vs
CollegeFootballData.com vs Entity Sport (2026)
Short answer: CollegeFootballData.com scores slightly higher (57 vs 51). Entity Sport is the better pick for cricket apps and fantasy or exchange products that need ball-by-ball data, with priced plans also available for football, tennis and US leagues.
From public data checked . How we know
Choose CollegeFootballData.com if you…
Free / open data
Best for: College football analysts, hobbyists and apps that need games, play-by-play, recruiting and betting-line history through a free key.
- ✓ want to start on a free tier
- ✓ need College sports
- ✓ need commercial use allowed in the public terms
- ✓ value a large open-source ecosystem of wrappers and examples
Not ideal for: Projects that need other leagues, redistribution of the data, or live data on the free tier; higher tiers run through Patreon.
What developers say
Free college football API behind a Python wrapper and the cfbfastR R package, shown in public-API lists, tutorials and BI-tool walkthroughs. Used for scores, betting lines and play-by-play. One user notes plays lack formation data. Little direct opinion beyond that, so assessment is mostly adoption-based.
Choose Entity Sport if you…
Sports data API
Best for: Cricket apps and fantasy or exchange products that need ball-by-ball data, with priced plans also available for football, tennis and US leagues.
- ✓ need Cricket, Football (soccer), Baseball
- ✓ need live / in-play data
- ✓ want WebSocket push instead of polling
Not ideal for: Teams wanting one flat price across sports or an open free tier; plans are priced per sport and licensed to one domain and one app.
What developers say
Cricket-first provider used in a number of hobby cricket and IPL score sites, with a community SDK on GitHub. The one user opinion says it covers part of what a developer wanted for deep cricket stats but not all. Other hits are vendor-style posts; nothing on pricing, reliability or support.
Side by side
| CollegeFootballData.com | Entity Sport | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 57/100 (#26) | 51/100 (#44) |
| Popularity | 46 | 27 |
| Community & reliability | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 65 | 100 |
| Developer experience | 68 | 43 |
| Type | Free / open data | Sports data API |
| Starting price | Free tier | from $150/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Free trial | Not stated | Demo access |
| Sports | College sports, American football, Basketball | Cricket, Football (soccer), Basketball, Baseball, American football, Ice hockey, Tennis |
| Data | Fixtures, Historical data, Odds, Play-by-play, Player stats, Results, Team stats | Fantasy, Fixtures, Odds, Play-by-play, Player stats, Results, Live scores, Team stats |
| Delivery | Polling only (REST) | Streaming (WebSocket) |
| Protocols | REST, GraphQL | REST, WebSocket |
| Live / in-play | Not disclosed | Yes |
| Commercial use | Commercial: Allowed | Commercial: Paid plans only |
| Betting products | Betting: not disclosed | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 2 | 3 |
| GitHub repos | 1.1k | 14 |
| Community tone | Neutral | Too little discussion |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is CollegeFootballData.com or Entity Sport better?
- CollegeFootballData.com scores slightly higher (57 vs 51). Entity Sport is the better pick for cricket apps and fantasy or exchange products that need ball-by-ball data, with priced plans also available for football, tennis and US leagues.
- Which is cheaper, CollegeFootballData.com or Entity Sport?
- CollegeFootballData.com: Free tier. Entity Sport: from $150/mo. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do CollegeFootballData.com and Entity Sport have a free tier?
- CollegeFootballData.com: yes. Entity Sport: not disclosed.