Editorial policy

Our standard

Every factual claim on this site should be traceable to something we measured or to a primary source we link. Where we have not verified something, we say so rather than implying certainty we do not have.

How listings are built

1. Aggregate. Entries are collected from established public lists, named on the about page.
2. Normalise. Authentication values, HTTPS flags and CORS values arrive in inconsistent formats. We map them to a single vocabulary and strip tracking parameters from URLs.
3. Deduplicate. The same API often appears on several lists under slightly different URLs. We merge on a canonical form of the documentation URL.
4. Verify. We send our own requests, recording status, latency, redirects and CORS headers.
5. Publish. Results go on the listing with the date they were measured.

How we test

Checks use a real browser-style request with an identifying User-Agent that names this site. We try HEAD first and fall back to GET only when a server rejects it, which keeps load on providers to a minimum. Requests are rate-limited and time out after ten seconds.

A listing is marked as failing when it does not respond successfully to our checks. That is a statement about what we observed, not a judgement about the provider. Transient outages happen, which is why the measurement date is always shown and why we re-check on a schedule.

How things are ranked

Ordering is computed, not sold. Where we sort by quality we favour listings that respond reliably, need no API key, support CORS and run over HTTPS, because those are the properties that determine whether someone can actually use an API today. No provider can pay for placement, and no ranking factor is influenced by advertising.

Articles

Anything published in our articles section must meet all of the following:

• Written by a named author with a visible byline and biography
• Based on APIs we have actually called, with the test date stated
• Carrying at least one original measurement, diagram or screenshot
• Linking to primary sources rather than to other summaries
• Showing both a published date and a last-updated date

We use software tooling in our research and drafting, as most publishers now do. Every article is reviewed and fact-checked by a person before publication, and the named author is accountable for it. We do not publish anything we have not verified.

Corrections

If we get something wrong we fix it, and if the correction is material we note it at the foot of the page with the date. We do not quietly rewrite history. Report an error through the contact page and we will respond.

Advertising and independence

GetFreeAPIs is funded by advertising. Advertisers have no input into which APIs are listed, how they are described, how they rank, or what our checks report. Any commercial relationship that could reasonably be seen to affect coverage will be disclosed on the page where it applies. See the disclaimer for details.

Removal requests

If you operate an API listed here and would like the listing amended or removed, contact us and we will action reasonable requests. We link to public documentation and describe publicly advertised functionality, but we would rather work with providers than against them.