This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Herra karl
Alright, I need to get something off my chest. I’ve been building on both NEAR and Ethereum for the past 3 years, and honestly? There were moments where I seriously considered going back to building boring web2 APIs that nobody cares about.
But I didn’t. And now I’m kinda glad I stuck it out, because both platforms taught me completely different lessons about what blockchain development actually means in 2025.
This isn’t gonna be another “Ethereum killer” post or some tribal nonsense about which chain is “better.” I’m just gonna tell you what it’s really like to ship stuff on both platforms when your users are real people who get mad when things break 
How This Whole Journey Started
Back in 2022, I was a regular fullstack dev who thought smart contracts were basically just fancy databases with really expensive read/write operations. Spoiler alert: I was very wrong about a lot of things.
Started with Ethereum because, well, everyone starts with Ethereum. It’s like learning to drive on your dad’s beat-up Honda – frustrating as hell, but you learn all the fundamentals the hard way.
Then I discovered NEAR and thought I’d found developer paradise. Spoiler alert #2: every blockchain has its own special way of making you question your life choices.
Ethereum: The Beautiful Nightmare 
Let me be real with you – Ethereum development is like dating someone who’s incredibly smart, has tons of friends, but also has commitment issues and is really expensive to go out with.
The Good (And There’s A Lot of It):
Ecosystem That Never Sleeps: Need a price feed? Chainlink’s got you. Want to build a DEX? Fork Uniswap. Need lending protocols? Take your pick from Aave, Compound, MakerDAO… The ecosystem is absolutely massive.
Battle-Tested Everything: When something works on Ethereum mainnet, you know it REALLY works. Survived multiple bull/bear cycles, billions in TVL, nation-state level attacks – if it’s still running on Ethereum, its probably bulletproof.
Developer Resources: The amount of tutorials, docs, Stack Overflow answers, and random GitHub repos is insane. Whatever you’re trying to build, someone else has probably failed at it first and documented their mistakes.
The Pain (Oh God, The Pain):
Gas Fees That Make You Cry: I once spent $180 to deploy a contract that literally just stored a string. A STRING. My user paid $45 to mint an NFT that cost me $3 to create. These aren’t edge cases – this was Tuesday.
Development Speed of Molasses: Want to test a simple change? Deploy to testnet, wait 15 seconds, realize you made a typo, fix it, deploy again, wait another 15 seconds… Rinse and repeat until you’ve aged 10 years.
Complexity Overload: ERC standards for everything, proxy patterns, diamond patterns, gas optimizations that require PhD-level knowledge… Sometimes I just want to store a number without reading 12 articles about storage slots.
NEAR: The Breath of Fresh Air (With Some Clouds) 
Moving to NEAR felt like switching from a Nokia brick phone to an iPhone. Everything just… made sense? Almost suspiciously so.
The Amazing Parts:
Human Addresses That Don’t Suck: shyshiboss.near vs 0x742d35Cc6bF4532A… like, come on. My users can actually remember their addresses without copy/pasting from a notepad file.
Predictable Costs: Transaction fees are boring in the BEST way. ~$0.002 for simple stuff, maybe $0.02 for complex operations. I can tell my users exactly what something costs, and it actually costs that much.
Developer Experience: The CLI works. The docs make sense. Testing doesn’t require sacrificing goats to blockchain gods. I deployed my first contract in literally 10 minutes and spent more time being confused about why it worked than fixing bugs.
Innovation That Actually Matters: Chain signatures letting you control Bitcoin from NEAR contracts? Cross-contract calls that don’t make you cry? Social layer integration? This stuff is genuinely cool.
The Reality Checks:
Ecosystem Size: Want to integrate with the biggest DeFi protocols? Tough luck. Building a trading bot? Hope you like building everything from scratch. The ecosystem is growing but still feels… cozy.
Performance Limits: JavaScript contracts are great for prototyping, terrible for compute-heavy stuff. Hit performance walls faster than you’d expect, especially with complex financial calculations.
User Confusion: Storage staking confuses EVERYONE. “Why do I need to pay to store data?” becomes a FAQ item real quick. Account creation costs NEAR tokens – another friction point.
The Real World Performance Showdown 
Ethereum in Production:
- Transaction Time: 15 seconds – 5 minutes depending on gas price and network congestion
- Costs: $5-50 for simple transactions, $50-500 for complex DeFi operations (yes, really)
-
Reliability: When it works, it REALLY works. But during high traffic…
- Finality: Generally solid, but MEV and reorgs can mess with your day
NEAR in Production:
- Transaction Time: 1-2 seconds, consistently
- Costs: $0.002-0.02 for most operations
- Reliability: Surprisingly solid, 99.9%+ uptime in my experience
- Finality: Fast and consistent, no nasty surprises
The performance difference is night and day. NEAR feels like what Ethereum would be if it was designed today instead of 2015.
When Users Actually Matter (The UX Reality) 
Ethereum UX:
Your users need to:
- Install MetaMask (confusing for normies)
- Buy ETH for gas (where? how much? why?)
- Approve token spending (why am I signing this?)
- Pay gas fees they can’t predict
- Wait 15+ seconds for confirmation
- Pray they didn’t get front-run by MEV bots
Result? 90% of potential users bounce before completing onboarding.
NEAR UX:
Your users can:
- Create account with email/phone through wallet apps
- Use human-readable addresses (alice.near)
- Pay predictable, tiny fees
- Get instant feedback (1-2 second transactions)
- Use app-specific keys for better security
Result? Way better conversion rates, but smaller overall user base to convert.
The Developer Experience Truth 
Ethereum Development Flow:
Idea → Research existing solutions → Fork something →
Modify → Test on local → Test on testnet (wait...) →
Deploy to mainnet (pray gas isn't $200) → Debug issues →
Users complain about fees → Optimize gas → Repeat
NEAR Development Flow:
Idea → Build from scratch (ecosystem smaller) →
Test locally → Deploy to testnet (instant) →
Works first try (suspicious) → Deploy to mainnet →
Users confused about storage staking → Education → Done
Both have friction, just different kinds.
The Ecosystem Reality Check 
Ethereum’s Massive Universe:
Building on Ethereum is like moving to New York City. Everything exists, but its expensive and overwhelming. Need anything? Someone’s built it. Want to stand out? Good luck competing with thousands of similar projects.
The composability is unreal though. I’ve built applications that integrate with 15+ protocols seamlessly. DeFi legos are real, and they’re spectacular when they work.
NEAR’s Smaller Community:
Building on NEAR is like moving to a growing tech hub. Smaller community, everyone knows everyone, easier to get noticed, but you’ll build more infrastructure yourself.
The innovation is exciting though. People are trying genuinely new approaches instead of just forking existing patterns. Social layer integration, cross-chain signatures, human-centric features.
When I Choose What (My Real Decision Tree) 
I Pick Ethereum When:
- DeFi integration is critical (nothing beats the liquidity and protocol diversity)
- Battle-tested security matters (financial apps with serious money)
- Composability is key (building on top of existing protocols)
- Team already knows Solidity (learning curve is brutal enough)
- Users expect Ethereum (institutional clients, DeFi degens)
I Pick NEAR When:
- User experience matters more than ecosystem (consumer apps, social features)
- Predictable costs are important (anything user-facing)
- Innovation over imitation (exploring new paradigms)
- JavaScript/TypeScript team (leveraging existing skills)
- Cross-chain functionality needed (chain signatures are genuinely cool)
Hot Takes That Might Anger People 
Ethereum’s high fees aren’t just a scaling problem – they’re a UX disaster that kills mainstream adoption
NEAR’s smaller ecosystem is both its weakness and strength – less competition, more opportunity for innovation
Most developers pick Ethereum for the wrong reasons – ecosystem size doesn’t matter if your users can’t afford to use your app
Layer 2s don’t solve Ethereum’s UX problems – they just make them slightly cheaper
NEAR’s biggest risk isn’t technical – its whether they can grow the ecosystem fast enough to matter
Real Production Lessons 
Ethereum taught me:
- Gas optimization is an art form (and necessity)
- User education about fees is critical
- Composability can create amazing emergent behaviors
- Security reviews are non-negotiable when serious money is involved
- MEV is real and will affect your users
NEAR taught me:
- UX advantages compound over time
- Predictable costs enable different business models
- Social features matter more than I expected
- Cross-chain functionality opens new design spaces
- Smaller communities can be more supportive
The Multi-Chain Reality 
Plot twist: I don’t pick sides anymore. Both platforms serve different needs.
My current approach:
- Identity/social layer: NEAR (human addresses, social features)
- DeFi/financial layer: Ethereum (liquidity, battle-tested protocols)
- Bridge between them: Cross-chain solutions
The future isn’t about winning chains, its about the right tool for each job.
What’s Coming Next 
Ethereum keeps focusing on scaling and efficiency. Layer 2s are getting better, sharding might eventually happen, and the ecosystem keeps growing.
NEAR is doubling down on cross-chain and social features. Chain signatures could be game-changing if they nail the UX.
Both will survive and thrive serving different use cases.
The Bottom Line 
After 3 years of building on both:
Ethereum is the safe choice if you need ecosystem depth and don’t mind UX/cost trade-offs. Your users will complain about fees but your integrations will work.
NEAR is the innovative choice if UX matters and you’re willing to build more from scratch. Your users will love the experience but you’ll work harder on integrations.
Neither will kill the other. Both will find their niches.
Final Thoughts (Getting Real) 
The hardest thing about blockchain development isn’t the technology – its managing user expectations while the tech catches up to the vision.
Ethereum has incredible technology hampered by cost and complexity. NEAR has great UX limited by ecosystem size.
Your job as a developer is figuring out which trade-offs matter for YOUR users.
Stop looking for the perfect blockchain. Start building for real people with real problems.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Herra karl