Football-Data API vs TheSportsDB API

Two free Sports & Fitness APIs compared on access, reliability and developer ratings, using data from our daily health checks.

The verdict

	Football-Data API	TheSportsDB API
What it does	Football data with matches info, players, teams, and competitions.	Crowd-Sourced Sports Data and Artwork.
Provider	football-data.org	TheSportsDB.com
API key	X-Mashape-Key	Required
HTTPS	Yes	Yes
CORS (browser calls)	Unknown	Yes
Status today	Online · 1051 ms	Online · 1570 ms
Uptime (30 days)	Up	Up
Developer rating	Not rated yet	Not rated yet
Price	Free / free tier	Free / free tier

Football data with matches info, players, teams, and competitions.

A restful API for football data

Strengths

Crowd-Sourced Sports Data and Artwork.

Free Sports API JSON NFL Soccer Premier League MLB NHL NBA Rugby Golf

Strengths

Prototyping or a tutorial? Pick the one that needs no API key (neither does, so compare their free tiers).
Calling from a web page? You need CORS. Otherwise route requests through your own server or a serverless function.
Going to production? Favour HTTPS, a strong uptime record and a provider with clear rate limits and terms. Check each API's docs before you commit.
Still unsure? Both are free to try: send one request to each and compare the data you get back.

Both require authentication (X-Mashape-Key and apiKey).

TheSportsDB API supports CORS, so front-end JavaScript can call it directly. Call the other from a server.