weather api - OpenWeatherMap API vs Wunderground API?

Question

I don't see a lot of information available comparing the weather APIs that are available. What is the difference between OpenWeatherMap and Wunderground. I see that the paid version of Wunderground has some higher tiers with more features, but OpenWeatherMap's free tier allows a huge number of uses.

Are there implementation tradeoffs that aren't obvious?

Answer 1

Here's a comparison of different weather forecast APIs:

7 Weather Forecast API for Developing Apps

It contains a comparison of the following:

1. Open Weather Map
2. AccuWeather
3. The Weather Channel
4. Dark Sky
5. APIXU Weather API
6. World Weather Online
7. Weatherbit.io

Here's the article text:

1. Open Weather Map

The OpenWeatherMap service provides free weather data and forecast API suitable for any cartographic services like web and smartphones applications.

Ideology is inspired by OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia that make information free and available for everybody.

OpenWeatherMap provides wide range of weather data such as map with current weather, week forecast, precipitation, wind, clouds, data from weather Stations and many others. Weather data is received from global Meteorological broadcast services and more than 40 000 weather stations.

You can receive any weather data for your application by using JSON / XML API

Price: Free (See pricing details)

API: http://www.openweathermap.com/API

2. AccuWeather

AccuWeather provides premium weather forecasting services worldwide. The AccuWeather API provides subscribers access to location based weather data via a simple RESTful web interface. Data is available in more than 40 languages and dialects. Data responses are returned in JSON and JSONP. SSL encryption is also available for secure communication.

Access to the AccuWeather API requires an API key. Contact [email protected] to receive an API key.

Update: AccuWeather now offers a new API Developer Portal for easier access of the API: https://developer.accuweather.com/

Price: Premium (Contact [email protected])

API: http://api.accuweather.com/

3. The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel (weather.com) is an American satellite television channel providing weather forecast for more than 30 years. The Weather Channel and Weather Underground, Inc partnered to provide weather API with global coverage in 80 languages.

You can receive weather data for your application in JSON or XML. GIF, PNG or SWF format is also offered.

Price: Premium – Free 500 API calls per day for developing. (See pricing details)

API: http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/?ref=twc

4. Dark Sky

The Dark Sky Company specializes in weather forecasting and visualization and they provide a developer friendly global weather forecast API with up to 1000 API calls per day for free.

The API uses a simple, JSON interface. Community-provided API wrappers enable you to integrate with just a couple lines of code.

You can use the API in both commercial and non-commercial applications. A credit with a “Powered by Dark Sky” badge is required wherever you display data from the API.

Price: Free for 1000 API calls daily, $1 per 10,000 API calls after that.

API: https://darksky.net/dev/

5. APIXU Weather API

APIXU provides a Weather API service in JSON and XML format. Their free plan has a limit of 5000 API calls per month.

They offer current weather information as well as 10 day forecast along with 30 days weather history in the free plan.

API libraries are available in all major programming languages such as C#, PHP, JAVA, Ruby, Python and JavaScript.

Price: Free for 5000 API calls monthly. Up-gradable (See Pricing)

API: https://www.apixu.com/api.aspx

6. World Weather Online

World Weather Online APIs provide a way to get local weather, historical local weather, ski and mountain weather and marine weather data. The APIs deliver weather information using standard HTTP/S requests in formats like XML, JSON and JSON-P.

They provide an API explorer for you to dive deep into their APIs. While their free plan is now discontinued, you can try their premium API for 60 days.

Code examples in all major programming languages is provided on their website, including VB.Net, PHP, Objective-C, C# etc.

Price: Premium with 60 day free trial (See Pricing)

API: https://developer.worldweatheronline.com/api/

7. Weatherbit.io

Weatherbit.io provides free weather API as well as historic weather data API. Their free plan allows 45 API calls per minute along with access to 30 days historic weather data and 5 day forecast at an update interval of 2 hours.

You would need to upgrade to a premium plan to get access to HTTPS API calls, as well to reduce the update interval to 10 mins. By upgrading you can also get access to hourly weather forecast and higher limit on API calls per minute.

Price: Free tier with premium upgrades (See Pricing)

API: https://www.weatherbit.io/api