Performance Benchmarks Across Top 5 EVM Paymaster & Bundler Providers

• We analyzed performance metrics across the top 5 EVM Paymaster & Bundler solutions (Gelato Relay, Pimlico, ZeroDev UltraRelay, Alchemy, and ThirdWeb)
• Testing revealed significant variations in latency and gas efficiency that directly impact user experience
• Gelato achieved superior performance against Safe, Kernel, Thirdweb, and Alchemy wallets for both sponsored and ERC20 transactions
• Open-source benchmarking enables reproducible results across all major providers

Bottom Line: Infrastructure choice directly impacts UX and operational costs. The data shows clear performance leaders in the account abstraction landscape.

As teams evaluate infrastructure for gasless transactions and smart wallet implementations, performance benchmarks become critical for making informed decisions.

What We Measured

Our analysis focused on two critical metrics that directly impact user experience:

• Transaction Latency: Time from submission to confirmation
• Gas Efficiency: Total gas consumed for equivalent operations

We tested across multiple wallet implementations (Safe, Kernel, Thirdweb, Alchemy) and transaction types (sponsored, ERC20 payments) to ensure comprehensive coverage.

Our benchmarking tested five major providers across multiple wallet implementations and payment types. The results show Gelato's infrastructure delivering consistently superior performance across all categories.

The benchmarking reveals stark differences in infrastructure quality across providers:

Latency Leadership: Gelato consistently delivers the fastest transaction processing across all wallet implementations for both Sponsored and ERC20 transactions:

• vs Pimlico: 1.5x faster with Safe wallets, 1.3x faster with Kernel
• vs UltraRelay: 1.4x faster
• vs Alchemy: 3x faster transaction confirmations
• vs Thirdweb: 3.8x faster processing times

Gas Efficiency Champion: Our infrastructure achieves superior gas optimization across all wallet implementations and payment types:

Sponsored Transactions: 60-80% more efficient than competitors across all wallet types

ERC20 Payments: Consistently lowest gas consumption regardless of wallet choice

Consistent Performance: Superior metrics maintained across Safe, Kernel, Thirdweb, and Alchemy wallet implementations for both sponsored and ERC-20 payment modes.

Gelato's performance leadership stems from fundamental infrastructure advantages:

Paymaster Infrastructure Design

Off-Chain Simulation Advantage: Gelato's paymaster relies entirely on off-chain simulation rather than on-chain metering mechanisms. This design choice eliminates gas overhead associated with on-chain verification while maintaining transaction security through our battle-tested simulation infrastructure. No On-Chain Metering: Unlike competitors that implement on-chain gas metering for security, our proven off-chain approach reduces transaction overhead without compromising reliability, a benefit of our 4+ years of production experience.

Bundler Optimizations

Reduced Calldata Overhead: Optimized transaction structures result in smaller calldata, which directly translates to lower L1 fees on rollups, a critical advantage as Ethereum scaling relies increasingly on Layer 2 solutions.

EIP-7702 represents a paradigm shift in smart account implementation, and our benchmarking data confirms its practical advantages. Our EIP-7702 wallet implementation (Gelato Smart Wallet SDK) shows 15-30% gas savings compared to equivalent smart contract wallets, while maintaining identical functionality and security properties. Teams seeking the ultimate efficiency can leverage our complete stack using the Gelato Smart Wallet SDK:

Smart Account Architecture Optimization

Our smart wallet implementation bypasses the traditional 4337 EntryPoint when possible, eliminating unnecessary computational overhead while maintaining full security guarantees.

7702 Integration Benefits

The Gelato Smart Wallet SDK's native EIP-7702 support enables the most performant methods for both sponsored transactions and ERC-20 payments. By adding programmable smart account functionality directly to existing EOAs, we achieve gas efficiency that traditional smart contract wallets cannot match.

Gas-Optimized Wallet Design

Our wallet implementation avoids memory copies, uses gas-efficient libraries, and leverages the latest EVM optimizations. These seemingly minor improvements compound to deliver measurable performance gains.

This demonstrates the benefits of native implementation over retrofitted solutions, and showcases how optimized infrastructure can dramatically improve user experience.

For teams building Account Abstraction applications, infrastructure choice directly impacts user experience and costs. Our benchmarking validates Gelato as the clear performance leader, delivering superior gas efficiency and transaction speed across all major wallet implementations.

The gas efficiency improvements and speed advantages aren't just metrics: they represent the difference between applications that users love and those they abandon due to poor performance.

Reproduce these results locally with our open-source benchmarking demo.

Get Started

• 📓 Read the docs
• 💻 Try the demo
• 🐙 Explore the SDK

If you're building next-generation onchain wallet interfaces, embedded experiences, or smart account tooling, the Smart Wallet SDK is built for you.

Ready to start building? Schedule an exploration call.