Foundry vs Anchor
A detailed head-to-head comparison of Foundry and Anchor — pricing, features, and which one wins for different use cases.
Foundry
Blazing-fast Rust-based Solidity testing framework with built-in fuzzing and invariant testing
Foundry is a Rust-based Ethereum development toolkit built by Paradigm that has become the preferred framework for security-conscious and performance-focused Solidity teams. Its defining advantage ove…
Full review →Anchor
The dominant framework for building Solana programs in Rust
Anchor is the dominant framework for developing Solana programs (smart contracts), providing a Rust-based framework that dramatically simplifies Solana development by handling much of the boilerplate,…
Full review →Feature Comparison
| Feature | Foundry | Anchor |
|---|---|---|
| Local Node | ✓ | ✗ |
| Mainnet Forking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Language | Solidity (tests) | Rust (Solana) |
| Test Framework | forge-std | ✓ |
| Plugin Ecosystem | Growing (smaller than Hardhat) | ✓ |
| Debugging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deployment System | Forge scripts | ✓ |
| Open Source | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fuzz Testing | ✓ | — |
| Invariant Testing | ✓ | — |
| Coverage Reporting | — | ✗ |
| Gas Reporting | — | ✗ |
Foundry Pricing
Foundry
Free (Open Source)
Free
- ✓forge, cast, anvil, chisel
- ✓Solidity tests
- ✓Built-in fuzzer
- ✓Invariant testing
- ✓Mainnet forking
- ✓Forge Standard Library
Anchor Pricing
Anchor
Free (Open Source)
Free
- ✓Solana program framework
- ✓Declarative account constraints
- ✓IDL + TypeScript client generation
- ✓Built-in security guardrails
- ✓Rust-based
Verdict: Which Should You Choose?
Foundry is the better pick if you need 5–20x faster test execution than hardhat — critical for large suites and audit pipelines. Anchor wins when the dominant solana development framework. Both are production-ready — the right choice depends on your team's workflow and budget.