Source: https://ethereum.org/en/staking/pools/
Quotes
Why stake with a pool?
- Low barrier to entry
- Stake today
- Staking tokens
Comparison with other options
Solo staking: Stakers never have to hand over their keys, and they earn full rewards without any middlemen taking a cut.
SaaS: Rewards accumulate to the staker, and usually involve a monthly fee or other stake to use the service. If you’d prefer your own validator keys and are looking to stake at least 32 ETH, using a SaaS provider may be a good option for you.
What to consider
Each pool and the tools or smart contracts they use have been built out by different teams, and each comes with benefits and risks. Pools enable users to swap their ETH for a token representing staked ETH. The token is useful because it allows users to swap any amount of ETH to an equivalent amount of a yield-bearing token that generates a return from the staking rewards applied to the underlying staked ETH (and vice versa) on decentralized exchanges even though the actual ETH stays staked on the consensus layer. This means swaps back and forth from a yield-bearing staked-ETH product and “raw ETH” is quick, easy and not only available in multiples of 32 ETH.
However, these staked-ETH tokens tend to create cartel-like behaviors where a large amount of staked ETH ends up under the control of a few centralized organizations rather than spread across many independent individuals. This creates conditions for censorship or value extraction. The gold standard for staking should always be individuals running validators on their own hardware whenever possible.