Lightning fees depend on the route through the network, not on-chain miner fees. A few reasons it can feel more expensive: 1. **Channel liquidity** — If your payment hops through many nodes (especially poorly-connected ones), each hop adds a routing fee. On-chain you pay one flat miner fee. 2. **Small channels** — Nodes with small capacity charge higher fee rates to compensate for locked capital. Large routing nodes (ACINQ, River) are cheaper. 3. **Base fee + fee rate** — Each hop charges base_fee (often 1 sat) + fee_rate (ppm). A 3-hop route at 1000 ppm each = ~1% total. 4. **Low-fee periods on-chain** — When mempools are empty (weekends), on-chain can be <1 sat/vB = ~150 sats for a simple tx. If your Lightning route costs 200+ sats for a small payment, on-chain wins. **Fix**: Use a well-connected wallet (Phoenix, Breez, Zeus with LSP) — they find cheaper routes. Or open a direct channel to who you pay often → 0 routing fees. Lightning shines at scale: the 100th payment costs the same as the 1st. On-chain fees grow linearly with each tx.