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Retrosheet vs Football Charts (2026)
Short answer: Retrosheet scores slightly higher (55 vs 49). Football Charts is the better pick for football hobby and research projects needing daily results, tables, model probabilities and season projections for 98 leagues, with a free key and cheap paid tiers.
From public data checked . How we know
Choose Retrosheet if you…
Free / open data
Best for: Baseball researchers and hobbyists who want free bulk MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable CSV files.
- ✓ need Baseball
- ✓ value a large open-source ecosystem of wrappers and examples
- ✓ care most about what developers report in practice
Not ideal for: Apps that need a live API or current-day data; Retrosheet offers bulk file downloads only, with a copyright notice on the data.
What developers say
Volunteer-run archive of MLB play-by-play, game logs and schedules as downloadable files, not a hosted API. Recommended on HN and betting forums for model building and ETL practice, and widely used by tools such as Chadwick and boxball Docker images. Free and deep history back to 1914; you must parse and host it yourself.
Choose Football Charts if you…
Free / open data
Best for: Football hobby and research projects needing daily results, tables, model probabilities and season projections for 98 leagues, with a free key and cheap paid tiers.
- ✓ need Football (soccer)
Not ideal for: Live-score apps; data refreshes daily around 06:00 UTC. Not for redistribution, and free and Personal keys are personal use only.
What developers say
Small football results and projections API with a free keyless tier, MCP server and client libraries covering lower leagues. Every mention found comes from its own maker (a self-disclosed Reddit post, integration requests, companion repos). No independent user feedback on quality, limits or pricing exists yet.
Side by side
| Retrosheet | Football Charts | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 55/100 (#31) | 49/100 (#59) |
| Popularity | 36 | 20 |
| Community & reliability | 69 | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 75 | 100 |
| Developer experience | 51 | 48 |
| Type | Free / open data | Free / open data |
| Starting price | Free tier | from €9/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| Sports | Baseball | Football (soccer) |
| Data | Fixtures, Historical data, Play-by-play, Results, Team stats | Fixtures, Historical data, Odds, Predictions, Results, Standings, Team stats |
| Delivery | CSV download | Polling only (REST) |
| Protocols | CSV download | REST |
| Live / in-play | No | Not disclosed |
| Commercial use | Commercial: not disclosed | Commercial: Paid plans only |
| Betting products | Betting: not disclosed | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 6 | 1 |
| GitHub repos | 347 | 14 |
| Community tone | Mostly positive | Too little discussion |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is Retrosheet or Football Charts better?
- Retrosheet scores slightly higher (55 vs 49). Football Charts is the better pick for football hobby and research projects needing daily results, tables, model probabilities and season projections for 98 leagues, with a free key and cheap paid tiers.
- Which is cheaper, Retrosheet or Football Charts?
- Retrosheet: Free tier. Football Charts: from €9/mo. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do Retrosheet and Football Charts have a free tier?
- Retrosheet: yes. Football Charts: yes.