Using a DEX aggregator gives you access to aggregated liquidity and a wide selection of tokens in one convenient place. On the right platform, you can benefit from better prices on token swaps, access limit orders and multichain trading, and even protect yourself from potential losses.

While 1inch is the most-used DEX aggregator by market share, there are better options available for traders who need better price execution, a more refined UI, or cross chain swaps.

As 1inch is also not available to traders in the USA, this list will help you find the best option regardless of where you live. 

What you need from a DEX aggregator

To help you find the best DeFi exchange, DEX aggregators round up the many decentralized crypto exchanges on the market today. 

But not all DEX aggregators are created equal. Some features that you should look for in a DEX aggregator include:

• Deep liquidity to reduce slippage.
• An intuitive user-friendly interface.
• Built on a secure and decentralized infrastructure.
• No hidden fees.
• Non-custodial, so that you can safely store your own funds.
• Easy to access features like limit orders and cross chain swaps.
• Availability in your jurisdiction. 

With the right DEX aggregator, you can save money on your trades, access user-friendly functionality, and stay completely decentralized while navigating the DeFi landscape.

Which 1inch alternative is right for you?

In order to help you find the best 1inch alternative, we are going to be looking at four other DEX aggregators:

1. ‍Matcha is a DEX aggregator that is registered in the USA. It was founded in 2020 by 0x, the team behind the 0x protocol, which is used by over 500 teams including crypto exchanges Coinbase and Robinhood, as well as other aggregators on this list. Matcha indexes millions of tokens across 9 chains, with Smart Order Routing to find you the best deals split across DEXs and executes your trade in seconds. Alongside this, Matcha leverages other order types including RFQ and order flow auctions settled by private market makers, which protect from MEV and achieve lower slippage.
2. ‍Odos was developed by Semiotic Labs in 2019, and uses its own version of Smart Order Routing that supports multi-token input, which lets users swap multiple tokens with a single transaction. While Odos has one of the more interesting interfaces among aggregators, transparently charting the route a trade will take, it also has the smallest trade volume of any exchange listed here. 
3. ‍CoW Swap is an aggregator that focuses on order matching. Rather than place a market order, users sign an intent to trade and are matched with buyers and sellers accordingly. Orders are batched together in order flow auctions which can help achieve a better price overall, but can come at the expense of longer processing times. While the platform sometimes shows a token surplus as extra tokens received in a trade, this is usually just the amount of tokens which were saved by not executing at the worst rate quoted, or through positive slippage that happened in your favor.
4. ‍ParaSwap was founded in 2019, and is powered by the ParaSwap API. This DEX aggregator uses its own MultiPath routing system, which searches through the exchanges and tokens that it supports to help users conduct fast and secure trades. Like CoW Swap, Paraswap takes the difference between the worst possible rate and the price the trade executes at and calls it a surplus, giving the impression you receive free tokens, which is not the case. Paraswap is the second largest aggregator after 1inch, with just over 10% of volume. 

Matcha is the best DEX aggregator for cross chain swaps

Of the five DEX aggregators that we have covered in this list, only Matcha supports cross-chain swaps.

Cross chain swaps have long been one of the most requested features by aggregator users—and for good reason. Cross chain swaps free you from the consequences of having your funds locked in a single chain. While 1inch offers access to bridges, these require multiple steps to receive the desired token on a new chain, while Matcha lets you trade directly for the token you want on another network.

With cross chain swaps, you can easily take advantage of emerging opportunities in other blockchain networks, access perks like airdrops, and act quickly in the face of price hikes and falls.

With Matcha, you won’t get stuck in an illiquid market, with cost-effective cross chain swaps that are easy to use and access. This is a widely sought-after feature that you will not find in any of the other DEX aggregators covered in this list.

In addition, Matcha lets you set limit orders for free, access over 100 liquidity sources, and find the absolute best price on your decentralized trades.

Verdict: Matcha isn’t just a 1-inch alternative; it’s an all-in-one DEX aggregator powered by the industry-leading 0x protocol. Matcha is designed to offer a comprehensive decentralized trading experience for all users. 

Best DEX aggregator with gasless swaps

1inch, Matcha, and CoW Swap offer gasless swaps. This feature allows you to trade between certain types of tokens without having to pay gas fees.

Gasless swaps are not entirely free; all three of these DEX aggregators do charge a fee for accessing this feature. However, this fee can be lower than gas costs, saving you money on your trades. 

Neither 1inch or CoW Swap are very transparent about their fees. 1inch will often leave the user with fewer tokens than expected, as they are spent to replace gas costs, while CoW Swap may show tokens that aren’t lost to slippage as a surplus, to make the user think they received a bonus.  

ParaSwap and Odos, on the other hand, do not have fees in most cases but do not feature gasless swaps.

Verdict: All five aggregators offer a method of cutting back on costs, but only Matcha is transparent about fees in any trading mode.

1inch alternatives that support the most chains and tokens

When it comes to the number of blockchain networks that are supported by the 1inch alternatives on our list, we are presented with a three-way tie. 

Matcha, ParaSwap, and Odos each currently support nine chains. CoW Swap, on the other hand, only supports three.

Matcha, ParaSwap, and Odos enable widespread access to the majority of the market’s leading projects. After all, many cryptocurrencies are built on top of one of these nine chains, with Matcha now indexing over 5 million tokens in total!

All four of these DEX aggregators support Ethereum, which is home to all ERC-20 tokens. 

Verdict: While tied with ParaSwap and Odos in terms of supported chains, Matcha appears to be the winner when it comes to supported tokens. Matcha users are currently able to trade over five million tokens across nine chains.

Which DEX aggregator offers MEV protection?

MEV protection is a way of stopping attackers from targeting your trades. This is a great feature for traders, but it is not available on all DEX aggregators. Since it relies on Private Market Makers to avoid the public mempools where most MEV attacks happen, there is often a fee to use this feature.

On 1inch, this trading mode is referred to as Fusion. It is enabled by default and can only be disabled through a hidden menu, making it more likely for users to pay fees for their swap unwittingly. 

While Fusion is advertised as free from gas fees, the Dutch auction model it uses will actually take fees by lowering the amount of tokens you receive until a solver accepts the trade, meaning the solver receives the gas cost from the tokens you expect to receive.  

Other DEX aggregators with MEV protection provide a more transparent experience, like Matcha, where you know exactly how many tokens you will receive when you place an order. 

Of the 1inch alternatives on our list, ParaSwap is the only aggregator that does not support MEV protection.

Verdict: Matcha and Odos are best DEX aggregators for MEV protection.

1inch blocks access for traders in the US

1inch was developed by two Russian programmers, Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov, in 2019. Over the last few years, 1inch has reinforced its policy preventing access to users from “prohibited locations”. Anyone attempting to access its services from the United States is not authorized to do so and will be greeted by an error screen.

While 1inch has long maintained this policy, many simply ignored earlier cautions and continued to use its services. Over the last couple of years, 1inch has implemented stricter methods which notify anyone with a US-based IP address that they are in a "restricted territory" and ineligible to make trades.

Fortunately, there are several DEX aggregators that offer comparable functionality and are open to US traders. In fact, some DEX aggregators even offer a better service altogether—especially since 1inch does not support cross-chain swaps and MEV protection.

Matcha is registered in the US and is available to use right now in most jurisdictions across the world. If you are not already using Matcha, you’re missing out on finding the best prices on over 5 million tokens. Try Matcha today to get started.