Toolradar Research
API tools statistics 2026
First-party data on the 462 API tools Toolradar tracks: 4.4% of the catalog, 74% free tier, and only 71,974 reviews. APIs are used more than they are rated.
Founder, Toolradar & Dupple
Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
462 API tools tracked, 4.4% of the directory, holding 71,974 aggregated third-party reviews. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 02
74% offer a free tier. This is an engineering category. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 03
229 rated tools average 4.38. The review layer is thin for a category this size. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 04
The median paid plan starts at $27 a month, mean $88. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 05
Apollo Studio leads volume at 4.70 from 9,819 reviews. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 17, 2026. Refresh due Dec 17, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
API tools are a large, free-first category with a thin public review layer. Toolradar tracks 462 tools, 4.4% of the catalog, holding only 71,974 reviews. 74% offer a free tier. Developer tools, in the same snapshot, show the same shape: lots of products, few G2 essays. Apollo Studio holds 9,819 reviews at 4.70. Steampipe holds 5,705 at 4.60. People run these tools. They rarely review them.
Every figure below is computed from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026. The live dashboard is API tools statistics. The buyer ranking is best API tools.
How large the category is
We track 462 published tools, or 4.4% of the 10,619 tools in the directory. 81% (374 of 462) were added to Toolradar in 2026. "Added" means added to our directory, not founded this year.
A $27 API workspace is the published plan. Usage-based gateways do not show up in that median.
How these tools are priced
26% of the 462 tools are paid-only. 74% offer a free tier or freemium plan (344 tools). 19% are fully free.
n = 462 tools, September 17, 2026How API tools are priced
For the 110 tools that publish a paid tier, the median entry price is $27 a month and the mean is $88.
n = 110 tools with a published paid tierEntry price distribution
The catalog-wide median entry is $20 (software pricing statistics).
How these tools are rated
229 of 462 tools carry a rating (50%). Those ratings rest on 71,974 reviews. Unweighted mean 4.38. Review-weighted mean 4.41.
n = 229 rated toolsRating distribution
The most-reviewed tools on September 17, 2026:
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo Studio | 4.70 | 9,819 |
| GoModel | 4.60 | 5,875 |
| Steampipe | 4.60 | 5,705 |
| Shopify MCP Server | 4.40 | 5,126 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.
The public pile is GraphQL studios, MCP servers, and query tools. It is not a map of every gateway in production. Treat the leaderboard as satisfaction among tools that collect reviews.
The highest-rated tools with at least 200 aggregated reviews:
| # | Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scrapfly | 4.80 | 332 |
| 2 | Prismatic | 4.80 | 264 |
| 3 | Apidog | 4.80 | 226 |
| 4 | Apollo Studio | 4.70 | 9,819 |
| 5 | Dropbox Sign | 4.70 | 2,283 |
| 6 | Celigo | 4.70 | 1,025 |
| 7 | Albato | 4.70 | 916 |
| 8 | Integrately | 4.70 | 695 |
| 9 | Veryfi | 4.70 | 249 |
| 10 | Memberstack | 4.70 | 233 |
Scrapfly leads at 4.80.
Review volume by platform:
| Review platform | Tools with a profile | Aggregated reviews | Mean rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2 | 221 | 58,476 | 4.57 |
| Capterra | 61 | 8,985 | 4.59 |
| Trustpilot | 22 | 3,160 | 3.09 |
| SourceForge | 25 | 1,295 | 4.37 |
| Peerspot | 3 | 52 | 4.06 |
| TrustRadius | 1 | 6 | 4.00 |
Three tools worth comparing are Stripe, Apollo.io, and Fivetran. The API shortlist inside this category is thinner; start from the best API tools ranking.
How often pricing moves
Our pricing tracker logged 26 pricing changes for these tools in 2026, 0 of them applied.
How this data was measured
Every figure in this report is computed live from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026, covering the 462 published tools we categorize under API tools. Pricing model is read from each vendor's official pricing page. The entry price is the cheapest positive monthly tier a tool publishes. Ratings and review counts are aggregated from third-party platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and others), not from Toolradar's own reviews. The leaderboard floor is 200 aggregated reviews. This is a directory snapshot, not a survey.
Cite this report
- APA: Corneloup, L. (2026). API tools statistics 2026. Toolradar Research. https://toolradar.com/reports/api-tools-software-statistics
- MLA: Corneloup, Louis. "API tools statistics 2026." Toolradar Research, 17 Sept. 2026, toolradar.com/reports/api-tools-software-statistics.
Browse the full category on the best API tools page, or explore all of Toolradar Research.
Cite this report
Use the data, credit the source.
Released under Creative Commons BY 4.0. You may quote, link, and reuse the data with attribution.
More research
What Toolradar has stored: reviews and logos
57 of 10,667 published tools have at least one Toolradar review. 6,602 have a stored external-review payload. 4,065 have neither. 180 published tools have no logo file.
How fresh Toolradar prices are
On September 22, 2026, 7,331 of 10,667 published tools had their pricing re-checked in the last 30 days. 3,334 have never been checked. One check is older than 90 days. The median price lives on another page. This page is the age of the check.
Free trial share of software tools 2026
2,885 of 10,667 published Toolradar tools have a stored free-trial flag (27%). The free path is a different cut: 5,834 tools (55%) are free, freemium, or open_source. Among Paid listings, 1,433 of 4,786 (30%) carry the trial flag.