COMPARISONS
Comparisons With the Numbers Attached
This page compares Photon against Axiom, GMGN, Trojan and Jupiter on the two things that can actually be checked: what each platform's own documentation says it charges, and what DefiLlama's fee data says about how much trading each one handles. Photon charges a flat 1% on every buy and every sell with no published discount. Axiom's schedule tiers down to 0.75% plus 0.25% SOL cashback and GMGN's to 0.70% with a referral code, which makes Photon the most expensive of the three on published rates. On 30-day gross fees pulled 6 August 2026, Axiom holds 55.3% of the named cohort against Photon's 1.26%, seventh. Custody is the same across all of them, non-custodial, with Photon revealing your private key once at signup. Execution-speed claims made in Photon's favor are published with no methodology and are treated here as unverified. Photon suits a trader who specifically wants its Memescope launch screener; anyone optimizing for cost should read Axiom's schedule first, and anyone who only needs plain execution pays 0 to 10 basis points on Jupiter.
Every fee figure here comes from the platform's own documentation, or says clearly that no documentation exists. Every revenue and share figure comes from the DefiLlama fees API, read 6 August 2026. The same method is behind the measured fee index across Photon, Axiom and GMGN, which prices one identical trade on each terminal instead of restating the rate each one advertises. Nobody else in this niche does both at once, which is the only reason these pages are worth reading, and how we source these figures is written down so you can check rather than trust. See the PhotonGuides homepage for the short version.
Where Does Photon Actually Stand in 2026?
Photon launched in January 2024 and has taken $440.8M in lifetime gross fees, which is more than most of the terminals it now trails, per DefiLlama's Photon adapter read 6 August 2026. It peaked in January 2025 at $84.6M in a single month. Over the 30 days to 6 August 2026 it took $507,610, down 28.1% on the month and roughly 99% off that peak. That places it 7th in its cohort on a 1.26% share, behind Axiom (55.3%), GMGN (23.0%), Dexscreener (10.8%), Jupiter (5.8%) and Trojan (2.4%), and narrowly ahead of Maestro.
The clearest explanation is the price floor. Photon charges a flat 1% on every buy and sell with no volume tiers and no published referral discount. Axiom publishes tiers down to 0.75% plus 0.25% SOL cashback with a further 10% off via referral. GMGN publishes 1% reducible to 0.70% to 0.90% with a code, and reaches seven chains rather than one. Same headline rate, very different floor, and for anyone trading frequently the floor is what compounds.
None of that makes Photon a bad tool. Memescope is still a strong screening surface, the order automation is real, and $440M of lifetime fees is not nothing. It does mean the honest framing is "still works, no longer the default" rather than anything more flattering, and any comparison that reaches a different conclusion should be asked what data it used.
What Do Existing Photon Comparisons Get Wrong?
There is a lot of Photon comparison content and very little of it is reliable. One widely syndicated ranking runs verbatim across three outlets and puts one platform's all-time fees roughly eleven times above the figure DefiLlama reports for it. Another article titles itself "Axiom (ex-Photon)," which is flatly wrong: they are separate products from different teams. Several pieces quote GMGN at 1.5% when GMGN's own docs say 1%. Multiple 2026 articles still list BullX, Nova and Vector as live alternatives, all three of which are dead. And the "Photon confirms 100 to 300 milliseconds faster than Axiom" claim recurs across several sites with no benchmark, no methodology and no attribution, which is what a single unsourced number looks like after it has been copied a few times.
Photon vs The Field
DefiLlama, 6 August 2026
Which Is the Best Solana Trading Terminal in 2026?
On the data available in August 2026, Axiom is the category leader and it is not close: 55.3% of the named cohort's 30-day gross fees, the only platform in the group still growing, and published fee tiers down to 0.75% plus cashback. GMGN is the strongest second, reaching seven chains against Photon's one, though it is increasingly a BNB Chain product rather than a Solana one. Photon is a capable terminal in decline: Memescope remains a good screener, the order automation works, and $440.8M of lifetime fees is real history, but a flat 1% with no discount path and a 1.26% cohort share make it hard to recommend as a default in 2026. Jupiter is the honest answer for anyone who only wants execution, at 0 to 10 basis points instead of 1%. And BullX, Nova and Vector are not options at all, because all three are dead.
The Whole Cohort, Ranked by 30-Day Gross Fees
Source: DefiLlama fees API, read 6 August 2026. Shares are this site's own arithmetic against the ~$40.42M taken by the platforms with live 30-day data, not a DefiLlama figure. Fee column cites each platform's own documentation where one exists; the methodology page sets out how both are derived.
| # | Terminal | 30d fees | Share | Trend | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Axiom | $22.35M | 55.3% | Growing (+4.7%) | 1% → 0.75% top tier + cashback (official) |
| 2 | GMGN | $9.31M | 23.0% | Declining (−20.5%) | 1%, 0.70–0.90% with referral (official) |
| 3 | Dexscreener | $4.37M | 10.8% | Declining (−12.7%) | Not a trading fee (ads and data) |
| 4 | Jupiter | $2.35M | 5.8% | Declining (−24.3%) | 0–10 bps, 50 bps on tokens <24h (official) |
| 5 | Trojan | $0.97M | 2.4% | Declining (−21.6%) | ~1% (not published) |
| 6 | Photon | $0.51M | 1.26% | Declining (−28.1%) | 1% flat, no discount (official) |
| 7 | Maestro | $0.46M | 1.14% | Declining fast (−61.0%) | ~1% (not published) |
| 8 | BONKbot | $0.10M | 0.24% | Up 30d, down YoY (+10.2%) | 1%, up to 25% cashback (official) |
| 9 | Banana Gun | $0.008M | 0.02% | Collapsing (−43.1%) | 0.5–1%, BANANA revenue share (not published) |
| 10 | BullXDead | $192 | ~0% | Trading discontinued 1 Jun 2026 | 1% (official, but moot) |
| NovaDead | $0 | 0% | Dead URL flagged by DefiLlama | n/a | |
| Vector.funDead | n/a | n/a | Reported acquired by Coinbase, shut down Nov 2025 | n/a |
Bloom, Sigma, Dexcelerate and Slerf Tools are named in this category but have no DefiLlama fee adapter, so their revenue cannot be verified this way and is deliberately omitted rather than estimated. Padre is reported to have been acquired by Pump.fun and rebranded Terminal; its adapter appears to have been reset around that point, so no current 30-day figure is quoted for it.
Which Terminal Has the Lowest Fee Floor?
Every terminal in this category opens at roughly 1%, so the headline rate tells you nothing. What separates them is how far their own documentation lets you push it down, and Photon is the one that publishes no way down at all. Doubled into a full round trip and set against the flat network cost every terminal shares, the same rates become the Solana Terminal Fee Index.
How Do Photon, Axiom and GMGN Compare Feature by Feature?
| Feature | Photon | Axiom | GMGN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline fee | 1% buy and sell | 1% | 1% |
| Best achievable fee | 1% (none published) | 0.75% + 0.25% cashback | 0.70–0.90% with a code |
| Published referral discount | None | Yes, 10% off | Yes, 10–30% off |
| 30d gross fees | $507,610 | $22.35M | $9.31M |
| Cohort share | 1.26% (7th) | 55.3% (1st) | 23.0% (2nd) |
| Lifetime fees | $440.8M | $727.3M | $240.1M |
| 30d trend | −28.1% | +4.7% | −20.5% |
| Chains | Solana, plus BNB and Base deployments | Solana, BSC | SOL, ETH, Base, BSC, Monad, MegaETH, HL |
| Interface | Web only | Web and Telegram | Web and Telegram |
| Native token | None | None confirmed | None confirmed |
Fee rows from each platform's own documentation. Revenue, share and trend rows from the DefiLlama fees API, pulled 6 August 2026. Photon's BNB Chain and Base deployments have no published fee schedule, so 1% parity there is an assumption rather than a confirmed figure.
Which Solana Terminals Are Dead in 2026?
This category consolidates fast, and stale comparison content is the norm rather than the exception. Four names show up constantly in "best Solana bot" lists that should not:
- BullX discontinued trading on 1 June 2026 and took $192 in gross fees over the following 30 days per the DefiLlama fees API, pulled 6 August 2026. Wallet and withdrawal access only, no published roadmap, and no token was issued before trading stopped.
- Nova is flagged with a dead URL by DefiLlama itself and has taken $0 across 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days.
- Vector.fun is reported to have been acquired by Coinbase in November 2025, with its apps shut down later the same month.
- Padre still runs, but reports say it is no longer Padre: Pump.fun is reported to have acquired it and rebranded it Terminal, with the PADRE token's utility changed in the process. We have not found a primary source for any of that, so treat it as reported rather than settled.
For anyone arriving from one of the first three, the useful page is not a comparison at all but a migration walkthrough, and those are being written into this cluster now.
Picking a terminal is only the first half. Whichever name you land on, the mechanics of a first buy are the same shape everywhere, and ours are written up in how to actually place the trade once you have chosen: wallet, key, funding, presets, fill.
Made Your Choice?
If Photon is the right tool for how you trade, our link costs you nothing: the fee is a flat 1% each way with or without it. If it isn't, we'd rather you knew that from this page than found out over a month of fills.
Open PhotonEvery Comparison on This Site
Photon or Axiom: which should you actually trade on?
Axiom, on the two things that can be checked. Its published schedule tiers down to 0.75% plus 0.25% SOL cashback with a further 10% off via referral, against Photon's flat 1% with no discount path, and it took $22.35M in 30-day gross fees to Photon's $507,610 while being the only terminal in the cohort still growing. The one claim regularly made in Photon's favor, that it confirms 100 to 300 milliseconds faster, is published with no methodology anywhere and is treated here as unverified. Axiom is not a Photon rebrand, whatever one widely-copied headline says.
Read the full Photon vs Axiom comparison →12 minPhoton or GMGN: what does the extra chain coverage cost you?
GMGN on price and reach, Photon on the Solana launch screen. GMGN documents 1% reducible to 0.70% to 0.90% with a referral code and covers seven chains against Photon's one, and it holds 23.0% of the cohort to Photon's 1.26%. The catch is that it is increasingly a BNB Chain product rather than a Solana one, and its analytics layer answers a different question than Memescope does: which wallets are buying, rather than what the supply looks like. Anyone quoting GMGN at 1.5% is contradicting GMGN's own documentation.
Read the full Photon vs GMGN comparison →11 min