Coinbase vs. Coinbase Pro: What’s the difference?

Numerous cryptocurrency exchanges allow users to buy, sell, invest in digital or standard flat currencies. Coinbase is one of those platforms that will enable users to conduct safe and secure transactions. Coinbase offers two different platforms for cryptocurrency exchange, i.e., Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Both provide tremendous resources to facilitate their respective clients’ dealings.

These crypto exchanges are efficient in what they offer; with distinct features, they provide different facilities to their clients, sticking to their goal of bringing about a safe and transparent environment in which users can efficiently conduct their business.

Coinbase and Coinbase Pro are both owned by Coinbase Global Inc. This American-based company operates strictly online, supervising the parent company of Coinbase and Coinbase Pro exchanges.

Following are some of the distinct characteristics that provide differences in Coinbase vs Coinbase PRO.

Coinbase Overview

Coinbase is a comparatively simple platform for starting your crypto journey. Many novice crypto enthusiasts start their journey through Coinbase; according to their website, they have 73million+ clients in around 100+ countries. The company currently has 2700+ employees, so you won’t have to worry about customer service; they seem to have that covered. Furthermore, they have $255billion assets on the platform with a quarterly trading volume of $327billion.

Coinbase makes it relatively easier for crypto traders to start on the more straightforward platform to exclude the maker and taker fees. In addition, Coinbase can be used as a digital wallet and for trading flat currencies to digital, where it lacks in features compared to Coinbase Pro, it makes up for it in its simple and user-friendly design. Finally, as an excellent option for crypto novices, it promotes digital currencies and attracts many users to learn more about the world of digital currencies and earning while doing it.

Coinbase offers its users to purchase, sell, and store crypto; Coinbase Pro proves to be more abundant in the features arena, but Coinbase ensures a simple and user-friendly experience that allows you to learn and earn at the same time, for staters Coinbase is the better option to consider.

Coinbase Pro Overview

Coinbase Pro offers more features than the simpler Coinbase and provides better services for veteran crypto dealers. It is also a platform provided by Coinbase Global Inc. The quality that stands out the most while comparing the two is that users can save the money they spent using Coinbase if they opt for Coinbase Pro. This feature alone attracts more users towards the Pro than the simpler version.

The target audience of the Pro is veteran crypto dealers; it offers facilities accordingly, such as buy crypto, sell crypto, deposit crypto, withdraw crypto, trade crypto, stop order for crypto, time in force order for crypto, limit order, etc., while these are absent in Coinbase. The drawback, however, is the complexity. All these features might be excessive for novices. It’s not the best option for newbies.

Coinbase Pro minimizes the cost of all transactions while providing a safer and more transparent platform to conduct business, and all digital assets can be traded or stored in the Coinbase Pro program, such as NFT‘s or cryptocurrency. In addition, Coinbase Pro offers more cryptocurrencies than the simpler version.

Coinbase Pro offers a more user-friendly platform with its API integrated for its client. In addition, it runs smooth transactions, consuming less time, sometimes making the transaction fees almost zero, concluding that Coinbase Pro is an all-around problem solver for crypto enthusiasts.

Coinbase vs Coinbase Pro: Uses

Coinbase vs. coinbase pro debate leads to differences in business uses and personal approach; both offer habitual services and facilities but differ in the case of unlimited and limited amount transactions. Coinbase Pro offers fewer fees when conducting a transaction through a bank account. 

It’s the opposite case with Coinbase; the program itself costs less but takes more fees than the Pro. So, again, the solution is getting the Pro once, paying more once to obtain an easy and safer platform for conducting business, ensuring maximum profit for the client.

The matter with Coinbase Pro is when transactions are made, and the Pro offers less spending amount when transactions are done through PayPal or a bank account. Coinbase takes fees from 0% to 50%, but they vary on every transaction. In contrast, Coinbase Pro takes fees from about 0% to 0.50%, making it a better option than Coinbase. However, the variable fees make the Pro more expensive than the simpler.

Coinbase offers up to 107 cryptocurrencies for trading and storing purposes, which may look like a reasonably large amount until we analyze the Coinbase Pro features, which offer up to 250 cryptocurrencies for trading and deposit purposes. In addition, the Pro offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies compared to the simpler Coinbase, providing diversity and capacity to its clients, which might not be essential for novice crypto traders. Still, it indeed is a necessity for the veterans.

From the Coinbase vs. coinbase pro, we can deduce that the Pro takes the throne for having more features and facilities for the users as it offers deposit, buying, selling, storing, withdrawing, trading, and unlimited amounts orders. In contrast, Coinbase has the drawback of limited amount transactions and a higher complex fee system.

Coinbase vs. Coinbase Pro: Pros and Cons

Coinbase Pro and Coinbase both have their pros and cons, and we will discuss them one by one to figure out which one is best for you:

Coinbase offers the use of PayPal for withdrawals which can be considered one of the best qualities of this platform. In addition, the simpler Coinbase is available in a wide range of countries, almost 100+, which can be considered a significant characteristic for attraction of audience. Coinbase provides more room for user education at lower fees.

However, the cons of Coinbase make it a little challenging to consider worldwide due to the high and complex fee structure, which can vary on every transaction from 0% to 50%. In addition, Coinbase gives you a limited transaction amount with limited trading opportunities, which may not sit well with advanced users. Finally, the most annoying con of Coinbase is that the platform tracks your cryptocurrency purchases which makes it a significantly weaker choice than the Pro.

Coinbase Pro offers a wide range of features that can be considered pros or cons, and we will now discuss them:

Coinbase Pro users offer simplicity in the fee structure, with lower fees to save money and maximize profit. Furthermore, the charts used on the Pro platform are easily understood, which attracts the users more than the simple Coinbase. In addition, Coinbase Pro offers you a wide range of trading options with unlimited transactions that attract people who actively trade crypto. All these make the Pro a better option as compared to Coinbase.

Keeping in view all the features of the Pro, we can also pick out some cons from them, such as the fact that it will be a little complex for beginners and negates user education, as the charts have a limited number of indicators. Coinbase Pro is also more expensive than any other platform, and most people won’t be willing to pay that much money.

Coinbase vs Coinbase Pro: Features

Coinbase and Coinbase Pro are both excellent platforms for their respective audience. However, to understand them better, we will compare them by their features and better understand them.

As we have seen, both these platforms originate from Coinbase Global Inc and American enterprise. They both have different features concerning their security, supported currencies, advanced crypto trading, fees, etc.; we can compare these features to determine which fits better for which audience.

Currencies supported

Coinbase and Coinbase Pro support a wide range of flat currencies and cryptocurrencies. This makes it a very suitable platform for international transactions and business dealings. The US dollar, British Pound, the EURO, etc., are all supported and most of the other first-world country currencies.

However, cryptocurrencies are a different case as there are almost 4000+ cryptocurrencies in the world. Both the platforms support transactions of the majority of the mainstream cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the difference is that Coinbase supports 107 cryptocurrencies, including most of the mainstream ones. Coinbase Pro supports over 250 cryptocurrencies, which gives you a more comprehensive range for cryptocurrency exchange.

Security features

Coinbase security features include:

Built-In Wallets

Coinbase and Coinbase Pro provide you with personal digital wallets or coinbase wallets secured with biometric access controls and a twelve-word recovery password to help ensure your assets. Both platforms offer the same level of security. The digital wallets and the coinbase wallet are very safe.

Two-Factor Autentication

Coinbase and Coinbase Pro offer two-factor authentication via SMS or the Google Authenticator app. This is available for login purposes and on a commercial basis.

Crypto vaults and cold storage

Coinbase and the Pro version are the only two trading platforms that keep 98% of crypto assets offline in a safe place called cold storage and away from the watchful eye of internet hackers. Both also use an additional layer of protection by using cryptocurrency vaults to prevent fraudulent withdrawals. Vaults are timed and can be set with multiple user authorizations so that any withdrawal request is canceled if all appointments can be completed within 24 hours.

Whitelisted crypto addresses

Another layer of protection is limiting access to addresses that can withdraw your cryptocurrency. These addresses are stored in your address book, preventing other addresses from accessing your accounts. This feature is only available in the Pro.

Fees

The most distinct feature differentiating the two platforms is the fee structure; while the Coinbase Pro costs more to buy, it has significantly fewer fees than the simpler Coinbase. The taker fees and maker fees are massively less and fixed than Coinbase, which offers a variable fee amount with more standard fees.

Coinbase

• As we can see, buying cryptocurrency on Coinbase charges about 4% of the fee per transaction, which can be very expensive. If you buy and sell cryptocurrency on the same day using a credit card, this can cost up to 9% of the most costly value—a relatively simple fee structure.
• In addition, Coinbase fees are around 0% to 50%, which can cost very much depending on the market volatility; this also adds the element of uncertainty, which can make the users anxious. 
• Coinbase is ideal for investors who want to buy money and hold it for a long time. In other words, Coinbase is best for long-term investments.

Coinbase Pro

• Coinbase Pro, on the other hand, offers meager fees, targeted explicitly at active traders providing a flat fee system. In addition, they use a manufacturer’s payment structure, which gives users discounts on the number of trades made on the platform attracting more active traders towards the Pro.
• When users place an order at a fast-filling market price, they are considered “takers” and charged a taker fee, and there are “makers” who set a maker fee. We can make a maker-taker fee model and analyze the total expenses. The Pro has a complex fee structure.

Ease of Use

Coinbase

• The Coinbase app was designed with novice crypto traders in mind, offering a simple interface for trading cryptocurrency. They also have an easy-to-use mobile app for iOS and Android to get you on the go.
• Coinbase makes it easy to get started with a simple registration form and verification process. Once you have registered, you can link a bank account, credit card, or debit card to buy crypto quickly.
• While Coinbase is the most efficient platform to use, Coinbase Pro may seem intimidating to emerging investors when they first enter, as the design is a product of professional traders.
• In addition, Coinbase provides users with live price feeds, multiple order options, and up-to-date price charts, which may sound overwhelming if you have never traded in cryptocurrency.

Coinbase Pro

• To sign up for Coinbase Pro, you need to have a valid Coinbase account. If you do not have one, signing up for a Coinbase Pro account will go with you by setting up a regular Coinbase account first. You can also link a bank account. Both Coinbase and Coinbase Pro will use the same login setting to access any platform.

Both Coinbase types have mobile apps.

Availability

• Both Coinbase types are available in over 100 countries. However, the countries this platform is not open in mostly those countries that haven’t legalized cryptocurrency yet. Furthermore, the only difference is the unavailability of some specific resource that the platform would provide otherwise, if not for the area.
• Both Coinbase types are extremely easy to use. For beginners, Coinbase is better as its creation was solely for crypto novices. Videos on YouTube video tutorials and the Coinbase website help users get in touch with the software and quickly learn.
• Coinbase Pro is exceptionally user-friendly, with maximum facilitation for the users in mind. Coinbase Pro provides all and every opportunity for the users to learn and earn simultaneously.

Summary

Conclusion

Coinbase vs Coinbase Pro concludes that they are very similar in terms of their facilities, but their cons help differentiate their respective audience. The same company owns the platform, and they haven’t differentiated between the two too much.

Coinbase is better suited for people new to cryptocurrency trading and is looking to learn more about the technology and the system. On the other hand, Coinbase Pro is for professionals and active traders already in touch with the digital currency trade’s design and technology.

Disclaimer – The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions