Yearn Finance Review
AGPL-licensed with a named audit record
of 10
Yearn releases its vaults under AGPL-3.0 and names its auditors across v2 and v3, with factory-deployed vaults charging a 10% performance fee and single-asset vaults generally none. Users are stated to be in control of their assets at all times.
No money changes hands. This is a non-commercial project: no advertising, no sponsored placements, and no affiliate or referral links. Links to the services below earn us nothing. Every overall score is the plain average of the criteria shown on the page, so you can check the arithmetic yourself — see our rating methodology and how the site is funded.
Performance fee
10% on factory-deployed vaults
Management fee
Generally none on single-asset vaults
Licence
AGPL-3.0
Auditors
StateMind, ChainSecurity, yAudit, MixBytes, Trail of Bits
Custody
User in control of assets at all times
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (7.0 + 10.0 + 9.0 + 8.0 + 7.0) ÷ 5 = 8.2.
Pros
- AGPL-3.0, a strong copyleft open-source licence over the vaults
- Auditors named across versions: StateMind, ChainSecurity, yAudit on v3; MixBytes, ChainSecurity, Trail of Bits on v2
- Factory vaults charge a 10% performance fee; single-asset vaults generally have no management fee
- States users are in control of their assets and can see where they are at all times
Cons
- The fee structure is now dynamic by vault, so no single figure applies across the protocol
- Withdrawal fee is not stated on the overview page
- Historical, non-projected performance is not published on the overview page
The strongest licence in the category
Yearn's vaults carry AGPL-3.0, a strong copyleft open-source licence that requires anyone deploying modified code to publish it. For a protocol holding deposits, an open and copyleft licence is the firmest position on this criterion, and Yearn is one of only two here to hold it.
Fees, now dynamic
Yearn has moved to a per-vault fee structure: factory-deployed vaults charge a 10% performance fee, single-asset vaults generally charge no management fee, and the older 20% performance and 2% management figures are referenced as historical. That makes the protocol harder to summarise in one number, but the current rates are published.
Audited and self-custodial
Auditors are named across v2 and v3 — StateMind, ChainSecurity, yAudit, MixBytes and Trail of Bits — and the documentation states users are in control of their assets and can see where they are at all times.
How it compares
Yield Yak
MIT-licensed, no deposit or withdraw fees
Sommelier
Apache-licensed cellars, audits unverified
Harvest Finance
Named audits, ISC only in package.json
Idle Finance
Apache-licensed with net APY and named audits
Pendle
Yield tokenisation with a flat 5% fee
Aura Finance
MIT-licensed with a published fee ceiling
Origin (OUSD)
Rebasing yield stablecoin, MIT and net APY
Beefy
Eight named auditors, no licence file
Convex Finance
MIT-licensed with fees published to the basis point
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Yearn — yVaults overview (fees and custody) — checked
- 2.Yearn — yearn-vaults LICENSE (AGPL-3.0) — checked
- 3.Yearn — security and audits — checked
Frequently asked questions
What fees does Yearn charge?
Factory-deployed vaults charge a 10% performance fee; single-asset vaults generally have no management fee. The structure is now dynamic per vault.
Is Yearn open source?
Yes. The yearn-vaults repository carries the AGPL-3.0 licence.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.