Scaffold-ETH is an open source development toolkit for Ethereum developers that provides a complete stack of tools to allow developers to rapidly prototype and develop decentralized applications (dApps). The project has been maintained by a group of contributors through a GitHub repository and its goal is to simplify the process of developing Ethereum dApps using modern tools and best practices; this will serve as an entry-point for Web3 builders around the world.
The first release of the Ethereum development stack for rapid dApp prototyping was launched.
The Conf42 presentation titled Build on Ethereum Quickly and Easily with Scaffold-ETH showcased the toolkit.
Major version 2 launch of Scaffold-ETH with modern improvements to the toolkit stack was presented at Devcon 7.
The latest stable release date of Scaffold-ETH was on April 16, 2024, but continues to be under active development.
Local development with L1/L2/testnet deployment support
N/A - Pure Ethereum development tooling
Based on GitHub repository analysis and official documentation
| Service | Cost | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Framework | $0 | Open source, fully featured Ethereum dApp development stack | — |
| Extensions | $0 | All official and community extensions free via npx create-eth | — |
| ETHGlobal Workshops | Free | Official training sessions included with event registration | ETHGlobal YouTube |
| Feature | Scaffold-ETH 2 | Hardhat | Foundry | Truffle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract Hot Reload | Yes | No | No | No |
| Pre-built UI Components | Yes | No | No | No |
| Burner Wallet + Faucet | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Custom React Hooks | Yes (wagmi) | No | No | No |
| EVM Chain Support | 30+ | All EVM | All EVM | All EVM |
| Extensions Ecosystem | Yes | No | No | No |
| NextJS Integration | Yes | No | No | No |
| TypeScript Autocomplete | Yes | Partial | No | Partial |
| Starting Price | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Free Tier | Yes (Full) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Scaffold-ETH 2 has a full-stack of both front-end and back-end while Hardhat is limited to being a tool that helps with just the back-end (smart contracts). Scaffold-ETH 2 contains live UI components and wallet integration out-of-the-box.
Use Scaffold-ETH 2 if you want to rapidly prototype a full dApp and use Hardhat when you are optimizing your production contract.
Foundry can be used to test quickly however it does not include front-end scaffolding. Scaffold-ETH 2 is a complete React / NextJS stack and allows contract hot-reload which makes the development of your UI-heavy dApp approximately ten times faster than using manual stack assembly.
Use Foundry if you need to do heavy-duty testing in Solidity and use Scaffold-ETH 2 to build your entire dApp.
Manual stack assembly versus Scaffold-ETH 2's full-stack (opinionated) — Scaffold-ETH 2 will remove weeks of boilerplate setup and provide battle-tested components.
Scaffold-ETH 2 makes it easier to go from a new project to a working dApp. Using a custom stack may give you more freedom to create your dApp the way you want however it will take more time to get up and running.
Thirdweb provides managed contracts and Scaffold-ETH 2 provides an open source stack. Scaffold-ETH 2 gives you total control over your contracts and therefore you have no vendor lock-in.
If you are a team looking for managed services then Thirdweb is your best choice. If you are a developer that wants to own every part of your stack then choose Scaffold-ETH 2.
Scaffold-ETH 2 is a new, open-source rapid-development toolkit for creating Ethereum-based dApps. It uses a combination of Hardhat or Foundry for your smart-contract work, and NextJS, RainbowKit, Wagmi, and TypeScript for your modern front-end development. Hot-reloading of your contract, and burner-wallets are among its key features.
To start with Scaffold-ETH 2, clone the GitHub repository. Install your dependencies using yarn. Then start three terminal windows: one for the local chain, one for deployment, and one for your NextJS app. Type "yarn chain", "yarn deploy" and "yarn dev" to start the process. A full setup guide can be found in the README file.
Scaffold-ETH 2 is a more modern, actively-maintained stack that includes NextJS 13+, RainbowKit, and contract hot reloading. This newer stack is intended for production-ready dApps, whereas Create Eth App is an older, less feature-rich stack.
Yes, Scaffold-ETH is fully free and open source using the MIT license. There are no price tiers or subscription fees. Your cost will be for deploying to mainnet/testnets.
Any EVM compatible chain. Scaffold-ETH has built-in support for the Hardhat Local Chain, but it also supports configuring for deployment to Ethereum MainNet, Sepolia, Base, Optimism, etc., through the scaffold.config.ts.
Configure your desired chain in scaffold.config.ts, fund your wallet through a faucet, then type "yarn deploy". Your frontend will automatically adapt to the chain you have selected. Also included with Scaffold-ETH is a block explorer to help you confirm your transaction.
Find out what you need to know by checking the comprehensive documentation at docs.scaffoldeth.io. If you find an issue on GitHub, you can also go to the community Discord channel. There are many video tutorials on how to set up Scaffold-ETH 2 as well as extensive setup guides available.
Scaffold-ETH 2 is one of the most widely used open source development stacks for Ethereum with 5.8k+ GitHub stars and the most popular community adoption. Scaffold-ETH 2 provides developers with modern tooling that allows them to rapidly prototype dApps all the way to production, while allowing developers to have the capability of hot reloading contracts. The ideal development stack for Ethereum developers; however, it does limit to only EVM-based chains.
Scaffold-ETH 2 is the best free tool for development of dApps on Ethereum for both prototyping and production.
Scaffold-ETH 2 is a mature and open source dApp development toolkit for Ethereum with 5.8k+ GitHub stars, 5k+ forks and strong community adoption. Scaffold-ETH 2 has features including hot reloading of contracts, burner wallets with a local faucet, a modern NextJS/RainbowKit stack and support for Hardhat/Foundry. This tool is completely free of commercial pricing and support – it is community driven.
Excellent - comprehensive information from official docs.scaffoldeth.io, GitHub repository (5.8k+ stars), and developer guides. All technical details verified from primary sources.
5.8k+ GitHub stars, 5k+ forks and 5.5k+ projects created. An active community of builders that provide tutorials, extensions and share templates. A trusted solution within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Scaffold-ETH 2 includes contract hot reloading, burner wallet with a local faucet, integrated block explorer, automatically generated TypeScript types, and a wallet integration through RainbowKit/Wagmi.
The official ERC-20 token extensions, Subgraphs (The Graph) & Ponder. This scaffold supports either Hardhat or Foundry as a tooling choice.
Extensive YouTube workshop training on how to set up your project, deploy it, integrate your wallets, and run it in the testnets. Step-by-step beginner friendly tutorials are also provided.
A production ready, open-source library for connecting to a user’s wallet and interacting with the Ethereum blockchain.
Open source library of reusable React hooks for interacting with Ethereum.
Both development, testing, and deployment of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain are supported.
Library of pre-built UI components for rapidly building visually appealing applications.
Transaction explorer built into the scaffold to enable local chain debugging and inspection.
Automatically updates the frontend when changes occur in the smart contracts during development without requiring a manual redeployment.
Uses either the Hardhat or Foundry local chains so that you can test your contracts instantly without needing to rely on a testnet.
Generates the necessary TypeScript types from the contract ABI to provide type-safe access to the contracts.
Simplifies the process of calling smart contracts by providing a couple of simple functions called “useScaffoldReadContract” and “useScaffoldWriteContract”.
Provides the ability to generate multiple test wallets and a limitless local ETH faucet to simplify rapid testing.
| Framework | GitHub Stars | Community Size | Production Ready | Enterprise Adoption | Documentation Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scaffold-ETH 2 | 5,800+ | BuidlGuidl Community | ✓ Yes (Mainnet Ready) | High (5,500+ projects) | Excellent (Docs + Tutorials) |
| NextJS + Hardhat + Wagmi | 45,000+ (combined) | 200,000+ developers | ✓ Yes (Production) | Very High | Comprehensive |
Auto update your dApp front end based on smart contract changes. No manual reload of pages is needed.
Directly in your dApp you can inspect transactions, blocks and the state of a contract.
Create an endless number of test wallets to get instant access to ETH using a faucet.
Pre-made react hooks for many common use cases for reading/writing to a contract.
Change/add remove functionality to your app by adding/removing different npm packages without boilerplate code.
One command will allow you to create a new project with either HardHat or Foundry selected.
| Network | Framework Support | Wallet Integration | RPC Provider | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum Mainnet | Native | RainbowKit Full | QuickNode/Alchemy | Production ready |
| EVM Chains (L2) | Native via RPC | Multi-chain | Any EVM RPC | Arbitrum/Optimism/Base |
| Kaia (Klaytn) | EVM Compatible | Standard connectors | Kaia RPC | Documented tutorial |
| Sepolia Testnet | Native | Full support | QuickNode | Default testing chain |
