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OpenDota vs Riot Games API (2026)
Short answer: The two score about the same (56 vs 56). Riot Games API is the better pick for League of Legends tools that need player, ranked and match history data from the official Riot API.
From public data checked . How we know
Choose OpenDota if you…
Esports data
- ✓ care most about what developers report in practice
What developers say
Open-source Dota 2 data API widely used in hobby apps, ML projects and Stack Overflow questions. Praised as an excellent, flexible resource with parsed match data and estimated MMR. Free use is rate limited (about 60 requests per minute), and users report 429 errors, occasional unresponsiveness and trouble obtaining a premium key.
Choose Riot Games API if you…
Esports data
Best for: League of Legends tools that need player, ranked and match history data from the official Riot API.
- ✓ value a large open-source ecosystem of wrappers and examples
Not ideal for: Betting or esports tournament feeds, and other games: this is League of Legends game data only.
What developers say
Official Riot API for League of Legends, TFT and Legends of Runeterra data, with free dev keys. Mentions are mostly old announcements: launch, an early scraping ban pushing developers to the API, match-history deadlines, and API challenges. Libraries such as Cassiopeia show lasting use, but there is little recent user opinion on limits or quality.
Side by side
| OpenDota | Riot Games API | |
|---|---|---|
| SportDex Score | 56/100 (#29) | 56/100 (#30) |
| Popularity | 38 | 51 |
| Community & reliability | 76 | Not enough data |
| Transparency | 50 | 65 |
| Developer experience | 67 | 54 |
| Type | Esports data | Esports data |
| Starting price | Free tier | Free tier |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| Sports | Esports | Esports |
| Data | Historical data, Player stats, Results, Team stats | Historical data, Player stats, Results, Team stats |
| Delivery | Polling only (REST) | Polling only (REST) |
| Protocols | REST | REST |
| Live / in-play | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Commercial use | Commercial: not disclosed | Commercial: not disclosed |
| Betting products | Betting: not disclosed | Betting: not disclosed |
| Documentation | Docs | Docs |
| Developer discussions | 16 | 70 |
| GitHub repos | 500 | 2.9k |
| Community tone | Mostly positive | Too little discussion |
Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing.
Quick answers
- Is OpenDota or Riot Games API better?
- The two score about the same (56 vs 56). Riot Games API is the better pick for League of Legends tools that need player, ranked and match history data from the official Riot API.
- Which is cheaper, OpenDota or Riot Games API?
- OpenDota: Free tier. Riot Games API: Free tier. Entry plans differ in limits and coverage, so compare what each plan includes.
- Do OpenDota and Riot Games API have a free tier?
- OpenDota: yes. Riot Games API: yes.