13 Free and Powerful Data APIs for Your Applications

You loved my article in which I gave you a list of creative ideas to build as a junior developer, but what could be better than integrating data from the world around us to create even more impressive projects?

That's what I'm offering you today with a list of APIs that provide free access (even if some have limitations) to data on a wide variety of topics.

From nature to technology and even space, discover all these APIs that you can easily integrate into your websites and applications!

#1 - Open Food Fact

Thanks to this API, find all the information about the food you buy, such as ingredients, packaging, additives, retailers, etc.

This API is very powerful because the collected data is data legally provided by manufacturers under French law, and it is notably used by very popular applications like Yuka.

Link to the API: https://fr.openfoodfacts.org/data

#2 - Open Sky

With the OpenSky-Network API, find all the real-time information about planes currently in the sky anywhere on the planet. The departure and arrival airport, the exact position, all the important information is available.

Link to the API: https://openskynetwork.github.io/opensky-api/rest.html

Bonus: Also check out the Skyscanner API, which allows you to search for (and even book) upcoming flights.

#3 - NASA

Find photos of the Earth taken by NASA satellites, photos taken by rovers, but also hundreds of other more complex data related to astronomical research and aerospace on this API.

Link to the API: https://api.nasa.gov/

Bonus: If you're looking for data about our solar system, you can also try the API https://api.le-systeme-solaire.net/en/

#4 - Trefle.io

Trefle is simply a global and free API on botanical knowledge. Common name, scientific name, family, year of discovery, photos of a million plants, trees and flowers indexed in the database!

Link to the API: https://trefle.io/

#5 - OpenWeather Map

Do we need to say more? An API through which you can find all the weather information for a particular geographic area!

Be careful though, the API is subject to a quota in free mode.

Link to the API: https://openweathermap.org/api

#6 - Serp API

Probably one of the most powerful APIs because it's actually an API aggregator that will give you access to more than 30 different APIs, specialized in search engines.

You want to retrieve the list of links returned by Google for the search "JavaScript"? It's possible! And on Bing? Baidu? All of this is possible, with a single API!

You get 100 API calls per month with the free plan

Link to the API: https://serpapi.com/search-api

#7 - OpenData France

Not really an API, this site is a collection of all national open data aggregated by various public organizations.

You'll find very specific data for certain cities, such as the exact position of every tree in the city, information on each neighborhood, etc.

Link to the API: data.gouv.fr

#8 - TheMovieDB

The equivalent of the IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) site, but as a free API version that's even more comprehensive. Find absolutely all the information about any referenced movie.

Link to the API: https://www.themoviedb.org/documentation/api

#9 - RandomUser

Unlike other APIs, this one doesn't reference real-life data, but allows you to display randomly generated data. Specifically, with each call, you can get a new fictional user profile, with all personal information as well as a profile picture.

This is notably the API I used to present my "John Doe" project, a minimalist personal website template for developers.

Link to the API: https://randomuser.me/

#10 - RestCountries

Find a large amount of data about one or more countries, such as currency, list of languages, borders, etc.

Link to the API: https://restcountries.eu/

#11 - CountryFlags

Access directly the list of all the flags of the countries of the world, in two different themes (flat and shiny) to integrate into your applications with a simple link!

Link to the API: https://www.countryflags.io/

#12 - Giphy

Giphy is one of the most popular platforms bringing together GIFs and stickers (stickers are GIFs on a transparent background) with which to flood the web.

Thanks to the API (and even the various SDKs), you can offer your users a selection of GIFs related to a topic, make a random choice, etc.

Link to the API: https://api.giphy.com

#13 - Pappers

Pappers is a site that gathers a maximum amount of public data on French companies. It collects information from INSEE, INPI and BODACC, compiling it and making it available through an API synchronized on a daily basis.

Note that the API is paid, but with a free plan of 100 company records/month or 1000 search results/month, which allows you to do a lot of interesting things!

Link to the API: https://www.pappers.fr/api

I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you know of other interesting APIs, share them in the comments!