API-Sports / API-Football vs Lumify (2026)
Short answer: API-Sports / API-Football scores clearly higher overall (70 vs 54). Lumify is the better pick for developers and AI-agent builders who want odds, betting splits and scores for US sports and soccer on credit-based billing, with a free credit allotment and a trial key.
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.
- ✓ need Australian football, Formula 1, Handball
- ✓ need live / in-play data
- ✓ 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 Lumify if you…
Odds API
Best for: Developers and AI-agent builders who want odds, betting splits and scores for US sports and soccer on credit-based billing, with a free credit allotment and a trial key.
- ✓ need Tennis
Not ideal for: Anyone planning to resell the data, build bulk datasets or train models on it, all of which the terms ban.
What developers say
Newly launched sports intelligence API with an MCP server, aimed at AI agents (odds, betting splits, bet analysis). All material found is the vendor's own Show HN post and catalog submissions; no independent user opinions on pricing, quality or reliability exist yet.
Side by side
| API-Sports / API-Football | Lumify | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 70/100 (#3) | 54/100 (#33) |
| Popularity | 79 | 19 |
| Community & reliability | 49 | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 100 | 100 |
| Developer experience | 53 | 68 |
| Type | Sports data API | Odds API |
| Starting price | from $19/mo | from $5 /usage |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not stated | Demo access |
| Sports | Football (soccer), Australian football, Baseball, Basketball, Formula 1, Handball, Ice hockey, MMA, American football, College sports, Rugby, Volleyball | American football, College sports, Basketball, Ice hockey, Baseball, Football (soccer), Tennis |
| Data | Fixtures, Injuries, Lineups, Odds, Player stats, Predictions, Live scores, Standings, Team stats | Fixtures, Odds, Player props, Predictions, Live scores, Team stats |
| Delivery | Polling only (REST) | Streaming (SSE) |
| Protocols | REST | REST, SSE |
| Live / in-play | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Commercial use | Commercial: Allowed | Commercial: Allowed |
| Betting products | Betting: Licence required | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 60 | 1 |
| GitHub repos | 1.6k | 12 |
| 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 Lumify better?
- API-Sports / API-Football scores clearly higher overall (70 vs 54). Lumify is the better pick for developers and AI-agent builders who want odds, betting splits and scores for US sports and soccer on credit-based billing, with a free credit allotment and a trial key.
- Which is cheaper, API-Sports / API-Football or Lumify?
- API-Sports / API-Football: from $19/mo. Lumify: from $5 /usage. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do API-Sports / API-Football and Lumify have a free tier?
- API-Sports / API-Football: yes. Lumify: yes.