The 5 Best Solana Explorers – Which SOL Explorer to Choose?

A Solana explorer provides comprehensive information about transactions and accounts on the Solana blockchain, ranging from basic details like token transfers to advanced data such as program logs and transaction instructions.

While most users rely on block explorers to confirm transaction status, they can offer much more value for those engaged in on-chain activities like DeFi and NFT trading. By analyzing blockchain data, users can uncover insights, such as identifying wallets executing profitable trades, to gain a competitive edge.

The 5 Best Solana explorers – A closer look

Without further ado, let’s get started with our list of the 5 best Solana block explorers. We’ll take a look at what makes them unique, as well as some of their key features.

1. Solana Explorer – The official Solana explorer

The Solana Explorer is hosted on the official website of the Solana project. Solana Explorer is a convenient platform to look up details about Solana transactions, as well as overall stats about the Solana network. 

On the Solana Explorer, you can easily check the Solana TPS in real-time, as well as check the total, circulating, and non-circulating supply of SOL. You can also find information about the current Solana epoch, including its progress and the estimated time remaining for the current epoch.

For detailed information about any given Solana transaction, you can click the “Inspect” button to access advanced features such as transaction simulation, program instructions, signatures, and more. 

Key features of Solana Explorer:

• Solana Explorer provides live data on Solana TPS, token supply, and current epoch progress.
• Users can inspect transactions with features like simulation, program instructions, and signatures.
• Hosted on explorer.solana.com, it serves as the official platform for Solana blockchain exploration.

2. Solscan – A comprehensive SOL explorer

Solscan is a popular platform that provides a wide range of information about the Solana ecosystem, and also includes a Solana block explorer. Solscan’s explorer feature provides highly detailed information about any Solana transaction you might be interested in and allows you to easily look up any Solana wallet.

Beyond specific transactions, Solscan also provides overall statistics about the Solana network, such as the number of transactions processed by the Solana network overall, the current TPS figure, the number of active validators, and the amount of SOL collected as fees.

In addition to the block explorer feature, Solscan also provides an overview of Solana’s DeFi sector and an NFT dashboard where you can see the most popular NFT collections and Solana NFT marketplaces.  

If you’re interested in the Solana ecosystem as a whole, Solscan is definitely a platform that’s worth getting familiar with. 

Key features of Solscan:

• Solscan provides detailed transaction data and wallet lookup capabilities for the Solana blockchain.
• Users can access network statistics like total transactions, current TPS, active validators, and collected fees.
• Additional features include a DeFi sector overview and an NFT dashboard highlighting popular collections and marketplaces.

3. Solana Beach – Solana explorer with a great UI

Solana Beach is a SOL explorer with an attractive user interface and a large variety of information about the Solana ecosystem.

Of course, Solana Beach provides detailed information about all Solana transactions, as well as up-to-date information regarding the supply of SOL. The platform also has a convenient list of the different tokens issued on the Solana blockchain, so you can get a quick overview of the biggest projects on Solana and how they are performing. Another neat feature of the Solana Beach explorer is that it provides a visual overview of the geographical location of Solana nodes.

Solana Beach is definitely a solid option if you’re looking for a Solana block explorer, and it doesn’t hurt that the website is easy on the eyes. Unlike some other block explorers, Solana Beach also gives you the option between light and dark color themes. 

Key features of Solana Beach:

• Solana Beach offers detailed transaction data and up-to-date SOL supply information.
• Users can explore a token list showcasing major Solana projects and their performance.
• A visual map feature displays the geographical location of Solana nodes.
• The platform includes light and dark mode options for a customizable user experience.

4. SolanaFM – Explorer with many unique features

SolanaFM is a Solana block explorer with an intuitive user interface and a set of unique features you won’t find in most other block explorers.

For example, when you’re looking up a Solana account on SolanaFM, you can press the “Snap” button to create a neat screenshot showing the account’s SOL net worth and largest token balances.

The SolanaFM dashboard includes an interesting metric called “True TPS”, which tells us how many transactions Solana is processing per second, excluding votes. This metric provides a more realistic picture of the activity on Solana. 

Another great feature of SolanaFM is called “Transaction Flow”. It provides a visualization of the flow of funds involved in any given Solana transaction.

SolanaFM also includes a section dedicated to OpenBook, an orderbook-based DEX forked from Serum. The dashboard provides key information for any given trading pair on OpenBook, including the market depth, trade history, and more.

Instead of copying other block explorers, the SolanaFM team is trying to provide a different block explorer user experience. If you’re an avid Solana user and haven’t tried SolanaFM yet, we highly recommend checking it out.

5. OKLink – A top-tier multichain explorer

OKLink is a blockchain explorer that supports a wide variety of blockchains, including Solana. When it comes to its Solana block explorer functionality, OKLink keeps it simple. 

While you can look up any Solana transaction and explore it in full detail, the OKLink platform doesn’t offer the Solana ecosystem analytics and information that are available on explorers that are dedicated to Solana.

If you use many different blockchains and don’t like hopping between different explorers, OKLink is definitely worth checking out. Whether you’re interested in Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Aptos, Avalanche, or any other popular chain, you’ll likely find that OKLink offers an explorer for it.

However, if you’re mostly dedicated to the Solana ecosystem, you would probably be better off using one of the Solana-focused explorers featured above, as they simply provide more information that’s relevant to Solana enthusiasts.

Key features of OKLink:

• OKLink supports multiple blockchains, including Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Aptos, and Avalanche.
• The platform allows users to explore Solana transactions in full detail.
• OKLink is ideal for users managing activity across various chains in one convenient explorer.
• It lacks the in-depth ecosystem analytics provided by Solana-dedicated explorers.

Other helpful tools for Solana fans

If you’re actively involved in the Solana ecosystem, there are also other helpful tools to try in addition to block explorers.

Solana Compass provides a complete overview of the Solana network and also features guides on topics like Solana staking. The platform also provides statistics for key aspects of the Solana network, including performance, decentralization, tokenomics, staking, fees, and more. If you’re wondering how the Solana network is doing from a fundamental perspective, you’ll be able to get a lot of useful information from the Solana Compass platform.

If you’re a decentralized finance fan, you can check out the data on Solana’s DeFi protocols provided by DeFi Llama. The platform makes it easy to see which Solana DeFi protocols are growing in popularity and which ones are falling out of favor, and you can also see how Solana’s DeFi ecosystem stacks up against other popular blockchains. 

The bottom line

The Solana ecosystem seems to have mostly recovered from the tough bear market in 2022, so it’s certainly a good idea to get familiar with the best Solana explorers. 

All the explorers we have featured in this article are great tools with a lot of features, and choosing between them will mostly come down to personal preference. Whether you just want to check your transactions or try to get an edge in the decentralized markets, the explorers we highlighted will do the job well.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in investing in Solana long-term, check out our article exploring Solana’s long-term price prediction.