Devcon or Devconnect: which Ethereum week do you actually want?
The short answer
Devcon is the conference: one venue, a curated stage programme, a ticket, held every two years. Devconnect is a week: a central hub plus hundreds of independent events run by other people across a host city, held in the years Devcon is not. If you want talks and a schedule somebody else built, that is Devcon. If you want to work a city for a week and build your own itinerary, that is Devconnect. Booking the wrong one is the single most common Ethereum travel mistake.
Devcon
The Ethereum Foundation's own conference, with a programmed main stage and tracks, held roughly every two years. Devcon 8 is Mumbai, 3 to 6 November 2026.
Pick this if
- You want a programmed conference with talks you can plan around
- You are a protocol researcher, client-team engineer or application developer
- You want the full talk archive afterwards, which the Foundation publishes
- You would rather buy one ticket than assemble a week
Devconnect
A week built around independent community events with a central hub rather than a single main stage. The 2025 Buenos Aires edition drew 14,000-plus people from over 130 countries across 500-plus community events.
Pick this if
- You want depth in one specialism rather than breadth across many
- You are happy to build your own schedule from other people's events
- You want smaller rooms and longer conversations
- You are going to work the city rather than sit in a hall
Devcon and Devconnect, side by side
| Devcon | Devconnect | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Ethereum Foundation | Ethereum Foundation, with independent hosts running most events |
| Shape | One conference, one venue, programmed tracks | A hub plus hundreds of independent events across a city |
| Cadence | Every two years | In the years between Devcons |
| Next edition | Devcon 8, Mumbai, 3 to 6 November 2026 | Announced by the Foundation; Buenos Aires hosted 2025 |
| Ticket | One ticket for the conference. $499 in ETH or $999 in fiat for Devcon 8 | Mostly per-event, and many are free or invitation-based |
| Talks recorded | Yes, the Foundation publishes the full archive | Depends entirely on each host |
| Best for | Seeing the state of the protocol in one place | Going deep with one community for a week |
The difference that actually matters
The confusion is understandable, because both carry the Ethereum Foundation's name and both fill a city with the same people. The difference is who builds your schedule. At Devcon the Foundation does: there is a programme, there are tracks, and the value of the ticket is that somebody curated what is worth your time. At Devconnect you do, and the value is that nobody has flattened a hundred specialist communities into one main stage. Neither is better. They are answers to different questions, and the reason people end up at the wrong one is that they book on the name rather than on which question they were asking. One practical consequence worth knowing: because Devcon runs every two years rather than annually, the gap between editions is long enough that a first-time attendee often has to choose a Devconnect year whether they meant to or not.
Devcon vs Devconnect: common questions
Is Devconnect the same as Devcon?
No. Both are run by the Ethereum Foundation, but Devcon is a conference with a programmed main stage held every two years, and Devconnect is a week of independent community events with a central hub, held in the years between. They are different products with different tickets.
Which is better for a first-time attendee?
Devcon, usually. A programmed conference gives a newcomer a map of the ecosystem in four days, whereas Devconnect assumes you already know which communities you want to spend time with. If you cannot yet name three teams you want to meet, start with Devcon.
Can I attend both in the same year?
Generally no, and that is by design. Devcon runs every two years and Devconnect fills the gap years, so in most calendar years only one of them is happening. Check the Ethereum Foundation blog for which one falls in the year you are planning.
Which one is better for fundraising?
Neither, honestly. Both are builder events rather than capital events, and treating either as a fundraising trip is a common misread. If you want generalist funds and business development, TOKEN2049 is the right room and both of these are the wrong one.
How much does each cost?
Devcon 8 general admission is $499 paid in ETH or $999 in fiat including Indian GST, with discounted tiers for India residents and students. Devconnect pricing is per-event, set by each host, and a large share of its events have historically been free or invitation-based.
Are the talks published afterwards?
Devcon talks are, and the Ethereum Foundation's archive is one of the better free resources in the space. Devconnect recordings depend entirely on the individual host, so there is no single archive to check afterwards.
Other conferences people compare
- TOKEN2049 Singapore vs DubaiTOKEN2049 runs two flagship editions a year in different hemispheres with different rooms. Attendance, capital base, side-event scale and the 2026 Dubai postponement, compared.
- CES vs IFACES and IFA both launch consumer hardware and are almost opposites in practice. Trade-only versus public, January versus September, agenda-setting versus buying. Which one your business needs.
- MWC vs CESMWC and CES are the two largest technology shows on the calendar and serve different industries. Operators and infrastructure versus consumer retail and press. Passes, scale and how each one is actually worked.
Last checked against its sources on . Aspire organises neither of these events. Dates and prices are set by their organisers and change without notice. Browse the full directory.