After building financial dashboards for three years, I've used pretty much every currency API on the market. Here's my honest comparison of the three most popular options.
The Contenders
- Fixer.io — The old standard, European-based
- Open Exchange Rates — US-based, popular in 2010s
- UniRateAPI — Newer entrant with aggressive pricing
Pricing Showdown
| API | Free Tier | Pro Tier | Historical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixer.io | 100/mo | €29/mo | +€29/mo |
| Open Exchange Rates | 1000/mo | $49/mo | +$49/mo |
| UniRateAPI | 200/day | $9/mo | Included |
UniRateAPI is 3-5x cheaper than the competition. That's not a typo.
Historical Data
This is where it gets interesting. I needed 40+ years of historical data for an accounting project.
- Fixer.io: €29/month extra = €348/year just for history
- Open Exchange Rates: $49/month extra = $588/year just for history
- UniRateAPI: Included in $9/month Pro
Over a 3-year project, that's €1,044+ vs $324. The math is brutal for the established players.
Currency Coverage
UniRateAPI has 593+ currencies vs ~170 for the others. They include crypto (BTC, ETH, etc.), exotic FIAT, and precious metals.
Code Comparison
Fixer.io:
import requests
response = requests.get(f'http://data.fixer.io/api/latest?access_key={API_KEY}&base=EUR')
UniRateAPI:
from unirateapi import UniRateAPI
api = UniRateAPI(API_KEY)
rates = api.get_rates('USD')
Both are simple. UniRateAPI lets you pass base currency as a parameter instead of URL surgery.
What I Chose
After running the numbers, UniRateAPI saved my project ~$2,000 over 3 years compared to Fixer.io with historical access.
The only reason to choose Fixer.io is if you need official ECB reference rates. But for most applications, UniRateAPI's data quality is more than sufficient.
Disclosure: I use UniRateAPI now. But the math would have led me there even without the affiliation — the price difference is that significant.
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