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Methodology

How we test and score Solana explorers

Every score on Solscanner comes from the same repeatable test: real on-chain data, six weighted criteria and a check against raw RPC responses.

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The test set

We keep a fixed set of real mainnet items and paste each one into every explorer we review:

  1. Transactions A simple SOL transfer, an SPL token transfer, a Jupiter swap with inner instructions, a failed transaction and a versioned transaction that uses an address lookup table.
  2. Accounts A small personal wallet, a large exchange hot wallet with thousands of token accounts, a stake account, a vote account and an upgradeable program.
  3. Tokens USDC, a Token-2022 mint, a memecoin launched on pump.fun and a known fake copy of a popular ticker.
  4. Blocks A recent finalized slot and a skipped slot.
  5. Devnet A devnet transaction, to check cluster switching.

We compare what each explorer shows with the raw JSON returned by getTransaction, getAccountInfo and getBlock from public RPC nodes, following the official Solana RPC documentation.

The six criteria

CriterionWeightWhat we look at
Data accuracy25%Fees, balances, token changes match RPC
Readability20%Decoded instructions, labels, plain language
Speed & reliability15%Load time, errors, uptime during tests
Depth of features15%Holders, exports, analytics, NFT, programs
Developer tools15%Clusters, IDLs, verification, API
Mobile experience10%Layout, search, copy buttons on phones

Each criterion is scored from 0 to 10. The final score is the weighted average, rounded to one decimal.

Re-testing

We re-run the full test set every quarter and whenever an explorer ships a major change, changes owner or has a notable outage. The “Updated” date on each review shows the last full check.

Independence

Explorers cannot pay for a review, a score or a ranking position. Partner links on this site go to a cryptocurrency exchange, not to any explorer, and are clearly marked. Read more on our about page.

Corrections

If you think a score or fact is wrong, email contact@solscanner.org with a source. We re-test and publish corrections quickly.