Best Solana Trading Bots 2026: Fees, Custody, Trade-Offs
By Bathyr Devs · Published October 24, 2026
There is no single best Solana trading bot in 2026, only the right trade-off. Telegram bots and web terminals such as Trojan, BONKbot, Banana Gun, Axiom and GMGN start instantly and charge 0.5% to 1% per trade on the fee pages we checked. Self-hosted tools like PumpStriker cost more up front and keep your key on your machine.
This is our own comparison, so read it with that in mind: PumpStriker is our product, and our engine uses GMGN data. We have tried to make it useful anyway. Every competitor number below links to the page we read on October 24, 2026, and where we could not verify a number, we left it out rather than guess.
Solana trading bots compared, October 2026
Fees and custody as each tool describes them, checked on October 24, 2026. "Hosted" means the signing key sits in infrastructure the provider runs.
| Tool | What it is | Fee | Key custody |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trojan | Telegram bot and web terminal, Solana | 1% per successful trade, with SOL cashback by rank (FAQ) | Says it is non-custodial: its Terminal does not store or control keys; log in with a Solana wallet or a passkey |
| BONKbot | Telegram bot, Solana, with the Telemetry app | 1% on all transactions, 10% of it to the BONK DAO (BONKbot) | Describes a non-custodial architecture (docs); hosted |
| Banana Gun | Telegram bot and Banana Pro web terminal, 8 chains | 0.5% manual and limit orders on Ethereum; 1% snipes and all other chains, Solana included (docs) | Hosted; the key cannot be retrieved after the wallet is created (FAQ) |
| Maestro | Telegram bot, 12 chains including Solana (site) | Not stated on its homepage, so we left it out | Hosted Telegram bot: the key sits in infrastructure they run |
| Axiom | Web terminal, Solana, with Hyperliquid perps | 0.95% net at the entry tier down to 0.75% at the top tier, after SOL cashback (fees) | Non-custodial per Axiom, built on Turnkey; recovery phrase at signup (FAQ) |
| GMGN | Web terminal and Telegram bots, Solana, EVM and Tron | 1% per transaction (fees) | Hosted; GMGN-generated wallets cannot export their private keys (docs) |
| Photon | Web terminal, Solana and EVM chains | Charges per trade; its fee page did not load for us, so no number | Creates a trading wallet and shows the key once (QuickNode listing) |
| Padre (Pump.fun) | Multi-chain web terminal Pump.fun acquired in October 2025 (Cointelegraph) | No official fee page found, so we left it out | Not documented publicly that we could find |
| PumpStriker | Self-hosted scoring engine and Telegram execution bot, Solana | $350 once; no subscription, no per-trade fee | Encrypted on your own machine; it never leaves |
BullX NEO is not in the table. Its team suspended trading in the current app on June 1, 2026 to work on the next version, keeping wallet access and withdrawals open, per an official Discord post (PANews via Phemex). Our BullX comparison predates the pause.
Telegram bots: Trojan, BONKbot, Banana Gun, Maestro
Telegram bots are still the quickest way to start. You open a chat, the bot creates or imports a wallet, you fund it and paste a contract address. There is nothing to install, and it works from your phone.
- Trojan is Solana-focused, with a Telegram bot and a full web terminal. Its FAQ lists 1% per successful trade, with SOL cashback as your rank rises. See PumpStriker vs Trojan.
- BONKbot is a Solana-only bot tied to the BONK ecosystem. It charges 1% on all transactions and sends 10% of that to the BONK DAO. See PumpStriker vs BONKbot.
- Banana Gun is the multi-chain sniper: eight chains, an Anti-Rug feature, and 1% per trade on Solana. See PumpStriker vs Banana Gun.
- Maestro covers twelve chains from one bot and offers fee rebates; its homepage does not state the rate, so neither do we. See PumpStriker vs Maestro.
The trade-off is the same for all four. To trade the instant you tap in a chat, a Telegram bot has to be able to sign for you, so the signing key, however well it is protected, sits in infrastructure the provider runs. And you pay a percentage on every trade for as long as you use it.
Web terminals: Axiom, GMGN, Photon and Pump.fun's Padre
Terminals trade from a browser and lean on data: live pair feeds, holder maps, smart-money and X tracking, one-click buys.
- Axiom is a Y Combinator-backed Solana terminal with Hyperliquid perps. Its fee falls with volume, from 0.95% to 0.75% net after cashback, and its wallets are built on Turnkey. See PumpStriker vs Axiom.
- GMGN is a data-heavy terminal across Solana, EVM chains and Tron, at 1% per transaction. Its docs say GMGN-generated wallets cannot export their private keys. We use its API ourselves. See PumpStriker vs GMGN.
- Photon is a fast terminal for Solana and EVM chains that creates a trading wallet and shows you the key once. It charges per trade; its fee page would not load for us on October 24, 2026, so we list no number. See PumpStriker vs Photon.
- Padre is the multi-chain terminal Pump.fun acquired in October 2025, covering Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain and Base. We found no official fee page, so the table leaves its fee out.
Terminals reward people who watch the screen. Custody and fees follow the hosted pattern: the platform runs the infrastructure that signs your trades, and it earns a share of your volume.
Self-hosted and open-source options
The other camp is software you run yourself. PumpStriker is ours: a self-hosted Solana memecoin trading bot with a scoring engine and a Telegram execution bot that run on your PC or VPS. The key is encrypted on your machine, the execution bot is open source under MIT, the scoring engine's source comes with your purchase under the same license, and the price is $350 once with no per-trade fee. Our post on self-hosted vs SaaS trading bots covers the model in depth.
The trade-offs are real, so here they are plainly:
- You pay before your first trade, and setup takes real time: Node.js 20+, a BotFather token, a Helius key and a few other free API keys. If it will not run after the 30-minute onboarding, the 48-hour refund applies; it does not cover trading outcomes.
- You are the ops team. If your machine is off, your take-profits and stop-losses are not firing; if it is compromised, so is your wallet.
- It is Solana only. There is no EVM support.
- There are no guarantees. The dashboard's Hall of Shame shows the misses on purpose, and we make no win-rate claims.
🚨 Open source is only safer if you run the real code. In July 2025, SlowMist traced stolen funds to a fake "solana-pumpfun-bot" GitHub repository whose hidden dependency uploaded wallet keys to the attacker (Cointelegraph). Install only from official links, and read the code, or have an AI assistant read it, before you run it.
Incidents timeline
Every hosted tool asks for trust, so its record, and how it handled problems, matters. These are incidents we could verify, with outcomes. None of them means a tool is unsafe today.
| Date | Tool | What happened | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 24, 2023 | Maestro | Router contract exploit; about 280 ETH of tokens taken; wallets not compromised | Every affected wallet refunded in full (Cointelegraph) |
| Oct 31, 2023 | Unibot | Token-approval exploit in a new router; about $580,000 by PeckShield's count | Router paused, compensation promised, keys unaffected (The Block) |
| Late Mar 2024 | Solareum | Over 2,800 SOL, about $520,000, drained from 300+ users | Project shut down (Cointelegraph) |
| Sep 2024 | Banana Gun | About $3M taken from 11 users via a suspected flaw in a Telegram message oracle | Fully refunded from treasury; transfer delay and 2FA added (The Block) |
| Nov 16, 2024 | DEXX | Private-key leak at a Solana terminal; $21M first reported, up to about $30M per SlowMist | Compensation tied to recovered funds (Cointelegraph) |
| Jul 2025 | Fake GitHub bot | Malicious repo stole keys from people who ran it | Repo removed (Cointelegraph) |
| Oct 2025 | GMGN | Sandwich attacks on its BSC anti-sandwich nodes (729 transactions); separately, phishing hit about 107 users | Both reimbursed (Cryptopolitan, Odaily) |
| Feb 2026 | Axiom | Allegations that staff misused support tools to look up user wallets; no theft of funds reported | Tool access removed; Axiom said it was investigating (Decrypt) |
The pattern: most hosted incidents were followed by refunds, which is to the teams' credit. The risk that remains is structural. A hosted bot is a shared system holding many users' signing power; a self-hosted bot is one machine holding yours.
How to choose a Solana trading bot
- Custody. Decide whether you are comfortable with your key in someone else's infrastructure. If not, self-host. Either way, trade from a dedicated hot wallet.
- Fees against volume. At 1%, every $10,000 you trade costs $100. A one-time $350 licence breaks even at $35,000 of volume, or about $46,700 against Axiom's 0.75% top tier.
- Chains. EVM sniping points to Banana Gun, Maestro, GMGN or Photon. For Solana alone, every tool here works.
- How you find tokens. Pasting contract addresses suits Telegram bots, watching feeds suits terminals, and scored signals pushed to you suit PumpStriker.
- Exits. Look for take-profit ladders, stop-losses and trailing stops that arm on fill. Most tokens round-trip; the exit decides.
- Track record. Check for incidents and, more importantly, what the team did next.
Methodology, last checked October 24, 2026
We read each tool's own documentation, fee page or FAQ on October 24, 2026 and linked the page behind every number. Where a page would not load or did not state a number, as with Photon, Maestro and Padre fees, we left the number out. Custody is described in each tool's own words, then labelled hosted when the signing key sits in infrastructure the provider runs. Incidents come from news coverage, with dates and outcomes. We did not test execution speed or profitability, and we do not rank tools by returns, because no honest source can. Prices and terms change, so check before you trade.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Solana trading bot in 2026?
There is no single best one. If you want an instant start and do not mind a fee on every trade, a hosted Telegram bot or web terminal such as Trojan, BONKbot, Banana Gun, Axiom or GMGN is the convenient choice. If you want your key on your own machine, open-source code and a one-time cost, a self-hosted bot such as PumpStriker fits better.
What is the best Telegram trading bot for Solana memecoins?
Trojan, BONKbot and Banana Gun are the best-known hosted options, and on the fee pages we checked all three charge 1% per trade on Solana. PumpStriker also runs through Telegram, but as your own bot on your own machine, with scored HOT/COLD signals and a one-time $350 licence.
Which Solana trading bot has the lowest fees?
Among the per-trade models we verified on October 24, 2026, Axiom's top volume tier is the lowest at 0.75% net after cashback, and most others charge 1% on Solana. A one-time licence gets cheaper past a certain volume: at 1%, PumpStriker's $350 equals the fee on $35,000 of trades.
Are Solana trading bots safe?
Hosted bots put your key in infrastructure someone else runs, and several have had incidents, usually followed by refunds: Maestro in 2023, Banana Gun in 2024 and GMGN in 2025 all reimbursed affected users. Self-hosted bots move the risk to your own machine, including fake GitHub copies that steal keys. Use a dedicated hot wallet either way.
Is there a Solana trading bot without per-trade fees?
Yes. PumpStriker is a one-time $350 licence with no subscription and no per-trade fee taken by PumpStriker; you still pay Solana network and priority fees. Its full source, execution bot and scoring engine, is MIT licensed.
Memecoins are extremely high risk, most tokens round-trip, and no tool removes that. Competitor details were checked against the linked sources on October 24, 2026 and can change. This is not financial advice. DYOR.