Best Ethereum mining pool – List of top ETH pools for maximum profit | 2021

So, you’ve heard that Ethereum mining is a profitable business and so you’ve acquired a mining hardware. Great! You’ve still got time to make a decent amount through mining before the Ethereum network switch over to PoS (Proof of Stake).

Once your Ethereum GPU mining rig is configured and ready your next step should be finding a mining pool. In order to mine Ethereum effectively you should join an Ethereum mining pool. Especially if you want to see faster results and a quicker ROI.

There is a huge list of mining pools available for Ethereum. It is essential that you choose the most reliable and the right pool that meets your expectations. This post covers the most popular and the best Ethereum mining pools. Now before you pick a pool from the list below and start mining ETH lets understand why you should join a mining pool.

Why mining pool?

Successful mining involves both computational efforts and significant amounts of luck, along with lots of patience.

You can mine Ethereum either by solo or by joining a mining pool. But in order to solo mine blocks you’ll need to have an enormous amount of processing power to compete against some of the largest mining pools. You are not going to make it if you are looking to solo mine Ethereum especially if you are small to medium sized miner. So the only way to make profits mining Ethereum is by joining a mining pool alongside with bunch of other miners.

Solo mining gives you larger rewards when you mine a block. But since the network effects are enormous the chances of mining a block alone is extremely unlikely. But with mining pool you’ll keep getting a steady stream of income.

Ethereum mining pools are simply a group of miners that work together to mine Ethereum. They get united and share their hashing power to increase the changes of mining an Ethereum block. By joining a mining pool you are combining your resources with other miners all over the world. This will significantly help you achieve faster results and a quick ROI (Return on your Investment).

Once a pool finds a block the block reward is split between the pool participants. Even though each pool has its own payout method all these pools mainly account how much each miners have contributed in solving a block. They then pay you the portion of the reward based on how much work you’ve done. The rewards shared will be in direct relation to the mining hash power that each one of them contributed to the pool.

Due to the availability of large number of mining pools it has become very difficult for solo miners to find blocks. If you look at Etherscan’s top Ethereum miners chart the majority ones are mining pools except few solo mining operators with huge mining farms. They own hashing power close enough to that of mining pools. If you don’t have such huge computing power then look no further than mining pool.

Let’s look at the most popular pools around and see how to choose the best mining pool for Ethereum?

NiceHash?

Before we take a look at the Ethereum mining pools we’d first like to address something about Nicehash since we are seeing a large number of new miners mining on Nicehash. If you are one of them then you should stop mining on Nicehash and start mining with pools directly.

Beginners think they are mining Bitcoin on Nicehash. No, you are mining Ethereum and getting paid in Bitcoin. Other than Ethereum Nicehash also mines various other altcoins / algorithms.

When it comes to choosing mining pools we are often hearing Nicehash over and over again. First of all Nicehash is not a mining pool. Its an application that uses multiple third party miners to mine different algorithm and coins. It switches between coins randomly depending on their profitability. The mined coins are instantly converted to Bitcoin and that is what you are getting paid in.

NiceHash is a hashpower marketplace. When you are mining with NiceHash you are basically renting your hash power to others who are looking to mine a specific algorithm. For renting your hashpower you are getting paid out in BTC.

This services is great for small miners mining from their home Windows PC. But still not as great as mining ETH directly through a pool. Even if you prefer Bitcoin over Ethereum you can send the mined ETH to your exchange and convert it. This way you’ll earn more than what Nicehash pays you.

The only advantage of this service is that it provides easy to use application. Beginners think it makes mining simple. But the truth is once you setup and learn how to mine ETH directly through a pool you’ll realize how simpler and effective it is than using hashpower rental services.

Increase your profits by mining Ethereum with pools. Let’s now look at the best available pools for Ethereum mining.

ETH mining pools

According to miningpoolstats.stream website these are the top 15 Ethereum pools currently. It displays the list of all active Ethereum mining pools. The list keeps changing and is ranked based on the pools hashrate.

Now just because the pool has more number of miners and has the highest hashrate doesn’t mean it is the best. So how do you choose the pool and which one from the list is the best Ethereum mining pool?

When choosing a mining pool, it’s important that you join a pool that has low fees. Also consider the server location of the pool. The closer your mining rig is to the server, the more efficiently it can mine.

Some pools are better for miners from certain regions of the world. For example: f2pool, spark pool, spider pool and bee pool are best for China. Anyways most of the mining pools offers multiple server locations so that the miner can choose the server that is close to their location.

So now which mining pool is the best? There is no straight answer to this question as it depends on several factors.

Each pool has their pros and cons. In general there are few attributes you may want to consider when comparing pools like: Payout method used by the pool, pool size, pool fees and the minimum payout threshold.

Lets find out how to choose / compare the mining pool?

Choosing an Ethereum mining pool

Here are few factors you want to consider when choosing an Ethereum mining pool:

1. Pool fees:

The first thing you need to consider is the fees charged by the pool. How much does the pool charge? The fee percentage claimed by the mining pool varies anywhere between 1% to 3%. There are certain pools that charge as low as 0.5% and there are few that charge more than 3% in fees. Pick the one that seems fair to you.

2. Payout threshold

Ethermine; one of the largest ETH mining pool used to have a minimum payout of 0.01 ETH. But now its 0.1 ETH. With pools like Ethermine and other pools with higher payout threshold you’d never be able to reach your payment in a reasonable amount of time. Especially if you are small miner or mining from your gaming PC with a single graphic card.

Anyways even if you don’t reach the minimum threshold the pool will auto send the amount which you’ve mined so far. For example Ethermine pays out every two weeks if your balance is below 0.05. Unpaid balance above 0.05 will be paid weekly.

If you want your payout earlier then find a pool with payout lesser than 0.1 ETH. There are some pools where you can lower the minimum payout so you don’t have to wait a month plus for a payout. Its good for people who don’t have high enough hash rate.

3. Transaction fees charged:

Other than pool fees take a look on the transaction fees charged by the pool. This is something that is not charged by pool but by the miners. Some pool pays their miners with 1 Gwei transactions into their own mined blocks. Such pools have zero transaction fees. You fully get what you mined.

For example Ethermine has no transaction fees. That is once you reach the minimum payout threshold of 0.1 ETH the pool will send you the exact amount of 0.1 ETH. There are certain pools that uses your balance amount to cover the transaction fees.

Take note on the amount you receive in your wallet and don’t lose your mining revenue on transaction fees when cashing out.

4. Pool size:

There are certain pros and cons to mining on large pool vs small pool. Its really up to you whether you wish to join a mining pool that represents a huge part of network hashrate or the one that has the moderate hashrate. Currently Ethermine is one of the largest Ethereum mining pool.

With large mining pools the chances of finding blocks are higher but your payout will be smaller. With small pools the payouts are big but the time taken by these pools to find blocks will be longer. Anyway by the end of the day / week / month your earnings will be more or less the same whether you are mining on large pool or small pool.

5. Payout method:

Another most important thing you need to look at is how are payouts calculated. Is the pool only paying you the block rewards or they including both transaction fees as well as the reward from uncle blocks?

Since there are a huge number of miners the pool have to determine how much work you’ve put in and how much they are going to pay you. Every pool has its own payout structure.

As of now mining pools these days uses three different payment methods namely: PPS, PPLNS and PPS+. We’ve already explained the difference between PPS and PPLNS.

PPS is short for Pay-Per-Share. PPS has some flaws. It only rewards miners with block rewards and it does not allocate TX fees. This method of payout isn’t quite used anymore. Only PPS+ and PPLNS.

PPLNS, Pay-Per-Last N Shares or Pay-Per-Luck Shares is used by many popular largest Ethereum mining pools. It protects pool owners and stops people from pool hopping. Moreover with this method miners receive block reward, uncle rewards as well as transaction fees.

PPS+ is another popular payout scheme used by spark pool, hive on and few others. It basically combines the advantages of PPS and PPLNS. It prevents issues for mining pool operators and also gives miners a more steady income.

Your mining income varies depending on the payment method used by the pool. So choose the one that has a payout plan that suits your setup. In general its better to stick to pool that uses PPLNS system. This system pays you better if you mine long enough.

6. MEV rewards

Lastly check for MEV rewards and how is MEV distributed. MEV stands from Miner Extracted Value. Ethereum mining pools with MEV support will get extra profits by including some special arbitrage transactions in the blocks. Most pool does MEV but does not share the MEV profits with their miners. They do not disclose it to miners thereby reducing the miner block rewards.

Your mining income will likely be more profitable if you take advantage of the MEV (Miner Extracted Value).

So make sure the pool you are choosing includes MEV transactions which should bring you increased revenue. Most Ethereum mining pools with PPLNS and PPS+ system have the MEV reward added to the block and is distributed accordingly.

Let’s now take a look at the list of popular Ethereum mining pools.

Top ETH mining pools

The table below displays the list of ETH mining pools, their payout method, fees and the minimum payment threshold. It also highlights the mining pools with MEV support. This should help you decide which one to join.

There are the top 10 popular pools that you can choose from. They are ranked based on their hashrate. We have excluded beepool, huobipool and spiderpool from the list as they are all based in China.

Even though Sparkpool; the number 1 ETH pool is a Chinese mining pool this website displays all the information in English which makes it easy to understand and use for miners around the world.

Other than this you can also find the list of all active Ethereum mining pools at https://www.poolwatch.io/coin/ethereum. Also use https://miningpoolstats.stream/ethereum for more up to date list.

Now how do you pick the best one from this list?

Best Ethereum mining pool

In order to find the best mining pool for your setup you actually need to test each and every pool. You cannot test each pool one by one due to variable block size and the change in difficulty. So the only proper way to test them is by running all the mining pools simultaneously. To test various pools at the same time you need to have same hardware setup running across all the pools. Only then you can do a proper side by side comparison and come to a conclusion.

For most users doing a proper test is not possible as they either be using their home PC to mine or they only have limited hardware or they have a combination of different GPU stacked in the same rig.

Not to worry. Here are our 3 best pool picks for you.

Now before you switch pools here is something to note.

Leave your current mining pool only once you reach the minimum payout threshold. Also don’t keep switching between different pools. The energy and time it takes to switch pools is not worth it. Remember that pools with PPLNS and PPS+ will punish intermittent miners. Pool hopping is ineffective so stop switching between pools. Find the one that you pays you well and stick to that pool.

Also you need to note that during weekends your mining revenue will be generally low. Its due to lower gas and this is not specific to any mining pools. Its the same everywhere.

1. Ethermine

Our number 1 choice is Ethermine. The best and the most popular mining pool among the Ethereum miners. With over 200k miners it is one of the biggest Ethereum mining pool contributing more than 100 TH/s (more than 20% of the overall network hashrate).

Ethermine uses real time PPLNS payment scheme and charges 1% fee on each reward that you receive. It also allows you to set your own payment threshold needed to receive your rewards. You can set your threshold to 0.05 ETH minimum to a maximum of 10 ETH.

Moreover Ethermine pool does not charge you the transaction fees when you are getting paid. Instead it mines your transaction on their own blocks; saving you the transaction fees and is advantageous for small miners.

2. Flexpool

Flexpool is small but a rapidly growing mining pool. It comes under top 15 Eth pools that contribute little over ~6 TH/s. Even though being a small mining pool it has gained a lot of attention among the Ethereum mining community for bringing in more profits to miners and for being extremely transparent.

The profits with Flexpool is quite similar to Ethermine but is way more profitable than Nanopool and few other ETH pools. It has the lowest fees of 0.5% and uses PPLNS payment system which is excellent for long term miners.

The main difference between Ethermine and Flexpool is that Flexpool doesn’t avoid the cost of transaction fees when you withdraw funds. Anyways you get the option to set maximum payout Gwei so that you can wait for lower gas payout. The minimum payout is 0.01 ETH. To offset the cost of the transaction fees you can set the min pay to 0.2 ETH or higher. But remember you’ll have to wait until you accumulate enough ETH needed for the payout.

Whether you are a small miner or the one with lot of hash power Flexpool is one of the best mining pool available for Ethereum mining. Moreover you need to note that joining a small pool promotes decentralization and is healthy for the network.

3. Sparkpool

Sparkpool was formerly known as ETH fans. It is currently the largest Ethereum mining pool on earth with highest hashrate that is contributing close to 30% of the overall network hashrate. Having the highest hashrate it gives you consistent payout amounts. However the problem with largest pools is that it leads to mining centralization.

Sparkpool uses PPS+ payment method. It charges 1% fee on block rewards and has a minimum withdrawal limit of 0.1 ETH. Being a Chinese pool its good for those who are from China and from nearby nations. If you are from the west then in terms of profit this pool doesn’t offer much so it is better to consider Ethermine or Flexpool over Sparkpool.

Optional:

Hiveon Pool: If you are operating your mining rig using Hive OS then try Hive On mining pool. It’s the best in terms of profit. Hiveon with Hive OS is a tough combo to beat.

2Miners – 2Miners is another popular Ethereum mining pool that uses 1% PPLNS and has a min pay of 0.05 ETH. Moreover it shows and includes MEV-rewards.

These are the 5 best Ethereum mining pools in 2021.

Wrapping up

Ethereum mining is still profitable if you have access to cheap electricity and got the right mining equipment’s. There are certain mining calculators available for you to find out how profitable it is to mine Ethereum with your hardware. Use them and estimate the profits and ROI before you start mining. If you feel like your mining hardware is not producing any profitable results then its better to buy Ethereum and hold it. You can buy Ethereum from Binance, Coinbase or FTX.

If you are serious about mining Ethereum then you should really consider mining through an Ethereum pool. There is a wide variety of pools available and you can’t really go wrong by choosing any of the top mining pools mentioned here. All of these Ethereum pools are reliable, charges low fees, shows accurate tracking and have a similar payout structure. Choose the one that you are most comfortable with and stick to that pool.

We hope this post helped you pick the best Ethereum mining pool. Now what? You need to find the right miner to facilitate the mining. Here you can find the best Ethereum miners – It has the list of Ethash miners and explains how to choose the right miner for your hardware.

Once you’ve chosen the miner, connect it to the mining pool and start mining Ethereum. Almost every mining pools has got help & FAQ section for you to get started. It guides you on how to setup your miner, configure the pool settings and start mining.

Once you’ve started mining you should start making a consistent profit. Your can send your mined profits to your exchange account or to your personal wallet. Its up to you.

That’s all! Hope you found the best Ethereum mining pool. Are you using any other Ethereum pool which is not mentioned here? Or do you have any experience with the pools listed above? Please let us know in the comment section below.