Best Decentralised Exchanges

Best decentralized exchanges by use case

• You want core contracts that cannot be changed under you: Uniswap is the only DEX here with a 10 for immutability and governance. Its docs state the core contracts cannot be upgraded or paused and that trades cannot be reversed. The trade-off is a 5 for licence: the v4 core is under BUSL 1.1 until 15 June 2027 at the latest.
• You trade on Solana and want fees you can check before you swap: Raydium holds the only 10 for fee transparency. All 18 CLMM fee configurations and 21 CPMM configurations can be read from its public API, and the split (84% to liquidity providers, 12% to RAY buybacks, 4% to the treasury) is published. Every program remains upgradeable by a 3-of-4 multisig behind a 24-hour timelock.
• You care about reusable open code and a deep audit record: PancakeSwap pairs a 10 for audits, from 32 linked reports, with a 9 for licence: its Infinity core is under GPL-2.0. 1inch has the same two marks, with MIT on its order, Fusion and cross-chain swap repositories and a GitHub audit archive that names six firms for Aggregation Router v6.
• You route swaps across many EVM networks: 1inch lists 18 networks in its Swap API documentation (chain coverage 9) and states that its contracts are non-upgradable with no admin keys over core logic. Its fees are published only as ranges, 0 to 5 basis points on stablecoin pairs and 0 to 30 on others, so its fee mark is 6.
• You mostly swap stablecoins and need the widest network list: Curve has the only 10 for chain coverage, with contracts on 30 networks in its deployments directory, and typical Stableswap fees of 0.005% to 0.02% per its docs. Its licence grants no right to reuse the code, which is why it scores 1 on that criterion.

How the ranking works

Every DEX is marked from 0 to 10 on five criteria, read from the protocol's own documentation, contracts and repositories:

• Fee transparency: swap fees published as figures you can look up before trading, with the split. Discrete tiers score above ranges or caps.
• Licence & code openness: the licence in the LICENSE file. A recognized open-source licence scores highest, a delayed-open licence such as BUSL sits mid-table, and a revocable or rights-reserving licence scores low even when the code is public.
• Immutability & governance: whether core contracts can be upgraded, paused or altered, and who holds that power. A plain statement, including one that admits what stays upgradeable, beats silence.
• Chain coverage: the networks named in the protocol's own deployment documentation, not an aggregator's list.
• Audit disclosure: published reports with the auditing firms named. An unnamed audit cannot be checked.

The overall score is the plain average of the five marks, equally weighted and rounded to one decimal. Ties are listed alphabetically, which is why 1inch sits above Uniswap at 8.4, PancakeSwap above Raydium at 8.2, and Aerodrome, Jupiter and SushiSwap follow one another at 5.8. All marks come from desk research of primary sources checked on 1 November 2026; nothing was scored from hands-on trading. Marks are re-checked as documentation changes, and each review logs what moved and why. The full rules are on the ratings methodology page.

DEX	Fees	Licence	Immutability	Chains	Audits	Overall
1inch	6	9	8	9	10	8.4
Uniswap	9	5	10	9	9	8.4
PancakeSwap	8	9	6	8	10	8.2
Raydium	10	9	8	4	10	8.2
Curve	6	1	8	10	10	7.0
Orca	9	2	7	4	9	6.2
Aerodrome	6	5	7	4	7	5.8
Jupiter	9	2	4	4	10	5.8
SushiSwap	6	6	5	9	3	5.8

Read the columns as much as the total. The licence column runs from 1 to 9, the widest spread of any criterion: a public repository is often not an open-source licence. Curve publishes its code for information only, Orca moved to a revocable, non-commercial licence on 27 February 2025, and the source of Jupiter's v6 aggregator program is not in its public GitHub organization.

What changed in this update

The November 2026 re-check moved most of the table, largely because documentation that was missing or unreadable in July now states figures:

• 4.4 to 8.4, 1inch. The Swap API network list became readable (chain coverage 3 to 9), its GitHub audit archive was credited (audits 3 to 10), its security page's non-upgradability statement was recorded (4 to 8), and fee ranges are now published (3 to 6).
• 6.0 to 8.2, Raydium. New admin docs state who can upgrade each program and on what timelock (4 to 8), and the audits page now links ten scoped reports by five firms (3 to 10).
• 5.4 to 7.0, Curve. Fee pages that failed to load in July now give ranges (3 to 6), the pool risk page states pools cannot be upgraded (4 to 8), and a fifth audit firm was added (9 to 10).
• 4.6 to 6.2, Orca. A named, dated audit list now links twelve reports. Its fee mark fell from 10 to 9 because its trading-fees page lists one tier at 0.08% while its parameters page and live pools show 0.05%.
• 4.4 to 5.8, Jupiter. Its audits page now links 31 reports from 11 named firms (audits 3 to 10).
• 7.6 to 8.2, PancakeSwap. Newly published v2 and v3 fee splits and an eleven-network list. 5.4 to 5.8, Aerodrome. Stated default fees and named core auditors.
• Two scores fell. From 8.8 in July, Uniswap now has 8.4: v4 pools have no fixed fee tiers, and its deployment pages list 21 mainnets rather than 24. From 6.2, SushiSwap now has 5.8, because its own pages give two different accounts of where the v2 fee goes.

Balancer has been withdrawn from the ranking after its wind-down was approved under BIP-928 in 2026. Aerodrome stays listed but upgraded into Aero on 22 October 2026, with emissions stopped and gauges deactivated; its marks cover the legacy Base contracts only.

What the scores do not cover

• Execution and liquidity. The rubric reads published fees, not what a trade actually costs. Price impact and slippage depend on pool depth and order size and can outweigh the posted fee on a thin pool. Liquidity depth, routing quality and trading volume are not scored.
• Incident history. Audits review code at a point in time and are not insurance. Curve pools were drained in July 2023 through a Vyper compiler reentrancy bug, Raydium's docs record a December 2022 compromise of an AMM v4 pool authority key, and 1inch reports a March 2025 exploit of an obsolete Fusion v1 contract that, it says, affected resolvers rather than end users. None of this changes a mark.
• Token and pool risk. A DEX lists or allows pools for tokens it does not vet. A high score says nothing about the asset on the other side of your swap.
• Regional access. Raydium's disclaimer says the protocol is not available to US residents, Jupiter's terms exclude US wallets and 18 other places, and Orca blocks its interface in 25 listed countries plus three regions. Access rules are not scored and differ by interface.
• Front-end and wallet risk. You interact through a website and a wallet. Phishing sites and malicious token approvals sit outside what the contracts' marks measure.

Why are aggregators such as 1inch and Jupiter ranked alongside DEXs?

Because you use them the same way: you swap from your own wallet and the trade settles on-chain. An aggregator routes your order through pools on other venues and adds its own fee layer, so it is scored on the same five criteria against its own documentation. For 1inch that means infrastructure fee ranges and an unquantified share of positive slippage retained by the API layer; for Jupiter it means a per-pair platform fee of 0 to 50 basis points, with the source of its v6 program unpublished and its upgrade authority held by one address whose holder is not stated.

How to choose a DEX

1. Start with the network. Raydium, Orca and Jupiter are Solana-only; Aerodrome's legacy contracts are on Base. If your assets sit elsewhere, the choice narrows quickly.
2. Check the exact pool fee, not the protocol's default. Uniswap v4 pools can set any fee from 0% to 100%, PancakeSwap Infinity pools publish only caps, and an Aerodrome pool can carry up to 3%.
3. Compare the quote with the expected output. Price impact and slippage tolerance matter more than the headline fee for large orders or thin pools. Our guide to automated market makers explains why.
4. Read who can change the contracts. A non-upgradeable core, a timelocked multisig and silence are three different levels of risk.
5. Look for named, dated audits of the version you will actually use, not just of an older release.
6. Confirm you are allowed to use it from where you live, and that you are on the official interface.

For a longer walk through these checks, see how to compare DEXs on what actually matters.