COMPARISONS
Comparisons With the Numbers Attached
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, pulled 6 August 2026. Nobody else in this niche does both at once, which is the only reason these pages are worth reading. See the PhotonGuides homepage for the short version.
Where Photon Actually Stands
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. 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. 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 Existing Comparison Content Gets Wrong
There is a lot of Photon comparison content and very little of it is reliable. One widely syndicated ranking is a paid press release for a competing bot, republished verbatim across three outlets and misstating one platform's all-time fees by a factor of eleven. 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
Best Solana Trading Terminal 2026: The Verdict
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, with the deepest analytics layer and the broadest chain coverage, 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
DefiLlama fees API, pulled 6 August 2026. Shares are computed against the ~$40.42M taken by the platforms with live 30-day data. Fee column cites each platform's own documentation where one exists.
| # | 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% + 40% revenue share to BANANA |
| 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 | 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 was acquired by Pump.fun and rebranded Terminal; its adapter appears to have been reset around the rebrand, so no current 30-day figure is quoted for it.
Photon vs Axiom vs GMGN at a Glance
| 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.
Terminals That No Longer Exist
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. Wallet and withdrawal access only, no roadmap, and no token after roughly two years of points farming.
- Nova is flagged with a dead URL by DefiLlama itself and has taken $0 across 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days.
- Vector.fun was acquired by Coinbase, announced in November 2025 and with its apps shut down by 26 November 2025.
- Padre is alive but is no longer Padre: Pump.fun acquired it and rebranded it Terminal, stripping the PADRE token's utility. The token fell roughly 76% in an hour on the news.
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.
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 Photon