Being one of the largest exchanges of Bitcoin, Coinbase offers many advantages for its users. But, through the years, Coinbase started to act like traditional banks, which repelled many users. Besides having higher fees, Coinbase opened up other issues when it comes to serving customers.
Coinbase started to integrate its business with traditional banking laws and act on the base of the classic financial system. Lots of personal info is now required for opening the account. Also, Coinbase first got approved by US Government. That includes monitoring of users account and forced shutdowns of many accounts. Many users who used Bitcoin for gambling, gaming, paying adult services, resale of coins got their accounts frozen.
Considering all of the above, including higher fees, there are many alternatives. Some of them are:
Gemini is an online exchange operating with lower fees than Coinbase. It's New York-based and it operates with individuals and business clients. In the US, it's reachable in 26 states and DC.
Bitsquare offers anonymity and they care for financial privacy. It is a secure exchange and its reasonable in fees and other costs of Bitcoin trade.
LocalBitcoins offers instant transactions. They operate in more than 200 countries of the world. The platform is considered to be E-Bay for Bitcoin.
BitStamp is a London-based exchange that offers many advantages, especially for people of Europe. It is reachable to individuals who want to trade their BTC by themselves. It is very economical for Europeans since it offers free deposits. They have low fees and considered to be very secure and simple for use.
Bitcoin.de is an exchange based in Germany. A person who sells currency demands price which is mostly 1% higher than the current exchange rate. It has small fees and a lot of people use it, so there is always someone to trade with.
BitBay operates with a simple interface and it is simple and intuitive for use. It is a security -oriented exchange and it operates with cold wallet asset storage. Also, it uses 2FA (two-factor authentication).
Coinbase is most common and one of the first exchanges. It is frequently used by most of the newcomers to Bitcoin network. For everyone with more experience in the network, it is clear that there are many alternatives worth considering which offer many advantages over the Coinbase and some other exchanges that operate globally.