Aggregation as the default
On Solana, quoting a single pool is the wrong question: Jupiter routes across effectively every venue on the chain, so the depth behind a quote is the chain's aggregate rather than one pool's reserves. It has done this since 2021 with no exploit of the router on record, and its price advantage over trading directly against a single AMM is consistent enough that most Solana front ends embed it rather than compete with it.
Cost is barely a consideration
There is no protocol fee on standard swaps; you pay Solana base fees plus a priority fee, which puts a trade orders of magnitude below Ethereum mainnet. That changes behaviour — rebalancing and dollar-cost averaging are economic here in a way they are not on EVM mainnet — and the built-in limit orders and DCA tooling exist because of it.
The surface keeps growing
Perpetuals, a launchpad and a governance token now sit alongside the aggregator. Each addition is defensible on its own and each widens what a user is implicitly trusting: the router programs are upgradeable by the team and quote computation runs off-chain. Using Jupiter for swaps is a narrow, well-tested exposure; using the whole suite is a broader one.
Where it fits in a Solana workflow
Use it as the execution layer for everything and go direct to a pool only when you are providing liquidity. Its limit orders and recurring buys are the closest thing on-chain to the order types an exchange account gives you, and they cost a fraction of what the same discipline costs on EVM mainnet.