openfootball vs CollegeBasketballData.com (2026)
Short answer: The two score about the same (53 vs 51). CollegeBasketballData.com is the better pick for College basketball analysts and developers who want a free personal API key, CSV exports and historical data, with commercial use allowed.
From public data checked . How we know
Choose openfootball if you…
Free / open data
Best for: Football projects that want public-domain fixtures and results as plain-text or JSON files with no key and no usage limits.
- ✓ need Football (soccer)
- ✓ care most about what developers report in practice
Not ideal for: Apps needing live scores, detailed player stats or a hosted API; data is fetched from GitHub repositories and is not live.
What developers say
Free public-domain (CC0) football fixtures and results published as plain text and JSON files on GitHub, with no key needed. Developers use it for World Cup apps, prediction models and tutorials. Limits: static files rather than a live API, and Hacker News commenters debated whether its plain-text format is easy to parse.
Choose CollegeBasketballData.com if you…
Free / open data
Best for: College basketball analysts and developers who want a free personal API key, CSV exports and historical data, with commercial use allowed.
- ✓ need Basketball, College sports
- ✓ value a large open-source ecosystem of wrappers and examples
Not ideal for: Projects needing odds, live scores or sports other than college basketball and football; redistribution of the data is not allowed.
What developers say
College basketball API from the CFBD team with a free personal key and official Python and R clients. A community Node wrapper exists, and one betting-model video holds it up as a clean, cheap alternative to maintaining scrapers. Little other independent discussion, so detailed quality or limit feedback is missing.
Side by side
| openfootball | CollegeBasketballData.com | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 53/100 (#41) | 51/100 (#45) |
| Popularity | 36 | 21 |
| Community & reliability | 52 | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 90 | 90 |
| Developer experience | 48 | 64 |
| Type | Free / open data | Free / open data |
| Starting price | Free tier | from $1/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| Sports | Football (soccer) | Basketball, College sports |
| Data | Fixtures, Historical data, Results, Standings | Fixtures, Historical data, Player stats, Results, Standings, Team stats |
| Delivery | Not disclosed | Polling only (REST) |
| Protocols | Not disclosed | REST, CSV download |
| Live / in-play | No | Not disclosed |
| Commercial use | Commercial: Allowed | Commercial: Allowed |
| Betting products | Betting: not disclosed | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 13 | 1 |
| GitHub repos | 17 | 42 |
| Community tone | Neutral | Too little discussion |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is openfootball or CollegeBasketballData.com better?
- The two score about the same (53 vs 51). CollegeBasketballData.com is the better pick for College basketball analysts and developers who want a free personal API key, CSV exports and historical data, with commercial use allowed.
- Which is cheaper, openfootball or CollegeBasketballData.com?
- openfootball: Free tier. CollegeBasketballData.com: from $1/mo. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do openfootball and CollegeBasketballData.com have a free tier?
- openfootball: yes. CollegeBasketballData.com: yes.