Solana

can anyone help me understand why it costs ~$200 to deploy a relatively simple contract on solana?

I assumed it would cost comparable amounts to base (eg cents) and feel like my mental model needs updating

what is the difference in architecture that drives this?

When you deploy a Program (Solana’s version of a smart contract), you’re paying up front for its global state to live onchain forever.

This is called rent exemption.

One key architectural difference:

On Ethereum, devs often use a contract factory (an onchaincontract that deploys new instances of other contracts).

On Solana, that pattern isn’t necessary.

Once a program is deployed, it can create Program Derived Accounts (PDAs), which are custom state accounts tied to specific users or actions. You’re not redeploying code; you’re just spawning new state.

Thanks to tools like Anchor, the program’s IDL (Interface Definition Language, similar to an ABI) allows client SDKs to handle logic that would otherwise require a factory contract.

TLDR:
The developer deploys the program once.

Users interact with new accounts the program creates.

No need to redeploy anything.

So while the initial cost is high the cost to use is low for devs and users.

nobody redeploys on evm chains. we all deploy once too.
i lost you