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Yahoo Finance’s API is the forefather of all the financial APIs that exist in the market right now. Before the introduction of Yahoo Finance’s API, people followed the traditional method of downloading CSV data from specific websites which was both tiresome and inefficient. But Yahoo Finance API revolutionized this process by offering a variety of readily available API endpoints that were easily accessible.
Though Yahoo Finance’s official API library was discontinued long back, it’s still preferred by a lot of people thanks to some of its famous unofficial libraries like yfinance, Yahoo Fin, etc. Today, we will explore what this API actually is, its pros and cons, and more importantly, the alternatives.
With that said, let’s dive right into the article!
Quick jump:
What is Yahoo Finance API?
Yahoo Finance API is an offering of a variety of API endpoints including stock data, commodities, and crypto data to name a few. The data provided by these API endpoints is the same used by Yahoo Finance to power its platform.
The main idea behind this API is to democratize financial data and make it easily accessible to everyone. And I must say that it did a pretty good job at doing this. It was and still is a big player in the financial APIs market. It’s loved by a heck lot of people and used for numerous purposes.
Although it was officially discontinued by Yahoo Finance, the unofficial libraries still uphold the name. Since the day of discontinuation, more and more developers saw this as an opportunity and developed libraries on top of the original one. Some are tweaked and changed a little bit to become a better version of the Yahoo Finance API.
Types of Data Provided
Now let’s see what comes with this API library. It’s tough to trace back the offerings of the official Yahoo Finance API library since it was discontinued a while ago, today we can only use the unofficial libraries as a reference.
The API comprises all the basic market data like historical data of stocks, commodities, crypto, and other tradeable assets, and fundamental data of stocks. Though the library doesn’t come with more specific and detailed endpoints, it has all the essentials.
Applications of Yahoo Finance API
There are a lot of interesting applications of this API library. For example, you can use the historical data endpoint along with the fundamental data endpoint to create your own custom stock screener.
Another interesting application is backtesting trading strategies. You can use the historical data endpoint to build technical indicators and backtest your algo trading strategies. You can also try conducting an analysis of insider trading using the collection of insider trading data endpoints. Not to forget the AI applications, you can create several AI & ML models for predictive analysis, forecasting, etc., with the help of the API endpoints.
These examples are just a glimpse of what you can do with the Yahoo Finance API library. There are still a lot of things you can do with this API which allows you to be more creative and innovative.
Pros of Yahoo Finance API
1. Free to use
The Yahoo Finance API is completely free. It doesn’t require any subscriptions to access the API endpoints. The users can install the library and use it right away. This is a huge advantage of the API as it allows a fleet of developers to use its services without incurring any cost.
2. Simple Set-up Process
In order to utilize the API endpoints of the Yahoo Finance library, the users have to go through a very straightforward process. They first have to install the library using the command-line interface. Then, the library should be imported into the coding environment. And voila, the users are ready to go. Unlike the huge configuration process that comes with a lot of API providers, Yahoo Finance API keeps it simple.
3. Ease-of-use
The Yahoo Finance API library is extremely easy to use. It requires only limited lines of code to extract the desired data. The present unofficial libraries have pretty good documentation pages and there are plenty of articles on the internet which just makes the lives of developers more comfortable.
All these factors suggest that the Yahoo Finance API library is the perfect choice for relatively new developers who are just getting their hands dirty in the financial API realm. However, there are certain aspects that set back Yahoo Finance API to be the go-to for everyone.
Cons of Yahoo Finance API
The following are the cons of Yahoo Finance API:
1. Reliability Issues
As the official library was discontinued, Yahoo Finance stopped giving access to certain types of data. Therefore, the unofficial libraries found workarounds to get the desired data and the methods include web scraping, making a mixture of API calls, and other not-so-conventional methods. The problem here is that if Yahoo Finance makes even minor changes to its website code, it can disrupt the whole system of unofficial libraries. Thus, it’s not very safe to use unofficial libraries for building applications.
2. Limited API endpoints
Yahoo Finance API library indeed covers the essential data but that’s not enough for traders and investors to maintain an edge over the market. For in-depth analysis, just historical and fundamental data won’t be of much help. Alternative data like Economic indicators, news sentiment, and real-time data are very important and they are missing in the Yahoo Finance API library.
3. Getting Rate Limited/Blacklisted
This again turns to the first point. Since the unofficial libraries use web scraping methods, there is a huge possibility of getting rate limited/blacklisted by Yahoo Finance for making too many requests to their website, which again, is a totally unofficial method of scraping data
Alternatives to Yahoo Finance API
Now this is the most interesting part where we’re going to discuss the potential alternatives to Yahoo Finance API. According to my personal experience of trying out various financial APIs, these are some of the best ones:
- EOD Historical Data (EODHD)
- Finnhub
- Twelve Data
- Alpha Vantage
- Finage
The APIs are ranked based on three criteria which are ease of use, documentation, and number of features provided. Let’s take a deep dive into each one of the APIs.
1. EOD Historical Data (EODHD)
EOD Historical Data, shortly known as EODHD, tops this list due to a varied number of reasons.
First is the number of API endpoints being provided. There is almost an infinite number of endpoints designed for every possible scenario. Ranging from the basic ones like the historical data APIs all the way to the stock screener and economic calendar APIs come in handy for both professional and educational works. They also support assets other than stocks such as commodities, cryptocurrencies and indices to name a few. Their newest release, stock tick data API allows for conducting effective backtesting processes which I think is truly game-changing.
Secondly, EOD Historical Data maintains a well-structured documentation of their APIs in a systematic order to reduce confusion among the users. Each and every API provided by them has an individually dedicated page explaining the API’s use cases along with practical and real-world examples. In addition to their wonderful documentation, they have something called EODHD Academy which features amazing articles about their APIs written by experts in the field.
Thirdly, ease of use. The response we get from calling EODHD’s APIs is one of the cleanest data I’ve ever seen to work with. It helps shorten the process of data cleaning and data manipulation where most beginners get stuck. Talking about beginners, to lessen the coding burden, EODHD provides no-code solutions to get the desired data feasibly and seamlessly. Their no-code Spreadsheet feature is an amazing and powerful tool for easily obtaining all kinds of data like stock, crypto, and forex.
Let’s talk about pricing. The free plan is well designed for people experimenting with different stock APIs that include all the basic market data with 20 API calls per day and 500 additional (one-time use) calls. Professionals and developers who want to build applications can opt-in for the All-in-one package available for $79.99 which comes with 100,000 API calls per day and accessibility to the endless amount of data provided by EODHD (mind that this subscription plan is a personal use one, commercial usage of the data requires additional communication). They also have a tailored service for users who want to increase the amount of daily API calls.
One thing I truly appreciate about EODHD’s payment structure is its straightforwardness. While other companies use fuzzy terms like API credits and API messages, EODHD is very precise about the features offered in each subscription plan making things much clearer on their users’ side. Speaking of drawbacks and limitations, I personally think there are not any which is why it tops my list.
Apart from the mentioned points, there are a few more that are worth looking into. Their API usage dashboard is one of the best with a range of details, charts, and statistics. Following that, their marketplace is a great place for companies to buy data directly from exchanges.
Overall, EOD Historical Data is one of the best alternatives to Yahoo Finance API for both beginners who are just starting out and advanced users for research works and building commercial applications.
2. Finnhub
There is pretty much nothing wrong with Finnhub. They have a massive amount of API endpoints with never-before-heard data such as the analyst’s estimates data, thematic investing data, and deep historical data to name a few.
Though their website is not the best one, it is almost clear in conveying the message and the services being offered to their users. They have great documentation and they provide a varied range of subscription plans to choose from.
While all that is good to hear, here is the most frustrating part with Finnhub. The APIs that can be accessed using a free account are so limited and even miss some of the most basic ones. All the financial APIs mentioned before offer more than what we needed in a free-tier account but that’s not the case with Finnhub.
Though it is understandable that Finnhub is triggering us to opt-in for a plan using this strategy, the user experience is very annoying. Especially for someone who just wants to explore the API library of different financial APIs, Finnhub is going to be one of the hateful ones. But other than that, Finnhub could be a great resource for market data and a wonderful alternative to Yahoo Finance API.
3. Twelve Data
Moving on to the third alternative to Yahoo Finance API comes Twelve Data. It is interesting how I found this specific financial API. I was on a search spree for my next Yahoo Finance API alternative and then I eventually landed on Twelve Data (before getting to know about EODHD).
Twelve Data nails their story-telling with their beautifully designed product page that is both intriguing and abstract in nature but more importantly, actually reveals what they offer through various code snippets and real-world examples.
When compared to EODHD, Twelve Data’s API collection is comparatively less but includes all the necessary ones. Coming to ease of use, it is equally significant to the previous ones providing some of the well-structured and cleanest API responses.
The documentation of Twelve Data’s APIs is a special one because apart from being well-maintained and systematically organized, each and every API is explained with examples consisting of the HTTP request URL and the JSON response received by calling it. This helps users to actually visualize how the data looks once it has been extracted and assists with planning the data cleaning and manipulation processes accordingly.
Another tiny feature I love about their documentation is how they labeled different API endpoints based on their importance. This doesn’t serve much purpose but helps acknowledge the APIs that are of most use and navigate to them easily and seamlessly.
One final feature I would like to add to their documentation is the efficient way of categorizing different APIs under separate heads. This incredibly boosts the user experience as it completely eradicates the frustrating process of searching ourselves the API endpoints’ documentation.
The place where Twelve Data lags is its confusing pricing system as the subscription plans are split based on the markets. This can be very confusing when companies and institutions require data from multiple exchanges across different markets. To do that, they might have to buy several subscription plans each for a specific market. From a user experience standpoint, this can be really frustrating.
Other than that, maybe it is not well-suited for building world-class massive applications given the limited number of API endpoints, but it is still one of the best alternatives to Yahoo Finance API.
4. Alpha Vantage
The next API in our list of Yahoo Finance API alternatives is Alpha Vantage.
It is not a big deal when you hear that Alpha Vantage is the go-to for everyone who is just starting out. This is mainly because of their incredible free tier plan that costs zero dollars providing 500 API calls per day with access to almost every API endpoint provided by them ranging from historical and fundamental data to technical indicators.
Let’s now talk about two of the major drawbacks of Alpha Vantage. The first is, of course, it is definitely not the place where professionals and developers aiming to build large-scale applications would look because when compared to the previously discussed financial APIs, the features provided by Alpha Vantage are relatively fewer.
Secondly, the range of data available is limited to only the basic ones like time series data, fundamental data, technical indicators, and specific data such as financial news, and sentimental data to name a few. But their advantage of having a great free tier plan almost negates these drawbacks.
The documentation of Alpha Vantage is very precise comprising live examples and code snippets. Also, the way the documentation is designed is almost identical to the twelve data’s documentation with separate sub-heads and labels to emphasize APIs that are used most frequently among the users.
Overall, for beginners, Alpha Vantage is the most recommended place to start as it has everything required for amateurs to master the basics and provides some of the greatest free-tier plans in all of the land. But for advanced users, maybe having Alpha Vantage as a second or an alternative option would be an optimal decision.
5. Finage
The last alternative on our list is Finage. Though it’s fairly new, Finage has made its way into the market positioning itself as a great platform.
Finage has a solid landing page that is beautifully designed and it conveys all the messages clearly. The page also features coding examples to showcase the ease of use that comes with their APIs.
Speaking of the documentation, Finage did a pretty good job at that. Though it’s not the best one, it ticks all the criteria of good documentation. I truly love the classification of the APIs within the documentation which saves a lot of time in searching for the API.
While it’s all good, Finage has two major drawbacks. Firstly, is their pricing system. Their subscription plans are way too expensive when compared to those of the other alternatives we have on our list. Many users won’t be able to afford such highly expensive plans making the platform inaccessible for a wide range of audiences.
The second drawback of Finage is its limited collection of API endpoints. While it covers all the basic ones, it misses out on several alternative data like sentiment data, economic data, and so on. Nowadays, people prefer platforms with such alternative data as it helps them get an edge in the market. So Finage not being able to provide such data can be highly disadvantageous.
On the whole, Finage is still a reliable alternative to Yahoo Finance API with quality data. But if you’re looking for a cost-effective option along with a wide array of API endpoints, Finage might not be the best one for you.
Conclusion
The primary choice for a financial Data API had long been the Yahoo Finance API, offering access to numerous endpoints and a vast array of stocks. However, the unexpected discontinuation of the Yahoo finance data API prompted users to explore alternatives. It led to the discovery of some excellent options that exhibited more reliable features compared to the previous choices.
These substitutes boasted multiple features, with some offering more useful options than the formerly dependable Yahoo Finance API. When selecting the optimal free version among the contenders, EODHD emerged as the leader, presenting the most prominent features and the widest stock availability. Consequently, it can be deemed the ultimate alternative to the Yahoo Finance API.
