What is awesome_apis?

tonnyl/awesome_apis — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 12,952Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((awesome_apis))
    What it does
      API discovery
      Category browsing
      Link collection
    Categories
      Payments
      Maps and places
      Social networks
      AI and vision
    Audience
      App developers
      Vibe coders
      PMs and founders
    Format
      Curated links
      Short descriptions
      Community contributions

mindmap root((awesome_apis)) What it does API discovery Category browsing Link collection Categories Payments Maps and places Social networks AI and vision Audience App developers Vibe coders PMs and founders Format Curated links Short descriptions Community contributions

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Browse 35+ categories to find a third-party API that matches a feature you want to add to your app.

USE CASE 2

Discover specialized APIs for maps, payments, translation, IoT, or machine learning without searching across the web.

USE CASE 3

Find official documentation links for well-known services like Stripe, YouTube, and Twitter alongside smaller niche alternatives.

How does it compare?

	tonnyl/awesome_apis	capistrano/capistrano	majodev/google-webfonts-helper
Stars	12,952	12,952	12,952
Language	—	Ruby	TypeScript
Setup difficulty	easy	moderate	easy
Complexity	1/5	3/5	1/5
Audience	developer	ops devops	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

So what is it?

Awesome APIs is a curated directory of third-party APIs for developers, organized into categories. Each entry is a link to the official API documentation or a GitHub repository for that service, accompanied by a short description of what it provides. There are no code tutorials or installation steps here. The purpose is to help developers discover existing services they can connect to when building applications, without needing to search across the web for them. The categories cover a wide range of domains: anime databases, blogging platforms, books, business tools, calendar services, car sharing, cloud infrastructure, cloud storage, delivery tracking, design tools, developer utilities, email, fitness and wearables, food, foreign exchange rates, games, IoT (Internet of Things), machine learning, maps, messaging platforms, music, news and information, notes, payment processing, photography, places and local data, social networks, shopping, team collaboration, text analysis, to-do services, tourism, translation, video, voice analysis, vision and image analysis, and weather. The table of contents lists over 35 distinct categories. The README is available in English and Chinese. The project follows the conventions of the "awesome" list format, a well-established GitHub tradition for community-maintained reference collections. Contributions are accepted via pull requests on GitHub. Some entries across the categories include well-known services such as Google Blogger, WordPress, Medium, Airtable, Buffer, Stripe, YouTube, and Twitter alongside smaller specialized services. Each entry is described in a sentence or two based on the API's own documentation. The full README is longer than what was shown.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I'm building a travel app that needs weather data, map display, and currency conversion. List the top API options for each from the Awesome APIs directory and explain the key differences.

Prompt 2

I want to add a translation feature to my app on a small budget. Which translation APIs does Awesome APIs list, and which ones offer a free tier?

Prompt 3

I'm building a meal planning app and need a free food or recipe API. What options does the Awesome APIs list cover, and how do they compare?

Prompt 4

I need a payment processing API for my e-commerce side project. Which payment APIs are listed in Awesome APIs and what should I consider when choosing one?

Frequently asked questions