Running your own Stellar infrastructure sounds empowering until you are debugging disk space issues at 3 AM because your Horizon database grew faster than expected. For most applications, managed infrastructure is the pragmatic choice.

What Running Your Own Node Actually Means

Horizon Server

Soroban RPC

Both Require

The Managed Alternative

A managed Stellar API service handles all of the above. You get an API endpoint, and the provider handles the infrastructure.

What You Skip

Building Your App

Step 1: Get API Access

Sign up for a managed API and get your API key. With LumenQuery, the free tier gives you 10,000 requests per month.

Step 2: Query Account Data

const HORIZON = 'https://horizon.stellar.org';

async function getBalances(accountId) {
  const res = await fetch(`${HORIZON}/accounts/${accountId}`);
  const account = await res.json();
  return account.balances.map(b => ({
    asset: b.asset_type === 'native' ? 'XLM' : b.asset_code,
    balance: parseFloat(b.balance).toLocaleString(),
  }));
}

Step 3: Submit Transactions via RPC

async function submitTransaction(signedXdr) {
  const res = await fetch('https://rpc.lumenquery.io', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      jsonrpc: '2.0', id: 1,
      method: 'sendTransaction',
      params: { transaction: signedXdr },
    }),
  });
  return res.json();
}

When You Actually Need Your Own Node

For most apps — wallets, explorers, DeFi frontends, payment processors — managed infrastructure is the right choice.

Cost Comparison

The engineer hours spent managing infrastructure cost more than a managed API subscription.

*Ship your Stellar app faster. LumenQuery handles the infrastructure so you can focus on your product. Free tier available.*