Abra vs. Gemini - Which is Better for You?
While Both Abra and Gemini are quite easy to use and have a decent selection of cryptocurrencies we believe most people would be best using Gemini instead of Abra, or better yet Voyager which offers much lower fees.
While we have accounts with both Abra AND Gemini, we don’t really use Abra for reasons we’ll cover below. That’s not to say we use Gemini a lot, we use them a bit, but ultimately we use Voyager way more than Gemini as it has lower fees and otherwise is just as good as Gemini in our view.
The reason we believe Gemini is better for most people is because they have better security features than Abra, while also offering a better selection of cryptocurrencies and more or less identical fees when compared to Abra — not to mention Gemini also has some great sign-up offers that Abra doesn’t currently offer.
Which has less fees - Abra or Gemini?
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 are around 1.5% -> 3% depending on the cryptocurrencies you’re trading/exchanging.
Gemini however charges horrendous fees as well at around 6% to 10% — however unlike Abra there’s a way around Gemini’s wretched fees. Simply buy larger volume amounts of cryptocurrency at a time through Gemini (USD $200+) and you’ll only be charged a 1.5% fee.
Ultimately Gemini has slightly lower fees than Abra — however there’s 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 Gemini?
Without a doubt Gemini wins this category — This is because not only is Gemini’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’s 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 Gemini they have an easy to get $10 sign-up bonus after buying or selling $100 or more of cryptocurrency shortly after opening your account. 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. You can read more about all the currently available Gemini promotional offers and signup bonuses by clicking here — but generally they only offer the above-mentioned bonus.
Which is more Trustworthy & Secure - Abra or Gemini?
This category is more or less a draw with a slight edge for Gemini — We’d say for the average user of these apps that Gemini is MUCH more secure, it’s just from a fundamental standpoint both Gemini 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 Gemini 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 Gemini), 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 Gemini?
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 Gemini 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 Gemini, from fees to security-risks.
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 Gemini — if you don’t like Gemini then you’re better off going with another exchange like Voyager instead, which is our personal choice for buying/selling cryptocurrency on mobile.
What Advantages does Gemini have over Abra?
Gemini has slightly lower transaction fees for buying/selling cryptocurrency and more options in terms of crypto-assets to trade/purchase, better security for average individuals — not to even mention Gemini offers a pretty decent sign-up promotions as well while Abra offers no such bonus anymore.
Despite Gemini 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.
