Last updated: October 9, 2026
Quick answer
SimpleSwap and ChangeNOW both let you swap crypto wallet-to-wallet without opening an account. SimpleSwap is a self-custodial multi-source swap aggregator: one custody model, 2,800+ swappable assets, routing across 20+ CEX and DEX liquidity providers. ChangeNOW is an instant exchange with 1,500+ assets that pairs non-custodial swaps with an optional custodial product, ChangeNOW Pro, and a wider set of side tools such as payment links and limit orders.
If you want the widest asset coverage and a single, predictable custody model, SimpleSwap is the closer fit. If you want an account with a stored balance, payment links or limit orders in the same app, ChangeNOW offers those and SimpleSwap does not.
Key takeaways
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Custody. SimpleSwap runs one model: no long-term user balances, every swap is a single time-bounded transaction. ChangeNOW runs two: non-custodial standard swaps plus custodial balances in ChangeNOW Pro.
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Assets. SimpleSwap lists 2,800+ assets and 3.2M+ pairs; ChangeNOW lists 1,500+ assets and 2.25M+ pairs across 110+ blockchains.
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Liquidity. SimpleSwap routes each swap across 20+ named CEX and DEX providers and publishes a 99.998% estimate-accuracy figure for most floating swaps. ChangeNOW cites 15+ CEX and DEX sources in its asset-listing materials and does not publish an estimate-accuracy figure.
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Speed. ChangeNOW publishes an average of about 1 minute. SimpleSwap publishes a range: under a minute on fast chains, 10 to 30 minutes on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Both are bound by network confirmations.
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KYC. Neither requires an account for most crypto-to-crypto swaps. Both apply transaction screening and may ask for verification in defined compliance scenarios.
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Reviews. On Trustpilot in October 2026: ChangeNOW 4.5 from 13,500+ reviews; SimpleSwap 4.2 from 2,650 reviews, 81% of them five-star over the last 12 months.
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Integrations. SimpleSwap's engine runs inside 6,000+ partner products, including the Exodus and Tangem wallets. ChangeNOW reports 5,000+ partners.
The only official SimpleSwap domain is simpleswap.io.
SimpleSwap vs ChangeNOW at a glance
Figures are the platforms' own published numbers as of October 2026 and change over time. Availability of some features depends on region and payment partner.
Custody model: one model or two
This is the clearest structural difference between the two services, and it shapes everything else.
SimpleSwap holds no long-term user balances. Crypto leaves a wallet you control; the conversion routes through aggregated liquidity in a single time-bounded transaction, and the result lands in a wallet you control. There is no platform account to fund before the swap and no balance to withdraw after it. The trust relationship starts and ends with one order ID.
ChangeNOW offers the same non-custodial flow for standard swaps. It also offers ChangeNOW Pro, an account-based environment where users deposit funds, hold them on the platform, convert internally, and withdraw later. Pro unlocks cashback and account tools, and it reintroduces the custodial relationship that the wallet-to-wallet model removes.
Neither approach is wrong. They answer different needs. A user who wants a stored balance and internal transfers gets that from ChangeNOW Pro. A user who wants every swap to carry the same risk profile, with nothing parked on a third-party database between transactions, gets that from SimpleSwap by default, with no mode to pick.
Boring is the highest compliment you can pay infrastructure. Boring means it worked.
— Rick Cramer, Head of Analytics, SimpleSwap (CryptoSlate)
Self-custody on either service still means shared responsibility. You confirm the receiving address, you pick the right network, you keep your seed phrase. No swap service can reverse a confirmed blockchain transaction, and neither SimpleSwap nor ChangeNOW will ever ask for your private keys.
Supported assets, liquidity and routing
SimpleSwap lists 2,800+ swappable assets and 3.2M+ trading pairs. ChangeNOW lists 1,500+ cryptocurrencies and 2.25M+ pairs across 110+ blockchains. Both cover the majors, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and stablecoins, on common networks. The gap shows up on the long tail, where SimpleSwap added 450+ assets over the past year across Solana, Sui, Base, KAIA, Linea, and Ronin.
How each service finds liquidity matters as much as how many assets it lists.
SimpleSwap is an aggregator. For every order, it compares quotes from 20+ centralized and decentralized providers and routes the swap through the one that can execute at that moment. A pair that is thin on one venue can be filled from another. The user never sees the providers, only the final estimate. On most floating swaps, that estimate lands within 99.998% of the delivered amount, a figure SimpleSwap publishes in its 2026 review.
ChangeNOW describes its own model as finding the best available rate across multiple liquidity sources. Its asset-listing materials cite 15+ CEX and DEX sources behind the exchange. Independent aggregator reviews in 2026 classify it as a direct instant exchange rather than a rate-comparison layer, which fairly describes how the product presents itself.
For cross-chain moves, both services handle the bridging in the background. ChangeNOW also ships a standalone bridge product. SimpleSwap folds cross-chain routing into the standard swap flow, so a BTC-to-SOL order looks identical to a USDT-to-USDC order from the user's side.
Pricing and rate types
Both services use all-in pricing. Neither shows a separate trading commission at checkout; the service component, liquidity spread, and routing costs are folded into the rate you see before you confirm. The quoted receive amount incorporates the service's exchange and outgoing network costs. You may separately pay the network fee charged by your wallet when sending the initial deposit.
SimpleSwap's service fee starts from 0.2% and moves with the pair, available liquidity, market conditions and your loyalty level. The quoted amount is what you are expected to receive. ChangeNOW says its rate depends on the selected assets, liquidity, network costs, and market conditions, with no single percentage that describes every exchange.
Neither platform can be called cheaper across the board. The useful test is the final amount received for the same pair, size, and minute. Rates differ by pair and by moment, so compare the quote, not the headline.
Fixed and floating rates work the same way on both. A floating rate settles at execution, so the delivered amount can move with the market between deposit and confirmation. A fixed rate locks the price for a set window, on SimpleSwap, 20 minutes, in exchange for a slightly wider spread. Fixed is the sensible pick when the deposit chain is slow, or the market is moving.
Loyalty. SimpleSwap's Customer Account adds a four-tier program: fee discounts from 5% at Bronze, from 10% at Silver, from 15% at Gold and from 20% at Platinum, with an enhanced mode of up to 40% for Gold and Platinum members who forgo cashback. Gold and Platinum also earn 0.1% and 0.4% USDT cashback. Tiers are based on all-time volume and never expire. ChangeNOW pays cashback in its NOW token and ties extra perks to ChangeNOW Pro.
Speed: an average or a range
ChangeNOW publishes an average exchange time of about 1 minute. SimpleSwap publishes a range by network: under a minute on Solana or Polygon, 10 to 30 minutes on Bitcoin and Ethereum depending on congestion, and 1 to 60 minutes in its FAQ for all pairs. These are two different kinds of numbers, and they are not directly comparable.
An average compresses every order into one figure, so a Solana swap that clears in 40 seconds and a Bitcoin swap that waits through three confirmations both disappear into it. A published range tells you what to expect for the chain you are actually using. For a user deciding whether to pick a fixed rate before sending BTC, the range is more useful.
The constraint is the same on both services: a swap cannot finish before the deposit chain confirms it, and a compliance check can pause an order on either platform. What a service controls is what happens after confirmation. SimpleSwap's infrastructure recorded a 98.7% swap execution rate during the October 2025 flash crash, when industry-wide execution rates reportedly fell to around 10%, a figure its Head of Infrastructure has put on the record. ChangeNOW has not published a comparable stress-test number.
Every SimpleSwap order carries a unique ID with live tracking from deposit to delivery. ChangeNOW provides the same per-transaction tracking in its app and web interface.
KYC, compliance and address screening
Neither service asks for an account to complete most crypto-to-crypto swaps. Both run transaction screening, and both may ask for verification when a specific transaction falls into a compliance scenario. Self-custodial does not mean verification-free on either platform.
SimpleSwap. KYC covers fiat purchases through payment partners and an optional one-time verification at registration. KYC may also be required for transaction security and compliance. A swap can be paused if information identified during screening needs additional review. A pause is not an accusation: funds can carry history from earlier wallets or counterparties the current sender knows nothing about. Users who verify in advance at simpleswap.io/kyc give the provider network confirmed information from the start, which can shorten later checks.
ChangeNOW. Standard swaps follow the same account-free pattern. ChangeNOW's September 2026 Terms set mandatory KYC for users in certain regions, and AML/KYC checks may be requested in other cases under its risk controls. ChangeNOW Pro requires an account by design.
Address Check. SimpleSwap gives registered users a tool for the counterparty side of a swap. Address Check in the Customer Account screens a wallet address through third-party analytics services and returns a risk level with the connections it finds. It does not replace your own address and network checks, and it may not catch every issue, but it adds context about who you are about to transact with before any funds move. ChangeNOW offers an AML address check in its app and Pro environment.
Both services publish their legal documents. For SimpleSwap: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and the Anti-Financial Crime and KYC Policy. Services on either platform are subject to jurisdictional restrictions listed in their respective Terms.
Support and public reviews
Both services run 24/7 support. The difference is what each one publishes about it.
SimpleSwap states a 4-minute average first response in live chat, available on the website and in the app, with a help centre, email and order tracking alongside. Gold and Platinum loyalty members get a personal manager on Telegram. Most cases resolve automatically; the human queue exists for the rest. ChangeNOW offers 24/7 support by chat and email and does not publish an average response time.
Trustpilot, checked October 8-9, 2026
ChangeNOW has the larger review base and the higher score. SimpleSwap's profile is smaller, with 249 reviews in the past year and 81% of them at five stars. The one-star reviews on both profiles cluster around the same situations: a swap paused for a compliance check, a floating rate that moved before execution, a deposit the user sent on the wrong network. Those are the scenarios that produce public complaints for any instant exchange, and the fixed rate exists for the second.
SimpleSwap also holds a 4.3 out of 5 user rating on CryptoRadar, with the verification experience scored at 4.7.
Beyond the swap: product scope and integrations
ChangeNOW has built outward from the swap into a wider product set: ChangeNOW Pro custody, payment links, a standalone cross-chain bridge, limit orders, private transfers, permanent exchange addresses, prediction markets and internal transfers between accounts. If you want several of those in one app, ChangeNOW is the broader toolbox.
SimpleSwap has built inward, around the swap itself. The Customer Account adds price alerts, exchange history, an address book, Address Check and the loyalty program. The mobile app was rebuilt in 2026 with fewer taps per swap. By design, there is no custodial mode and no order book.
Where SimpleSwap's reach shows is on the integration side. Its swap engine runs inside 6,000+ partner products. The list includes Exodus, listed on NYSE American, where SimpleSwap powers fixed-rate swaps; Tangem, where swaps run inside the cold wallet with keys never leaving the card; Ellipal's air-gapped hardware wallet; Cake Wallet, which has used SimpleSwap as a core feature since 2022; and Tonkeeper. Each team ran its own due diligence before letting an outside service touch its users' transactions. ChangeNOW reports 5,000+ partners across its API, widgets, white-label products and payment tools, with Exodus among them.
For developers, both offer APIs, widgets, and affiliate tools. ChangeNOW extends into NOWPayments, NOW Custody and NOWNodes. SimpleSwap's partner offering covers the exchange API, a DeFi API, a fiat API, widgets, buttons, and banners.
Which one should you choose?
Choose SimpleSwap if you hold crypto in your own wallets and want every swap to work the same way: no platform balance, one order ID, aggregated liquidity across 20+ providers, and the wider asset list at 2,800+. It also fits users who reach long-tail tokens on newer chains, value a published estimate-accuracy figure over an average time, and want loyalty discounts without moving funds into a custodial account.
Choose ChangeNOW if you want a stored balance you can convert internally, payment links to invoice in crypto, limit orders, or a standalone bridge, all under one login. Its larger Trustpilot base and 47-currency fiat coverage are real advantages for users who want more than a swap from one provider.
Pros and cons
SimpleSwap: pros
- 2,800+ assets and 3.2M+ pairs
- 20+ CEX/DEX providers per route
- Single custody model
- 99.998% estimate accuracy on most floating swaps
- Address Check
- Four-tier loyalty with fee discounts from 5% and USDT cashback
- 4-minute average support response
- 6,000+ integrations
SimpleSwap: cons
- No custodial mode or order book
- Published speed is a range, not an average
- Fewer side products
- Smaller review base at 2,650
ChangeNOW: pros
- 1,500+ assets
- About 1-minute published average
- Optional custodial Pro account
- Payment links, limit orders, bridge, private transfers
- 47 fiat currencies
- 14 languages
- 4.5 Trustpilot from 13,500+ reviews
ChangeNOW: cons
- Two custody models to keep straight
- Pro features need an account and custody
- 15+ liquidity sources against SimpleSwap's 20+
- No published response-time or stress-test figures
FAQ
Is SimpleSwap better than ChangeNOW?
It depends on what you need. SimpleSwap offers more assets, aggregated routing across 20+ providers, and a single self-custodial model. ChangeNOW offers a broader product set, including custody, payment links, and limit orders, on a smaller asset list.
Is SimpleSwap safer than ChangeNOW?
Both are non-custodial for standard swaps. SimpleSwap never holds long-term user balances, so there is no platform account to hack or freeze. ChangeNOW Pro does hold balances, which adds a custodial relationship for users who opt in. On either service, address accuracy and network selection stay with the user.
Which has more coins, SimpleSwap or ChangeNOW?
SimpleSwap lists 2,800+ swappable assets and 3.2M+ pairs. ChangeNOW lists 1,500+ cryptocurrencies and 2.25M+ pairs.
Which is faster, SimpleSwap or ChangeNOW?
ChangeNOW publishes an average of about 1 minute. SimpleSwap publishes a range: under a minute on fast chains, 10 to 30 minutes on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Both wait on network confirmations, so the chain you use sets the floor.
Does SimpleSwap require KYC?
Most crypto-to-crypto swaps need no account. KYC covers fiat purchases through payment partners and the optional one-time verification at registration. KYC may be required for transaction security and compliance.
Does ChangeNOW require KYC?
Not for standard swaps in most cases. ChangeNOW's Terms set mandatory KYC for certain regions, and checks may be requested under its risk controls. ChangeNOW Pro requires an account.
Are SimpleSwap and ChangeNOW fees the same?
Both bundle costs into the quoted rate and neither is cheaper across every pair. SimpleSwap's service fee starts from 0.2% and varies by pair, liquidity, market conditions and loyalty level. Compare the final receive amount for your pair at the moment you swap.
Can I use SimpleSwap or ChangeNOW in my country?
Both services apply jurisdictional restrictions listed in their Terms of Service. Check the Terms before your first swap. You must be of legal age to use either service where you live.
How we compared
Figures come from the platforms' own websites, FAQs and legal pages, and from Trustpilot, checked on October 8-9, 2026. Where a platform publishes several versions of a number on different pages, the figure on the main English product page was used. Ratings, asset counts and feature availability change; treat every number as a snapshot.
Sources
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial, investment or legal advice. SimpleSwap does not provide financial advice. Crypto assets carry risk, including the possible loss of funds; risk disclosures are set out in the Terms of Service. SimpleSwap charges fees; details are available on the website. Services are not available in some jurisdictions. You must be of legal age to use the service in your jurisdiction, typically 18 or 21 where local law requires, and it is your responsibility to check. SimpleSwap's only official domain is simpleswap.io.
