Coinbase
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a beginner making small, occasional crypto purchases and want an easy, regulated app.
New check
Comparison
Coinbase vs Binance
Coinbase and Binance both land on Depends.
Binance
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're an active trader outside the US who wants deep markets, futures, and low fees.
| Compare | Coinbase | Binance |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | First-time crypto buyers | Active altcoin and futures traders |
| Who it's not for | Frequent traders . retail fees compound fast | US-based beginners . is a separate, limited product |
| Privacy | Real 2025 insider-led data breach with ~$400M fallout; no known vulnerabilities in Coinbase's own core products, only third-party plugin CVEs.⁹ | Survived major breaches (2019, 2022) and a disclosed high-severity bot CVE; account security leans heavily on user 2FA. |
| Support quality | Hacked-account threads describe painful recovery experiences | Trustpilot and Reddit flag service complaints |
| Public sentiment | Sentiment is polarized: aggregate ratings stay high, while Reddit and Trustpilot threads hammer fees, support, and hacked accounts.³ | Reviews praise speed and feature breadth, but customer-service complaints and safety questions recur across Trustpilot, G2, and Reddit.15 |
| Biggest gotcha | Retail trading fees draw 'CRAZY expensive' complaints from users . compare costs before trading⁵ | US residents can't use global Binance; has different fees and fewer coins. |
Pick Coinbase when
- First-time crypto buyers
- Small, occasional purchases
- Institutions needing prime brokerage
- Businesses accepting crypto payments
When Coinbase is not a fit
- Frequent traders . retail fees compound fast
- Large long-term holders (prefer self-custody)
- Anyone needing fast support when locked out
- WordPress merchants without third-party plugin review
Pick Binance when
- Active altcoin and futures traders
- High-volume traders optimizing fees
- Non-US users wanting deep liquidity
- Experienced users with strong 2FA habits
When Binance is not a fit
- US-based beginners . Binance.US is a separate, limited product
- Buy-and-hold newcomers wanting one-click simplicity
- Anyone who can't tolerate exchange-hack or regulatory risk
- Teams needing a spotless compliance history
Sources
review
- Coinbase Review . Investopediainvestopedia.comreview
- Trustpilot reviews of coinbase.comtrustpilot.comreview
review
review
- I don't recommend Coinbase . Redditreddit.comreview
review
news
news
official
- Coinbase Commerce WordPress plugin CVE . Wordfencewordfence.comsecurity
- Coinbase pricing and fees disclosureshelp.coinbase.comofficial
- Coinbase Security pagecoinbase.comofficial
news
- Trustpilot . binance.com reviewstrustpilot.comreview
- G2 . Binance reviewsg2.comreview