# DEX Comparison

> How BasicSwap compares with centralized exchanges, instant swap services, Haveno, Bisq, THORChain and other DEXs on custody, ID checks, fees and Monero support.

There are many ways to swap one coin for another, and they differ most in who holds your coins during the trade, what they ask you to prove about yourself, and which coins they can handle. The table compares BasicSwap with centralized exchanges, instant swap services and the other decentralized exchanges people use for Bitcoin and Monero, on those points and a few more, with every cell linking to the source it comes from.

(The table on https://basicswapdex.com/docs/about/dex-comparison is generated from live data.)

## Where BasicSwap differs

  - **No server in the middle**: Offers and swap messages travel between traders over peer-to-peer networks, and the swap runs on the two blockchains, so there's no company or server whose failure stops trading.
  - **Native coins on both sides**: Each side pays in the real coin on its own chain, without wrapped tokens, synthetic assets or a bridge holding funds in between.
  - **Less on-chain linkage**: Adaptor-signature swaps leave no shared hash on the two chains, so an observer has nothing on-chain that pairs the two halves of a swap.
  - **No trading fees**: You pay each blockchain's network fees and nothing else.
  - **Monero both ways**: You can buy and sell Monero against Bitcoin and other coins, from your own wallets, with no account.