What makes you change one mining pool for another?

[hashradar]

I'm trying to compare different mining pools because nowadays everything is quite similar. I can't really find any major differences between mining pools, but I want to. 

It seems that miners don't always move to the pool that appears to offer the best returns.

There are obvious reasons to stay with a pool:
- trust built over many years;
- reputation;
- reliable payouts;
- a large community;
- good support.

But even when two pools seem equally stable, it's common to see many miners choosing the one with slightly lower effective profitability.

That made me wonder whether profitability is actually much lower on the priority list than people think.

So I'm curious:
What usually makes you switch pools?

Is it:
- higher earnings?
- lower fees?
- better support?
- a better dashboard?
- payout system?
- fewer stale shares?
- transparency?
- something else entirely?

If you had to rank the three most important factors when choosing a mining pool, what would they be? 

[FP91G]

Most large Bitcoin mining pools have been around for a long time and have earned their trust and reputation.

The main criterion is a good ping, because even if the pool is the best, you'll lose shares due to a poor connection and receive less profit. If you have a high-quality internet connection, then you will look at other parameters.

[FP91G]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

[hashradar]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

I agree that 10–20 minutes of downtime is a real cost, especially when you're managing a single ASIC.
But I think it depends on how persistent the difference in profitability is. If the new pool consistently earns even a couple of dollars more per day, the initial 10–20 minute loss becomes pretty small over the long run.
So I wouldn't switch for a random $2 difference on one day, but a consistent difference over weeks or months might be a different story.

[philipma1957]

Consistent payouts. I do viabtc pps+.

No luck involved. Consistent well known payouts.

Variance does not matter.

[FP91G]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

I agree that 10–20 minutes of downtime is a real cost, especially when you're managing a single ASIC.
But I think it depends on how persistent the difference in profitability is. If the new pool consistently earns even a couple of dollars more per day, the initial 10–20 minute loss becomes pretty small over the long run.
So I wouldn't switch for a random $2 difference on one day, but a consistent difference over weeks or months might be a different story.

In Russia, sanctions and service providers also block mining pools. In my country, one has to choose pools that refuse to participate in these blocks and help miners configure their equipment for trouble-free operation.
You need to take all local factors into account when selecting a suitable option. I prioritize stability and am willing to sacrifice a bit of profitability.

[hashradar]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

I agree that 10–20 minutes of downtime is a real cost, especially when you're managing a single ASIC.
But I think it depends on how persistent the difference in profitability is. If the new pool consistently earns even a couple of dollars more per day, the initial 10–20 minute loss becomes pretty small over the long run.
So I wouldn't switch for a random $2 difference on one day, but a consistent difference over weeks or months might be a different story.

In Russia, sanctions and service providers also block mining pools. In my country, one has to choose pools that refuse to participate in these blocks and help miners configure their equipment for trouble-free operation.
You need to take all local factors into account when selecting a suitable option. I prioritize stability and am willing to sacrifice a bit of profitability.

If we're talking about Russia, from what I can see, most of the popular pools are already fairly well adapted to the local regulatory environment.

I've been tracking pool statistics on https://hashradar.live, and one thing I noticed is that the pools with better stability and profitability don't necessarily have the largest share of hashrate. Some pools with lower performance on these metrics still attract significantly more miners.

So that's actually what I'm trying to understand - what other factors do miners take into account when choosing a pool?

[FP91G]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

I agree that 10–20 minutes of downtime is a real cost, especially when you're managing a single ASIC.
But I think it depends on how persistent the difference in profitability is. If the new pool consistently earns even a couple of dollars more per day, the initial 10–20 minute loss becomes pretty small over the long run.
So I wouldn't switch for a random $2 difference on one day, but a consistent difference over weeks or months might be a different story.

In Russia, sanctions and service providers also block mining pools. In my country, one has to choose pools that refuse to participate in these blocks and help miners configure their equipment for trouble-free operation.
You need to take all local factors into account when selecting a suitable option. I prioritize stability and am willing to sacrifice a bit of profitability.

If we're talking about Russia, from what I can see, most of the popular pools are already fairly well adapted to the local regulatory environment.

I've been tracking pool statistics on https://hashradar.live, and one thing I noticed is that the pools with better stability and profitability don't necessarily have the largest share of hashrate. Some pools with lower performance on these metrics still attract significantly more miners.

So that's actually what I'm trying to understand - what other factors do miners take into account when choosing a pool?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5263569.140
Seven pools account for 89% of the hashrate, of these, one is private (Mara), one caters to US institutional miners (FoundryUSA), and the remaining five are open to all miners.
What differences are you looking to find among those five pools?
I am certain that the choice is based on local convenience and preferences in each country.

[MergedHash]

For me it's three things: does the pool pay tx fees (not just subsidy), how payouts work (a custodial balance you have to withdraw vs paid directly in the coinbase), and whether I can verify my shares and blocks myself. Fee level matters less than those. Disclosure: I run a small non-custodial pool (mergedhash.com), so I'm biased toward coinbase payouts, but the questions apply to any pool.