Last week Pancake released their own auto-compounding feature for their CAKE token. Up until this point you'd either have to manually compound, costing you more in gas fees, or rely on a 3rd party vault. Today I'd like to do a quick comparison of some of those vaults in terms of fees and what else they may offer.

What types of fees will you sometimes see?

Entry Fee - Some vaults charge an upfront fee from whatever you stake.

Withdrawal Fee - A certain percent is taken from whatever value you withdraw. Some vaults have a minimum number of days where this applies, while some charge this fee regardless of how long you stake.

Performance Fee - Most (all?) vaults charge a fee on a recurring basis any time they compound the vault for you. This is to cover gas fees, reward the vault creator, and to sometimes reward stakers of native tokens through burns or buybacks.

What the fees don't show:

All vaults are not created equal. Some have been around a long time and have proven themselves through struggles and triumphs. Some have audits of their codes. But one additional thing to look for is how their APR (or APY) breaks down. In contrast with Pancake's vault, many other vaults also reward stakers with their own native token. This token can often be staked for fees from other vaults and may justify certain fees that they charge.

Who are we looking at today?

For this comparison, we are going to take a quick look at 7 vaults and auto compounders - Beefy, Autofarm, Pancake Bunny, ACryptoS, Harvest, Goose, and Swamp. Keep in mind this is just a quick overview, and you should do your own research. This is NOT investment advice! To make the comparison fair, I will only be looking at each vault/auto-compounder's CAKE option - others may have different fees.

A few final thoughts:

1. Fees can change! Vaults can change! Quality can change!

2. There is more behind the scenes. For example, while Beefy doesn't give its own token (anymore) they invest in their competitors and sell THEIR tokens for more CAKE, giving a slightly higher yield. And while Pancake Bunny shows a high performance fee, this is rewarded with extra BUNNY that can be staked for WBNB. And then with Harvest, the token can be sent to an ETH address to stake there. You also have the added benefit of cross-chain profit.

Again, this is just something to get you started on your journey. If you talk to a hundred BSC investors you might get 100 different opinions about which vault is best, so do your own research and do what is right for you!

3. Thank you for reading! I appreciate any and all feedback!