How to choose a Solana validator
Choose a validator that stays online, charges fair fees and shows no red flags. Check four things: its commission (inflation and MEV), its uptime over the last 90 days, its size (not one of the very largest), and a month or more of history. Don't pick on one high APY number. Your SOL stays in your wallet either way.
Solana has more than a thousand validators, and at first glance they all look the same: a name, a logo, a percentage. So a lot of people just tap whichever one their wallet shows first. That can turn out fine. This guide helps you see why it's fine, or spot when it isn't, in about five minutes.
What actually matters when you choose a validator?
Five things, and none of them needs technical knowledge to check.
| What to check | Why it matters to you | Good sign |
|---|---|---|
| Fees (commission) | The validator's cut of your rewards. There can be two: one on inflation rewards, one on MEV tips (extra income from how transactions are ordered in a block). | Close to what most validators charge, not raised recently |
| Uptime | A validator that's offline doesn't vote, so your stake earns nothing while it's down. | Online almost every day for the last 90 days |
| Size | The few biggest validators together hold about a third of all stake. If they went down together, Solana could stall. | Not one of the very largest |
| Track record | A brand-new validator has little to judge it by. Some start at 0% fees to attract stake, then raise them. | 30+ epochs of history (an epoch is about 1–2 days) |
| Red flags | Blacklisted, keeps 100% of inflation rewards, raised its fees recently. | None |
What they keep from MEV tips, and whether they share priority fees, are separate questions. Our commission guide walks through all three.
Our Score does this weighing for you. It's a 0–100 rating where reliability (uptime, performance, history, software version, how its stake is funded and spread) counts for 65 points and fees for 35. A Score of 70 or more is Reliable, 50–69 is Average, under 50 is Poor. The formula is the same for every validator and published in full on our methodology page.
For a second opinion, the Solana Foundation publishes the criteria it uses to delegate its own stake. Much of it covers the same ground: current software, performance, and not too much stake in one place.Needs verification
Why not just pick the validator with the highest APY?
Because one APY number describes the past, and not much of it. Every validator earns from the same pool of newly issued SOL. What changes your result is mostly the validator's fees, how reliably it votes, and MEV tips, which swing from one epoch to the next. A validator can top an APY list after one lucky stretch and sit mid-table a month later.
Rates also move for everyone. "From 7% to 11.5% CHANGED TO 9%!?" one staker wrote on Bitcointalk. If you compare rewards at all, compare them over several weeks, and read them as past results, not a promise.
Be wary of any fixed or "guaranteed" rate. Native staking pays what the network pays, minus the validator's cut. One Trustpilot reviewer praised a platform paying "up to 5% daily". Solana staking pays nothing like that, so treat a promise like it as a warning sign.
Which red flags should rule a validator out?
Red flags come before any green number. A validator that's offline or keeps 100% of inflation rewards will cost you, however good the rest looks. These are the flags we show next to every validator:
| Flag | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Offline now (red) | Not voting right now, so its stakers earn nothing until it's back | Don't stake there now. Already staked? Move if it stays down |
| Blacklisted (red) | On Jito's or Marinade's blacklist. Blacklists point to behavior that harms other users or the network | Skip it |
| Keeps 100% (red) | 100% inflation commission, so delegators get none of the inflation rewards (the main part of staking income). Its Score is 0 (Disqualified) | Skip it |
| Fees raised (red) | Raised its commission in the last 30 days, or spiked it and dropped it back within 90 | Check its fee history before staking |
| Very large (yellow) | One of the largest validators on the network | Fine for your SOL; a smaller one helps spread stake |
| Often offline (yellow) | Offline on 5 or more of the last 90 days | Prefer a steadier record |
| New (gray) | Fewer than 5 epochs of data, so its Score may still swing | Wait a few weeks, or pick one with history |
The spike-and-drop pattern has a name: a commission rug. The validator raises its fee around the moment rewards are calculated, then lowers it again, so it looks cheap whenever you happen to check.
Is the validator your wallet suggests good enough?
It might be. Wallets put one validator first so you can stake in a few taps, and a default can be a perfectly good pick. What you usually aren't shown is why it's there, or what else you could choose.
Check it like any other: find it on our validator list and look at its Score and flags. Reliable, with no red flags? Stay put. Moving means unstaking, waiting for the SOL to free up (usually by the next epoch) and staking again, and you lose some rewards in between. So move over a red flag, not over a small difference in rewards.
How do you pick one in five minutes?
We built a shortcut for people who don't want to spend hours studying validators.
- Open the "Good for beginners" filter. It shows only validators rated Reliable (70+), with no red flags, fees of 7% or less, at least 30 epochs of history, and not among the largest. They're sorted by Score.
- Open two or three from the top. Compare their Score, their fees and any yellow flags.
- Pick one. If two look alike, the smaller one helps spread stake across the network.
- Stake from your own wallet. Find the validator by name in your wallet's staking screen.Needs verification Our step-by-step guide covers Phantom, Solflare and Ledger.
- Turn on alerts. Our Telegram bot needs only your public key. It sends your rewards every epoch and messages you if your validator goes offline or changes its commission.
The rules behind step 1 stay the same every epoch. Only the validators that pass them change.
Should you split your stake across several validators?
You don't have to. For a small amount, one good validator is usually enough.
Splitting helps in one way: if one validator goes offline, only part of your stake stops earning. One Solana Stack Exchange answer suggests you "pick 3 good validators and put a third in each".
It has costs, though. Each validator needs its own stake account, each account holds a small deposit (about 0.002 SOL) on top of your stake, and setting one up costs a transaction fee.Needs verification Solana also requires at least 1 SOL per new delegation, so 10 SOL splits three ways easily and 1.5 SOL can't be split at all.Needs verification
If you split, run the same checks on each validator. Don't add a weaker one just to have a third.
Questions
There isn't one best validator for everyone, and any list that names one should show its rules. A good pick is rated Reliable, has no red flags, charges close to typical fees and isn't one of the largest. Our "Good for beginners" filter applies those rules every epoch, using one public formula for every validator.
Yes, at any time. You unstake, wait for your SOL to free up (usually by the next epoch, about 1–2 days, sometimes longer when many stakers exit at once), then stake with the new validator. You lose some rewards during the switch, so move for a real reason, like a red flag, not a small difference in rewards.
Not for your SOL. Your coins are equally out of a validator's reach whether it's huge or small. Size matters for the network: the few largest validators together hold about a third of all stake, and adding to them concentrates it further. A mid-sized validator with a long, clean record is often the better choice.