee structures are also excellent too.

Quick Overview

• Non-KYC + Private Wallet: Entirely non-KYC and uses a self custody private wallet. This takes the form of an automatically generated Bitcoin Wallet inside the app itself and you can even setup a completely separate custom payout wallet.
• P2P: Along with being non-KYC, Peach Bitcoin is also completely peer to peer. When you buy bitcoins on their exchange, you’re not buying them from Peach. Instead it’s coming from another Peach user that wants to sell their bitcoins.
• Very High Privacy & Security: Being non-KYC, only allowing private wallets and being P2P, Peach Bitcoin already scores very highly on our Privacy & Security test, but they then take it further. All user data is kept locally on the phone and is fully end to end encrypted (E2EE) whenever it’s sent to another trading peer
• Fantastic UI: The user interface for Peach Bitcoin is slick, simple and beautiful. With a great look and feel, there’s also plenty of helpful tips scattered all throughout the app to make sure you’re fully informed of what’s going on and why
• Bitcoin Only: Peach is a Bitcoin only exchange. There’s no altcoins inside and this is a great thing for all its users
• Moderately High Transaction Fees: Buying bitcoins on Peach has decently high fees compared to some of our other top exchanges at 2%. Selling bitcoin on Peach is free.
• No Web / Desktop Support: There’s currently no web interface or support for Linux, MacOS or Windows desktop clients meaning that you must have an iOS or Android phone to use Peach.

Do be aware that there are other exchanges with slightly lower fees and better privacy and security, but Peach Bitcoin still does a fantastic job of ensuring the P2P buying process is dead simple with a fun and intuitive interface.

Ensure You Avoid KYC

KYC stands for “Know Your Customer” and is a part of the broader AML (Anti Money Laundering) regulations enforced by the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA). It requires financial institutions such as banks or crypto exchanges that hold user funds to verify your identity before you use its products or platform.

Consequences Of KYC

Once you give an exchange like Coinbase your private information and get “verified”, they then link whatever bitcoin you buy to that identity. Forever. This also allows the exchange, the government, third parties and Chain Analysis firms to…

• Track what your balance is
• Track what you spend your money on
• Track what taxes you should be paying
• Sell all this information

AML/KYC laws also result in vast honey pots of extremely private and valuable data on hundreds of millions of citizens all being located in one spot. These treasure troves of data get hacked with the customers ultimately being the ones that suffer.

KYC Is Damaging & Isn’t Needed

Coinbase must comply to regulatory compliance rules, so they enforce KYC on all customers. However you absolutely don’t need to fully dox yourself just to buy bitcoin. All of the best Coinbase alternatives we’ve suggested above are KYC free. They have support for experienced traders, crypto trading and competitive fees.

In fact, all of our recommendations have vastly better privacy and security measures than Coinbase. Some have customer support and all have a top notch secure trading environment. From end to end encryption to Tor support to fully randomized anonymous profiles, you get better security, privacy, lower fees and a more user friendly interface.

What To Look For In Cryptocurrency Exchanges

When we created our Crypto Exchange comparison system we took a long time to first think about what users should look for when choosing a cryptocurrency exchange. We developed our Crypto Exchange Rating Methodology as a result, which focuses on user security and privacy, then also considers features like low trading fees, if it has an easy to use interface, the various trading options and payment methods and more.

While you can click the link above for further details on exactly what we look for and how we rate cryptocurrency exchanges, in general you should be looking for ones that:

• Are non-KYC and don’t require any personally identifiable information to trade at any level
• Defaults to a non-custodial or “private” wallet
• Transfers funds directly from seller to buyer (Peer-to-Peer) or via an escrow wallet
• Requires no centralized servers to complete a trade
• Encrypts all user information and communications end-to-end
• Can be accessed using Tor either via its website or any of its applications
• Uses entirely Free and Open Source Software based code
• Has a simple and user friendly interface
• Supports the fiat currencies and payment methods that you want to use
• Has low transaction fees (also look for hidden fees like withdrawal fees)
• Doesn’t focus on or promotes altcoins, margin trading, social trading features or other degenerate tendencies that trick you into gambling away your wealth
• Offers customer support

Coinbase Alternatives For Specific Needs

Best for USA Investors

Due to more and more draconian policies in the USA, Hodl Hodl has had to leave which is a huge loss for Americans. Still, RoboSats and Bisq are fully available given their decentralized nature so this is what we recommend.

Best for UK Investors

The UK has been getting worse and worse for Bitcoin over the past few years, exchanges included. As such there’s been fewer and fewer good Coinbase alternatives available for those living there. All our crypto exchanges above still function there though, so simply see above for the best recommendations.

Best For Cryptocurrency Trading

We strongly advise against day or margin trading, especially when it comes to all the various altcoins. If you insist on doing this though, then regardless of what your trading strategies are, our top recommendation would be either RoboSats or Hodl Hodl as they both allow for the quickest trading of digital assets.

Storing Your Bitcoin: Custodial Vs Non Custodial

Finally for those who may not be aware, there are also many far better alternatives than Coinbase regarding how you store your bitcoin. Coinbase is a company that holds your bitcoin on your behalf in what’s called a custodial exchange wallet. A custodial wallet is one where a third party (or custodian) holds the private keys to your bitcoin on your behalf, giving them full control over your funds.

They can see every transaction you send and receive and have full control over your funds and whether or not you’re allowed to send them. This does allow you to trade on their platform much easier and have them reset your password if you ever lock yourself out, however there’s significant downsides too.

As the custodian holds your private keys, they can block you from accessing your funds or from transferring them to other wallets just like a bank. They also almost always require you to submit to KYC or AML (Anti Money Laundering) identify verification which then forever ties any bitcoin you buy to your real world identity.

Obviously both of these are the norm for the traditional financial world, but it’s not something that is required when dealing with bitcoin.

In contrast, a non custodial wallet (also called a self custody wallet) is one where you hold the private keys to your bitcoin and have full control over them.

This means that you can take those private keys and send your funds to whomever you want at any time you want from anywhere you want and without anyone else being able to stop you. There are also no KYC or AML tests to pass, meaning it takes literally seconds to download and use. In contrast many custodial wallets can take days to “approve” your account.

>> Deeper Dive: What Public And Private Keys Are

As there’s no KYC process, it also means you can transact much more privately. The wallet you download and install has no idea who you are and so cannot link your real world identity to any transactions you make with it. Non custodial wallets also allow for more advanced security features such as Multisig or other special transaction types that usually aren’t available to custodial wallets.

All of our Coinbase alternatives not only allow you to use a non custodial or private wallet, it’s their default or only option. This further encourages new and existing users worldwide to have the best security measures possible.

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