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Sportmonks vs Football Charts (2026)
Short answer: Sportmonks scores clearly higher overall (69 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 Sportmonks if you…
Sports data API
Best for: Football apps and betting models that need many leagues, lineups, xG and stats on a self-serve monthly plan with a free tier and trial.
- ✓ need Cricket, Formula 1
- ✓ need live / in-play data
- ✓ need commercial use allowed in the public terms
- ✓ value a large open-source ecosystem of wrappers and examples
- ✓ care most about what developers report in practice
Not ideal for: Projects that need US sports or the full league list on a small budget; leagues per plan are capped and history is on Enterprise only.
What developers say
Widely used paid football data API for side projects, dashboards and betting models, with many wrappers and GitHub repos. Users like the stats depth and reasonable price versus Opta or Sportradar, but call it pricey for hobby use, say premium odds lack player props, and report unreliable live data and sales or custom-plan frustrations.
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.
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
| Sportmonks | Football Charts | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 69/100 (#4) | 49/100 (#59) |
| Popularity | 76 | 20 |
| Community & reliability | 49 | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 100 | 100 |
| Developer experience | 51 | 48 |
| Type | Sports data API | Free / open data |
| Starting price | from €29/mo | from €9/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | Not stated |
| Sports | Football (soccer), Cricket, Formula 1 | Football (soccer) |
| Data | Fixtures, Historical data, Lineups, News, Odds, Player stats, Predictions, Live scores, Standings, Team stats, Widgets, xG | Fixtures, Historical data, Odds, Predictions, Results, Standings, Team stats |
| Delivery | Polling only (REST) | Polling only (REST) |
| Protocols | REST | REST |
| Live / in-play | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Commercial use | Commercial: Allowed | Commercial: Paid plans only |
| Betting products | Betting: not disclosed | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 40 | 1 |
| GitHub repos | 207 | 14 |
| Community tone | Mixed | Too little discussion |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is Sportmonks or Football Charts better?
- Sportmonks scores clearly higher overall (69 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, Sportmonks or Football Charts?
- Sportmonks: from €29/mo. Football Charts: from €9/mo. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do Sportmonks and Football Charts have a free tier?
- Sportmonks: yes. Football Charts: yes.