Web3 automation is a must-have if you’re a developer dealing with recurring transactions, DeFi strategies, smart-contract operations, and event-driven workflows. Gelato is a well-known solution, but it’s not the only one out there.
A number of competing platforms take different approaches to automating blockchains — from decentralized goalkeeper networks and conditional execution, to account abstraction and workflow-based infrastructure. In this guide, we examine the Best Gelato Network Rivals for Web3 Automation their core automation features, primary use cases, pricing models, supported ecosystems, and application in different Web3 projects.
What to Look for in a Gelato Alternative?
Automation Features: Schedule, event-driven, and conditional automation that can reliably perform smart contract transactions without requiring developers to run their own automation infrastructure.
Blockchain Support: See what networks the platform supports, particularly the chains your dApp or protocol currently uses. Multi-chain compatibility offers more flexibility to scale Web3 apps.
Security & Reliability: Investigate decentralized execution, transaction reliability, monitoring, failover mechanisms, and security controls to guaranty that automated transactions are performed safely and consistently across various network conditions.
Developer Experience: Choose platforms that provide easy-to-use APIs, SDKs, documentation, dashboards and integration tools. This will save you time on development and make it easier to build and operate automation workflows.
Costs & Charges: Compare execution fees, gas costs, subscription charges, infrastructure fees, minimum commitments. Select a pricing model that can scale to accommodate growing transaction volume and automation needs.
Scalability & Performance: Think about transaction throughput, execution time, how the network handles congestion, and scalability. A good alternative must be able to handle increasing automation workloads without a significant sacrifice of reliability or performance.
Use-Case Fit: Select an option that best suits your requirements, such as DeFi automation, smart contract management, account abstraction, event monitoring, DAO operations or automated transaction workflows.
10 Best Gelato Network Rivals for Web3 Automation (2026)
1. Chainlink Auto
Chainlink Automation was a decentralized service for smart-contract automation that executed transactions when certain conditions, schedules or on-chain events were met. It had time-based triggers, custom logic, off-chain condition checks, decentralized execution, and automated failover.
It supported multiple EVM networks and was widely used for DeFi liquidations, yield harvesting, recurring contract calls and protocol maintenance.
Pricing was typically based on the execution of automation and costs specific to the network, rather than a flat monthly subscription. However, Chainlink Automation was deprecated in 2026 and users were redirected to Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE). So CRE is the relevant current alternative.
Must-See Use Cases
- Automated Liquidation in DeFi
- Smart-contract transactions with timing
- automatic yield harvesting and rebalancing
- NFT Minting & Time-based features
- Protocols maintenance and periodic calls of the contract
Best For
- DeFi protocols
- Smart contract developers
- Trading and finance apps with automated trading
- Projects that need to run distributed
2. OpenZeppelin Defender
OpenZeppelin Defender is a blockchain operations and security platform that brings together automation with monitoring, transaction execution, access control and smart-contract management.
Automation-oriented features included Relayers, Actions, Monitors, transaction proposals and automated on-chain or off-chain operations. It supported many EVM networks and was particularly useful for protocols that required secure operational workflows rather than standalone task scheduling.
Defender used to have Builder, Professional and Enterprise subscriptions, with higher quotas and support in higher plans. However, Defender was discontinued on July 1, 2026 so it should be represented as a historical Gelato alternative and not a live competitor.
Primary Use Cases**
- Automation through intelligent contracts
- Contract management & upgrades
- Secure Relayers to execute transactions
- Contract activity and security events monitoring
- Handling of privileged protocol operations
Best For
- Smart contract development teams
- Enterprise Web3 groups
- Protocol admins
- Projects that address security and operational controls
3. Biconomy
Biconomy is a Web3 infrastructure company that works on simplifying blockchain transactions with account abstraction, smart accounts, transaction sponsorship and developer APIs. In terms of automation, its value is to allow applications to build more easily programmable transaction flows that don’t require users to manually track each and every blockchain interaction.
Key features include smart accounts, paymasters, gas sponsorship, transaction infrastructure and developer APIs across all supported networks. It’s particularly useful for consumer dApps, gaming, DeFi applications, and applications that want to provide gasless or simplified user experiences.
Pricing is typically usage-based, with costs depending on infrastructure and transaction requirements, and it is a more comprehensive infrastructure option than a simple Gelato-style automation network.
Core Use Cases
- Sponsored Transaction without Gas
- Dapps for Account Abstraction
- Smart-wallet transactions automation
- Web3 user onboarding made easy
- Transaction workflows that are programmable
Best For
- Web 3 gaming applications
- Wallet developers and accounts abstraction
- Applications seeking to enable frictionless user transactions
4. Maintain3r Network
Keep3r Network is a decentralized goalkeeper network for projects that lack external DevOps, and for external teams to find goalkeeper jobs. Its central automation feature is to delegate protocol maintenance transactions to independent goalkeepers, instead of requiring each project to run their own bots.
Main features are a permissionless job registration, participation of goalkeepers, job execution and economic incentives by means of credits and rewards. Typical use cases are maintenance functions, liquidations, harvesting and other protocol operations that need to be executed externally.
Instead of a conventional SaaS subscription, its model is based on incentives paid to goalkeepers. That puts Keep3r close to the idea of decentralized automation networks like Gelato.
Use Cases
- Maintenance of DeFi protocol
- Liquidations automatically
- Harvesting the harvest
- Activation of pre-defined tasks in smart-contracts
- Goalkeeper operations taken over by decentralized operators
Best For
- Protocols DeFi
- Goalkeepers operate in a decentralized way
- Automated finance strategies
- Projects that perform permissionless transactions
5. PowerPool (PPL)
PowerPool is a decentralized, permissionless automation network for smart contract transactions, DeFi strategies, AI agents and Web3 applications via its PowerAgent network. Its main features include interval based jobs, resolver based conditional execution, decentralized Goalkeeper selection, configurable staking requirements, slashing and support for on-chain and off-chain computation.
Use cases include limit orders, liquidation protection, automated fund management, reward harvesting and Uniswap position management Execution is paid through job balances and Goalkeeper compensation, not primarily a fixed subscription. Goalkeepers use CVP staking as part of the security model.
Top Use Cases
- Automated DeFi strategies
- Position liquidations and management
- Repeated Protocol Actions
- Limit Orders and Conditional Trades
- Automated reward & yield harvesting
Best For
- Development of DeFi
- DAO and protocol automation
- Automated trading strategies
- Decentralized Applications that need Goalkeepers
6. thirdweb
thirdweb is a full-stack Web3 development and infrastructure platform that enables developers to build, deploy and operate blockchain apps, not just an automation network. Its relevant automation capabilities are delivered through infrastructure such as Engine, server wallets, contract APIs, account abstraction, transaction execution, and managed blockchain services.
It supports EVM-compatible chains, and Solana, making it a good fit for games, consumer applications, DeFi products and Web3 platforms that need programmable transactions.
Pricing is tiered SaaS and usage: current plans are Starter, Growth, Scale, and Pro; infrastructure and transaction-related usage may incur additional costs. It is competing with Gelato mainly on more generic developer infrastructure.
Key Applications
- Deploy and maintain intelligent contracts
- Create Web3 games and apps
- Automatic transaction execution
- Smart Accounts and Account Abstraction
- Automating infrastructure backend and blockchain
The best for
- Developers in Web3
- Game development studios
- dApps for consumers
- All-in-one Web3 development stack for teams
7. Inform Alchemy
Alchemy Notify is a webhook and real-time blockchain notification service built to automatically push on-chain events to your apps. Its main automation feature isn’t the direct execution of smart-contract transactions but event detection.
Key features include Custom Webhooks, Address Activity, NFT Activity, transaction alerts, metadata updates, event filtering, and automatic retries. These events allow developers to trigger their own backend automation workflows.
It supports a variety of blockchain networks and is especially useful for wallets, marketplaces, analytics platforms, exchanges, and monitoring systems. Alchemy offers both free and paid infrastructure plans, with pricing determined by usage and service needs. Gelato is more decentralized in transaction execution, Notify is more event-driven data delivery.
Key Applications**
- Blockchain event notifications in real time
- Watching wallet activity
- Notifications on NFT sales and activity
- Transaction Status Monitoring
- Start backend workflows from blockchain events
Best For
- Developers of Web3 applications
- Wallet providers
- NFT exchanges
- Blockchain analytics and monitoring platforms
8. Balls
Orbs is a decentralized blockchain infrastructure project, which provides smart-contract and execution infrastructure to extend the capabilities of existing blockchain applications. It is not a simple task scheduler . Its relevance to automation is that it can provide more advanced programmable logic and decentralized execution capabilities .
The orbs infrastructure can be invoked by developers to build applications requiring more computation or more execution functionality than that of intelligent contracts. Its ecosystem is highly relevant for DeFi and applications requiring complex logic on the blockchain.
Pricing is not a simple automation SaaS subscription, it relies on the underlying network and Orbs infrastructure model. Compared to Gelato, Orbs is more a complementary execution infrastructure than a direct automation-platform replacement.
Core Use Cases
- Improved DeFi Transaction Logic
- Enhance smart-contract execution
- Calculate on-chain
- Sophisticated trading and financial techniques
- Creating applications that need extra execution infrastructure
Best For
- Sophisticated smart-contract apps
- DeFi development
- Complex logic protocols
- complementary blockchain infrastructure for developers
9. Ava Protocol
Ava Protocol is a Web3 automation infrastructure that aims to help developers and applications build event-driven, scheduled and conditional blockchain workflows. Its main purpose is to enable intelligent contracts and decentralized applications to automatically take actions once certain pre-defined conditions are met.
Key features include programmable automation, event-triggered actions, scheduled execution and workflow-based transaction management across supported blockchain platforms.
It can enable use cases like DeFi strategy execution, recurring transactions, protocol maintenance, and automated application workflows. It generally charges based on network activity and service consumption rather than a traditional enterprise subscription. For developers looking for programmable on-chain automation, Ava Protocol is most relevant as a Gelato rival.
Major Use Cases
- Event-driven smart-contract execution
- Blockchain transactions with time limits
- DeFi automated workflow
- Duties for protocol maintenance
- Conditional workflows in Web3 apps
Best for
- DeFi Apps
- Developers of dApps
- Automated Protocol
- Developers building event driven Web 3 workflows
10. KeeperHub
KeeperHub is a Web3 automation platform that lets users build and run reusable blockchain workflows without the need for developers to run their own goalkeeper infrastructure. Its automation model is built around triggers, actions and conditions, and supports scheduled executions, blockchain events, block-based triggers, transfers and incoming webhooks.
It enables to automate recurring tasks like reward distribution, wallet operations, DeFi goalkeeper functions and integrations with external systems.
Available via API, CLI, browser and AI-agent/MCP, KeeperHub is suited for developers and automated agents. New organizations receive a non-custodial wallet and a monthly sponsored gas allowance. Additional execution costs are dependent on the workflow and network.
Major Use Cases
- Scheduling Blockchain Transactions
- Event-driven workflows
- Automatic distribution of tokens and rewards.
- DeFi goalkeeper business
- Linking blockchain actions to external APIs and webhooks
Great For
- Web3 devs
- DeFi protocols.
- Teams working on automation
- Programmable blockchain workflows for AI agents and developers
Quick Comparison: Gelato vs. Its Rivals
| Platform | Main Strength | Automation Type | Key Use Case | Best For | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gelato | Web3 automation & infrastructure | Scheduled, event-based & conditional | Smart-contract automation, DeFi, account abstraction | dApp developers & Web3 protocols | Usage-based / network & service fees |
| Chainlink Automation | Decentralized automation | Condition-based & time-based | DeFi maintenance, liquidations, recurring transactions | DeFi protocols & smart contracts | Execution-based |
| OpenZeppelin Defender | Security & smart-contract operations | Automated operations & monitoring | Contract administration, upgrades, transaction management | Enterprise & protocol teams | Subscription/usage-based historically |
| Biconomy | Account abstraction & transaction UX | Programmable transaction workflows | Gas sponsorship, smart accounts, gasless transactions | Consumer dApps & Web3 apps | Usage-based |
| Keep3r Network | Decentralized keeper network | Job-based execution | DeFi maintenance, liquidations, harvesting | DeFi protocols | Keeper incentive/economic model |
| PowerPool | Decentralized automation | Scheduled & conditional | DeFi strategies, liquidations, recurring tasks | DeFi developers & DAOs | Job/execution-based |
| thirdweb | Full-stack Web3 development | Programmable transactions & infrastructure | dApp deployment, smart accounts, backend operations | Developers & Web3 companies | Subscription + usage-based |
| Alchemy Notify | Blockchain event monitoring | Event/webhook-based | Wallet activity, NFT events, transaction alerts | dApps, wallets & monitoring systems | Free tier + usage-based plans |
| Orbs | Advanced blockchain execution | Programmable execution | DeFi logic & advanced smart-contract functionality | DeFi developers & protocols | Network/infrastructure-based |
| Ava Protocol | Workflow automation | Event-based, scheduled & conditional | DeFi workflows and automated contract actions | dApp & protocol developers | Execution/service-based |
| KeeperHub | Workflow-based automation | Scheduled, event & webhook-based | Token distribution, DeFi tasks, recurring transactions | Developers, protocols & AI agents | Usage/execution-based |
Conclusion
Gelato is still a powerful Web3 automation platform but competitors have specialized features that may be better suited for certain project needs. Chainlink Automation and PowerPool seek to enable decentralized execution, and Keep3r Network targets keeper-based DeFi operations. Biconomy is known for account abstraction and gas sponsorship whereas thirdweb is more complete Web3 development infrastructure.
Alchemy Notify is good for event-driven monitoring, while Ava Protocol and KeeperHub focus on programmable workflows. Orbs is a sophisticated execution infrastructure for DeFi applications. When searching for a Gelato alternative, developers should consider automation, supported chains, security, pricing, scalability, and general fit for their specific Web3 use case.
FAQ
What are the best alternatives to Gelato Network?
Some notable Gelato alternatives include Chainlink Automation, Biconomy, PowerPool, Keep3r Network, thirdweb, Alchemy Notify, Orbs, Ava Protocol, and KeeperHub. Each focuses on different aspects of Web3 automation and infrastructure.
Which Gelato alternative is best for DeFi automation?
PowerPool, Keep3r Network, and Chainlink Automation are strong options for DeFi automation because they support automated execution for tasks such as liquidations, yield harvesting, recurring transactions, and protocol maintenance.
Which platform is best for account abstraction?
Biconomy is particularly suitable for account-abstraction applications. Its smart accounts, gas sponsorship, and programmable transaction infrastructure can simplify blockchain interactions and improve the user experience.
Is thirdweb a direct competitor to Gelato?
thirdweb overlaps with Gelato in Web3 infrastructure and programmable transactions, but it is broader in scope. It is primarily a full-stack development platform covering smart contracts, accounts, APIs, and blockchain infrastructure.
What is the difference between Gelato and Alchemy Notify?
Gelato focuses on automated transaction execution, while Alchemy Notify primarily provides blockchain event detection and webhooks. Notify can trigger backend workflows when specific blockchain events occur, but it is not a direct replacement for decentralized transaction automation.
