In a desperate need of an API or just really want to dive deeper into the world of Application Programming Interfaces? Welcome aboard!
I have selected some of the best APIs out there, whether you are in a need of a small niche solution or a multi-service solution with real-live use cases based on my personal experience. No bullshit and fake ads, only real stuff that need to know.
4.6
/5
20 API calls
40$/mo
“An API is a term that means Application Programming Interface”. Yeah, fuck that. Like who cares about what is the definition of anything? So, let me explain it to you in simpler terms that actually make sense. API is kind of like your personal butler when it comes to using a service. Instead of downloading a database with a million of records or looking some shit up in real-time all over the web you ask it a question in a structured manner(JSON over the POST request or whatever) and it gives you a structured answer.
API is a thing that whole World Wide Web is build around. Are you running a, let’s say, business, part of which must have a car value estimator? Noone is going to enter their car details and then wait 2-4 business days until a tradeperson gets back to them, no sir. So you need an API which you feed said car details and then the value gets brought to you within seconds and you send it back to user. When I was creating my car marketplace I actually was in a desperate need of such API and I had to turn the whole internet upside down only to find one that is not just focusing on North-America but actually is usable in the rest of the world.
The back-end behind APIs does not really concern anyone unless you are one developing it. In my career I have developed some APIs – and the thing I loved about them the most is how structured they are. Unlike images, videos or even plain text processing pieces of code, Application Programming Interfaces(as a rule) both expect and return JSON – JavaScript Object Notations. That means that in case data that was sent to you was not structured in a way the program expected it you can simply go fuck yourself(throw an error) instead of building some complicated error handling method.
Obviously, when it comes to more mass-produced or mass-used endpoint, things get exceptionally complicated – you have to have different users with different permissions, usage limits and sometimes even different endpoints, error handling should be precise and to the point at all times. Do we care about that? Heeeeel nah, we be using them only for ourselves(or inside the small company of a couple of users, in my case) so we can skip all the hard and boring things and just fucking hardcode the keys and forget the error handling.
Next part – the actual handling – what an API does on the backend is strictly between its developer and VS Code. It may be a simple addition or subtraction, database lookup or some complex AI-megamind-shit. There are no rules as to what can and what cannot happen in this stage apart from some basic principles – KISS, DRY and generic security concern.
In no way I am the right person to actually teach you how to write the code for APIs – and if you came to my site looking for it then you did something wrong, you were probably looking for stackoverflow or W3 schools. I am a good person to talk about use cases tho!
Some people use them even to calculate integers(even simple addition and subtraction). Thas is a bad case of Application Programming Interface usage. In my opinion, you should opt in for API usage only if the the thing that you want to do is completely undoable on your side. Great example is AI API, there is no way in hell that you will download the source code for ChatGPT and run it on your server, so just skip the thinking and go buy yourself some tokens.
Well, cha ching. Let’s talk moneeeeey. Most popular API tools(usually the ones that have multiple endpoints in one subscription) use token system – you buy, let’s say, 10000 tokens and calls to basic endpoints cost 1 token/call. If you need a flagship blow-your-mind-away endpoint call might be worth up to 10x the price. Kind of like some of the best webcam sites, right guys? There actually are a couple of good API “composer” tools but I have not written reviews for them yet, when I will I will leave a link here.
If we are talkign about “mono API”, the tool that just is itself, pricing is much more straightforward – you buy 10000 calls and you can call it 10000 times. SearchAPI is one of them. In case you need something specific it is a great thing but sometimes it makes more sense to get a bundle deal and not pay for 10 subscriptions.
