CoinMarketCap vs CoinGlass Comparison
In our overall rating CoinMarketCap leads with 4.9 out of 5 points, ahead of CoinGlass with 4.4. If you care most about usability, fees, and stability, CoinMarketCap has the better sub-scores, and the two are level in the other areas.
Pros & Cons
- More than 8,000 actively listed cryptocurrencies and 987 exchanges, plus more than 65 million DEX tokens in DexScan (1 November 2026)
- Usable without an account or prior knowledge
- Free Basic API tier with 15,000 credits a month, commercial use included
- Historical daily OHLCV data back to 2010 from the Startup tier at $79 a month
- iOS and Android apps
- Owned by Binance since 2020, worth factoring in when reading exchange rankings
- The commercial licence in the standard tiers covers one product with up to 100,000 users, redistributing the data is not allowed
- Full price history only from the Startup tier, Basic goes back one year and Builder three years
- Billing in US dollars
- Liquidation heatmaps and funding rates aggregated across many exchanges
- Core features usable without an account
- Open interest and long-short ratios in one place
- iOS and Android apps with liquidation and price alerts
- Clear presentation even for newcomers
- Commercial data use only permitted from the third API tier
- Limited historical depth on the free tier
- The free liquidation heatmap covers only BTC and ETH; all coins and auto refresh require Prime (US$28 a month, web only)
- Billing in US dollars
- Data describes market activity, it does not forecast it
Score Comparison
Features
- Best-known market data aggregator
- Free API tier with 15,000 credits a month
- Historical price data back to the early market
- Mobile apps available
- Derivatives data specialist
- Liquidation heatmaps as the standout feature
- Free core features
- Four API tiers plus enterprise
- Coinglass Prime subscription from US$28 a month or US$268 a year
- Part of CoinMarketCap since September 2026, with brand, app, API and pricing unchanged
The five areas head to head
AI AnalysisFees & Costs
The website is free to use. API access is tiered: the free Basic tier offers 15,000 credits a month, more than 60 endpoints and already includes commercial use in your own product with up to 100,000 users. Builder costs $29 a month (150,000 credits), Startup $79 (450,000 credits and the full history back to 2010), Growth $299 (2 million credits) and Professional $699 (5 million credits); Enterprise is available on request. Paying yearly cuts the price by up to 20%. Plan tiers and pricing change several times a year in practice and should be checked directly with the provider before subscribing. As of 1 November 2026.
The central dashboards are free and usable without an account, with historical depth the main limitation, and the free liquidation heatmap only covers BTC and ETH. The Coinglass Prime subscription unlocks it for all coins with longer time ranges and automatic refresh: US$28 a month, US$78 a quarter or US$268 a year, currently on the website only. API access is tiered at 29, 79, 299 and 699 US dollars a month, or 348, 948, 3,588 and 8,388 US dollars a year when billed annually, plus an enterprise tier on request. Important for commercial use: only the 299-dollar tier and above covers it. As of 1 November 2026.
Usability & User Experience
The interface is among the most accessible in this comparison and navigable without prior knowledge. The API documentation is clearly structured and includes code samples in several languages. As of August 2026.
The dashboards stay legible despite the data density and are navigable without prior knowledge; the heatmaps are immediately intuitive. As of August 2026.
Features & Offering
Coverage spans real-time prices, market capitalisation rankings, trading volume by exchange and pair, and global market metrics. The API additionally provides historical OHLCV data along with metadata and logos. Output is JSON, with CSV export available. As of August 2026.
The core is liquidation heatmaps, funding rates, open interest and long-short ratios, each aggregated across several exchanges. Options data, exchange inflows and outflows, a fear and greed index and large-transaction notifications round this out. iOS and Android apps deliver liquidation and price alerts. As of August 2026.
Details
Verdict
In our overall rating CoinMarketCap leads with 4.9 against 4.4 for CoinGlass.
For most investors CoinMarketCap is therefore the better choice.
CoinMarketCap is the first stop for most users when it comes to prices, market capitalisation and rankings. Its strength is breadth and accessibility: anyone who simply wants to know where a coin stands gets there without an account and without prior knowledge.
It becomes interesting as a data source. The API comes in six tiers: Basic is free with 15,000 credits a month, Builder costs $29, Startup $79, Growth $299 and Professional $699 a month, and Enterprise is priced on request; paying yearly saves up to 20%. Even the free tier allows commercial use in your own product with up to 100,000 users, while the full price history back to 2010 starts with the Startup tier. Plan tiers and pricing change several times a year in practice and should be checked directly with the provider before subscribing.
One thing to place in context: CoinMarketCap has belonged to Binance since 2020. That is not disqualifying, but it is worth knowing when interpreting exchange rankings and volume data. For deeper on-chain analysis, specialised tools are the right choice; through DexScan and the DEX API, CoinMarketCap does provide data on pools, liquidity and holders of individual tokens.
Coinglass occupies a clear niche. Where the large aggregators cover prices and market capitalisation, this is about what happens in the derivatives market. Liquidation heatmaps, funding rates, open interest and long-short ratios are consolidated across numerous exchanges: data that would otherwise have to be assembled venue by venue. In September 2026, CoinMarketCap acquired Coinglass; according to the announcement, the brand, team, website, app, API and pricing remain unchanged.
For most retail users the free tier is already workable: the central dashboards are viewable without an account, with historical depth the main limitation. The free liquidation heatmap, however, only covers BTC and ETH; all coins, longer time ranges and automatic refresh come with the Coinglass Prime subscription at US$28 a month, US$78 a quarter or US$268 a year, currently on the website only. API access is tiered from 29 to 699 US dollars a month plus an enterprise tier on request.
Two points matter for usage. Commercial use of the data is only permitted from the third API tier, so anyone embedding the data in their own product cannot use the cheaper plans. And the data describes market activity rather than forecasting it: liquidation heatmaps show where positions cluster, not where prices will go.