Overview
Cexplorer Stake Pools is a free directory for picking a Cardano stake pool to delegate to. It lists every registered pool in one place, with clear numbers on past rewards, fees, size, and who has delegated the most. The page is designed for everyday ADA holders comparing pools side by side, but power users, developers, and governance researchers use the wider Cexplorer site too.
Cexplorer is built by Vellum Labs and started life as ADApools.org back in the early days of Cardano staking. It later rebranded and now covers the whole Cardano blockchain, not just pools. The site is open source, runs without ads on the pool pages, and is partly funded by Project Catalyst, Cardano's community funding program.12
The pool pages are part of a wider block explorer that also covers Cardano governance, native tokens, and transactions, making Cexplorer a single tab for both staking decisions and tracking how the network is being run.
Key Features
- One sortable list of every pool. Browse all registered Cardano stake pools, sorted by past rewards, luck, declared pledge, fees, and the largest delegators backing each pool1.
- A built-in pool ranking. Cexplorer assigns each pool a ranking that weighs several performance factors at once, not just total size, so smaller pools with strong track records can stand out1.
- A free starter API. Developers can pull the same data into their own apps through a free tier of 300 requests per day, with bigger plans available for higher-volume use3.
- Governance in the same place. A separate section lets you browse Delegated Representatives, called DReps, watch proposals, see how the Constitutional Committee voted, and read the full text of the Cardano constitution4.
- Articles and notification bots. Cexplorer also publishes plain-language articles on Cardano updates and offers Telegram and Discord bots that alert you when a pool you watch produces a block or changes its fees.
What to Expect
Cexplorer loads quickly and shows data in dense, sortable tables. People who like dashboards full of numbers will feel at home. The main navigation is split by topic, with pools, blocks, transactions, tokens, and governance each getting their own tab and a list view alongside charts. The site is also available in Japanese and Czech, which is unusual for Cardano explorers.
Developers can run their own test versions of Cexplorer against Cardano's test networks, which is handy when trying out new apps before going live. A public bug bounty program encourages security researchers to report problems responsibly, and anyone can suggest features or report issues through the GitHub repository.2
