Top 5 Forex Data API’s: TraderMade, OANDA, XE and Xignite
Top 5 Forex API’s Providers
Forex data in its raw form has many uses, from Currency conversion on web sites to charting and algorithmic signals generation and more recently for ChainLink nodes. The important thing for all these consumers is that the data is clean and reliable and the delivery method is simple and efficient.
We have evaluated 5 of the top providers assessing them on:
- Data Coverage: How many currency pairs do they support and how much historical data can they provide.
- Technology Offerings: API Features, REST, WebSocket, SocketIO and FIX
- Price and Commitment: How much do they cost and how long do they require a commitment. Rolling monthly or yearly.
- Ease of use: How easy are they to sign up and get working.
- Support: How are the systems supported, EMail, Chat and Response times.
TraderMade has been in the Forex business since 1984 but in recent years has opened up its extensive back catalogue of data in API form.
Data Coverage: Via its REST API you can call Daily for Five years, Hourly for two month and minute data for 2 days for 1700 pairs, they also offer a bespoke service for minute data back as far as 1984. They also have a REST endpoint that will give the last tick price. On top of this they offer streamed real-time prices via WebSocket, FIX and SocketIO for 90 currency, Crypto, Metals and CFD’s.
Technology Offerings: REST, WebSocket, SocketIO and FIX.
Price and Commitment: The API usage is changed per request so you only pay for what you need and if that is under 1,000 requests a month then it’s totally free. From there you can upgrade to 5 other plans depending on your request requirements ranging from £30 and 10,000 requests to £799 and over a million requests. They also have a Custom option for people that need even more requests. For live streamed rates, users can trial any of the options WebSocket, SocketIO and FIX free for 14 days and then prices start from as low as £50 for a WebSocket. All contracts are 1 month rolling and you can cancel at any time.
Ease of Use: Documentation for the REST API is comprehensive and provided in Python, PHP and JavaScript and once you have logged in you API key is automatically included in the demo code so it’s just a case of copy and pasting the examples to get started, data can be returned in JSON, CSV or Pandas for use with python.
For the Websocket offering the documentation was also very comprehensive and included examples in GO, C#, Python and NodeJS.
Support: TraderMade offers real-time Email and Chat support with technically minded support start who are eager to assist with any queries.
2. Xignite
The Xignite API provides good coverage of world wide currency data for use in WebSites and Applications.
Data Coverage: 170 currencies and many other assets, Metals, BitCoin and options. The data is collected from many different providers and updated in real-time.
Technology Offerings: All data offered via REST or SOAP and can be returned in XML, JSON or CSV.
Price and Commitment: A trial of the API can be had free for 7 days, After the initial trial period price will depend on the data required.
Ease of Use: The API is easy to use and documentation is good and they provide lots of code samples.
Support: Email and Phone but no live chat option
3. OANDA
OANDA API provides an extensive variety of global currency data for use in applications.
Data Coverage: They provide 200 currencies and collect their data from a wide range of providers including 25 central banks.
Technology Offerings: All data is provided by their API this can be called via REST and can return different formats JSON, CSV and XML.
Price and Commitment: They offer 2 pre-defined plans one at $400/month and the other at $750/month and custom pricing if the plan you require falls outside these plans. You can also sign up for a 30 day free trial to test the data.
Ease of use: To get users started quickly, OANDA has a detailed collection of developer resources, these include code samples, documentation and an online forum but no live chat support.
4. XE
The XE Data API service provides a portal for monitoring exchange rates of currencies in real time.
Data Coverage: The XE API supports 170+ currencies. The data is collated from more than 100 international sources . XE offers 2 packages, the daily packages offering rates that are updated on a daily basis and the live packages that updates within 60 seconds.
Technology Offerings: XE only offers a REST API with no streamed options, though the API you can request daily and live prices and also access and endpoint to allow you to convert between currencies and historical data back to 1998.
Price and Commitment: XE offers a free 7-day trial period for you to get setup and test the API and the data. Daily data rates start at $799 a year for 10,000 requests a month and live rates start at $1,199 a year for 10,000 requests a month. Commitment is for 1 year.
Ease of use: XE have some good resource
Support: Online form and us phone number
Currency converter is a simple and free API that allows you to convert between currencies.
Data Coverage: They support more than 150 currencies. Free version of the API refreshes every 60 minutes. 2 paid versions available with updates of 15 minutes. You can also retrieve historical data for 365 days.
Technology Offerings: Data is retrieved from a REST service and returned as JSON.
Price and Commitment: Usage of the API is free but you will be limited to 100 requests per hour. If you want a more reliable service you can opt for any of the paid plans that start as low as $5 a month.
Ease of use: Documentation covers all the functions of the API and multiple examples are provided.
Support: Support is via email to a single person IP address
That’s my list of the top 5 API, All the API fundamentally do the same thing but with different level of updates and data quality and very different levels of cost and commitment. The important thing is to find a provider that works for you, one that providers quality data at a good price but that is also reliable and responsive when you need assistance. From experience I can tell you that its not always the case that the bigger more expensive companies provide the best support, there is nothing more infuriating that raising tickets with no response when your real-time data system has issues. All of these companies off free trials so its probably best to do some testing and find the solution that works for you.
