Abra vs. Coinbase - Which is Better for You?
While Both Abra and Coinbase are quite easy to use and have a decent selection of cryptocurrencies we believe most people would be best using Coinbase instead of Abra, or better yet Voyager which offers much lower fees.
While we have accounts with both Abra AND Coinbase, we don’t really use Abra for reasons we’ll cover below. That’s not to say we use coinbase a lot, we use them a bit, but ultimately we use Voyager way more than Coinbase as it has lower fees and otherwise is just as good as Coinbase in our view.
The reason we believe Coinbase is better for most people is because they have better security features than Abra, while also offering a better selection of cryptocurrencies and generally much lower fees when compared to Abra — not to mention Coinbase also has some great sign-up offers that Abra doesn’t currently offer.
Which has less fees - Abra or Coinbase?
While this may seem relatively straight-forward as Abra claims to have 0 commissions/fees, this is purely marketing garbage — when you buy or sell on Abra’s App they simply include the commission-fees in the bid/ask spread, meaning you pay commissions, it’s just they don’t tell you how much they are — In our experience Abra’s actual fees/spread is around 1% -> 3% depending on the cryptocurrencies you’re trading/exchanging.
Coinbase however charges horrendous fees as well at around 2% to 6% — however unlike Abra there’s a way around Coinbase’s fees. Simply use Coinbase Pro to deposit your money and buy crypto on and you’ll only pay between 0.2% and 0.5% in commission, which is WAY better than Abra.
Ultimately Coinbase has way lower fees than Abra — however ,there are lower-commission options out there such as Voyager which charges only around 0.3% in commissions, well they claim to be commission-free as well, but in practice their real commission-rate is 0.3%.
Which Has The Best Signup Bonus Offers - Abra or Coinbase?
Without a doubt Coinbase wins this category — This is because not only is Coinbase’s bonus easy to get but it actually exists — while Abra doesn’t currently offer a sign-up bonus. Abra used to offer one, but as they’ve grown in popularity they’ve for some reason stopped offering one.
For Abra there are no promotional offers currently available as mentioned above — They used to offer $25 in sign-up rewards, but this is no longer available and hasn’t been available for quite some time.
With Coinbase not only do they have a pretty good $10 sign-up bonus that’s easy to get, but you can pair it with Coinbase’s other promo offers that often net you up to $100 more in sign-up rewards — You can check out the bonuses Coinbase is currently offering on this page. Generally all you have to do is sign up using somebody else’s link (use ours by clicking here) and buy, sell, or trade $100 or more of cryptocurrency to receive a $10 bonus.
Which is more Trustworthy & Secure - Abra or Coinbase?
This category is more or less a draw with a slight edge for Coinbase — We’d say for the average user of these apps that Coinbase is MUCH more secure, it’s just from a fundamental standpoint both Coinbase and Abra are very secure and quite trustworthy — it’s just due to their differing security-practices unless you know what you’re doing you can compromise your funds much easier with Abra, while Coinbase it’s practically impossible to have an issue that results in loss-of-funds.
Ultimately neither are a real threat as long as you do what the apps request (back up what they tell your with Abra and use 2FA with Coinbase), and we’d trust keeping some crypto on either of these apps — although we wouldn’t keep tens of thousands of dollars worth of crypto on these apps — for that we’d use a hardware wallet.
What Advantages does Abra have over Coinbase?
It may seem like we’re roasting Abra when we say this, but unfortunately currently we believe it to be true — Abra has no real advantages compared to Coinbase currently and ultimately we do not see a reason to use them — as they are worse in pretty much worse in every regard compared to Coinbase, from fees to security-risks, to pretty great sign-up promotions Coinbase offers.
Abra is apparently changing many aspects of the app soon, so they may become more competitive with their revamp come early 2021, but until then we don’t see a reason to pick them over Coinbase — if you don’t like Coinbase then you’re better off going with another exchange like Voyager instead Coinbase.
What Advantages does Coinbase have over Abra?
Coinbase has lower transaction fees for buying/selling cryptocurrency, as well as withdrawal fees than Abra, more options in terms of crypto-assets to trade/purchase, better security for average individuals, and abilities to lock-up your crypto long-term for extra security — not to even mention Coinbase offers pretty decent sign-up promotions as well as other features that allow you to earn $150+ over time.
Despite Coinbase currently being better than Abra in all categories we’d still recommend checking out other cryptocurrency exchange apps such as Voyager, which is our personal preference when it comes to buying/selling cryptocurrency.
