Data anchoring and timestamping · Comparison
Bernstein vs Hedera Consensus Service
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Bernstein | Hedera Consensus Service |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Compliance includedCourt-oriented proof of authorship for IP files: Bitcoin anchoring plus EU qualified timestamps, without the vendor seeing your files. | Worth the priceOrdered, consensus-timestamped records on a public ledger at a published $0.0008 per message, with no contract or vendor account. |
| Overall score | 3.7 | 4.8Best |
| Free option | Paid only | Paid only |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $54/mo | $0.0008/message |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| What it anchors to | Bitcoin, plus EU and China timestamp authorities | Hedera public ledger (messages on a topic) |
| Billing unit | Registration credit (one project version, up to 99 files) | $0.0008 per message, paid in HBAR |
| Free option | None; certificate validation is free | Testnet only |
| Reference scenario (100,000 hashes/mo) | Not offered (no API) | $80, one hash per message, computed |
| Proof you keep | PDF certificate | No proof file; records on mirror nodes |
| Verify without the vendor | Manual steps documented; browser validator | Open-source mirror node you can run |
| Only the hash leaves your systems | No; files uploaded encrypted | Yes, you choose the message content |
| Qualified timestamps (eIDAS) | EU qualified on Scale and Enterprise | No |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated | Node data centres must be SOC 2 Type 2 |
| API and webhooks | None | SDKs, mirror node REST and gRPC; no webhooks |
| SSO | Enterprise plan, one-time setup fee | Not applicable (key-based accounts) |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Bernstein is the most legally oriented option here, with EU qualified timestamps on a self-serve plan. It is a web app for IP files, not an anchoring API, from $54 a month. | From its public pages, HCS is the cheapest way here to put hashes on a public ledger at a price you can compute. You build the proof handling yourself, and there is no plan, contract or vendor audit report. |
Evidence: Bernstein: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Hedera Consensus Service: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- BernsteinStarter$54/mo1 credit a month; $540 a year (2 months free); extra credits from $39
- Up to 99 files and 10 GB per project
- Credits roll over for 3 months
- Secure sharing
- No SSO
- Hedera Consensus ServiceMainnet, pay per transaction$0.0008/messageConsensusSubmitMessage; first 100 payload bytes included; paid in HBAR at the live rate
- Topic creation $0.01
- Account creation $0.05
- Messages up to 1,024 bytes
- BatchTransaction $0.001 plus each inner transaction
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Bernstein 2026-10-15, Hedera Consensus Service 2026-10-15.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Hedera Consensus ServiceSelf-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (4.8/10).
- Lowest starter price
- Bernstein$54/mo for the Starter plan. Hedera Consensus Service lists no comparable paid price.
- Highest overall score
- Hedera Consensus Service4.8/10 (Fair). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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