Avalanche (AVAX) and Ethereum (ETH) are both blockchain platforms designed for smart contracts and decentralised applications (dApps), but they differ in technology, performance, and approach. Ethereum, launched in 2015, was the first blockchain to introduce smart contracts, giving rise to DeFi, NFTs, and countless dApps. However, its network often faces congestion, resulting in slower transaction speeds and higher gas fees, especially during peak activity.

Avalanche, launched in 2020, was built to address these limitations. It uses a unique consensus mechanism known as Avalanche consensus, which allows thousands of validators to confirm transactions in parallel. This gives Avalanche higher throughput, faster finality, and significantly lower transaction costs compared to Ethereum. While Ethereum processes around 15–30 transactions per second (TPS), Avalanche can handle over 4,000 TPS.

Another difference is scalability. Ethereum is transitioning to Ethereum 2.0 with proof-of-stake and sharding to improve efficiency, but Avalanche already operates with subnets, allowing developers to create customizable blockchains that run alongside the main network.

In terms of adoption, Ethereum remains the most widely used smart contract platform, hosting the largest DeFi and NFT ecosystems. Avalanche is growing quickly, attracting developers and projects due to its speed and cost advantages.

Ethereum leads in network effects and maturity, while Avalanche offers faster, cheaper, and more scalable solutions for modern blockchain applications.