Disclaimer: This page is not financial advice or an endorsement of digital assets, providers or services. Digital assets are volatile and risky, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. Potential regulations or policies can affect their availability and services provided. Talk with a financial professional before making a decision. Finder or the author may own cryptocurrency discussed on this page.
Uphold and Coinbase are both solid choices for beginners, but choosing which is best for you can be hard. Uphold offers users more than just crypto, with commodities and stocks available. On the other hand, Coinbase offers users a simple crypto experience and has been in the industry for over a decade.
Find out which exchange comes out on top in our Uphold vs. Coinbase comparison.
Round 1: Uphold vs. Coinbase on vital statistics
Both Uphold and Coinbase are US-based exchanges accessible to US residents. Both platforms also offer users a debit card.
Uphold offers users precious metals and stocks among other alternative assets. Coinbase offers users a streamlined crypto experience, which may be more appealing to beginners.
Coinbase offers quite a few more crypto coins and tokens for buying, selling and trading than Uphold does. Uphold offers a wider range of assets because there are stocks and commodities available, but we’re evaluating this based on cryptocurrency support. That said, Uphold has a good selection of cryptocurrencies including Ripple (XRP), which Coinbase doesn’t support.
Coinbase and Uphold support a comparable number of fiat currencies through credit and debit card channels.
Coinbase supports more direct fiat deposits, with USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and SGD available, compared to Uphold only supporting USD, EUR, and GBP. Coinbase has more direct trading pairs with fiat than Uphold, but Uphold lets you swap any asset for anything on the platform, essentially meaning there are more pairs overall there.
Coinbase also supports channels like PayPal while Uphold does not.
Both Coinbase and Uphold have a variety of fee structures in place.
When comparing the base platforms, Uphold may have slightly lower fees for crypto compared to Coinbase’s flat rates based on transaction amount, but Coinbase Pro has much lower fees than Uphold does. Coinbase Pro also has ways to further reduce trading fees while Uphold doesn’t. Crypto withdrawals are cheaper on Coinbase, while fiat withdrawal fees are comparable.
Minimum deposits
US$10
Deposit Fees
Debit/Credit Card Transactions: 2.49% Bank transfer: None Google Pay: None
Wire transfer: $10
Trading Fee
Trading: $.99 for trades under $500 Spread: Up to 1.5%
Maker: 0.00 - 0.4% Taker: 0.05 - 0.6%
Withdrawal Fees
Debit/Credit Card Transactions: 2.49% Cryptocurrency: Subject to network fees Bank transfer: None Google Pay: None
Wire transfer: $25
Deposit methods
Bank transfer, Credit card, Debit card, Bank transfer (SEPA), Apple Pay, Google Pay
Bank transfer (ACH), Debit card, PayPal, Wire transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay
Uphold only has the exchange-based wallet, but Coinbase has its proprietary Coinbase Wallet.
The Coinbase Wallet is fully noncustodial and compatible with multiple blockchain networks. This means you can interact with decentralized apps (dApps) like decentralized exchanges (DEXs). The Coinbase Wallet also supports NFTs and can be used to buy and sell them.
Winner: Coinbase
Round 6: Security
Uphold has never been hacked. It’s compliant with multiple national regulators, has FDIC insurance, a fully transparent insurance and reserves funds for crypto and a bug bounty program.
Coinbase has FDIC insurance too, along with crypto insurance, but it was hacked in 2021 when 6,000 individual accounts were affected in the phishing scam, but Coinbase reimbursed affected users.
Winner: Uphold
Round 7: Ease of Use
Coinbase has been designed for beginners, it has a smooth user experience and straightforward process for buying and selling crypto assets.
Uphold also has a smooth user interface and allows you to swap between any of their supported assets on one trading page with only a couple of clicks. This is even more straightforward than Coinbase’s system which has different tabs for buying, selling, and trading.
Winner: Uphold
Coinbase vs. Uphold winner: Coinbase
By taking four out of seven categories, Coinbase is our winner when comparing it to Uphold. Coinbase offers its own proprietary wallet, more crypto support, fiat support, and a more crypto-focused experience.
That said, Uphold has a lot of great things to offer users, and those interested in more than crypto could do worse than using Uphold. Coinbase is simply one of the easiest crypto platforms for beginner traders.
Disclaimer: This page is not financial advice or an endorsement of digital assets, providers or services. Digital assets are volatile and risky, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. Potential regulations or policies can affect their availability and services provided. Talk with a financial professional before making a decision. Finder or the author may own cryptocurrency discussed on this page.
Whether products shown are available to you is subject to individual provider sole approval and discretion in accordance with the eligibility criteria and T&Cs on the provider website.
Keegan Francis was a cryptocurrency writer for Finder. He has been invested in cryptocurrencies since 2013 and writing about them since 2018. He has written and edited for CryptoVantage. In 2020 he and his wife Mrugakshee Palwe opted entirely out of the world of traditional finance and went "full crypto", covering their experience in the Go Full Crypto podcast and via a Substack newsletter. Keegan holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Acadia University, and has attained graduate certificates from Ivan On Tech's lightning network course and the Consensys Academy Ethereum bootcamp. When Keegan is not working on cryptocurrency, he enjoys travelling, rock climbing and playing piano.
Learn about BitFinex cryptocurrency exchange where you can buy and sell 100+ coins and tokens. Discover features, fees and more in Finder’s BitFinex review.
Check out our complete review of Coinbase to see if it’s safe, weigh up pros and cons, compare fees and learn what you can do on it beyond simply buying cryptocurrency.
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