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BALLDONTLIE vs Data Golf (2026)
Short answer: BALLDONTLIE scores clearly higher overall (79 vs 49). Data Golf is the better pick for Personal golf analytics and betting-model projects that want Data Golf's predictions, strokes-gained stats and round-level history from 22 tours.
From public data checked . How we know
Choose BALLDONTLIE if you…
Sports data API
Best for: Developers building sports apps, dashboards or AI-assisted projects who want stats, box scores and odds for many leagues from one REST API with a free entry plan.
- ✓ want to start on a free tier
- ✓ need Basketball, American football, Baseball
- ✓ need live / in-play data
- ✓ need commercial use allowed in the public terms
- ✓ build a betting product and need that allowed in the public terms
Not ideal for: Companies that want to offer a competing sports-data API or feed built on its data, which the terms forbid.
What developers say
Long-popular free NBA stats API, now covering NBA, NFL, MLB and EPL with a free tier and paid keys. Beginners use it for tutorials, React projects and portfolio apps; betting and fantasy builders pair it with odds feeds. Recommended as an alternative to nba_api and API-Sports. Little discussion of reliability or pricing.
Choose Data Golf if you…
Sports data API
Best for: Personal golf analytics and betting-model projects that want Data Golf's predictions, strokes-gained stats and round-level history from 22 tours.
Not ideal for: Commercial products or anything that redistributes the data; the terms limit use to personal, non-commercial purposes.
What developers say
Golf analytics API used as the data backbone for fantasy golf apps, betting trackers and prediction models, with several unofficial client libraries and about thirty repos. Developers use it for ratings, odds and fallback data; its historical DFS archive is noted as a rare paid dataset. Little direct complaint.
Side by side
| BALLDONTLIE | Data Golf | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 79/100 (#2) | 49/100 (#54) |
| Popularity | 74 | 53 |
| Community & reliability | 81 | 72 |
| Transparency | 100 | 40 |
| Developer experience | 62 | 24 |
| Type | Sports data API | Sports data API |
| Starting price | from $9.99/mo | Price not public |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Free trial | 2 days | Not stated |
| Sports | Basketball, American football, Baseball, Ice hockey, Football (soccer), Tennis, Golf, Formula 1, MMA, Esports | Golf |
| Data | Historical data, Odds, Play-by-play, Player props, Player stats, Live scores, Team stats | Fantasy, Historical data, Odds, Player stats, Predictions, Team stats |
| Delivery | Webhooks + polling | Polling only (REST) |
| Protocols | REST, Webhooks | REST |
| Live / in-play | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Commercial use | Commercial: Allowed | Commercial: Not allowed |
| Betting products | Betting: Allowed | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 15 | 3 |
| GitHub repos | 902 | 44 |
| Community tone | Mostly positive | Mostly positive |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is BALLDONTLIE or Data Golf better?
- BALLDONTLIE scores clearly higher overall (79 vs 49). Data Golf is the better pick for Personal golf analytics and betting-model projects that want Data Golf's predictions, strokes-gained stats and round-level history from 22 tours.
- Which is cheaper, BALLDONTLIE or Data Golf?
- BALLDONTLIE: from $9.99/mo. Data Golf: Price not public. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do BALLDONTLIE and Data Golf have a free tier?
- BALLDONTLIE: yes. Data Golf: no.