Let’s cut to the chase: if you’re building in web3 — which you should be — you need the best web3 development tools around. You need the kind of dev tools that help you minimize engineering spend, cut dev time down, and accelerate your go-to-market schedule — while decreasing risk and improving security. Let’s take a look at the eight hottest web3 developer tools right now and see what they’re getting right, and how you can put them to smart use.
1. OpenZeppelin
Building smart contracts from scratch is time consuming, ineffective and pointless — especially when you can tap into OpenZeppelin’s library of smart contracts. Based on common implementations, these pre-vetted contracts let you jump straight in, reducing your engineering spend and your time-to-market. Here’s the best part: you can deploy both Contracts and Defender — OpenZeppelin’s two star products — for free.
What makes OpenZeppelin special
- The Solidity library of your dreams. Get access to a wide range of peer-tested, reusable, secure, and ready-to-deploy smart contracts for Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains.
- Modular approach to code. The simple, clean and robust code used to build smart contracts makes collaboration and troubleshooting a breeze — your team can easily customize specific elements.
- Robust security helps control risk exposure without custom strategy. Manage access, secure your transaction infrastructure, monitor your system for exploits and easily implement best security practices with Defender.
2. Alchemy
Need a simple connection to an L1? Alchemy's industry-leading set of web3 development tools is just what the chief engineer ordered. Used by Polygon, Zerion, and Ox, it’s one of the easiest ways to build and scale blockchain apps while using outside data. Dev tools like the Explorer, Composer, and Mempool Visualizer make it so much easier to optimize performance and catch bugs without sinking engineering hours into it.
You can start with the free forever plan and scale into growth and enterprise when you need extra power.
What makes Alchemy special
- Unbeatable feature set. If you can dream it, you can probably do it in Alchemy. Identify error patterns, optimize performance, manage apps from a single command center, troubleshoot transactions, monitor app usage, and more.
- The leading Web3 API. Alchemy Supernode maintains real-time data correctness and uses a dedicated, distributed system for peak reliability. In other words, it lets you scale fast.
- The friendliest UI in the business. The entire Alchemy suite is designed to decrease engineering time and maximize your team’s output — it’s quick to master and easy to use. Plus, the community around it is (almost) unbeatable.
3. QuickNode
Building blockchain applications can be an intense, time-consuming process — with QuickNode, it doesn’t have to be. You can stand up production, staging, and testing environments fast so you can push your product out the door. Everything here is designed to make your life as a web3 developer easier — from the thorough documentation to the ‘one-line-of-code’ connectors.
You can start for free with 10 million API credits and scale up to 500+ million API credits through the enterprise plan.
What makes QuickNode special
- Access to multiple chains. Building on Ethereum is great — but sometimes you need more than that. With QuickNode, you can access 15 chains — including Solana and Algorand — on 20 networks.
- Fast speeds. Your app is as good as it is quick — that’s why the QuickNode team consistently focuses on beating speed tests. Thanks to intelligent routing, you hit the node closest to the end user so they always get the fastest speed available.
- Cross-chain NFT API. Getting on the NFT train should be easy. That’s why you can access hard-to-reach blockchain data through a cross-chain API built for fast, simple deployment. And you need zero experience to put it to good use.
4. Infura
Need a powerful suite that brings everything you need to build on web3 into one big, disruptive package? Then Infura may be the web3 developer tool you’re searching for. It’s got everything you need to start: brilliant, detailed documentation, built-in scalability, and lightning fast response times. The core functionality is free — and as you need more requests, you can scale into the package that’s right for you. And you can add addons for extra Ethereum requests and transactions.
What makes Infura special
- Build quick, seamless NFTs with the NFT API suite. Get into the NFT market without building your own infrastructure to do it — use Infura to customize and mint NFTs, decentralize storage, and more.
- Build on your network of choice. Thanks to the multichain ecosystem, you can choose where you build. (Note: While Ethereum has the most support at the moment, Infura are beta-testing Filecoin support and intend on adding other networks as they grow, so keep an eye out.)
- Access to a smart community. Development is a team sport — that’s why open source communities are at the heart of everything that matters in this space. Infura is no different and their community of 400,000+ devs can help you go the extra mile.
5. Chainlink
Want to support advanced smart contracts between blockchain and non-blockchain systems with tamper-proof inputs, outputs and computations? Good. To do that, you need an oracle a.k.a. something that connects the two systems. Chainlink is one of the best oracles around. It seamlessly connects real-world data to the blockchain so you can run smart contracts and really get the best of both worlds.
What makes Chainlink special
- Add real-world data to smart contracts. Chainlink lets you add off-chain data to your smart contracts so you can use the full extent of relevant data available to build better applications.
- Access to proven solutions. You don’t have to build smart contracts from scratch. Instead, you can add pre-built and tested oracle solutions to your own applications.
- Superior community and developer tools. Chainlink’s robust guides, global open-source community, and impressive list of clients give you access to the support and inspiration you need.
6. Truffle
Truffle has a bit of everything to sweeten the web3 development tools deal. From smart contracts to a one-click testing blockchain environment, the chocolate-inspired suite has something for every dev. And Truffle is open source so you can get started for free and contribute to different projects as you go.
What makes Truffle special
- Superior testing environment. Build, test, and develop in a world-class environment that uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This cuts down on real world-debugging and helps you launch a better, smoother app.
- Deploy a one-click blockchain with Ganache. Use a personal blockchain to deploy contracts, develop applications, or run tests.
- Front-end libraries. Make writing easier and more predictable with the Drizzle library. It’s got a reactive Ethereum datastore and a selection of React components you can deploy for dApp functions.
7. Hardhat
Looking for one of the best web3 development tools for building on Ethereum? You’ve found it. With Hardhat you can build seriously fast because you get a little bit of everything. The Hardhat network makes it easy to test and debug your dApp on a local network. The VS code extension adds language support for Solidity. And the Hardhat runner helps you automate recurring tasks. The price is great too — you can get started for free.
What makes Hardhat special
- Run local testing in Solidity. Hardhat makes it easy to deploy smart contracts, run tests, and debug code in a dev-first network so you can get your dApp up to spec.
- Extremely flexible. Manage and automate recurring tasks so you can develop smart contracts faster.
- Integrate with other tools. Want to bring over some of your current web3 development tools? No problem. You can do that with Hardhat and get the best of all worlds. Plus, the plugin ecosystem gives you lots of extra functionality too.
8. SlashAuth
Need a way to protect content and gate certain parts of your apps? That’s where SlashAuth can help. With it, you can guard your app's sensitive information and ensure only the right people have access to your content. It’s a simple way to manage login functionality, role-based access control, data storage, and more.
What makes Slashhauth special
- Complete, comprehensive access control. Define, assign and control access for every part of the user journey. This protects your applications and creates a smoother, better user experience.
- Easy way to reduce risk. Avoid the cost, time, and risk that come with building your own authentication solution and deploy a proven, tested one instead.
- Prioritize security. Stay on top of the constantly growing compliance requirements for user identification without having to constantly manage them in-house.
Best-in-breed web3 developer tools for every need
Building complex dApps (and apps!) isn’t easy. To launch faster and build better, smart teams lean into the best web3 development tools. Creating with them reduces deployment time, helps you mitigate risk, and lets you go to market faster, for lower dev costs — a win-win scenario, if there ever was one.
