NearBlocks: started with a grant, funded a spinoff, and licensed its own code just short of open-source.
We're continuing our Crypto Block Explorers series with NearBlocks, the leading explorer for NEAR Protocol. Real, disclosed genuine strengths: one of the earliest projects built around NEAR, launched with a NEAR Foundation grant and a stated mission of "equitable access to blockchain data," plus a genuinely useful, disclosed maintained spam-token list. What we don't think should be set aside: NearBlocks' source code is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, a source-available license with usage restrictions, not the fully permissive open-source license NEAR's own core protocol uses. We weighted all of it below.
Our take, up front: NearBlocks is the leading block explorer for NEAR Protocol, built and launched in 2022, described directly as "one of the earliest projects built around Near Protocol and its community with the mission of providing equitable access to blockchain data." Real, disclosed genuinely credible origin: the team behind NearBlocks "received a grant from" the NEAR Foundation, the network's nonprofit steward, to build it. Real, disclosed structural detail we found directly relevant to this category: after NearBlocks succeeded, the same team "went on to build and launch nearsend.io, a tool for bulk transacting," and had "another exciting project in the works," reflecting a broader development studio rather than a single-product company, though we found no evidence of a directly competing validator or wallet business of the kind that created sharper tensions at other explorers in this series. Real, disclosed important licensing nuance worth naming precisely: NearBlocks' own GitHub repository states it "is licensed under the terms of Business Source License 1.1," a source-available license with usage restrictions, distinct from the fully permissive Apache 2.0/MIT license NEAR's own core protocol uses. Real, disclosed genuinely transparent, self-serve commercial API structure: tiered plans processed via Stripe with VISA and Mastercard, automatic renewals, and a clearly disclosed non-refundable payment policy, with a higher-rate-limit enterprise tier gated behind a sales contact. Real, disclosed genuinely useful community-safety tooling: a maintained, disclosed spam-token list repository. We weighted all of it below.
Real, disclosed genuinely long operating history since 2022, "one of the earliest projects built around Near Protocol," launched with a NEAR Foundation grant. Real, disclosed structural detail: the same team later built and launched nearsend.io, a bulk-transacting tool, and had another project in the works, reflecting a broader development studio rather than a single-product company, though without the sharper validator or wallet conflicts found at some other explorers in this series. Real, disclosed important licensing nuance: NearBlocks' source code is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, a source-available license with usage restrictions, not the fully permissive open-source license NEAR's own core protocol uses.
Pros
- A disclosed NEAR Foundation grant origin and multi-year operating history reflect real, credible ecosystem standing
Cons
- A source-available license, not full open-source, is a real, disclosed gap relative to some open-source competitors in this series
Real, disclosed narrow, NEAR-focused scope, covering mainnet and testnet, a real, disclosed single-chain limitation relative to broader multi-chain competitors in this series.
Pros
- Mainnet and testnet coverage supports the full NEAR development lifecycle
Cons
- No coverage of any chain beyond NEAR under the NearBlocks brand
We found limited disclosed detail on NearBlocks' specific visitor-tracking practices in our research. Basic exploration appears to require no account for casual lookups, consistent with its stated equitable-access mission.
Pros
- Basic transaction, account, and block lookups appear to require no account
Cons
- A detailed, current, specific privacy policy was not easy to independently verify
Real, disclosed genuinely useful analytics platform capability, plus a maintained, disclosed spam-token list repository, a concrete, practical anti-scam feature not explicitly found at several other explorers in this series.
Pros
- A maintained spam-token list is a real, disclosed, concrete safety feature beyond generic lookups
Cons
- Deeper decoding depth wasn't independently benchmarked against NEAR-specific alternatives like the FASTNEAR indexed API
Real, disclosed genuinely accessible, no-account-required core exploration, with a stated mission of "providing equitable access to blockchain data."
Pros
- A stated, disclosed accessibility-first mission reflects genuine design intent beyond marketing copy
Cons
- Localization and language support beyond English weren't clearly disclosed in our research
Real, disclosed genuinely transparent, self-serve commercial API structure: tiered plans processed via Stripe with card payments, automatic renewals, and a clearly disclosed non-refundable policy, with a higher-rate-limit enterprise tier gated behind a sales contact.
Pros
- Self-serve, card-based sign-up with clearly disclosed renewal and refund terms is genuinely more transparent than many competitors' opaque enterprise-only models
Cons
- Specific dollar figures for the standard paid tiers weren't found in our research
Real, disclosed genuinely useful community-safety tooling (a maintained spam-token list), translation repositories, and a broader, disclosed team history of building additional NEAR ecosystem tools.
Pros
- Disclosed translation repositories reflect real, ongoing community-localization investment
Cons
- Current team size and community-engagement channels specific to NearBlocks weren't independently verified beyond older reporting
Genuinely solid for NEAR data; the licensing footnote matters if self-hosting is your plan B.
Given the genuinely long-standing, foundation-grant-funded origin and disclosed transparent pricing we found, we'd use NearBlocks with real confidence as the default NEAR explorer, while keeping in mind that its Business Source License means you can view the code, but you can't necessarily self-host a competing instance the way you could with a fully open-source alternative.
"Source available" and "open source" get used interchangeably a lot. We don't think they should be.
NearBlocks' own GitHub repository states plainly that it's licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, and we think that specific detail matters more than it might first appear. BSL 1.1 lets anyone read the code, which is genuinely valuable, but it isn't the same as the fully permissive Apache 2.0 or MIT licenses that NEAR's own core protocol uses, and it isn't the same freedom Blockscout or Mempool.space's genuinely open-source codebases give a reader who wants to self-host an independent alternative. We want to be fair: NearBlocks started as a NEAR Foundation grant recipient with a stated mission of equitable data access, and nothing we found suggests it hasn't lived up to that mission for its core, free explorer. We just think a reader deciding how much independence a "source available" label actually buys them deserves the distinction spelled out, not glossed over.
The scorecard above is deliberately general. Whether NearBlocks is right for you depends heavily on which of these you already are.
The NEAR developer or user who needs a reliable, foundation-grant-funded default explorer for day-to-day lookups
This is exactly where NearBlocks' real, disclosed long operating history delivers genuine, distinctive value.
The team signing up for NearBlocks' tiered, Stripe-based API plans for programmatic, self-serve access
Given the real, disclosed transparent commercial terms, this specific option genuinely matters here.
The user relying on NearBlocks' maintained spam-token list to avoid scam tokens on NEAR
This is a real, disclosed, genuinely useful safety feature worth evaluating on its own separate merits.
Teams that specifically need a fully open-source explorer they could self-host as an independent alternative
A real, disclosed source-available, not fully open-source, license makes this a poor fit for that specific need.
The scorecard covers the headline judgment calls. These four tables cover the specifics we didn't want to bury in prose; the origin story laid out with dates, the licensing distinction explained plainly, the disclosed commercial terms in full, and how all eighteen Block Explorers reviewed so far compare.
The origin story, laid out with dates
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2022 | NearBlocks built and launched with a NEAR Foundation grant |
| Following success | The same team builds and launches nearsend.io, a bulk-transacting tool |
| Ongoing | The team reports "another exciting project in the works" |
We're dating this because a grant-funded origin that later expanded into other products is a real, disclosed pattern worth tracking plainly, even without the sharper validator-style conflicts found elsewhere in this series.
"Source available" vs. "open source," explained plainly
| NearBlocks | NEAR's core protocol | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | Apache 2.0 / MIT |
| Code visibility | Publicly viewable | Publicly viewable |
| Usage freedom | Restricted under BSL terms | Fully permissive |
We're spelling this out because "the code is on GitHub" and "this is open source" are different claims, and this series has credited genuinely open-source competitors specifically for the freedom BSL doesn't fully provide.
The disclosed commercial terms, in full
| Term | What's disclosed |
|---|---|
| Payment processor | Stripe, accepting VISA and Mastercard |
| Renewal policy | Automatic, with an email notification before renewal |
| Refund policy | Non-refundable; no credits for paid services |
| Enterprise tier | Higher rate limits with SLA support, via sales contact |
We're listing every term because a self-serve, card-based sign-up with this much disclosed detail is a real, checkable transparency positive relative to several competitors' opaque enterprise-only pricing.
All eighteen Block Explorers, compared so far
| Blockchain.com Explorer | Etherscan | Blockchair | Ethplorer | Blockscout | Solscan | SolanaFM | BscScan | OKLink | Tronscan | Mempool.space | Snowtrace | Mintscan | Blockstream Explorer | Subscan | SuiVision | Suiscan | NearBlocks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core disclosed issue | Only 3 chains supported; its own privacy policy discloses sharing IP and device data with ad networks | A real, disclosed pattern of previously-free chain access narrowing over time | Third-party "zero tracking" claims sit alongside its own policy disclosing brief IP retention | Its operator's own ICO-funded token project is listed as one of its flagship API users | A "no personal data" marketing claim sits alongside a separate, more expansive commercial privacy policy | Solana-only scope, and Pro pricing gated behind a sales contact rather than published tiers | A rival explorer has publicly called it "largely unmaintained" since its acquirer took over | Single-chain scope, exclusively for BNB Smart Chain | Directly operated by OKX, a major exchange, with no disclosed pricing at all | Independent reporting links the underlying chain to illicit finance; its founder has a 2026 SEC settlement | A ~$17M VC round and offshore incorporation sit in tension with its "funded by the community" identity | An analyst flagged a real, disclosed loss of shared EVM tooling after leaving Etherscan's platform | Its operator is simultaneously a leading validator on 35+ of the same networks it displays rankings for | Its parent company faces serious, explicitly unverified fraud allegations reported throughout 2026 | A proprietary, not fully open-source platform, with undisclosed standard commercial paid-tier pricing | Its operator sells a validator service on the same chain, plus white-label explorer branding to others | No named, accountable operator was identifiable anywhere in our research | Source-available (BSL 1.1), not fully open-source, unlike NEAR's own core protocol license |
| Ownership | Backed by major VCs; raised ~$1.17B; disclosed a ~$270M 2022 default exposure | Founder-led since 2015; no exchange or major VC investor found | Founder-led since 2016; reported unfunded, no exchange or VC investor found | Operated by EverexIO, also behind the 2017 Everex ICO and its still-trading EVX token | VC-backed (1kx, Gnosis, ~$3M raised); headquartered in Seychelles | Founded 2021; acquired by Etherscan Jan 2024, carrying over the same founder-led, no-VC-investor structure | Founded 2021; acquired by Jupiter, a major Solana swap aggregator, Sep 2024 | Launched 2020 by Etherscan's own team; independently operated from Binance, the chain's creator | Launched 2014; first-party product of OKX, founded 2013 by Star Xu | Backed directly by the TRON Foundation, a Singapore nonprofit overseeing TRON since 2017 | Started 2018 by softsimon and Wiz; incorporated in El Salvador Nov 2025 with a ~$17M round led by Fulgur Ventures | Operated by Routescan (spun off from Avascan, Sep 2023); no token or formal governance disclosed, sustained by client revenue | Built by Cosmostation, a web3 infrastructure team active since 2018, also a wallet and validator operator | Founded 2014 by Adam Back and co-founders; $3.2B 2021 valuation; $16M raised Oct 2025 | Core infrastructure funded directly by the Polkadot Treasury via public, votable OpenGov proposals | Built by BlockVision, a multi-chain infrastructure vendor also selling RPC, indexing, and validator services | No named parent company identified; a public GitHub source-code link is the only openness signal found | Launched 2022 by a small team with a NEAR Foundation grant; later built additional NEAR ecosystem tools |
| Core strength | Long-standing, independently-praised usability for casual lookups | Industry-standard verified-contract database and unified 60+ chain API | Genuine Tor access, SQL-level data, and broad multi-chain coverage from an independent operator | A credible, independently-verifiable client roster including MyEtherWallet and MetaMask | Open-source, self-hostable, with the broadest EVM chain coverage found in this series | Technically necessary, human-readable decoding for roughly 200 Solana programs | A genuinely distinctive visual transaction-flow diagram feature, still functional today | Independent operation of the explorer for a chain its creator, Binance, did not build itself | The broadest, most architecturally diverse chain coverage (170+) found in this series | Genuinely distinctive, built-in governance and staking tools, plus a newly-launched MCP server | The most accessible self-hosting pathway (one-click Raspberry Pi install) found in this series | A well-documented, named-source operator transition that genuinely broadened chain coverage | Long-standing, exchange-adopted infrastructure and genuinely distinctive IBC transfer tracking | An independently-described no-tracking stance and full API parity between the dashboard and third parties | The most transparent, publicly-accountable funding relationship found anywhere in this series | A long operating history since Sui's Testnet and a genuinely broad DeFi/NFT analytics feature set | Genuinely deep DeFi and contract-level decoding, independently praised over its direct rival | A genuinely transparent, disclosed self-serve API pricing structure and a maintained spam-token list |
| Our score | 54.75/100 | 76.0/100 | 72.75/100 | 50.5/100 | 79.25/100 | 63.75/100 | 46.5/100 | 62.5/100 | 56.5/100 | 50.25/100 | 61.75/100 | 64.5/100 | 57.5/100 | 55.25/100 | 69.0/100 | 51.75/100 | 52.75/100 | 55.5/100 |
NearBlocks' score reflects genuine credit for its long-standing, foundation-grant-funded origin and disclosed transparent pricing, weighed against a real, disclosed licensing nuance that falls short of full open-source status.
We don't just want to hand you our number; we want to show you how it sits next to what other sources have published. We're flagging directly that most reviews and guides treat "the code is on GitHub" as equivalent to "open source" without checking the specific license, a distinction our methodology weighs directly for every platform in this series.
Our score lands meaningfully below the aggregated industry average; NEAR community sentiment credits NearBlocks' reliability and grant-funded origin heavily, while giving little to no direct weight to the BSL 1.1 vs. fully open-source distinction our methodology weighs directly.
| Source | Score | Type |
|---|
Scores compiled by our editorial team from publicly available reviews as of August 2026. "Editorial estimate" means the outlet didn't publish a single numeric score, so we converted their published verdict and sentiment into a comparable 100-point figure. Verify current figures directly with each source before citing them elsewhere.
NearBlocks was built and launched in 2022 by a small team that received a grant from the NEAR Foundation, the network's nonprofit steward. The team later built and launched nearsend.io, a separate bulk-transacting tool.
Its source code is publicly viewable but licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, a source-available license with usage restrictions, not the fully permissive Apache 2.0 or MIT license NEAR's own core protocol uses.
NEAR Protocol only, covering mainnet and testnet. It does not cover other blockchains under the NearBlocks brand.
A free tier exists alongside tiered paid plans processed via Stripe, with automatic renewals and a clearly disclosed non-refundable policy. A higher-rate-limit enterprise tier is available via sales contact.
Yes, NearBlocks maintains a disclosed spam-token list repository as part of its public GitHub organization, a concrete anti-scam feature.
NEAR also has its own official explorer.near.org listing and the FASTNEAR indexed REST API as alternative ways to access NEAR data programmatically.
A nonprofit headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, responsible for funding ecosystem development and contracting protocol maintainers for NEAR Protocol. It provided the initial grant that funded NearBlocks' creation.
NearBlocks scores 55.5/100, reflecting genuine credit for its long-standing, foundation-grant-funded origin and disclosed transparent pricing, weighed against a real, disclosed licensing nuance that falls short of full open-source status.
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