API-Sports / API-Football vs Broadage (2026)
Short answer: API-Sports / API-Football scores clearly higher overall (70 vs 25). Broadage is the better pick for Sites and apps that want league-packaged sports data or plug-in widgets, with a free 30-day API trial before buying.
From public data checked . How we know
Choose API-Sports / API-Football if you…
Sports data API
Best for: Football-first apps that want self-serve REST access with fixtures, live scores, lineups, stats and pre-match odds, starting from a free daily-request plan.
- ✓ want to start on a free tier
- ✓ need Australian football, Formula 1, MMA
- ✓ value a large open-source ecosystem of wrappers and examples
- ✓ care most about what developers report in practice
Not ideal for: Betting, TV or mass-media products that need licensed data; the provider grants no publication licence and leaves rights clearance to you.
What developers say
Very widely used for football side projects, prediction models and live-score apps, praised for broad league coverage, decent docs and low price (about $19/month). Complaints: free plan limited to past seasons and 100 requests/day, inconsistent or missing stats, closing odds gaps, a reported quality drop, and thin non-football depth.
Choose Broadage if you…
Sports data API
Best for: Sites and apps that want league-packaged sports data or plug-in widgets, with a free 30-day API trial before buying.
Not ideal for: Teams wanting published prices or a permanent free tier; paid packages are quoted on request.
What developers say
Real-time multi-sport data API and widgets sold as league packages with a free trial. The only items are a vendor setup video and one unexplained repo, so no independent opinion on pricing, quality or support is available.
Side by side
| API-Sports / API-Football | Broadage | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 70/100 (#3) | 25/100 (#161) |
| Popularity | 79 | 8 |
| Community & reliability | 49 | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 100 | 45 |
| Developer experience | 53 | 36 |
| Type | Sports data API | Sports data API |
| Starting price | from $19/mo | Price not public |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Free trial | Not stated | 30 days |
| Sports | Football (soccer), Australian football, Baseball, Basketball, Formula 1, Handball, Ice hockey, MMA, American football, College sports, Rugby, Volleyball | Football (soccer), Basketball, American football, Baseball, Ice hockey, Volleyball, Handball |
| Data | Fixtures, Injuries, Lineups, Odds, Player stats, Predictions, Live scores, Standings, Team stats | Fixtures, Lineups, Odds, Live scores, Standings, Team stats, Widgets |
| Delivery | Polling only (REST) | Polling only (REST) |
| Protocols | REST | REST |
| Live / in-play | Yes | Yes |
| Commercial use | Commercial: Allowed | Commercial: Allowed |
| Betting products | Betting: Licence required | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Not found |
| Developer discussions | 60 | 0 |
| GitHub repos | 1.6k | 1 |
| Community tone | Mixed | Too little discussion |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is API-Sports / API-Football or Broadage better?
- API-Sports / API-Football scores clearly higher overall (70 vs 25). Broadage is the better pick for Sites and apps that want league-packaged sports data or plug-in widgets, with a free 30-day API trial before buying.
- Which is cheaper, API-Sports / API-Football or Broadage?
- API-Sports / API-Football: from $19/mo. Broadage: Price not public. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do API-Sports / API-Football and Broadage have a free tier?
- API-Sports / API-Football: yes. Broadage: no.